Karl Wilcox worked with both Sean Harris and Brian Tatler separately before being asked to join Diamond Head in 1991. The resulting Death And Progress album, released in 1993, was a great album that also featured Tony Iommi and Dave Mustaine.
Karl was keen to join, having been a fan since the early days. “Bogarts, in Birmingham, was the first time that I saw Diamond Head,” Karl says. “I was a fan from the start. I thought the band was great. I thought Brian [Tatler] was a great guitarist. Duncan [Scott] was again a drummer who played what was right for the song. Colin was rock solid.
“I had always admired Sean [Harris]. So when I had the chance to work with him, that was fantastic [Notorious with Robin George]. Getting the chance to work with them was really good.”
If the early ’90s was a tough time for Heavy Metal, given the arrival of grunge, Diamond Head would do some shows as Dead Reckoning to warm up the songs for Death And Progress. “I was approaching the drums when we went in to do Death And Progress,” Karl says, “and I thought I’m going for a punky/Zeppelin kind of vibe because yeah, the grunge thing was in full, full rage.
“Us going in, I can’t remember it being tough. It was like, no, we’re just gonna go in and make a Diamond Head album. We had Andy Scarth, who ended up doing the final production. For me, it was my second recording with a major label. My first one was with Notorious.
“I was just go in, do your job, get the drums down, and just let Shaun, Brian, and at the time, Pete Vuckovic put the bass down.
“Obviously, it didn’t sort of all pan out the way everybody wanted it to.
Maybe that could have been because of the grunge thing and maybe lack of support for rock music because the grunge scene was a big, big thing. Totally changed the world.”
We have covered the story of Bangalore Choir and how they had a contract wiped that had over a million bucks on it as a result of grunge. You can look at the way that record labels were trying to push bands and their direction did shift a bit in the early ’90s. Wikipedia has a whole section about The National Bowl Incident.
There was the Diamond Head reboot in 2002 with Brian and Sean before Sean left again. Sean has resurfaced on social media on Facebook and YouTube recently, though he seemed to disappear off the face of the earth for years, didn’t he?
“I’ve got the utmost respect for Sean as a singer and a songwriter,” Karl says. “He was the best man at my wedding. You know, sometimes things don’t work out. You can have the best intentions, and sometimes people want to make a left turn, and if somebody wants to make a right turn, it’s sort of like, what do you do?
“In Diamond Head, I was drummer number three. I was just there to facilitate doing the drums. I had a friendship, obviously, with both Sean and Brian. I did the Radio Moscow album, which ended up being a 4-track CD, and then Ritch [Battersby] took over. So, I had a good working relationship with both of them.
“Sometimes shit doesn’t quite work out. Sean wanted to do certain things and it just didn’t quite work out. It was a tough decision for us to go and carry on without him. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s Sean Harris, you know? He’s got a very, very, noticeable voice. A phenomenal singer, wonderful lyricist, and a great songwriter.
“He made that decision not to do that. We made the decision to do the Wacken show without him, because we were just put on the spot. It’s like, OK, people have gone out of their way, and we got this gig at Wacken. You can’t piss people like Wacken off.
“I don’t know whether it was a direct result of that, but it took Diamond Head four years to get invited back to a festival in Germany. In 1997, after the 1993 Wacken show.
“So, it’s great that he’s back out there doing what he’s doing and getting out and about. I wish him all the best because he’s a talented motherfucker, at the end of the day. He really is.”
Many would say Nick Tart and All Will Be Revealed was the proper reboot for the band. Would Karl agree with that?
He is straight in with a yes. “That was also when I took over the backroom stuff,” he says. “Brian’s acknowledged that, without me, Diamond Head would not have continued. I spotted Nick when I went to visit a friend of mine who just joined this cover band. A Guy named Lamps. Nick was singing in the band.”
This was not long after the Wacken show. Karl passed Nick over to Brian, and they decided to go for it. “We had parted ways with Sean, which is maybe not something we wanted to do, but the band either had to stop or it had to move forward. One of the two things. It could not just be in limbo again or, as Sean was quoted as saying, transmogrified.
“I said [to Brian] just put Diamond Head to bed, or we have to move on. It’s a difficult decision, and obviously, Sean was very, very difficult to replace. But Nick came in, we got it together, and we did an album.
“We were fortuitous to land the European and UK tour with Megadeth. I think it was Exodus, I don’t know if they were dropped by their label or something, but there was a support slot open. I said to Brian, look, call Dave. All he can do is say no at the end of the day. We were mixing the record, and Brian made the phone call, and we went out there and did it.
There was a question about whether the fans would take to Diamond Head with Nick Tart. It would get a good reception, but there was a road test first.
“We did one show in a small room at JB’s in Dudley,” Karls says, “where we invited 50 or 60 very close Diamond Head fans. Fans who almost came to every show and just said look, just be honest. If you think this is crap, don’t bother, then just tell us. Because we don’t want to look as if we don’t know what we’re doing.
“We didn’t want to disrespect the Diamond Head name, which was the most important thing. So yeah, we did this show in the small room, they came, and at the end of the show, we just sat down and spoke with folks. They just said, yeah, just go for it. It’s great. You played four or five new tracks, and yeah, Nick can sing. Just do it. Go for it.”
I tell Karl that, for me, it is a goosebump moment hearing this. If you look at the history of Diamond Head, you will see that bad timing has a lot of influence. Obviously, Nick then moved to Brisbane. Some of the history was bad management decisions, as well.
But it is fair to say that the addition of the fantastic Rasmus Bom Andersen was an awesome addition to the band. This has brought over ten years of growth as a band across touring and more recording.
If the Diamond Head album [2016] was the rebirth, then The Coffin Train, the band’s eighth album, continues this trajectory. With Karl involved in writing both, you wonder how he can take something that he hears in his head or some musical emotion and share that with the band as it turns into a song. You can read Dave Bonney’s Tour Diary here.
“The crux of the songwriting is Brian and Ras. The Phoenix was Abbz. I add certain elements that they might not have thought of or ideas, maybe changing this or maybe changing a certain pattern of hits. I can come along and make other suggestions, which, at the end of the day, is only done to make the song what you could perceive to be better. The principal songwriters may go, oh yeah, it’s a good idea, I didn’t think of that.
“We had a very, very close relationship. Sometimes, when living in America, they would get together with Duncan to go over ideas, or maybe Brian would bring his drum machine.
“Obviously, when Ras got involved, especially after the first album, Brian… I don’t know if he’s doing this with Saxon [laughs]… would bring along his cassette recorder and record rehearsals and takes on the cassette recorder. But when we started to do The Coffin Train, Ras had got this whole portable Pro Tools thing. So it became a little bit more professional being able to listen back to certain things. Ras has brought that kind of vibe to the whole setup, the whole production.
“But yeah, they may have a basic idea, like if they’ve either done it with a drum machine or Duncan had played the track. Eddie [Moohan, bass] would say Duncan did this and thought this was really good. So it’s like, OK, fine. Let me implement it, let me listen to it, and let me see if I can throw my spin on it.”
From his early time with Diamond Head, Karl was given carte blanche to do what he does. “I’m much more of a groove cat than somebody who likes to put a drum fill every four measures or every eight measures,” he says. “For me, it’s locking down the groove where the band just sits.
“For me, the inspiration for that was watching AC/DC. I saw AC/DC nine times on the Highway To Hell Tour. The first time I saw Rocker, I stopped looking at the stage. That was the track where Angus would come out on Bon’s shoulders. You know the [Hammersmith] Odeon’s kind of vibe, so he would be up on the balcony. Angus comes out, and then you’re all doing this [looking behind]. Looking at Angus.
“Well, after that, all I did was watch the stage. Because you had Phil Rudd, Malcolm, Cliff Williams going ‘do dun dun dun dun do’ for fucking like 15 minutes and not moving. Not a whiddle. Not a woo woo woo on the bass or a do do do on the drums.”
It was a straight rhythm with no fills and nothing changing. “That is so fucking intense,” Karl says. “Holy fucking shit, dude. That’s a fucking groove right there. I thought that’s the shit. Right there.
“I had been seeing Scorpions and Rainbow and Thin Lizzy and all that kind of stuff. I completely admired all those cats. I mean, Cozy Powell, Brian Downey were big influences on my playing. But watching that and just the energy that was coming from that groove. I just thought that’s the shit, for me, personally.
“So that’s what I tried to bring to the songs. And sometimes, you know, my fill just might be a little basic kind of vibe, but that’s the kind of thing that Brian likes. We’ve discussed certain things, and yeah, dude, you know, less is more.”
You know that Karl is right, and sometimes space is important. Often, a song is about letting the whole thing breathe. “Without getting too zenny,” Karl smiles, “as they say, it’s the space between the bars that contain the tiger.”
If there is a feeling of regret for Karl, it is that Diamond Head was unable to tour The Coffin Train because of Covid. “It’s a great album,” Karl says. “I think we tried to reschedule the tour three or four times. We were not able to bring it to everybody, which is a great shame. But we were not the only artists who suffered. Not only artists but obviously venues, promoters, and the whole work of the entertainment industry suffered.”
A lot of work went into The Coffin Train. Karl acknowledges the number of new ideas that Ras brought to the table. To miss the chance to bring more of that to the general public is a true shame.
“When you’re doing a 45-minute support slot, you’ve only got a limited amount of time. If Diamond Head does the classics like Am I Evil? The Prince, maybe Helpless, that’s like 20 minutes of your set gone. We were able to throw a couple in, and they were greatly received. But out of that whole process of The Coffin Train, it’s just a bugger that COVID hit when it did.”
The reception for The Coffin Train in the Metal community and the chart positions was a real pat on the back. The 2020 version of Lightning To The Nations would follow. As a package, this was awesome and blasting the eardrums with the version of No Remorse was often a must in MetalTalk Towers.
Lightning To The Nations was something that Karl had in mind for quite a while. With Dean Ashton joining in 2016, the lineup was settled, and Karl suggested to Brian that they revisit The White Album, the Diamond Head debut album.
“I said, look, the 40th anniversary is going to be a great time to do it,” Karl says. “He was sat on the fence a little bit. I mentioned it to Adam Parsons, the band’s manager at the time. I also mentioned it to Scott Garrett, who owns Rock Star Skins. Scott does bass drum head designs, but his father, I think, also did merchandise for Diamond Head back in the day.
“I mentioned about the band doing a song from each of the big four. So I think Brian and Ras looked at doing that, listening to Anthrax and Slayer and Megadeath. We finally ended up with Metallica No Remorse and, obviously, Zeppelin and the Deep Purple track.
“Brian’s analogy of it was, we’re going to do Metallica, covering Diamond Head, covering Metallica. I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. It’s quite quick. There’s a lot of fucking energy involved. Ras is such a phenomenal singer that he just fucking just took it to another level.
“There’s a couple of slight arrangement changes and ideas on the Diamond Head songs on that album. But it was a great idea. Something I wanted to do, and I’m glad we did it, because, it was so well received.
“I just thought it was great. It was a fantastic idea, the 40th anniversary. The lineup that we had with Dean, Abbz and myself, Brian and Ras, we really kicked ass. We really did.”
Taking that lineup and looking at Karl’s involvement with the band over the years, he has been the driver of Diamond Head. From recruiting Nick, through the albums and everything that has happened, especially with the 2020 version of The White Album, he must be very proud of his time with the band.
“I’m glad I was able to convince Brian enough,” Karl says of The White Album. “I could understand why he was hesitant because that album is such an iconic album. Nothing on the label, the middle of the record. Nothing on the album, just signatures.
“And obviously being such an inspirational album to Lars and a number of other folks. But yeah, go and tread, redo something. I mean, folks do remakes of movies and people go, oh, no, no, it’s horrible.
“But again, we had Ras at the controls. It was like, yeah, we can do this. We used Ras’s studio in London and we were able to do it very efficiently, fairly quickly, and give it the energy that you know we thought it needed.
“Sinner, both Brian and Abbz, backstage before going on they played the riff. I mean, that riff itself just grooves like a motherfucker. Simon Phillips was on the drums, another big inspiration for my early playing, so that was a bit of a no-brainer. Ian Paice, again, another huge influence. As is Bonham.
“Doing the Metallica track, and I mean there’s so many to do from the Metallica, but it was picking the one, from early doors. I said, Brian, let’s, let’s do Metallica doing Diamond Head doing Metallica, and I think we did a great job. Again, fucking Covid just fucking got in the way of all that shit for us. But I’m glad we did it. It was a great statement. Everybody in the band was top drawer and I’m glad that Adam and Silver Linings thought this is a fucking great idea.”
There is a bit of a Diamond Head hiatus at the moment, with Brian Tatler out with Saxon. Does Karl know if Brian has his cassette recorder [laughs] with him and is there a plan for new music from Diamond Head?
“Ras is off doing these history or rock shows,” Karl says, “and obviously, Brian is there writing with Saxon. I can’t speak for Brian as I’m not quite sure how he’s gonna separate this is a Diamond Head thing and this could go forward for Biff and Saxon. So we have to wait and see how that progresses.
“There is a want to do more. I’ve spoken to Brian about this, but obviously with his commitment now to Saxon, it’s working around the Saxon schedule. Hopefully, I can talk to Saxon’s management because next year is the 50th anniversary of Diamond Head, and I think it would be a wonderful opportunity to possibly put something out, do something, or do a selection of shows.
“I’ve always wanted to do An Evening With Diamond Head.” Karl then spoke about how this could be two 75-minute sets. “There’s such a collection of songs that we could do, from The White Album all the way up to The Coffin Train.”
You know that would be a special evening and a great chance to bring in some special guests. “I would really, really like to do it. Because it is 50 years and that comes around once. But obviously, we have to work around or negotiate what Saxon are going to be doing and where we could slip that in.
“Festivals would be a great idea. This is 50 years of Diamond Head. If we could have some new material or something that we could put out to go along with that, I think it would be a great idea.
“Ras has always wanted to do more with production vibes, but you’ve gotta have the budget. Take the LED screen. For us to do No Remorse and we have the No Remorse video playing behind us, that’s production. It takes a little bit more time and obviously more money.
“Something where it’s a full-on fucking production. This is what Diamond Head is about.”
You know that would be magic.
