TOKYO BLADE
S/T EXPANDED EDITION

The roots of NWOBHM legends Tokyo Blade go way back to the very early 80s, when school friends Andy Boulton (guitars), Andy Robbins (bass) and Steve Pierce (drums) started out in Wiltshire under the initial name of White Diamond. Eventually, they hooked up with vocalist Alan Marsh and continued as Killer, only to morph into Genghis Khan and releasing the highly collectable »Double Dealin’« double 7” in 1982. This resulted in a deal with the newly formed Powerstation Records label, which issued the band’s self-titled debut album in November 1983.

Founding member and guitarist Andy Boulton explains: “The album was recorded at Wickham Studio in East London. We had four days and nights to record, and it was a nightmare. Every time we finished, we just fell asleep on the studio floor until the next morning when it all kicked off again.”

According to Andy, the atmosphere in the studio was “stressful to be honest, we thought we’d at least have a couple of weeks or ten days, but it was pretty much recorded live. We just picked out what we considered to be the best songs of what we had at that point.”

“Kerrang! in the UK weren’t terribly flattering about the album but they’ve never really liked us as they were into the American stuff,” continues the guitarist, “I guess we didn’t wear enough make-up.”

Elsewhere, however, especially in continental Europe, with magazines like Aardschok in The Netherlands and Rock Hard in Germany, Tokyo Blade were hailed as the natural successors of Iron Maiden. Andy Boulton sets the record straight: “To be honest, we were quite surprised at the reaction. We’ve always considered ourselves just a band of mates who love playing music. We never really set our sights on being famous or even well known.”

This expanded re-issue of the first Tokyo Blade album comes with a rich selection of bonus material, namely the four tracks off the »Midnight Rendezvous« EP, “If Heaven Is Hell”, “Highway Passion”, “Midnight Rendezvous” and “Mean Streak”, as well as “Powergame” and ”Death On Main Street” off the »Powergame« 7”, plus a number called “Machine Run”, which was released on a compilation album entitled »Metal Maniaxe« on Ebony Records from Hull in 1982 under the name of Madame Guillotine.