The History of Battlezone





The beginnings of Battlezone started when Iron Maiden lead singer Paul Di'Anno left the band in late 1981 (because of a difference of opinion with bass player Steve Harris) and went to experiment with his own projects. One of these projects was a band named simply Di'Anno, which recorded one album. He was also persuaded into doing an EP with the 'quote' supergroup "Gogmagog", a rock opera with ridiculous songwriting. After the "Gogmagog" affair, Di'Anno decided to drop everything and start from stratch, and in 1986 he hooked up with bass player Pete West, guitarist's John Wiggins and John Hurley, and drummer Bob Falck. Thus, the Battlezone era began.

They quickly released "Fighting Back", their first LP, in 1986. This album is extremely good, but it's commerical success was less than what they had hoped for. Then, while on the Fighting Back Tour, the group began to bicker among themselves (this was mostly caused by lead guitarist John Hurley). This bickering lead to the departure of drummer Bob Falck, who then joined Overkill. Bob Falck's departure was soon followed by John Hurley himself, who left the band and was never heard from again.

Quicky, Di'Anno replaced the missing positions, bringing in Steve Hopgood (who played in a band called Persian Risk) on drums and Graham Bath on lead guitar to begin recording their second LP. The only problem with the change in lineup was that both Hurley and Falck played a major role in the song writing of "Fighting Back", so the writing of the new album was slightly different. Despite the these tiny differences, both additions worked out well, and both Steve and Graham have had connections with Di'Anno in post Battlezone days. The new nucleus released "Children Of Madness" in 1987. The new album sounded a little more commercial, but not much, and it still spit out some great heavy metal with classic tracks like "Metal Tears" and "Overloaded".

However, even with two tremendous albums under his belt, Di'Anno dropped Battlezone for numerous reasons. Some of these reasons included, I believe, tiredness and also the frustration from lackluster commercial success. He later formed Killers (with Hopgood and Bath), and the only other relation he had with his Battlezone days was "South American Assault", a live(?) album in which he played mostly Iron Maiden songs, and four Battlezone songs. Despite the controversy surrounding this CD, it is still very good. Also, a 'Best Of Battlezone' CD called "Warchild" was released in 1988. But it is extremely rare!

Now, towards the end of 1997, Paul Di'Anno has reformed Battlezone! The new album "Spoon Face" will be released soon . . . and only then can we determine how the future of Battlezone will bode . . .





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Again, if you have any questions, comments, info, corrections, or anything else you want to tell me, e-mail me at defender@frontiernet.net.




Copyright © 1997 by Will Kooiker.