The first New Wave of British Heavy Metal - Pete Drake

The first New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Many years ago whilst working a night shift at Scunthorpe Steelworks I won a competition on Radio Humberside. My prize was a signed photo of presenter and actress Alex Hall and a CD by a 70s/80s heavy metal band called Marseille. It was their anthology CD entitled Rock of Ages. I probably listened to it once and put it in my collection. The only really significant thing that I noted at the time was that the group included Neil Buchanan ( of Art Attack TV fame ) on guitar. Neil was also rumoured to be Banksy for a while although I believe he soon quashed these rumours. Last year I came across this CD again and gave it another spin. After reading the liner notes the Marseille story was actually more interesting than I had realised. For a start they had to change their name from ACDC due to the success of a certain Australian band. They s9pent many years swimming against the tide of public taste whilst they learnt their craft. They entered the first ever UK national rock contest in 1977 and won the final in front of 10,000 fans at Wembley Empire Pool voted number one by Brian May amongst others. Marseille's never achieved the mainstream success of other New wave of Heavy Metal acts ( Whitesnake, Iron Maiden etc) but they have a seriously collectable back catalogue. Copies of my CD have retailed at around 50 quid, if you can find one. The vinyl as you can imagine is like rocking horse s**t. Alas the first New Wave of British Heavy Metal is ultimately a story of Marseille. I don't directly mention the band in the song but I do namecheck Wishbone Ash, Nazareth , Blackfoot , Whitesnake and the wonderfully named Tygers of Pang Tang. Neil Buchanan naturally gets a mention too. I recorded this track late autumn/ winter 2024. I played all the instruments ( I'm turning into Prince ) and did all the production and Mastering myself. I decided to give my usual producer ( Mark Adamson ) a rest after his great work with the Accidental Shoplifter album last year. This First New Wave of British Heavy Metal is available as a three track single now. Here's a lyric video I did.....enjoy.

Added 6 Apr 2026