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This is a lot of ALL FIVE TANK die cut 7" picture discs. See descriptions below: 
1. TANK This Means War PICTURE SHAPE 2. TANK Power of the Hunter PICTURE SHAPE 3. TANK Honour & Blood PICTURE SHAPE 4. TANK Filth Hounds of Hades PICTURE SHAPE 5. TANK Don't Walk Away PICTURE SHAPE
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1. TANK This Means War PICTURE SHAPE

High Roller Records, lyric sheet, ltd 460, deluxe plastic bag, 4 tracks

01 Just like Something from Hell 02 This Means War
03 I (Won't Ever Let You Down) 04 Echoes of a Distant Battle / Swapiyayo
After two very successful albums for Kamaflage in 1982, »Filth Hounds Of Hades« and »Power Of The Hunter«, Tank issued their third longplayer on the newly founded Music For Nations label. 1983’s »This Means War« came across more polished than its two predecessors, and some to this day think that it’s the best album the band has ever recorded. The songwriting itself was a bit more refined and a few compositions even featured keyboards. “The album was certainly different,” observes drummer Mark Brabbs today. “But it still sounds like us. Mick Tucker joined the band as an additional guitarist because we wanted to get even more powerful and aggressive live. Whenever we went into a lead solo, we wanted a heavy backing. But we didn’t realize that Mick was such a prolific songwriter. You know, when he came in, as well as learning the old stuff, when we thought about recording, he was coming up with some great riffs, and they worked well with Algy’s ferocious style of riffing. Mick’s a bit more … how can I say? His solos are rehearsed. If I talk about the solos ... When we wrote songs, we would just be in the studio jamming, have a few beers, come back and then we go: ‘Well, that sounds good, let’s do that.’ And then we go through it and Algy would put a vocal on. Mick would come into the studio with a song fully written. And then we would tear into it and make it our own, rather than just his. His soloing is always similar. He’d do a solo and when we play live, his solo will be exactly the same as in the studio. So if he’d do six takes to get the solo right, all six takes would be more or less identical. Whereas Pete’s style of playing was very much on the spot. He would play like whatever he feels. He’d do a solo and go no, that’s shit, and he’d do another one. And it would be completely different. And then he’d do a third solo and again it would be completely different. And I think this difference comes across on the album. It’s a little bit more precise because of Mick. There’s no jamming on it, nothing is spontaneous, regarding the playing or the songwriting. Whereas before the three of us were very spontaneous. And I think this comes from the Deep Purple influence. None of their concerts is the same. When we’d be gigging as a three-piece, our solos would be either five times longer or shorter, it all depends on how you feel. With Mick everything was always the same. That was it. That’s the record and that’s how it is gonna be played. I am not saying that’s wrong but that’s probably why that record doesn’t sound as spontaneous as the first two. It sounds a lot more precise, rehearsed and practised. But it still has attitude, I think this comes across but ... it’s a good album, I like it.” And what about the English press back then, did they also get it? Or did they compare it to »Filth Hounds Of Hades« and »Power Of The Hunter«? “The only place where we didn’t get any good press was England,” laughs the Tank drummer, “our home country, where we were born. But they actually warmed to »This Means War« because it was different. You couldn’t possibly say that it was influenced by Motörhead, which they seemed to always wanna say. When the album came out, they expected to slag it off but they actually really liked it, the press, basically all over the world.” »This Means War« came out on Music For Nations, so had Kamaflage gone bust by this time? “No, they were still part of the DJM conglomerate,” explains Mark Brabbs, “but I think they gave up on it. They just didn’t ... they really only wanted to sign Tank when they formed the label. But when they started to sign other bands, they didn’t do much. Bernie Tormé was great but he only got popular after he joined Gillan, not with his own band. His own band didn’t make it, although they were superb, I have seen them live a couple of times. I think DJM just wanted to wind up that particular project. DJM felt that was just enough and went straight back to their middle of the road catalogue.”

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2. TANK Power of the Hunter PICTURE SHAPE

High Roller Records, lyric sheet, ltd 460, deluxe plastic bag, 4 tracks

01 Walking Barefoot over Glass 02 T.A.N.K.
03 Red Skull Rock 04 Power of the Hunter
When »Filth Hounds Of Hades«, Tank’s legendary debut album, was released on Kamaflage Records in 1982, it not only made huge waves within the NWOBHM community at home, it also topped the import charts on the East Coast of the United States. After having toured with Motörhead in Europe in 1981, Tank once again appeared as special guests for Lemmy and the boys, this time on their tour throughout the United Kingdom for »Iron Fist« in 1982. Drummer Mark Brabbs remembers: “Yes, that’s right, we did the ‘Iron Fist Tour’ with them. Any tour with Motörhead is legendary, really. It was great, it was great just going out on the road again. After a long tour you get to know the road crew, the caterers, the sound engineers, you get to know everyone. So when we started this tour it was like seeing old mates again. Brilliant, really brilliant tour.” The second album »Power Of The Hunter« was released the same year as »Filth Hounds Of Hades« (1982), so two full-length albums within less than twelve months. That’s quite a feat. Mark Brabbs thinks so too: “Yeah, that’s true. »Filth Hounds Of Hades« had sold quite reasonably well all over the world. In those days the world was a lot bigger than these days... So the American release was only an import. In the old days you didn’t really get a world wide release, you got an European release and then it was imported. »Filth Hounds Of Hades« was the biggest selling import on the East Coast of America, and that was quite a big thing for us. So the album sold and everybody was happy with it: the record company was happy, the management was happy, we were happy. We were still young and it was still a new thing for us. We did put out the second album quick. We didn’t want the interest to die. We should have waited for another year, to be perfectly honest. »Power Of The Hunter« wasn’t that well rehearsed and bedded in. We went straight from the rehearsal studio to write the album into the recording studio. We didn’t actually gig any of that material. I actually listened to the album quite recently and think it is a pretty good album. There are some really belting tracks on there. But you can tell that there is not enough attitude on there. You know, a bunch of young guys... It would have been better to have written it, taken it on the road for about six months and make it a bit more release-ready. But anyway, it did okay. It didn’t do as good as »Filth Hounds« but it still sold a good few copies.” Although »Power Of The Hunter« was a potent album, it wasn’t as furious as »Filth Hounds Of Hades«, and it sounded a bit rushed. There were three or four songs on the record that were not as good as the material on the first album. “I agree,” states the legendary Tank drummer. “This is exactly what I think, it was rushed. When someone rushes Steve Harris for the next Iron Maiden album, he will tell them to fuck off! They will do it when they’re ready. But when you’re young and a band and your record company says that they want you do to something, then you gotta do it. Well, we didn’t have that fuck off attitude towards the record company back then, if you know what I mean. Our manager maybe could have stepped in and said do it later, but no, the record company wanted it out as soon as possible. The first mix I heard was the one that was released. I thought we would need to re-mix it. But they put it out, and that was it, it was gone. Listening to it now ... I was disappointed back then but listening to it now 40 years or so later it’s not bad, it’s still pretty good. There is a couple of belters and a couple of fillers.” The Osmonds cover ´Crazy Horses´, that’s a good one. It came out as a single as well. Who actually got the idea to do this? “Well, again, when we first formed, we had half a dozen songs where we played the riff and played the song,” explains Mark Brabbs, “and funnily enough ‘Crazy Horses’ was one of them. We just used it as something to jam on. And somehow the record company found out. And then they had the idea to put it out. For us it was just a bit of fun, really. But when it was released, people didn’t get the joke, especially in England. They thought we were really serious about this but we weren’t. You know, it was an The Osmonds song... I think it was quite a good version.”
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3. TANK Honour & Blood PICTURE SHAPE
High Roller Records, lyric sheet, ltd 460, deluxe plastic bag, 4 tracks
01 The War Drags Ever On 02 Honour and Blood
03 Chain of Fools (Aretha Franklin cover) 04 Kill
By the time Tank released their fourth album »Honour And Blood« in 1984, bassist/singer Algy Ward was the last remaining original member. He got in Graeme Crallan on drums, and added second guitarist Cliff Evans, who teamed up with Mick Tucker. Original guitarist Peter Brabbs and his brother Mark on drums had left the band in 1983. Mark explains why: “Well, my brother was having rock ’n’ roll problems, with drink and marching powder and all that sort of stuff. So this was another reason as well why we had been getting in another guitarist for »This Means War« because it was affecting his performance. So Algy and Mick got together and fired Peter. I said that’s not very diplomatic. I should have had a say as well as a founding member. But Algy said that even if I did have a say it would have been two against one, so they decided Pete had to go. So I stuck it out, not long, maybe a couple of months, and then I got an audition with AC/DC, thanks to Lemmy. But that’s another story...” Although not playing on it, Mark Brabbs likes »Honour And Blood« a lot: “Yeah, yeah, it’s a good album. There’s a couple of tracks on there, which we had written as a band with my brother and me in as well. I think they have changed and re-recorded it but yeah, it’s a good album. ‘Honour And Blood’ itself is a good track.” One of the two new guys playing on »Honour And Blood« was guitarist Cliff Evans, who had come in for Peter Brabbs. Cliff explains how he met Algy Ward the first time and became a member of Tank: “In the early 1980s I was working in a guitar shop in London called Boogie Music. It wasn’t far from the famous Marquee Club which was on Wardour Street in Soho. When Tank were playing at the Marquee they would always stop by my shop to pick up guitar strings and on one occasion I sold Algy a Gibson Thunderbird bass. We became good friends and I would often join them in the pub before going to see the show. In the summer of 1984 I was playing guitar with the legendary blues band called Chicken Shack. We had a show at the Golden Lion in Fulham and during the show I noticed that Algy and Mick Tucker were in the audience. Janick Gers, who was with Gillan at that time, was with them too. A few days later the guys came to my shop and we went to the pub. They explained that the Brabbs brothers had left the band and they were looking for a new guitarist to replace Pete Brabbs. We stayed in the pub until they chucked us out and we got extremely drunk. That was my audition and I was now a member of Tank.” When Cliff joined the mighty Tank in 1984, he was already familiar with them as a band: “I had seen Tank many times at the Marquee and also supporting Motörhead at Hammersmith Odeon on the 'Iron Fist' tour in 1982. I was a big fan of the band and loved the music so it was a very proud moment when I became a member of Tank.” Playing together with Algy, drummer Graeme Callan and guitarist Mick Tucker was no problem for Cliff Evans whatsoever: “I first played with the guys during the recording of the »Honour And Blood« album. We had already gelled together in the pub on several occasions so working together in the studio was no different. Especially as our studio sessions involved the consumption of large amounts of alcohol. Mick played all the solos on the album. He’d already written them when I joined the band and I was happy to sit back and let him do what he does best. On every album after that we’ve always split the solos between us and try to incorporate twin lead harmonies as much as possible. All the songs were already written and arranged by Algy and Mick. When I heard them I knew that his album was going to sound great and I was very excited to be a part of it. Algy and Mick worked so well together as a writing team but unfortunately this collaboration did not continue after this album.” “The album was recorded at Sound Suite studios near Camden Town in London,” continues Cliff Evans talking about »Honour And Blood«. “Algy was in charge of production and Mick got a great guitar sound by putting his Gibson Les Paul through a tiny Marshall 12 watt combo amp with an 8 inch speaker. Amazing tone. The album has a lot of reverb added to the mix which gives the songs a live feel and sound. It really creates a lot of energy. I think the album took us so long to record because we were getting drunk in the pub around the corner for most of the time. The pub was called The Brecknock and in the late 70s/early 80s I would go there to see bands such as Iron Maiden, Angelwitch and Urchin plus many of the other NWOBHM bands that were gigging at that time. It was a great pub. It’s now called the Unicorn and is once again a great rock venue.” »Honour And Blood« kept the lengthy songs from »This Means War« but toned down the keyboards, whose decision was this? One could imagine that with songs like “When All Hell Freezes Over” or “Too Tired To Wait For Love” keyboards might have worked well. “Mick was more involved with the writing on »Honour And Blood«,” remarks the guitarist, “so the songs were more focused on the guitar riffs to make the album sound heavier. Looking back now I think a couple of the songs might have benefited from some keyboard parts but we’ve had no complaints from our fans.” “Chain Of Fools” was a cover version of a number, which was made famous by Aretha Franklin. According to Cliff Evans it was quite an odd decision: “It was a strange choice of song to cover but Algy was insistent we record it and listening to it now it does sound great. A really simple guitar riff but it works.” Just like the three albums before, »Honour And Blood« was once again put out by Music For Nations, but somehow it did not seem to work out the way everybody hoped it would this time around: “We had recorded a great album and the line up was solid and tight. We were confident that this would be the album to really raise Tank to the next level but unfortunately our management didn’t share our vision. We had the same manager as Motörhead at that time and they would always be the main focus for promotion and investment. The label wasn’t promoting the album as much as they should have done but it was our manager’s fault for not looking after our interests. I guess it was just another bad decision by our management or the label to put out the album that late in the year in December 1984. It should have been released a couple of months before we hit the road with Metallica to maximise the build up before the tour and take advantage of all the promotional possibilities. This would have made all the difference to the band’s future. We’ve been plagued by bad luck all through our career.” As mentioned, Tank supported Metallica on their “Bang That Head That Doesn’t Bang” tour throughout Europe for their album »Ride The Lightning« (25 dates between November 16th and December 20th 1984). Any specific memories about this tour? “That was the first full tour I’d ever done so it really was a very special time for me,” reminisces Cliff Evans. “We were well rehearsed and sounding tight. New Marshall JCM800 amps were bought and we were ready to rock. I remember walking into the venue for the first show of the tour which was in Rouen, France. Metallica were sound checking and I’d never heard anything like it before. They had a huge backline of Mesa Boogie amps which created the now legendary and unmistakable Metallica guitar sound. I’d never heard anything like it and wondered if our Marshall amps could compete. Fortunately they did and the tour was great for us. We became good friends with James, Lars, Kirk and Cliff and drank many beers together across Europe in the winter of 1984. Cliff Burton, RIP. Regarding the setlist we went for a good mix of old and new but tried to pick songs that would go down well with the Metallica audience. We were very surprised at how many fans had come to see us on the tour and at several shows our fans equaled Metallica’s.” Although not being in the band any more in 1984, former Tank drummer Mark Brabbs had run into the Metallica guys a few years earlier: “Again, that’s a funny story. We knew Metallica. Our manager had brought them over to England the first time and we took them out. And they were nothing. Just kids, you know. We got them very drunk, as you do. We went to a club called the St Moritz, just by the old Marquee club. We had just finished demoing the »Power Of The Hunter« album. So we put the cassette on in the club, because we knew the owner, for the guys to have a listen. So the guy put in on full volume and the four Metallica guys were sitting at the bar listening to the whole album with their hands folded. They didn’t talk. And when we were finished, James was saying: ‘This is exactly the sound we are looking for. This is what we want.’”
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4. TANK Filth Hounds of Hades PICTURE SHAPE
High Roller Records, lyric sheet, ltd 460, deluxe plastic bag, 6 tracks
01 Shellshock 02 The Snake 03 Steppin' on a Landmine
04 Turn Your Head Around 05 Filth Hounds of Hades 06 (He Fell in Love with a) Stormtrooper (7” version)

Looking at it from today’s perspective it all seems pretty clear cut. When the Brabbs brothers, Mark on drums and Peter on guitar, met up with bassist/singer Algy Ward in the spring of 1980 to form Tank, they had the vision to fuse punk and metal. It took them less than two years to become the most popular original crossover act of the early 1980s. So far, so simple. But as it’s often the case in life the truth was much more complex. “Nothing was planned,” elaborates Mark, the younger of the two Brabbs brothers, today: “Peter started with music a while before me. Our parents were always very supportive. My brother, obviously being my elder brother, was into heavy rock: Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and all that sort of stuff. And I started listening to his records, and Uriah Heep was in there too. We both became great fans of Deep Purple, that’s probably our favourite band, for both of us. That’s how I started learning drums, from the album »Made In Japan«. Hearing Ian Paice playing drums made me wanting to play drums because he sounded so good. And my brother Pete was a big Ritchie Blackmore fan. So as kids growing up I used to jam with Pete in his bedroom on cardboard boxes, a biscuit tin was my snare drum and a tambourine was my hi-hat, and I used coat hangers for my sticks. Pete was playing in another band at the time and he had a great drummer. I used to watch this guy play. And then someday there was a band playing at our local tennis club. The guy behind the drum kit asked me: Do you want a go? I just got up – I never played on a drum kit before, just my cardboard boxes – and played ‘All Right Now’ by Free. I just sat there and played it right through to the end. My brother probably was 13 at the time and I was eleven. Pete just ran straight home and said to my mum: ‘You got to buy Mark a drum kit because he is amazing.’ I probably wasn’t amazing, I probably was crap ... My parents bought me a drum kit for my twelfth birthday. And that was it … My brother and I used to have different bands. It was always him on guitar and me on drums, and this and that. We had a band called The Brabbs Band – obviously. That’s when we first met Algy. That’s quite an old story … We were both popular in local bands and once had a gig in a local pub. It was a sell-out. After the show we went backstage, pouring with sweat. The door burst open and there was Algy. We had never met before. Algy pointed at us, me and Pete, and said: ‘One day I am gonna be in a band with you two.’ That’s it, and he walked out. And we were like: who the hell was that? Algy was with The Saints at the time. And then he joined The Damned. And when he left The Damned, he found me and Pete. That’s how Tank was formed.” After The Brabbs Band (and before Tank) Mark was active in a band called The Heroes: “Once we started doing different stuff, I was taking music a bit more serious than my brother Pete. He was still playing a lot of guitar but he used to have a full-time job, can’t remember what it was now, whereas I went to art college after school for five years and obviously carried on playing in bands. Art college was the place to go if you wanted to become a musician back in the seventies. So I was in a lot of different bands. The Heroes was a good band, with a guy called Peter Fenton on guitar and vocals, he was with Siouxsie And The Banshees. In fact, he formed Siouxsie And The Banshees together with Siouxsie. And then he was sacked from Siouxsie And The Banshees because they caught him playing an Eagles album. Them being punks they couldn’t handle this, so they sacked him. And then he formed a band called The Heroes. It was like a powerpop band. A little bit punky, with a Generation X kind of sound. And that was getting quite a lot of record industry interest. That was The Heroes.” The Brabbs brothers grew up in Croydon (where Tank had their base as well), Mark explains: “Croydon was well-known for being an ugly town but if you live somewhere, you don’t see the ugliness – that’s your home. It was great, lots of musicians around South Croydon, that sort of area. You know, you are only 45 minutes away from Brighton by the seaside. And 30 minutes the other way and you are in London. A good place to live. We also had this record shop called Beanos, I remember that very well. This was in central Croydon. We actually had a local Tank pub, where we used to meet on a Saturday lunchtime, called The Ship. A really good pub, a heavy rock pub, it’s still there. It was a minute’s walk from Beanos, just up the road.” In contrast to speculation by the music press of the day, when Tank was formed in the spring of 1980, there was no master plan whatsoever. “To be perfectly honest, we didn’t know what we were going to do,” laughs Mark Brabbs today. “Algy always wanted to play with me and Peter because we were proper rockers. Peter and Algy got together first because I was in The Heroes. And we were still getting quite a lot of record industry interest. But Peter and Algy wanted me to be their drummer and that was a bit difficult. Peter and Algy used to just jam all the time, Pete and I were still living with our parents at the time. I used to go out on a Saturday night and come back on Sunday morning when my mum and dad would be having breakfast. They said to me: ‘Have a look in the garden.’ There were Pete and Algy sitting in the lounge in the garden jamming, and they had been there all night, surrounded by empty bottles of vodka and beer. And all they used to do was jam, jam, jam. So they really were the backbone of Tank because they more or less wrote the first album there and then in the garden. When we eventually got together we all had our own influences, we all loved Deep Purple, the early ZZ Top stuff. Obviously Algy had a punk feel because of The Damned. I hated punk when it first came up. I was a proper heavy rocker, with long hair, jeans, flares. But when I went to art school and jammed with a couple of those guys, I felt the energy of punk, you know, The Sex Pistols, The Damned, I liked this raw energy. The punk element certainly came in with Algy and myself. Pete was just into down the road heavy rock. We didn’t plan to be like anyone, we just jammed and wrote songs. And Algy would come up with some lyrics there and then. Some of them worked, some didn’t. As we were all Deep Purple fans we were originally planning to get in a singer and a keyboard player, a keyboard player who could also play guitar. Like in UFO, a keyboard player who could sing and also play guitar. And we wanted a lead singer. We weren’t intending to be a three-piece, we weren’t intending to copy Motörhead, like a lot of people kept saying we did. The only reason we stuck with a three-piece was because of the record company. Our manager brought the top A&R guy of DJM Records down to see us and we sort of played him like five songs. And he said: ‘Right, I love it. I will sign you on the spot.’ And when we said, well, we gonna get a singer, he said: ‘No, don’t do this. You are exactly what we were looking for, a three-piece.’ They wanted the power of a three-piece. He said: ‘Don’t go anywhere, don’t meet anyone.’ So the record company were the ones to tell us to stay as a three-piece. That’s how it was.” The label was Kamaflage Records, they just had a handful of bands, and Tank certainly was there number one priority. “Yeah, they were very good,” states the Tank drummer. “They were actually a part of DJM Records, Dick James Music Empire, which had Elton John and some of the early Beatles stuff. Up until they signed us, their catalogue was very middle of the road. Tank had lots of attitude and volume. They felt we were a bit too tough for their catalogue, so they formed Kamaflage as a sublabel. This was a separate company within DJM. So that’s how it was. And then they signed a band called Tytan, which was Kev Riddles from Angel Witch.” In addition Kamaflage also had Baron Rojo and Bernie Tormé on their books. The main label DJM had released both singles of Adrian Smith’s band Urchin back in the seventies as well. This was probably the first heavy rock band they signed …“They also had Dave Colwell on their books,” laughs Mark Brabbs, “‘Bucket’, who later was the second guitarist in Paul Samson’s Empire. He is a great friend of mine. In fact, ‘Bucket’, well, he’s Dave, we just call him ‘Bucket’, that’s his nickname, he is still great pals with Adrian. He has written a couple of songs for Maiden, for their B-Sides. He is still in association with Maiden. I was left back in the Iron Maiden football team when Paul Samson’s Empire toured with them. When I was younger, growing up, I was playing for Chelsea and Crystal Palace. But then I discovered beer, women and drums. And then football training went out the window. But that Maiden tour was great, we did England, Scotland and Wales. We didn’t do Ireland actually, which is a shame as it’s always a good crowd. Paul Samson was a lovely fella, by the way, he died way too soon. A great guitar player. He died much too early. That was a great tour, that Maiden tour (‘Somewhere On Tour’, 1986).” Tank got their first real break when they supported Motörhead in late 1981, that was even before their first album »Filth Hounds Of Hades« had come out. “We shared the same management with Motörhead,” explains Mark Brabbs. “That was The Damned’s management as well. But when Algy parted company with The Damned, Doug Smith got rid of The Damned and kept Algy because he had more faith in his project. That’s how that came about. The tour before the album was the European tour. We toured all over Europe, which was great fun. We shared a tour bus with Motörhead, so you can imagine the partying that was going on...” The Dortmund gig from this European tour in 1981 was later released as a live album as well. “But the quality is actually awful,” finds the younger of the two Brabbs brothers. “Our mixing engineer just recorded on a tape cassette. A couple of gigs. Somehow someone got hold of it and released it. This has got nothing to do with me, unfortunately. We didn’t know it existed. Murray on the desk, our live engineer, also filmed a gig once. But I don’t know where that went. Somewhere there is a film of us playing in Dortmund on that tour. So we need to find out where that went.” The legendary »Filth Hounds Of Hades« record was originally released in the spring of 1982. The album was produced by Fast Eddie of Motörhead fame (rest in piece, mate!). But how much producing did Eddie actually do? Was he just a name on the back sleeve of the album and a drinking buddy or did he do proper engineering work? “Well, to be fair, he really didn’t need to do much as a producer,” reminisces Mark Brabbs today. “We’d been touring England for about a year and a half with the material from the first album. And then of course we did this massive European tour with Motörhead, who we knew anyway, they were mates of us anyway. We finished the tour on Christmas eve 1981 and we were in the studio to record »Filth Hounds Of Hades« on December the 29th. So we were very well rehearsed. Nothing needed production, apart from the mix. No real input as a producer from Eddie, although he had done the Girlschool stuff and he had done a few other things. No doubt, he knew his trade. But I think for our first album as a producer it was fairly easy. But he still did a good job on »Filth Hounds Of Hades«. No question. I loved Eddie.”
MATTHIAS MADER
5. TANK Don't Walk Away PICTURE SHAPE
Algy Ward - Bass, Lead Vocals Peter Brabbs - Guitar Mark Brabbs - Drums
01 Don't Walk Away 02 Shellshock 03 Hammer On
04 Run Like Hell (Demo Version) 05 Blood, Guts and Beer (Demo Version)
When Tank were signed on the spot by Kamaflage, the newly founded sublabel of DJM Records lost no time in putting out the debut single by Croydon’s best. »Don’t Walk Away« preceded the band’s debut album »Filth Hounds Of Hades« and was released to tie in with the band’s European tour supporting Motörhead in 1981. Consequently, Germany saw the exclusive release of a 12” edition of “Don’t Walk Away” (with the non-album “Hammer On” on the B-Side as well as an alternative version of “Shellshock”), bearing the legendary slogan “Der Heavy Metal Schock” on the front cover (in addition to the tour dates). The first pressing of the UK edition of »Filth Hounds Of Hades« (featuring a different colour scheme in comparison to some of the European variations) even came with a free 7” single including the non-album composition “The Snake” on the flip side. In 1982 “Steppin’ On A Landmine” landed on the back side of the mighty »Turn Your Head Around« single. Similar to Iron Maiden in the early days, Tank (and their record company) were giving their fans value for money, placing unreleased high quality material on the B-Sides of their singles. “Funnily enough,” explains drummer Mark Brabbs, “the thing with ‘Steppin’ On A Landmine’ was, we did the European tour with Motörhead and we opened up the set with ‘Shellshock’ and then went straight into ‘Steppin’ On A Landmine’. And it used to get the crowd jumping up and down. It’s got that Maidenish style of riff. But when we recorded it, it was really disappointing. We felt it didn’t have the energy of the live version. So it didn’t make the cut for the first album. It’s a good song and live it is superb. But we all felt that we couldn’t get that edgy aggression that we wanted, so that’s why it didn’t make the cut for »Filth Hounds Of Hades« unfortunately. But it was a great live song. No doubt about that.” “Hammer On”, featured on the band’s debut single, did not really make the cut for »Filth Hounds Of Hades« as well. Mark Brabbs: “’Hammer On’ is a really good song. But for the album it was either that one or ‘Struck By Lightning’. And to be perfectly honest, I’d have preferred ‘Hammer On’ but I think Peter and Algy got the vote on that. But again, we used to play both songs live all the time.” And what about “The Snake”, which was the B-Side of the free 7” single given away with the initial UK pressing of »Filth Hounds Of Hades«? “Yeah, again, we loved that as well,” states Mark Brabbs. “We used to do it as an encore. So it was part of the live set. That was one of Algy’s favourites. That’s why we did that one. ‘Filth Bitch Boogie’, which ended up on the back side of the »Crazy Horses« single, taken off the »Power Of The Hunter« album, was just a jam, a good laugh in the studio. Good play, good fun. And great live. But not quite good enough to make the cut for the album.” So if you look back, over twelve or 15 months Tank wrote between 15 and 20 first-class songs, that’s really phenomenal, isn’t it? “Yeah, it was quite prolific, really,” concludes Mark Brabbs today. “We weren’t a studio band as such. If we weren’t in in the studio, we would be out partying, we were young guys. We were a gigging band rather. The studio was a bit of a bore for us.”