Ann Boleyn

ANN BOLEYN is the evil queen of heavy metal! She is also the founding member of HELLION!

ANN started out as a keyboard player. She performed up and down the west coast of America in many "cover bands" where she performed songs by DEEP PURPLE, URIAH HEEP, and EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER. Because of her skills she was contacted by many west coast bands. She eventually became recognised as "the person to call" whenever any band needed a Hammond player. Her keyboard skills can be heard on a number of rock and metal albums with artists including YNGWIE MALMSTEEN.

It, however, is with HELLION that she gained her international fame. In 1982, after her band BEOWULF, which included DAVID REESE, who replaced UDO (ACCEPT), disbanded, she formed HELLION. The band performed innitialy at her well-known haunted house in Tujunga, California. Unable to find a qualified singer, Ann took over the role as vocalist. The band started out playing "cover versions", but later started writing original songs. By the end of the year, they had a single released on MYSTIC RECORDS, which was a punk label. By the end of the following year, the band released another record on their own label, BONGUS LOADUS RECORDS. Following the release of their Mini-LP, the band toured Europe, since they were unable to get much help from the music industry in America. When they returned, they were taken under the wing of RONNIE JAMES DIO, who was just starting a management company and had recently signed ROUGH CUTT.

Over the years, Ann Boleyn has become an internationally recognized "mover and shaker" in the metal and rock music industry! Her unique accomplishments are many! She founded NEW RENAISSANCE RECORDS, MORGAN LA FEY MUSIC PUBLISHING, and has helped many musicians and bands to gain international recognition. In the 1980s, when no one in America was interested in hispanic metal, she released the first album by SEPULTURA. The list of other musicians and bands who owe their start in the business to Ann Boleyn is so long that it can not be included on this page. She can be also credited for assisting the early promotional efforts of KING DIAMOND, when the distributor, >GREENWORLD RECORD DISTRIBUTION (now out of business), required help on the metal classic FATAL PORTRAIT. (The distributor was afraid to promote the album themselves because of the Satanic overtones. This, however, did not deter Ann from lending a hand!)

In the late 1980s ANN BOLEYN filed a lawsuit against the distributor who had up to then distributed her label, after the refused to pay her. According to Tony Dimatrino, who has been a major source of Hellion information on this site, the lawsuit took years to settle. However, by the time it was solved, the distributor was out of business and Ann got very little, if any monetary return. About this same time, Ann became the victim of a stalker and serial killer. She eventually signed the rights of her company over to Enigma Records, which also were supposed to release the Hellion opus THE BLACK BOOK. When the release date of the Hellion album kept getting delayed, she became worried. She next learned that RESTLESS RECORDS, a punk label, had acquired the rights to her album (and those of the other New Renaissance bands), before Enigma itself went out of business! Once again, Restless Records kept delaying the release of the Hellion LP, The Black Book. Due to a contract loophole, Restless claimed that the master recordings were not good enough and had them remixed. When Ann and the band heard the remixed version they were very upset...on a number of songs the wrong vocal and guitar tracks were used and many of her famous screams were no longer included. This disappointment did not make the band happy about promoting the album.

In the early 1900s, Hellion made one last tour! In doing so they became the first ever US rock group to do a full concert tour of the Soviet Union. (Prior to Hellion, other bands would fly in for one show, and return immediately following the gig. Hellion, however, stayed to two months.) The last show ever performed by Hellion was at the largest indoor venue in the world...THE MOSCOW OLYMPIC AUDITORIUM! The tour also included performances at the Monsters of Rock Festival.

However, after Hellion returned home to the USA the metal scene had begun to die. In an interview with Ann Boleyn, the singer admitted that the band was tired of coming home from an overseas tour where they had been performing in arenas and stadiums, only to be expected to perform in small clubs in their home country. The group disbanded a short time later.