DIAMOND HEAD - "The early times and LIGHTNING TO THE NATIONS"

Diamond Head is a UK classic heavy metal band on the streets from 1976.

The band is a well-known milestone of the NWOBHM movement.

Brian Tatler & Duncan Scott put together the band and, next, they recruited a singer called Sean Harris.

The name 'Diamond Head' was choosen from a 1975 Phil Manzanera album that Tatler loved.

Bassist Colin Kimberley joined the band in 1978 as bassist. In these early days, the band played few cover as Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", "Motorhead" by Motörhead and "Space Station" by Montrose.

The band recorded self-financed demo tapes in 1979.

It gained enough attention for the band to tour as support to AC/DC and Iron Maiden.

Altough many bands expressed interests in signing the band, no contracts were signed.

Diamond Head remained independent. The management decided that they would release their material through a label owned called 'Happy Face Records'. Their first release was the 1979 single "Shoot Out The Lights" (b/w Helpless); their second single "Sweet and Innocent" (b/w "Streets of Gold") was released by Media Records in 1980. That same year the band also recorded their debut album on Happy Face.

Most commonly known as Lightning to the Nations, the collection was recorded in seven days.

The album was packaged in a plain sleeve with no title or track listings, simply bearing a signature of one of the band members.

The original stereo master tapes were lost after they were sent to the German record company, Woolfe Records, who released a vinyl version of the album with a new sleeve.

The tapes were not returned until they were eventually tracked down by Lars Ulrich and Phonogram Germany for inclusion on the 1990 compilation album 'New Wave Of British Heavy Metal'.

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