Andy Boulton – Tokyo Blade – Interview Exclusive
Written by Dom Daley
Friday, 15 April 2011 05:00eing forever known as one of the bands lumped into the NWOBHM, Tokyo Blade entered the scene, or at least I became aware of them, through the pages of Kerrang! magazine.
After the first album the line up changed and I guess so did the band’s fortunes. With the addition of Bradford lad Vic Wright on vocals the band released their career defining album ‘Night Of The Blade’ and then recorded the American influenced ‘Blackhearts And Jaded Spades’. Always being more than just a Maiden clone band, in Wright they managed to carve out a bit of their own identity but all too soon everything seemed to start imploding or, rather, go tits up. Vic moved to the States and hooked up with new day job Johnny Crash’ and achieved success on a level that the Blade never managed. The rest of the band soldiered on and various incarnations of Tokyo Blade limped on as other members surfaced in Paul Dianno’s Battlezone.
Speeding on through time we get to 2010 when it was announced that the musicians in Tokyo Blade were back together and about to head back into the studio to record an album. Joining new singer Nicolaj Ruhnow were Boulton, Wiggins, Pierce and Andy Wrighton which sort of brings us up to the here and now. With the album in the can and some dates around the festivals of Europe Tokyo Blade are back, larger than life and ready to pummel the metalheads of the world with their very own take on NWOBHM. After what seems like a resurgence in recent years, with the likes of Saxon enjoying success they’ve not achieved for years, maybe the time is right for Tokyo Blade to grab their piece of the action and kudos for everything they’ve done. It’s never too late to turn back the clock and get down to business and when I was offered the chance to shoot the breeze with founder and lead guitarist Andy Boulton (recently injured in a Golden Eagle incident!) it was only ever going to be a “yes please” from me. With
barely enough time to rummage round the attic for my stripey trousers and oriental sabre I picked up the phone, pressed record on the minidisc and let the chatter that mattered begin, ladies and germs Mr Andy Boulton….
Before we get start, how’s the hand?
On the mend, thanks very much. I’m happy to say it’s well on the mend now. I can move it now, and the stitches are hopefully coming out soon.
It certainly looks painful.
Well it’s the first time anything has happened like that and for something to go right through your hand was, well ha ha, not the best. It was pretty painful, the thing is there was nothing I could do at the time either once it was locked on without causing injury to the bird – I had to stand there and bear it.
To get most of the original members together before recording the new album must have taken some doing. How did you manage it?
Well really it all began when I met Andy Wrighton again. I did a few things with some American musicians for a while with a half hearted attempt at getting Tokyo Blade up and running using the American musicians. We had a gig at the Ruskin Arms in London and Andy stepped out of the audience and said “hi mate!” I hadn’t seen him for the best part of 25 years and literally it was amazing to see him again and we just started talking and I suggested 
Andy come down and see me because we had so much to talk about. He did and initially I asked if he’d consider getting the band back together. Andy said “oh no, I’m too old for all that now!” At the time I said I respected his decision but the next thing Andy said to me that I should go and stay with him in London which I did and when I got there he said John (Wiggins) was playing in a band and asked how I felt about going down and seeing them to which I said yes straight away. We went down and saw him and it was great to catch up again. The rest, as they say, is history – it really was as easy as that.
Did at any point it cross your minds to ask Alan (original Tokyo Blade singer) or Vic (singer on ‘Night Of The Blade’ and ‘Blackhearts And Jaded Spades’) back in the band?
Not really, Alan was a non starter and Vic had previously made it known he wasn’t into the music anymore and had moved onto other things so no, not really. It was never going to happen with Vic at all; a lot of stuff had been said and water under the bridge so it wasn’t really ever suggested.
What happened next once you’d got the other original members back in the fold?
Well the thing is I was ready to do a new album with the American guys so I’d already started writing and had several songs ready to go and in the can so to speak even though I had no lyrics or melodies but I’d never done lyrics or that before, that was always left to the singer, that was what Chris was going to do and that was that. I said to the boys then that this was where I was at and how did they fancy doing an album together again under the name of Tokyo Blade.
I made an announcement on Facebook or wherever on the web and I then got an email off Chris Tsangarides which just literally said, “Great to see Tokyo Blade back together again and if you have any plans to do an album or recordings then let me know I’d really love to do it.” So I said to the other guys that I’d had this email and he’d like to do an album with us and because we’d never in the past had a decent producer or anything like that, we all said that the time was
right and it was the right thing to do. So Chris was on board and he’s worked with a lot of great bands and really knows what he’s doing and he brought the best out of us.
That’s half the battle right there then if you have this well known producer wanting to work with you, at least you didn’t have to shop around looking for someone who knew the band and what sound you were after andnd maybe settling for someone who might have been second choice. I guess being familiar with your previous work he was on the right page with what it was you wanted out of the album?
Absolutely, yes. Fantastic in the studio – it was great to see him at work.Did the recording of ‘Thousand Men Strong’ come easy then when you finally got into it with most of the band not having been near a studio for so long?
It was surprisingly easy – we just went into the studio and it all just happened, it was really easy. I was really pleased. I thought things were going to be harder than they actually were. It was like we’d never been apart. I know a lot of people say that but it really was. It’s like “Oh here we go, that old chestnut” but once we got into it things just flowed. It was exactly like it used to be, everyone was still pissing about and it was like it used to be. Before we could even think about it we were having such a good time, everything just fell into place and the album was recorded.Did you use all the modern technology available in studios today or did you go for a more ‘old school’ approach ?
No, we didn’t use any trickery really. The lads had spent so long out of the studio that, it was quite funny, they didn’t know a lot of it even existed, like using your Mac book and cut and paste; they didn’t even know about it. In fact Andy was in a blind panic saying things like, “Oh no, we’re not ready, we’ve not rehearsed enough, I think we need to get the songs tighter”, you know really fretting about it and I kept saying look if the worst comes to the worst we’ll just cut and paste parts in and he was like “Uh? What the fuck are you taking about?” Ha ha, he didn’t
know about that side of it at all or that it even existed, God bless him – it was pretty funny though.
I would say we were prepared and had some weird and wonderful things ready for the studio but when we got going we didn’t do any of them and we just sort of played live and recorded it. That was really what I wanted to do anyway and it really worked. To our way of thinking the longest we’d ever had to record an album was something like two or three weeks on the ‘Blackhearts’ album and we always used to say wouldn’t it be brilliant if we had six months to work on this and other bands get forever to get every little thing spot on when recording their album but I guess we’re used to recording on a tight budget and getting it done in no time at all, which is a double edge sword really.
Having time to nitpick might be well and good but don’t you think you can also lose something in the music, say the energy you get from recording live together as opposed to piece by piece, note for note and drum by drum – those records tend to lose a little bit of magic?
Yes, that’s right, you do lose some of that energy from the music. There’s no kind of rush or importance to anything.
I had a listen to the album a couple of times and you get that rush, that energy from the record – it leaps out at you. There is a vibrancy, an urgency in the recording. ‘Lunch Case’ would be the one I picked up on for its energy, you can tell it has the sound of a band flying by the seat of its pants and the energy is definitely captured in that one, is that a fair assessment?
Ha ha ‘Lunch Case’, you couldn’t have picked a better track. I agree the rush is definitely in there, ha, ha. This is the story about that track; I’ve got a bit of blind spot with numbers and if it isn’t written down then I just won’t remember it at all. Chris said when we went in that we could record a maximum of ten tracks and that was all fine and we decided to do ‘Night Of The blade’ as sort of a link to as we were then and where we were at now. So there was some kind of continuity almost. When we were rehearsing these tracks and I’m not quite sure now but I should have had my eye on the ball but it wasn’t until a week and a half before we were due to start and Nic phoned me up and said I thought we were doing ten songs? I was like yeah that’s right and he then said so why have we only got nine? I said no no and I started writing the songs down when he was on the phone and, yeah, Christ he was right there were only nine songs written. So he said what do you want to do, go with just the nine songs? I said Nic give me ten minutes and I put the phone do
wn and I do all my writing these days on a Mac book and I launched Garage Band and found a drum beat I liked and I hit this song out, they do say that I take longer to tune my guitar these days than write a song ha ha so that was it basically, I hit play and the song was down literally that quick. I listened back to the song and thought I can’t get away with that, it was like this ten minute wonder. I had another listen and thought fuck it, pressed send and flung it over to Nic and he had a listen and put the vocals on top. That’s basically how we worked; I put all these ideas down and sent them to Nic with no vocals and what he’d do is sing the vocals on top sort of karaoke style then record it and send it back to me and ask what I thought. Anyway back comes this song called ‘Lunch Case’ and I was thinking what the hell is this? Lunch case? Anyway I opened it up and thought I like that, in fact I love it and I phoned him up and said “Lunch Case”, what is it? Nic went on to explain it was about this guy who was sort of a Jack the Ripper guy who killed, I guess, 20-30 young men and it was in the 1920s in Germany and he was selling body parts as meat because at that time after the war there was a lot of poverty, so if you type in Fritz Harmon (The Hanover Vampire I’m led to believe after some research) into the computer this story comes up and it’s fascinating reading allbeit a bit dark. There is a real twist in the story too. So we went back into rehearsals and the last day was spent running through the songs over and over and Andy thought that was how we were going to record it. Then I dropped it on them, “Lads, right, um, there’s another song”, ha ha, they all just looked at me horrified and Andy was like, “No, no we can’t do another song now, are you crazy? We can’t put another song in there now. What are you talking about?” I said just listen and Andy was still hesitant so I reassured them it would be alright, ha ha. I think it’s the die hard spirit in all of us English and we decided to just get on with it, you know in the face of pressure and adversity we just get on with it and that’s what we do. So anyway I think looking back it’s possibly if not my favourite, it’s one of my favourites.Quality, nothing like a bit of pressure to spur on a band and, like I said, the energy of that track jumps out at you.
Yeah I totally agree with you, in fact I’m thinking of doing the whole of the next album like that and writing it last minute and just springing it on the band, ha ha!
Where did you find Nic?
Part of our management who handle things over in the States had a guy called Joe who heard him on Myspace and recommended I take a look and that was it really.
He’s certainly different from the previous singers in the Blade, well Alan and Vic, although you’ve really hit the Spinal Tap leader board on ex members to pass through Tokyo Blade, and not just drummers, ha ha…
Ha ha yes, He’s very much the sort of singer we wanted – he has great qualities to his range; he’s sort of a bit of Dickinson, Halford, you know…In parts he also has a range similar to Geoff Tate, wouldn’t you agree?
Yes true, another one of my favourite singers. As soon as I heard Nic I was sold and he was the only guy for the band. He has such a great voice.
What about plans for touring with this album?
Certainly, we’re going out in April for some dates to start with.
What about doing something in the UK?
Don’t know what the plans are yet because at the moment the UK is such a difficult place to play, you know its venues. You have to be so big to attempt it otherwise you end up going round the country just playing venues unsuitable and the turn up might depend on what night and so on, it’s so tricky to get it right but I do hope we can get something done in the UK but to be honest there is nothing written in stone yet.You were due to play or at least announced to play at Hard Rock Hell last December, what happened there?
Something came up unfortunately so we had to give it a miss but maybe if the timing is right that could be a possibility and something we’d be interested in, you know that sort of set up.Finally, you must have a story or two from your experiences on the road with Tokyo Blade – now is the time to exercise those demons and whilst wincing with painful memories we can all have a chuckle at someone else’s misfortune.
Ha ha, that’s evil! Um, let me think – one or two you said?
Yup.
God, there were so many – something always seemed to be going wrong or breaking, ha ha. I guess the biggest horror story would be when Vic joined the band.
What, that’s it? Vic – full stop?
Ha ha, no let me go on, ha ha. Not because Vic had joined the band. I’ll go on. The record company weren’t impressed with Alan at all and insisted we get a new singer in as soon as possible so we set about looking for a new singer. In the meantime they set about organising a tour for Europe with Mamas Boys. That was a huge deal at the time for us but it only gave us two weeks to find a new singer. Anybody else would have said it can’t be done but not us. I think it was about four or five days before we were set to leave that we finally got a tape through from Vic and of all the tapes we’d been sent it was literally the only one that was any good anyway. So I phoned Vic and told him we liked the tape and could he get here on the Sunday which was only giving him a few days. I asked him what was the earliest he could get to London remembering he was living in Bradford at the time and he said he’d get down asap. I did then tell him that the day after he arrives in London we were going out to Europe on tour with Mamas Boys and was that going to be alright? Yeah yeah fine. Anyway he arrived at my place at 7pm on the Sunday evening, I sat him down, gave hm a drink and a Walkman and a stack of pieces of paper with lyrics on as we were leaving at midnight to catch the ferry. Remember this was a time when there was no email or internet so he had never 
heard any of our stuff and he now had just a few hours to learn all our songs before the opening night of the tour, ha ha. Had we sent him the album he’d have got to me quicker than the album had got to him. The rest of us got in the van leaving him to get on with learning the songs. The van, from memory, was another horror story in itself, none of this luxury tour bus for us, it was like five band members, couple of road crew and all our gear in this barely road worthy van. You just can’t imagine what that must have looked like. Vic was stuffed in the back with the Walkman on with this little torch (god bless him ha ha), we had to stop to buy some more batteries before we got to Dover because the Walkman ran out. Oh Christ the memories, this is like ten horror stories in one so I might as well go on and give you the full SP, ha ha.
Across to France, cleared customs and stopped at the nearest filling station to put petrol in and sure enough police pull up all armed and got us off the van and took everything back to the port and got customs to go through the van with a fine tooth comb and found a box full of shirts which was to be our living money for the entire tour. Our manager said he had no money to give the police so they took the t-shirts instead which was what we were to live on so
we now have nothing to sell and therefore nothing to eat for the next few weeks – remember there was no EU then so we were breaking the law selling UK goods in France and any money we had was taken by way of a fine so that was it. A tank full of petrol and nothing else at all. The first time we heard Vic sing was at the sound check for the opening night of the tour and luckily he was great and we scraped through. We spent the first four days or so stealing food to eat from shops or service stations. Our manager had this like trench coat and he’d walk in and steal whatever he could so we were having these bizarre meals because whatever he could nick was what we ate. I remember eating strawberries one day and the next day a cabbage and cold soup. After a few days Pat from Mamas Boys asked firstly where were we all sleeping, 
then eating so I told him we were all in the minibus and they were on this big tour bus. We were literally finishing playing then getting on the bus and falling asleep where we sat. Pat being the top bloke he was said you can’t do that and said we could take it in turns to go on their bus, although there were no bunks left we could make do sleeping in the seats on the bus. Then, after commenting about not seeing us eat, I told him what happened. He said they were having food cooked by caterers and god bless him he wasn’t going to have that and let us join them for food and that’s how it had gone on for something like three weeks round Europe – no food, no money, a singer who’d been in the band three minutes, ha ha ha! I think that’s about as tough as you can get really, can’t see many bands putting up with that can you?
Sounds like proper touring, don’t know what you found so hard.
Yes you’re right, the good old days ha ha!
You know what you should do before you head off for those European dates, you should get the band round and have an old beat up minibus with a Walkman on the front seat next to a torch with a box marked ‘T-shirt food money’ written on it.
Ha ha yeah, just imagine that. You know that tour was such a huge success when we got back the management said we were going back in a few weeks so we asked who we were supporting and they said it was playing the same venues we did on the first one but this time we were headlining, which was amazing really great. 2-4 thousand seated venues, amazing times.
Excellent stuff. Thanks very much for your time Andy, it’s been a pleasure talking to you and I wish you every success for the forthcoming album and whatever dates you play in support of it and I hope the hand heals quickly.
Yup, ‘Thousand Men Strong’ is out – its not “A Thousand Men Strong”, Nic keeps correcting me on that, it’s just ‘Thousand Men Strong,’ ha ha. Thank you for covering the band and I hope people like the album and we get to play for all you good people.