The boys are back in town! Five years after Hit The Ground kicked down doors, Grand Slam are back with new long-player Wheel Of Fortune set for release on 7 June 2024. Lead single, There Goes My Heart, is a stylish, cool and muscular slice of classic hard rock.
Always a band with massive potential, when Phil Lynott got young hotshot six-stringer Laurence Archer onboard to launch Grand Slam, his post-Thin Lizzy venture, it was a marriage made in heaven. Whilst the material was some of the best either man had written, things frustratingly never took off with the band.
When Archer brought together a fresh line-up and hit the studio, it was a dream come true for all who had followed the outfit’s mercurial career.
The promise was more than fulfilled and the first, proper, debut was crammed full of killer tunes like Nineteen, Sisters of Mercy, Military Man, Crime Rate and Dedication, causing it to be an instant hit with fans and critics alike.
Hitting the road to support it, the band soon established themselves as an equally compelling live act, Mike Dyer’s characterful vocals, Rocky Newton’s immaculate bass work and the huge wallop of the drums by Benjy Reid the perfect complement to Archer’s quicksilver fretwork.
“We have a direction that is in my heart,” Mike Dyer says. “It’s a tribal place. This band is something very special. I’m slightly biased, I know, but God, I’m really proud of that.”
With the sophomore album now in the can, the band are gearing up to launch back on the world again, and in There Goes My Heart, they have delivered not only a lip-smacking taster but a future classic for the repertoire.
However, given the links to the past, Laurence Archer is steadfast in his view of the future. “I want everybody to see this as a new band,” he says, “and anybody that hasn’t heard Grand Slam since 1984, I want them to see this as a fresh invigoration of the project moving into the modern times.”
Kicking off with its very Thin Lizzy harmony riff, the song instantly hits a groove and tears out of the traps and up the road. Full of huge hooks and a great chorus, Grand Slam have created something that sticks in the head for days and takes the listener back to the days when the song was the focus, stripped of unnecessary frills but full of grin-inducing thrills.
“The way I look at it is that from writing those songs with Phil in 1984 to now,” Archer says, “my writing style and the way I write haven’t really changed that much. I’m not a shredder. I prefer to write songs and build them that way.
“So, there’s that timeless continuity in how I write, fusing with all the experiences we’ve had as people over the years. I put the basis of the song together. I have a rough melody line. I might write the chorus line, and I give that to Mike, who goes away and comes back with his thing. It’s not my thing. It’s his thing, and it just works. His vocal tone and his ability fit everything that I write.”
“Laurence sent me There Goes My Heart,” Dyer says, “and with total respect to Laurence, I’m not a man of ‘hearts’ in that sense. So, instead of singing about the ex, I twisted on it. It sounds like your heart, but what you’re singing about is your E-Type Jag.
“We shot the video for that in Spain, and that very much has a twist in it too.”
With its great video and a sly lyrical wink to Shirley Bassey, who could ask for more? It’s great to have Grand Slam back.
