BAILEY'S COMET

By Nick Baldrian

It appears that every where you turn these days there is a band basing it’s musical path on others bands past glories. The scene seems to be saturated by average bands who have no idea of where they really want to go OR are just cashing in on the current rebirth of rock music, there is just no originality out there any more.

One band that do however standout from the crowd is BAILEY’S COMET, because they base their songs on quality rather than image such as the melodic hook- laden ‘One Love One Life’, here the vocals harmonies have a similar octave to Danny Vaughn and Kevin Chalfant and is perhaps the most AOR song on the bands debut record "Judgement Day", a perfect song for radio.

The Bailey’s musical roots are based on melody, harmony and damn good frigging rock songs, that come straight from the heart such as the excellent ‘Spirit Of Toumahai', ‘Emerald Isle’ and many others which you can strum you air guitar to and sing along with at the same time, plus add to the fact that they are a British combo and play original classic rock in the truest British sense not heard since the days of Thin Lizzy, Gary Moore, Whitesnake and Thunder.

Bailey’s Comet are perhaps the last of the great British rock bands fronted by Dez and Mick Bailey who in the eighties made their name as Metal Hammer scribes and MTV hosts where they earned the nickname of "Britian's Wildest Rock DJ’s".

"Baileys Comet has been a long time coming over the horizon."says Mick and Dez, "Many years ago when everyone was dancing around handbags we decided to take our vast collection of rock records and gather the troops for what became a total reaction and rejection to the force fed trash that was and still is manufactured pop pap. Thankfully we found over the years that there were millions just like us hooked on rock. After achieving much more than we ever imagined, we wanted to explore new opportunities and fresh challenges. Baileys Comet is the next adventure for us, a vehicle for good traditional rock. It was time to make our own music and give our fans something they can own rather than just memorable performances.

"The strange thing about this band is that all the members have worked with us before at some stage.

Nigel Durham (drums)

Nigel has been there from the start and has always believed in the songs.We are good mates. He is best known for his days in Saxon, recording albums and playing all over the world on tour with them. He is often called the Tommy Lee (ex Motley Crue) of England, (we are talking showmanship and not wife beating here). He had the studio and live experience we required and he’s a great timekeeper. (He recently toured with Oliver/Dawsons Saxon).

Alex Edwards lead vocals

A North East record label recommended Alex to us and we checked him out performing Journey songs in a covers band. We couldnt’t believe he wasn't’t signed. He was amazing and had the look we were after to front the band. We hit it off with Alex straight away but his schedule meant we couldnt’t see it through at that point. Thankfully he came in at the death to do the Judgement Day album and finish off what we had started a long time ago. The best is yet to come from Alex and that will be something very special"

Dez Bailey then invested in his own recording studio with long time writing partner Pete Eason. "The magic was there from the start but more importantly we were also having some fun." Remembers Dez, "Pete used to be signed to Epic Records with a band called Person To Person (who cut a selction of superb classic AOR demos that still remain unreleased to this day) but the bizarre thing is he was my next door neighbour.

He had heard me for some years cranking out those riffs and I guess he thought if you can’t beat him join him. To cut to the chase we finally cut our first demo tape, which for the record was "Toumahai", "Emerald Isle", "Seven Hills" and "Holding On For Love".

I went in the studio on my own with a drum machine and recorded all the guitars, then Nigel (drums) played to a click and the backing track. After using the brilliant bass section player Jeremy Meek we decided to bring in Fasker Johnson (ex Saxon) on Bass because this was going to be the band line up. He has toured the world
with Saxon and is a quality player. He is also the brother of Steve Johnson, the singer at that point, so it made sense."

The band were then offered a contract by several labels but made the decision to join forces with long time British melodic rock label Now And Then/Frontiers.

"We opted for Now & Then/Frontiers because they specialised in rock and we felt they would have a better understanding of the market for it" explains Mick and Dez, "To be honest it all went a bit pear shape after that, all of a sudden it wasn’t fun anymore and some personalities emerged that weren’t present when we were doing the demo’s. The pressure of having a deal seemed to unsteady the ship and we decided not to sail with that crew at the time.

With a deal on the table we decided to look to musicians we thought would be ideal for finishing off the songs and recording the album. We had a meeting with long time friends Mark Stanway (Magnum) and Laurence Archer (Grand Slam) with regards to working together. The problem we had is that we needed a singer who could deliver the goods, with no definite date to start recording and no advance to finance the rehearsals etc. It was becoming difficult to pull this proposed line up together."

"By this time" continues Dez "Pete Eason had landed a dream day job so I decided to carry on writing on my own. I booked a lock out at Cage Studios in Sheffield and had to learn digital recording over night but I soon got to grips with it (to a fashion). I had some new ideas to try out and was auditioning musicians as I went along resulting in recruiting our guitar player John Hardman whom I had known for several years and liked his playing technique live. I wanted to hear what he could add to my songs and see how he would get on playing original material. It worked out well and although he had to wait a long time I eventually called him in to join me on guitars and play on the album. John’s a pretty flash player but understood our feelings about the songs being the most important thing, all the other stuff was the icing on the cake. He tamed it down where necessary but once you unleash him with a free hand he is amazing to watch. He also has great knowledge of equipment (after all those years working in musical instrument shops). John has some great ideas guitar sound wise so he was a good team member."

The bands debut disc "JUDGEMENT DAY" has just been released and has been receiving much praise from around the globe.

"We have had some fantastic rave reviews" the Brothers say with astonishment "all over from Germany, Holland, Israel, USA to Hungary the review have been fantastic In fact there’s only one guy who didn’t dig the album (wasn’t me) but later admitted it was too melodic for him and he shouldn’t have reviewed it. The fans are really behind it and at the end of the day that’s who this record is far."

One song that oozes that Classic Rock flavour a’la Thin Lizzy is "Revoloution" Dez went on to clear a few facts about this song which has a wriiten credit with the late Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott

"We don’t want anyone to be under the illusion that I sat down with Phil and wrote this song. When I was working with my former singer/guitarist Steve Johnson, he played me some demos and "Revolution" was a song that he had worked on with Phil.

There was a basic chorus and some melody ideas and I agreed to knock it around, re write some lyrics and see how it turned out. Every one liked it and said we should put it out for Phil to keep his work alive so we did .So it’s actually a Lynott/Bailey/Johnson effort and that’s how it is credited on the album sleeve.

There’s a reference to Phil in the lyrics to ‘Emerald Isle (song for peace)’, "Oh my brother I wish you could have seen, peace at last across the Irish sea, May your hopes and your dreams live on in me"

"Wild One" is a song totally dedicated to Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy.

Every one is comparing Baileys Comet to Dare and Thin Lizzy but actually "One Love One Life" has been a lot of peoples favourite song and has been referred to as a heavier version of The Storm or Journey. We have so many influences and this album is a reflection of some of them".

With a red hot album under their belt I asked the brothers if they have any gigs planned, "We have always had a great rapport and respect for the fans and want to give them something they can be a part of and enjoy. We are talking with managers with a view to them helping us co-ordinate the international interest and are keeping an open mind on this important decision. Once that is in place we can get ready for blast off! Already we are being played on the radio in Ireland and the vibe over there looks good for the band. We have radio stations in the USA and Canada wanting to play the album and the support from around the world is amazing. We are hoping MTV and VH1 will get behind Baileys Comet as we need to let all the fans know across Europe that we have an album out. The Bailey Brothers really admire the Scorpions as they always give you everything live. We would like to be a mixture of the Scorpions and Damn Yankees and they are both a very tough act to follow.

As I mentioned earlier the brothers made a name for themselves on MTV and with Metal Hammer so I asked Mick for a little background info, "You really need to log on to our web site www.baileybrothers.co.uk and click on the flashing Bailey Brothers logo and Biog" advises Mick

"In short we made the decision not to dance around handbags and opted for the air guitar. There was nowhere to go to hear good rock so we went out on the road as DJs and took a bunch of metal heads with us. After many successful residencies across the UK we soon had a large following. Saxon asked us to open up for them at the Leeds Queens Hall. We went from 1500 fans at our regular base the Retford Porterhouse to 5000 rock fans over night. The promoters were so impressed they put us out on the theatre circuit and we played all the famous English venues i.e., Birmingham Odeon, London Lyceum, Astoria, Marquee etc. We went to Germany and played to 15,000 rock fans at the Lorely festival with Nazareth, Venom and Metallica etc. The chairman of Metal Hammer asked if we would help launch Metal Hammer in the UK and write for them so we did for about 6 years.

We had a double page in every issue. By this time our reputation as "Britain’s wildest heavy metal DJs" was probably accurate. Our live stage show was a cross between Kiss and Alice Cooper, very visual but the music was always the main focus.

"Metal Hammer wanted to sponsor a new rock show on MTV and needed some presenters. We had an audition and got the gig. We had a bit part at first but we were asked to take over the show and immediately changed the format. We knew most of the bands so the interviews were a blast. We chased the record companies for the videos we needed and the up shot of it all is that we had the number one rated show on the network. No budget, yet we had the viewing figures. We were by now writers, presenters and co-producers and that rock show is something the Bailey Brothers and MTV can be very proud of. The highlight was being filmed on stage at the Donington Monsters Of Rock in front of a 110,000 rock fans, all chanting our catchphrase "Rock Not Pop". This was our second year at the event so we had accomplished much more than we could ever have imagined. "

"Yeah it enabled us to give up our day jobs" chirps in Dez "The rock scene will never be as big as it was during the 80s. Radio stations were forced to play rock because bands such as Def Leppard, Whitesnake and Bon Jovi because they were selling millions of albums.

To see rock bands in the charts was cool. It didn’t last long enough and although some people think rock was better driven underground, try telling that to the new bands with no where to play and no rock radio shows to listen to or promote our music.

We will remember the 80s as the time rock ruled the way and when women proudly showed off their finest assets. Who would have missed "Operation Mindcrime" from Queensryche, "Hysteria" from Def Leppard or Whitesnake 87?

You had an unbelievable guitar explosion in the shape of Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Joe Satriani etc. Eddie Van Halen was still the tapping master and from Schenker to Angus Young there was something for every one, the scene was hot. As the 9th track on our album says " You Should Have Been There" it was a special time in the life of the Bailey Brothers."

Indeed it was a special time for all of us who experienced it, I was there, Bulletboys at Rock City, Vain, Phantom Blue, The Almighty, Donnington ‘84, (where Van Halen kicked AC/DC’s butt).Donnington’87 and ’88, Clash Of The Titans, Gun’s at Wembley Stadium, through to Extreme overheating their amps in Bristol causing a blackout at the venue to Tyketto blowing White Lion off the stage through to Little Angels having a number one chart album and Iron Maiden having a number one chart single, man what the hell happened?

Thankfully with Bailey’s Comet alongside Brave New World, Ten and Contagious we here in old Blightly now at long last have some new original bands who can fly the flag for the future of British rock just like Maiden, Lizzy, The Cult, Whitesnake, Magnum, Thunder and Leppard did for us back then, so I asked the guys how they felt to be flying the flag "The Baileys was flying the flag when Thunder were known as Terraplane. That’s how long we have been promoting rock from all corners of the globe. Baileys Comet will hopefully become the flagship that many traditional rock fans have been waiting for. Bailey Brothers live was always the best party in town and if the rest of the band treat our fans with the same respect we see no reason why we can’t go all the way (to the bar)

The hard work will be done at rehearsals and once we get on the road we need to be emulating bands like Scorpions and Van Halen. Rock is about enjoying yourself with freedom to express. I really dig Contagious and can’t wait for their album to come out. Gary Hughes has developed into an incredible writing machine. It’s time us Brits took the American example and toured together. We aim to help kick-start the scene in the UK no matter what. So the bloody long-winded answer is, we are proud to carry the flag, a heavy one at that.

There’s a new generation of kids who have been brought up on a different wave and therefore need to be drenched in good quality traditional rock for the first time. We need another Def Leppard success story and you know what the record labels are like over here. If Baileys Comet shifted a few million albums they would all be looking for another band like us. It’s all bull shit and the TV and Radio stations are just puppets for pop bands who pull their strings on request. We (Britian) gave the world Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Whitesnake, Iron Maiden and Def Leppard but tune into any UK station in the day time and see if you hear any of those bands?

That’s why rock is on its arse over here but we’d better move on because this subject lead to us waging war on BBC Radio 1 with our Rock Not Pop petition and the subject still pisses us off."

So what's next for you guys?

"A cold beer would be a good start (laughs), followed by a few Zimmer frames and much further down the road we will probably be sat on a park bench saying to each other "can you remember when we were on MTV?" And the grand kids will be going "Oh not that old yarn again pops".

We take each day as it comes. We are doing a lot of interviews at the moment and it’s great to be able to introduce ourselves to a new audience. The demand for the band to go out live will have to be addressed. We still have to get our web site how we want it and then we may even mix some TV and Radio shows in with the band stuff. There have never been any limits to what we can or can’t do, we keep an open mind and take each challenge in our stride. The priority is to be ourselves. Thankfully we have never kissed anyone’s arse for a favour, what we have has been achieved with hard work and determination. The fans know this and that’s why our relationship with them is special. We are just rock fans who stood out from the crowd but are still very much a part of it.

If you are a new fan discovering rock the times ahead will be spent delving in the past, checking out bands such as Kiss, Metallica, Van Halen, etc. If you are an established fan you may be reminiscing back to the crazy, sexy days of the 80s. The time spent in the past means we are not dominating the future. There are some great new bands out there that need your support. Baileys Comet will endeavour to appreciate the past but will venture out into the unknown with a mission. Look out for us on the horizon because the future is here!"

Till the next time

Keep the faith

Mick and Dez

Bailey Brothers/Baileys Comet

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