ROB TIDD - BASHFUL ALLEY

💿 Hi, it’s a pleasure for us to have on Hardrockheavymetal ROB TIDD of BASHFUL ALLEY! Welcome!!

Thank you! It’s a pleasure to hear from you, too! 💿 Can you tell us somethin’about your early days of your career? When is this all begun? Which bands have influenced you and What’s the matter of your moniker?

It all began at Lancaster University, in the North-West of England, in about 1980.

That’s where I met bassist Truff and we decided to form a band. I wasn’t doing the vocals at that time so we recruited a guy called Dave Slamin as vocalist and we had Ian ‘Donkey’ Brown on the drums. I started writing stuff for the band straight away. Influences? The usual suspects, I suppose – UFO, Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, Budgie, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Queen – although I was a huge Status Quo fan, which definitely influenced some of the material! – and we also liked early ‘70s Glam Rock (T.Rex, Sweet, Slade, etc.) and some of the punk bands, too.

The first bunch of NWOBHM bands were obviously an influence – we particularly liked Vardis (great to see them again at Brofest 2014!) and Girlschool. The name? Well, plenty of bands are named after real places – Boston, Kansas, etc – and Bashful Alley is a real (but very small) side-street in Lancaster.

It just seemed to fit and wasn’t a typical HM band name, which we were trying to avoid – anything to help us stand out.

We relocated to Lichfield (in the Midlands) after about a year, and that’s the part of the country that most people associate us with. That’s when I took over the vocals and we got Throbbin’ Robin Baxter behind the kit.

💿 We have in our hands the reissue of your compilation IT’S ABOUT YOUR TIME, out this year via HIGH ROLLER RECORDS, enhanced by your live concert at BROFEST 2014. How much is regarding seein’ interest about your name after so many years?

I’ve said this before, but it always amazes me that anyone remembers us at all!

After all, back then we only ever issued one self-financed 7” single and there weren’t many of them pressed (about 1500 in total, I think) – although we did send out a lot of cassettes back in the day (remember them?), to anyone that wanted them, and that helped to get us a bit of a following.

But yes, I am still amazed – and delighted - to be getting any attention at all in the 21st Century! 💿 Why in 80’s haven’t you the chance to publish a full-length?

It certainly wasn’t for a lack of effort on our part! I think we were rejected by pretty much every record label out there – and somehow we couldn’t get the money together to properly record and then release another single.

It was a very frustrating time for us, especially as other bands from our area were getting signed up to specialist HM labels like Neat or Heavy Metal Records.

That was a big factor in the band splitting up, in the end. Maybe we should have stuck it out and stayed together, but that’s the way it goes! 💿 The real “news” in music industry is the return of vinyl; What’s your feeling about this classic format and the current music “business”?

I do love vinyl, and getting our ‘album’ released on vinyl by High Roller was an absolute blast.

But I’m not a vinyl snob – CDs and MP3s have their place, too.

As for the current music biz, I’m not sure if I’d want to be starting out again now – on the one hand it’s much easier to get your music ‘out there’ via youtube and other online services, but on the other hand – everybody’s doing it!

Must be so hard to stand out and get noticed.

But I think with rock and metal, where it really counts is if you can deliver the goods onstage. If you can do that, you’ll get by.

But you’ve still got to pay your dues!

💿 On May 11th you will be on stage, with MYTHRA and JAGUAR, for the NWOBHM pre-party of FROST AND FIRE FESTIVAL! Are ready any surprises for your fans? We’ll be there to support the best UK (and not only) tradition!

If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise!

We don’t have a massive back catalogue of songs but we’ll try to do at least one, maybe two, that we didn’t play at out two Brofest appearances.

We’re really looking forward to it! 💿 Can you tell us somethin’about your next live and studio projects?

Nothing in the pipeline at the moment – we were hoping to do Brofest again this year (we were asked last year but couldn’t do it) but they haven’t finalized a date for it yet – not to my knowledge, anyway.

No recordings lined up either, but we’ll see how this year goes – you never know… 💿 Thank you so much for your time! See you soon on Hardrockheavymetal!

Cheers Giovanni – see you down the front in London! All the best, Rob.

#bashfulAlley #nwobhm