VELVET THUNDER

Jameson Raid began life as a hard rock band on the Birmingham scene way back in the early ’70s before becoming involved with the Fledgling NWOBHM scene and even had their track Hard Lines featured on the Metal For Muthas II compilation album put out by EMI 1980, although they are credited as The Raid on the album. The band had some sporadic success but folded in 1983 only to return in 2008, and have been active since then. There have been very many incarnations of the band over the years, with perhaps the best years featuring vocalist Terry Dark and he seems to have been instrumental in the band reforming – but it is a fact that there are no longer any original members in the group.

This album seems to be a collection of the band’s early vinyl releases, or their classic material if you will, with songs from The Seven Days Of Splendour EP in 1979 and End Of Part One single in 1980. Most of the tracks appeared on the High Roller compilation Just As The Dust Settled which came out in 2010, and featured several other songs not featured on this newly remastered album. There are three remixed tracks too and I just wonder why all the available material was not used as the recorded output in the period was hardly prolific. However, it does show a band with a fine set of songs that are delivered with panache and you can easily see why this hard rock band easily fitted under the NWOBHM banner, think a little in terms of Samson for a flavour of their style. 

What this retrospective shows is a fine set of songs and the occasional use of amusing humour, with the expected thrilling riffs and neat solos, a great vocal delivery form Terry Dark and great contributions too from Ian Smith on guitar, John Ace on bass and Phil Kimberley on drums. In terms of fame, it just never seemed to happen for them; hopefully, this re-issue will at least show a worthy and hard rocking band that, given a little luck or even to have been in the right place at the right time, then it could have been so much different. If you are interested in what they have done since then you should check out the rather fine 2015 album Uninvited Guest for a real riff-fest.