THE STORY OF ECT – LIVE HEAVY METAL ON CHANNEL 4 (EPISODE 2)

ECT – EPISODE 2 – 19th April 1985 – TORME, ROGUE MALE, GIRLSCHOOL, WAYSTED

I remember episode 2 well – 4 live bands this week up from 3 the first week – and what a line up!

First on were the fantastic TORME who I was to see many times after this at The Marquee club in London both as TORME and their (sole I think) gig named as ELECTRIC GYPSIES. TORME refers to the guitar wizz Bernie Torme who found fame in the early 80s as the lead guitarist for GILLAN, the successful chart bothering band fronted by former Deep Purple mainman Ian Gillan.

TORME was more than just Bernie however as it was fronted by the charismatic former singer from glam metal sensations GIRL, Phil Lewis. Lewis brought a real dazzle to Bernie Torme’s showmanship and the band recorded two low budget albums and became darlings of the London glam rock/party metal scene, before Lewis departed for the USA and fame and fortune with the LA GUNS.

Here are TORME in all of their swaggering brilliance opening the show :

Next up, though never favourites of mine were ROGUE MALE.

ROGUE MALE were ahead of their time with an aggressive glam monster style approach to their image, backed up by a hefty dirty metal beat.

They made a small impact for a year or two, were the darlings of Kerrang! Magazine.. then disappeared.

Here’s RM…

 

 

Then came GIRLSCHOOL, already minor legends following their successful collaboration with MOTORHEAD, GIRLSCHOOL kept the momentum going through the early 80s and by this point they were heading towards a more melodic approach (as many bands were craving some chart success!). I can’t remember too much about their performance, so interested to see it again.

GIRLSCHOOL!

 

Finally and headlining the show, another band who made a minor splash in the mid 80s. WAYSTED were formed by successful former UFO bassist Pete Way and the stroke of genius that fired WAYSTED to the fore was their enigmatic frontman Fin. Sort of a heavy rock version of Rod Stewart, if you can imagine – yes, he was great. Fin was ultimately replaced as WAYSTED then went for a more radio friendly approach. Didn’t do much for me from that point and they ultimately lost their way and broke up.

Anyway here’s the real WAYSTED their peak… get ready to rock!!

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