BIOGRAPHY

Spear Of Destiny

In early January 1983 Kirk and Stan set out to find new band members, they came in the form of Chris Bell on drums and Lascelles James on sax. The band rehearsed solidly for a few month on the material that would have become ToH's second album.

The bands first gig was in St Albans at the St Albans Hall. A British tour followed shortly afterwards, the band quickly started to get a good reputation for live gigs and start ed to gain a strong following.

The band also started getting good interest from record companies too, one of them being Epic who quickly signed them and rushed them into the studio to record their first single 'Flying Scotsman', followed by their first album, which was entitled 'Grapes of Wrath' after the classic film starring Henry Fonda.

The band hit the UK with another Britsh tour to promote the 'Grapes of Wrath' album, which was followed by their second single 'The Wheel', including their first video to go with it.

Kirk was yet again starting to feel completely disillusioned with the band, feeling that they werent moving in the direction that they wanted. On a tv show in the UK called 'Switch' and playing live, Kirk decided to end the current band, at the end of playing 'The Wheel' Kirk smashed his guitar up symbalising the end of the band.

It wasn't long before Kirk put a new band together, consisting of Stan on bass, Dolphin Taylor (ex. Stiff Little Fingers) on drums and re-joining them again John 'Boy' Leonard on sax. Not long after, Alan St Clair joined on guitar, and Neil Pyzer on keyboards and sax, SOD two was completed. The first single SOD two recorded and released was 'Prisoner of Love', followed by the album 'One Eyed Jacks'. John 'Boy' Leonard left and was replaced by Mickey Donnelly on alto sax. Another British tour ensued taking up England, Europe, and Scandinavia. The bands reputation was growing ever popular, and regularly selling out venues accoss England and Europe. The band recorded and released another single 'Liberator' which has become a classic on the live circuit to this day.

The band played two big British festivals in '84 at Brockwell Park and Victoria Park in London, which gained them massive support accross the UK. Later in '84 the band also got a slot on the cult tv music show 'The Tube', playing 'Liberator' and 'Young Men'. Spear Of Destiny was fast becoming one of the biggest bands on the live circuit, and in early '85 started to record their second studio album 'World Service', unfortunately throught by problems with producers, distributers and also their record company. This was the start of a bad relationship with Epic, which would eventually end with Epic dropping them.

Their 5th single 'Come Back' was lifted off the album, both the single and the album's ditribution was fraught by delay's, both by the record company and the distributer. Their release date's slipped many times, to the discust of not only the band but their fans too. This album would sporn the bands biggest classic live song 'Mickey', which is still as popular today.

In the summer of 1985, the band played two big outdoor concerts, one at Crystal Palace featuring a host of bands for the 'Anti Heroin Campign', which included, Hawkwind and Balaam and the Angel. The second was supporting U2 at the Milton Keynes Bowl, this would help not only with the sales of the 'World Service' album, but also to sell out most of their winter tour.

In the November the band got a return slot on the cult tv music show 'The Tube', playing Land of Shame and Once In Her Lifetime. The regular winter tour started by being virtually sold out, even before the tickets went on sale, which climaxed at the Town and Country Club in London. This would unfortunately be their last gig together, and being one of the best gigs Spear Of Destiny ever played.

In February 1986 the band went into the studio to record demo's for the next album, including another live classic 'Land of Shame' and Gary Glitter's 'Didn't Know I Loved You'. At the end of March Epic released a statement in the British music papers, saying that they had decided to drop Spear Of Destiny from their label.

Kirk came to the decision again that he wanted to sack most of the band, and approached Stan to ask him yet again to move forward with a new band. This time Stan knew it was the wrong thing, and didnt want to make the same mistake as was made with ToH, also knowing that they had the best band they could possibly have, as well as a huge following. Stan declined and told Kirk that if he fired the other members of the band, he would have to go too! Stan also told Kirk that he had some ideas himself, and that maybe it was time for him to move in a slightly different direction.

There was a brief statement in the British music press to say that Spear Of Destiny had split, this was not only a very sad day for Stan, but a sad day for the fans too, but Stan knew it was the right thing to part company with Kirk, and move in a slightly different musical direction!

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