Tank
Move Forward To Survive

09.11.2011

The news about British heavy metal pioneers Tank deciding to continue without their frontman and the only remaining original member Algy Ward came as a shock to many fans. Initially it was very difficult to imagine how the band’s new singer, Doogie White of Rainbow and Yngwie Malmsteen fame, would cope with such Tank classics as “Turn You Head Around” or “Laughing in the Face of Death”. But as the band released a new album, “War Machine” (2010), it became clear that the band members knew what they were doing. We got Tank guitarist Cliff Evans on the phone to find out what is currently happening in the Tank camp and how the future looks for them.

Hello Cliff! How it’s going with Tank? What is the recent news from the band?

We are just getting ready to go on the road and play some shows, the first ones to promote the album “War Machine”. We will be taking on the road Doogie on vocals, and we’ve just added the new drummer Mark Cross from Firewind, so we’re getting a great line up we are really happy with. I think we’re gonna do a really good job, we’ll play some tracks from “War Machine”, as well as some classic old Tank stuff to give the fans what they want.

How did you get to know Mark Cross?

I met Mark about six months ago, he was in London, I think he was doing session work for someone. We just hooked up in a pub – we started talking and got on really well, and he said, “Maybe somewhere down the line there will be a chance that Tank may be in need of a new drummer.” And it kind of worked out that way that the last drummer took off to play with another band, and we were stuck without a drummer, so I gave Mark a call. He lives in Athens, Greece, that’s a long way away. I said “Look, Mark, we’ll bring you over to London, and you will play with Tank.” And he was straight in there, he loves the music and I think he’s gonna fit in really well. He is the best drummer we’ve had, I think.

Can you also say a few words how you got to know Doogie White? Was he the only candidate to the position of the vocalist of the band or did you consider any other singers?

Obviously it was quite difficult to replace Algy. Algy had a very certain style and a certain voice. We thought it was gonna be pretty pointless just trying to replace him with someone who sounded the same or similar. Me and Mick (Tucker, guitarist) talked about it a lot. We thought, “Maybe it’s best to change the sound of the band a little bit? It sounded pretty much the same for a long time. Tank hadn’t really progressed. So if we’re gonna do this, let’s try to make it really different and put a lot more into it”. We thought, “Instead of going on as a four-piece, let’s have another bandmember, let’s bring in a proper vocalist into the band and a new bass player as well – not just have a bass player who sang”. We thought that we would give it a go, expand on the band musically and experiment a bit more. I’ve known Doogie for a long time, and Mick was doing some work on his solo album, so we thought, “Let’s give Doogie a try”. We gave him a few songs, he came down, we jammed, and it worked out pretty well. He‘s got a great voice, the real classic rock voice which me and Mick really like and it gave us a chance to experiment with writing songs in a different style for the “War Machine” album. It sounds a lot different to older Tank songs. So we are really happy with Doogie, he’s a nice guy, it has worked out great so far, and we’re glad that we made that decision.

Doogie contributed a lot of the lyrics to the new album. Was it all his work or did you give him any ideas about themes for the lyrics?

Well, the lyrics were all Doogie’s. We always like to leave that to the singer, me and Mick Tucker just stick to the guitars. That’s what we do best – we play guitars and write guitar riffs. We just leave the lyrics to the singer, that’s the way we like to work.

Do you and Mick write complete songs or do you discuss them with the band mates in the course of composition?

Usually we sit at home and get some ideas together. Then we send them to each other, we kind of mess around with them and work on them until the structure is there and we know the main guitar parts. Then we get into the studio and just jam around with them, and they’ll come together. We need the whole band in the studio, then you get the vibe for the song and get the groove going. I think it’s ok doing it at home just to get rough ideas and to understand where you’re kind of coming from, but to really get to the guts of the song you need to get into the studio with the guys, work on it and really feel it. Me and Mick have always worked that way, and it works out really well, I think. It’s an enjoyable way to do it.

Did you use any old ideas for this record or is it completely new stuff?

I think there are only a couple of old licks that Mick had lying around but never used before. But basically it’s all new – he was inspired by having Doogie in the band. Before we were writing stuff that was gonna suit to Algy’s voice which is very limited. With Doogie we could lay back a little bit, bring in a bit more blues influences here and there, we could experiment a bit which is great for the rest of the band to really get involved in there. We really enjoyed writing this album. We did it very quickly as well and we are happy with the result.

We haven’t mentioned a couple of other persons who worked on this album - the producer Pedro Fereira and the new bass player Chris Dale. Can you say a few words about these guys?

Pedro is a great guy! I’ve known him for a few years now, I met him just after he did the first Darkness album as a producer. He lives quite near to where I live. When it came to doing the album, we did some demos with him. He came down and helped us out a lot in getting our sound together. He became really involved in the band, he hang out with us, and when we finally got the record deal, we thought, “We gotta bring Pedro in to produce it”. He did a good job, he is really good to work with. He’s got a new studio in his house, so we went in there, and he got good results out of us, especially Doogie. I think “War Machine” is the best I’ve ever heard Doogie sing. So the producer did a really good job there.

Chris Dale on bass – I’ve known Chris for a long time. As soon as we needed a new bass player, I thought of Chris straight away.. He used to play with Bruce Dickinson and many other bands – a great player, a nice guy. So I gave him a call and he was straight in and it worked really well. We are happy, we are good friends.

Let’s speak a little bit about the songs from “War Machine”. Can you tell us about the song “The Last Laugh”? It sounds like your manifest, like you’re saying. “We are going to rock once again! Don’t stand in our way!”

Yeah, I think that was it with that song. Doogie left that until the last minute to come up with the title. When we were trying to print the CDs, and in order to do that, we needed to have a title for that song, so Doogie came up with that. It’s a real rocker, it’s kind of in your face, there’s a sort of Whitesnake vibe to it, and it’s a great fun to play, because that’s a big guitar track, so me and Mick put two Les Pauls into the Marshall and it feels good. It’s a rocker, we look forward to playing it live.

You used string arrangements in the song “After All”. How did you get this idea and weren’t you afraid to upset your die-hard fans?

(laughs) Yeah, we thought that there were gonna be a few complains about that. Mick really put this song together, he does the main guitar solo on it, and he had the sound in his mind, the way he wanted it to turn out. We were trying to get away with just with guitars and it wasn’t sounding big enough. He was getting very frustrated so we turned for help to a friend of Pedro, the producer, who does string arrangements on the old vintage synths he has. We gave him the track and he came down and put those little string arrangements on it which really made it quite an epic track. We like it, I’m sure some die-hard fans won’t like the fact we put strings on, but I think it makes the song which is the main thing. We feel that we gotta experiment with stuff, we gotta move forward.

“War Machine” was released on Polish label Metal Mind Productions. Are you satisfied with this collaboration?

Yeah! A few years ago they released the Tank box-set with 6 or 7 albums in there and they did a good job with it – they included a nice booklet, they did it on both vinyl and CD, so it’s a very good product, well packaged (the box set came out in 2007 and it is called “The Filth Hounds of Hades - Dogs of War 1981 – 2002” – ed.). We were really happy with that so when we wanted to do the new album we went to them and spoke to Tommy (Tomasz Dziubinski, the label’s president and founder – ed.) who unfortunately passed away last year. He signed us straight away and the deal was good. We feel happy there, it’s a good label, they’ve done a very good job with “War Machine” - good promotion, good packaging. It’s going well so far, so we look forward to do some more work with them, they are nice people.

You mentioned already that “War Machine” is quite different from previous Tank albums. Can you say a few words about the reaction to the new records from the fans and the press? Is everybody happy or is anybody complaining?

There is always somebody complaining about everything but we’re happy that way. Look at the reviews we got, they are average 9 out of 10 – the best reviews we’ve ever had for a Tank album. 99% of the press are really behind us, they absolutely love the album, we did dozens and dozens of interview, so many reviews of the album were really good, so we are really happy with that. Maybe just a handful, just a few old die-hard fans were not impressed, but we expected that. We tried to explain to these guys that Algy is not with us any longer and the band has to move forward to survive. You can’t just play the same stuff for 30 years and not progress, you gotta move forward. So the overall reaction to this album has been very good which means that we can now move the band forward even more, with the next album we can really go for it, really experiment and just put everything we’ve got into the next album.

And what is your current relationship with Algy? We remember how he went public over to the rights to the band’s name and logo. What’s currently happening with him?

I haven’t seen Algy for quite a while. It’s a shame, Algy’s always been a really good friend, he’s a great guy, but since the mid-90ss he kind of lost interest in the band, he didn’t want to do anything, and for shows we did play, he was drunk. Then he’s had a lot of health problems. All the time we were getting people saying, “When is Tank gonna tour? When is Tank gonna do something? When is another album coming out?” But he just didn’t seem bothered about fans or anything. So me and Mick, being in the band for a long time, thoyght we gotta carry this on. We thought about this long and hard, we thought, “Tank must carry on, it can’t just die off and fade away to nothing”. So Algy is a bit pissed off that we carried on without him, but he seems to calm down now. I really like Algy, it would be nice to work again with him one day, but I doubt about that.

Can you tell us what kind of health problems he has?

He’s always liked to drink a lot especially in the old days. I think years of being on the road and a lot of abuse back the early days of the band do catch up with you. If you don’t look after yourself, when you reach a certain age everything just hits you in one go. Which is a shame. But then again, none of us are getting any younger, so you just gotta take care of yourself. But he is OK, I think he’s still down to pub every day.

In 2009 when you decided to continue without Algy, drummer Mark Brabbs rejoined the band but he left the band eventually. What happened to him?

Mark came back in with us for the first shows when we got back together, which was really great. He’s a really great guy, and it’s a real fun to play and hang out with him. But he was only back for a short while, because he doesn’t live in the UK, he lives on the Isle of Man and he has a wife and, I think, 6 or 7 children. (everybody laughs) He doesn’t have time to go on the road. He’s very well off, he has plenty of money, and he is very happy living where he is. He just came in for the shows we did at Sweden Rock and Bang Your Head festivals, and we had a really good time. But he was in only for that shows, and then he was out again. It was cool with that, but that was all prearranged, he wouldn’t be able to stay with us anyway.

Well let’s now speak about the early days of Tank. How did it happen that you joined the band?

I was always a fan of Tank, I saw them many times with the original line-up. I used to work in the guitar shop in the center London just around the corner from the old Marquee Club. Algy and the guys used to come in and hang out in the shop sometimes, they knew I was a fan, so the used to bring their albums and stuff. One day they came in and said “We need a new guitarist. Do you want to do it?” I didn’t even have an audition, we just went to the pub and got drunk and that was it – I was in the band. (everybody laughs). Tank auditions have always been like that. (laughs) But that was kind of cool - I joined the band and a month or so later we were on tour with Metallica.

By the time I joined, the album “This Means War” (1983) was already recorded. It was the first album they did with Mick, and Mick made a big difference to the band. On the first two albums they had a very big punk influence, but as soon as Mick came in, there was the big classic rock guitar sound there.

A lot of people consider “This Means War” as the best Tank effort. And what is your opinion? What will call you as the best Tank album if we disregard the latest one?

The Tank thing does sort of change. I like the punk sound of “Filth Hounds Of Hades” (1982), there’s great energy, and I love Algy’s voice on it, he’s got that raw edge to his voice. With “This Means War” when Mick came in the sound changed – it’s a cross between the punk edge and Mick’s classic rock sound. I really like that album. Then we move on to “Honor & Blood” (1984), and with the opening track “The War Drags Ever On” when the intro comes in, I just love that, it’s also a great album. I can’t really say which one is my favorite, because all those three albums sound different and I like them all.

You mentioned the tour with Metallica. Can you share with us some stories with that tour?

That was cool. That was Metallica’s “Ride The Lightning” tour, just as they were getting really big – they had just got to play in arenas, they just had got a new record deal, the new management – Peter Mensh from Q-Prime was managing them, and there was obviously big money behind them. They had a big crew, they were going out with a great stage set. We got to meet them, because they asked us to come with them on the tour – they liked Tank and they asked us to join. That was a real honor to do that. We met the guys, they were really cool, we hang out with them a lot, drunk a little beer together. Or probably too much beer, because after a couple of weeks on the road their manager Peter Mensh told them not to hang out with us anymore. (everybody laughs). They were getting a bit too drunk every night. But that was a great tour – we played for a month and a half over Europe and that was great to me as it was the first tour I ever did. It’s just a shame that they had a great management, and our management was useless. I mean, they went on to be the biggest metal band going and we just kind of disappeared. That’s how it ends when you don’t have a good management and good label.

It seems that after the release of “Honor & Blood” Tank was on top of the heavy metal world but it took the band 3 years to release the next record. What was the problem?

Another thing with Algy is that he used to just kind of disappear for a couple of years at that time. We just wouldn’t hear from him nor know where he is. “Honor & Blood” was a good album, it was well received, we did the Metallica tour and all of a sudden we did nothing for three years until the next album. As I said, Algy just didn’t seem bothered about things, he just disappeared for a couple of years to get drunk somewhere. Our management did nothing about that, they were useless. Me and Mick, we were sitting there just wanting to play our guitars and get out on the road and nothing happened until the next album. We didn’t tour after that.

For the past couple of years we have talked to many British bands of the 80’s and basically every second band was complaining about the poor management at that time. In your opinion, what was wrong with managers in Britain? Why was everybody making so many mistakes in the management?

Yeah, there were just no great managers who were really experienced in managing rock bands to get them to another level. It’s difficult in England anyway with how the music scene is. You get a couple of really big managers, and everybody else who is below that just doesn’t have a clue. Everyone thinks they’re a manager, they like to tell people that they manage bands, but they don’t actually do the job. This is the problem. And that can make or break a band – if you can’t secure the right deal, get the band on the road, then there is no point. It’s even worse today, I think – there’s even less managers at hand, so it’s very-very difficult. Most bands haven’t got a clue what are they doing, they have nothing to do with the business side, so they make a lot of mistakes and don’t get the recognition they deserve. So there has always been a problem with the management, I’ve known very few managers along the way, and I’m very weary about who we work with now.

What are your brightest memories about the album “Tank” (1987)?

It was a strange album. We had problems in the band. Mick was having some problems with Algy and the manager, the deal was really bad, a lot of songs were written in the studio and Mick wasn’t around. The album to me didn’t really work. Algy produced it and he was drunk for most of the album as well, so when he was trying to mix the album after drinking 20 pints of beer (laughs), it doesn’t really work. Mick decided to leave the band around that time, he went off for a while, and the whole vibe was very bad – that was not an enjoyable time.

The album “Still At War” (2002) was released via Zoom Club Records. What can you say about this label?

I think that was a deal that happened when Algy hooked up with some guys who had a really small label and were releasing stuff on the Internet. They didn’t even put the album out, they paid an advance to the band, and then they did nothing with it. Our fans were complaining about it, they asked “Where can I get the album”? It wasn’t in any shop anywhere. Anywhere in the world you couldn’t find it. I had to get on to this label and really complained about what they did. I ended up getting the album back, I kept the advance, and we did another deal with it. Eventually it came out in the box-set from Metal Mind. Finally it’s in there but then again, the album was done pretty quickly on a very low budget.

That was a very strange situation. Usually a label puts out an album and doesn’t pay the musicians, but this time that was another way around – the label paid an advance and didn’t release the album. (everybody laughs)

Yes, strange! That was just a really fucked up label. They gave us money – that’s great, but when you have a product, it needs to be released, that’s what it’s all about.

Can you tell us a couple of words about the album which Algy mentioned on his Myspace page?

It was supposed to be another Tank album called “Stone Panzer”. We were waiting for like five years to give us some songs or just tell us where he wants to go, but he was doing nothing, he just drank every day which was one of the reasons why me and Mick decided to move on. Again Algy just didn’t get anything together, he didn’t bother, and you can’t wait around for 10 years to get a few songs together. I hope Aldy does something, I’d like to see him do a solo project, but I can’t really see him getting it together at all.

Well let’s now move back to the present time. The album was released in autumn last year and you’re only starting to tour in support of it now. Why did it take so long?

It’s very difficult getting shows right now. I mean I’d like to be on tour all year round, it would be good but unfortunately it’s difficult to get the shows that will pay enough money to actually survive on the road. We’ve been through a couple of different agents over the past year that haven’t really done anything for us, so I ended up booking most of the shows of this tour myself. This is the situation: a lot of bands right now wanna be out there touring, every band wants to be touring, because that’s the only way to make any money, but there’s only so many people out there that can come and see shows every night, and a lot of clubs are closed down, a lot of festivals went out of business this year. The money situation in most countries now is not good. If you want to take a band down the road, you need a certain amount of money to do it, you need flights, you need hotels – it’s very-very difficult. We’d love to be touring every day of every year, we love playing live but to get to that situation is very-very hard.

Did you get any offers from Russians promoters?

No. This is one of the places we’ve never been to. We’d love to come to Russia, we get a lot of emails from fans over there but I don’t know any promoters there, no one’s contacted us.

You mentioned you already have ideas for the next Tank album. Can you say a few words about them? When do you plan to start recording at least?

Well, because we haven’t really started promoting the “War Machine” album and we will tour this album as much as we can. We will start recording the next album probably in January. We are always working on material for the songs, we are constantly writing songs and progressing so we’ll get as much as we can together. We plan to start recording in January but we will still continue to promote the “War Machine” album as much as we can. The next album will be a progression, we’ll be moving on now, now as we’ve worked with each other, we know how each other writes, and we will really take our time and make this album as good as we can. We will make a classic British metal/rock album.

Tank on the Internet: http://www.tankofficial.com

Konstantin “Hirax” Chilikin, Roman Patrashov
August 27, 2011
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