Paul Tunnicliffe – From Slammer To Squaredog
It was in the late 80's when I came across an LP by a band called Slammer, and was blown away by it. The band's brand of melodic thrash was among the best I've heard, and I went to serious efforts to get a hold of their other two releases, the Insanity Addicts EP and second full length release – Nightmare Scenario. One thing I always found myself identifying with was vocalist Paul Tunnicliffe's powerful lyrics dealing with the terrors of organized religion and the damage it brought to the world throughout history.
The band disappeared from the scope in the early 90's, but lately, upon seeing the resurgence of many other British thrash outfits, I decided to try and track down Tunnicliffe. After some effort I managed to do so. The man was active in an acoustic-rock group called Squaredog, and arranging a regular acoustic showcase called Beatitudes in his home town of Bradford, England.
Paul was kind enough to sit down and answer all of my questions relating to his current activities, and his time with Slammer, in an interview that sheds some considerable light on the British metal scene at that time, and the path that might lead a talented young band astray…
Hey Paul, thanks for agreeing do this interview! I'd like to start with your current life, what can you tell us about Squaredog?
Squaredog is me finally getting off my arse and back into what I’ve always loved best which is writing, recording and, most of all, performing my own music. I don’t have any illusions about making the kind of splash that Slammer did back in the day but I’m actually enjoying myself and it’s very satisfying to be able go out and play again after such a long time.
Since your music can be described as acoustic rock, what artists would you say is it most reminiscent of?
All sorts of stuff really, Bands like The Faces, Led Zeppelin, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Pearl Jam, Paul Weller, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders and loads of other stuff. I’ve always been most impressed with bands that had more than one style of music to offer. “Physical Graffiti” is a great example of that. Not that I’d be stupid enough to compare what I’m doing to THAT but… it has been an inspiration for a long time. Different dynamics can be very powerful and I so wanted a change after all the noise and fury of Slammer had died down.
Do you do all of the writing? And what does Squaredog mean?
Apart from “Next Time”, which Slammer bassist Russ Burton wrote the music for and a couple of other songs I haven’t recorded yet, all the material is mine lyrically and musically. The name “Squaredog” came about as result of a fairly bleak period after Slammer had collapsed and I had to go back to a real job in a factory. I had to get up early to be on time for my shift and one morning as I rushed through Centenary Square in Bradford to catch the bus to work, I noticed a sad looking, skinny stray dog mooching around the bins looking for scraps or whatever. He was such a sorry looking creature.
After a couple of mornings I gave him one of my sandwiches from my lunch box and from then on, every time he saw me on my way to work he’s follow me to the bus stop until I gave in and donated half my lunch to him. This went on for a couple of weeks until one morning, he wasn’t there. Nor the next morning, or the morning after. I never saw the dog again and I guess I worried what had happened to him. I never new what he’d been called by his owners as he had no collar or name tag. I just called him Squaredog.
What's the idea behind Beatitudes?
Beatitudes came about because there was little or no opportunity for new singer songwriters to play anywhere in Bradford. I’d grown really bored and jaded by the constant stream of cover bands, blues jams and pub rock dinosaur shite that seemed to be all there was to see in Bradford by the end of the nineties. It was a real shame how quickly the once vibrant music scene in Bradford had been decimated by corporate bar companies buying up the best live music venues and turning them in to some “idealized” and sanitized version of what they already were. It nearly killed the scene completely.
So it seemed to me that the only way I was going to be able to enjoy the kind of night out I really wanted was to organize it myself. So I did. The name Beatitudes was suggested by my sister because she knew I was a big fan of Bukowski and the beats like Kerouac and Ken Kesey and I had a notion that the event should have some kind of sixties, Greenwich Village feel to it. Beatitudes is seven years old this year and I’m still amazed by the response it gets and the amount of great performances I’ve seen
Is there currently an active music scene in Bradford?
Actually there really is now and I’m so proud of my home town for refusing to give in to the local government’s “culture tsars”. There’s always been a lot of musical, artistic and literary talent in this city. It’s very healthy right now and the venues are coming back too.
Now back to the past, and your time with Slammer, you sang in several other bands prior to Slammer, namely Excalibur, Steel and Rough Justice, how did you start out as a vocalist, and join these three groups?
I’m so glad you asked me about that because I have to put the record straight on behalf of Paul Mc Bride who was the brilliant vocalist in Excalibur and some one I always had a lot of respect and admiration for. I WAS NEVER IN EXCALIBUR!!! Or Steel OR Rough Justice!! I don’t know where that info came from but I was told it was on the net years ago and it always annoyed the crap out of me!
The UK was mostly famed for its NWOBHM at the time, what do you recall from the music scene at that time?
Well I guess you’re talking about the period between 1979 to 1982 when Iron Maiden and Saxon etc were just breaking through. I was and still am a HUGE AC/DC fan but only the early stuff with Bon Scott. I was lucky enough to see them with Bon on the Highway To Hell tour at Hammersmith Odeon in ’79.
The truth is I was a soldier in the British Army then so most of the fuss passed me by until I went back to civilian life in ’82. By then all these bands were huge and I was still listening to stuff like Hendrix, Zepplin, Sabbath, And Deep Purple so I guess I was a bit retro for the time. Besides, I’ve never just been a strictly metal fan. I also like the new wave stuff like Elvis Costello and Squeeze and The Police and so on too. I listened to Motown and Soul and all sorts of Folk and Country Artists too like John Martyn and Emmy Lou Harris. It’s never just been about metal to me.
I've often wondered what caused that boom in heavy metal bands in the UK at that time, to what would you attribute it?
I think it had a lot to do with certain art school types in the U.K. music press, the NME in particular, who thought they could belittle a sub-culture that largely appealed to the working classes. People who weren’t ever going to go to Uni or college or whatever. Punk had tried to steal the riffs but it was nearly always coupled with some kind of joyless, cod political rhetoric which kind of took the fun out of it for me so I always liked the bigness and silly grin stupidity of stuff like Motorhead or Slade rather than The Clash or XTC. I think it’s just a case of intellect failing to conquer emotion yet again. You just can’t keep a good riff down man.
What do you recall from the birth of Slammer?
The early days of the formation of the band were a mixture of intense emotions and a great sense of shared belief in our abilities and determination to get out there and play to a crowd. I’d been introduced to Enzo and Milo by a workmate who knew they were looking for a new singer after the demise of a glam/sleaze outfit they’d been rehearsing with. I hated glam stuff so I wasn’t too enthusiastic about joining them at first but as I got to know them better we became good friends and started to realize we had sort of chemistry as co writers even though it took us a while to find a definite sound of our own and a decent drummer and bass player!
What led the group to thrash music it created, and not the typical heavy metal mostly played at that time?
Well, Enzo and Milo were already headed in that direction but I was a little sceptical as I didn’t really believe any of these bands could actually play as well live as they sounded on their albums. All that changed instantly once we all went to see Metallica and Anthrax on a double bill at St. George’s Hall in Bradford in 1986. It was the Master Of Puppets tour and I was completely blown away by that gig. We all were. We left that venue with a complete idea of what we were going for from then on.
Your two guitarists, Enzo and Milo certainly do not sound like they're originally from Bradford, where did they come from, and how did they end up in Slammer?
Bradford is a very diverse place as far as cultures and ethnicities go. Milo and drummer Andy Gagic’s folks emigrated to the UK from the former Yugoslavia back in the 60’s I think and Enzo’s folks are Italian and have run a very successful restaurant here for many years.
Do you recall how did you guys get signed to major label Warner?
That was largely down to the demo we made, coupled with the Radio 1 Friday Rock Show session it got us. It difficult to remember just how much of a stir we created with a £300 demo tape but we did. Polydor Were the first company to offer us a deal but it wasn’t very good so we held out till we were offered what we thought was the right offer with the best company.
What did you think about the label and its relationship with the band at the time?
It’s very easy to be wise or critical with the benefit of hind sight but, at the time, everyone thought the deal with WEA was about as good a deal a band in our position was ever likely to get. In fact very few bands in any genre of music had managed to make the jump from self financed demo to major label in one go before. It was only after the novelty had worn off a few weeks after that we began to realize the people who’d been assigned to produce our album hadn’t a clue what we were about. They’d seen the success of bands like Metallica and thought: “let’s do that too”. We quickly realized that signing to a major meant we had absolutely no say in important matters like where we were going to record and who with. It was a devastating blow to us and the start of our decline actually.
Did you record The Work Of Idle Hands in the US, or the UK?
We recorded in The Who’s old studio in Battersea in London with Mark Dodson. I hated nearly every minute of my time there. I have no idea why we ended up having to live three to a room in a flea bitten hotel for nearly three months and having to travel all the way across London every day. At the time I was the only one old enough to be allowed to drive a hire car so it was down to me to ferry the entire band about every day and it caused a lot of friction and resentment.
The album contained some pretty serious anti-religious sentiment, do you recall your opinions about the subject when writing that album?
Yes of course. I have to say in all honesty that I meant every word I said at the time and I’ve seen very little in any of the main organized religions that has mellowed my views. I have a deep mistrust of religion and I still shake my head in disgust and disbelief at the atrocities committed in the name of “the one true God” by the various fanatical thugs and sadists who put themselves in charge of it all.
Did those views change since?
I think I may have already answered that but as a matter of interest, Enzo and me bashed heads about this subject often and he was very upset at the level of aggression and hatred I felt towards religion and often complained about some of my stronger lyrics. It was one of the sticking points that started the split really. It’s interesting to me that at the time Enzo was a fairly normal product of a Roman Catholic family and now he’s a Muslim. That’s quite a change in perspective and I respect his beliefs but it’s difficult to understand what he actually objected to as far as my beliefs were concerned.
How did the contract with the label dissolve? How did you get signed to Heavy Metal Records?
Apparently, WEA were bought out by a big media corporation called “Time” six months after we signed the contract with them. The first thing the new number crunchers did was to look at the roster of acts and see which ones were in the red and dump them, quick. So that was that. Luckily we had some financial support from Island Music, our publishers so we could limp along and continue touring until we secured a deal with Heavy Metal at out manger’s recommendation. The press was crucifying us now so we had to prove ourselves even harder so we were determined to release a second album. Heavy Metal seemed like a life line at the time.
I remember seeing the video for Insanity Addicts at the time, what do you recall from the making of the video?
That was a really fun day at work actually! Sure the video was a bit cheap and cheerful but we put our hearts in to it like we always did with every gig we played and it’s as good as it should be given the budget and better than loads of other vids that cost a hell of a lot more.
Why did you release an EP, and only after that your second album?
It was a combination of circumstances really. We had some new stuff we really wanted people to hear and we’d also found a great little local studio called Slaughterhouse which we all instantly felt comfortable working in. I think Insanity Addicts was done in less than three days so we just thought it would be a good way of keeping the momentum going un till we could get the next full album together
How different were things for the band with the second album? Did the metal scene in the UK start to dwindle at that time?
It was weird really because by the time we got to Monnow Valley Studios in Wales to record Nightmare Scenario, we’d got all our confidence back and we were raring to go. We’d lost Russ Burton along the way which was a blow but then we’d been joined by Stuart Morrow which made such a difference to the sound of the band. We hadn’t noticed that the music scene in the UK was changing drastically with the arrival of bands like The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays and that whole Madchester thing. By the time we released our second album, the end was in sight but still we persevered.
You did some interesting shows in support of such bands as Motorhead, and even Pantera, what do you remember from those gigs?
I remember that the best gig we ever played in our entire careers was supporting Motorhead at Glasgow Barrowlands to 2000 people. It never got better than that in my life so far. It was great to meet Phil Anslemo and co but supporting Motorhead was a dream come true for all of us. It made up for every bad experience I’d ever had in Slammer in one go.
Why did you guys break-up?
I can’t speak for the other guys but personally I was mentally shattered and in a pretty poor state physically too by the start of ’91. I had some personal problems that I needed to go away and address and that coupled with the fact that I’d realized I could no longer to trust our manager to look out for our interests any more. We were all flat broke, exhausted and full of seething paranoia and resentments. It had become a very unhealthy place to be and I just knew I had to get away. I wouldn’t have objected if the rest of the band wanted to carry on with a new front man but I don’ think it would have made any difference to the outcome really.
What did you do as a musician since?
I had a rest for a few months but then I started to get offers from various bands and projects from all over the UK and Europe to join this and that so eventually I started to get restless and wanted to gig again. I had an idea of what I wanted to do but no real idea of how to do it as I’d only ever been in Slammer and we were a collective so no one of us was ever wholly responsible for the output or organization. I tried out a couple of projects but the only one that came close was working with Andy Sneap who’d recently left Sabbat and was looking to put a new four piece band called Godsend together. There was a lot of potential in the stuff we got together but hitching down to Derby in the winter was killing me so eventually I had to tell Andy he’d have to find another singer. I still feel bad about letting him down actually.
Did you continue to listen to the music and involve yourself with the metal scene in the UK after that?
No. I decided to get on with making a life for myself and get back in to some sort of normality for the next ten years. I had loads of fun while Slammer lasted despite all the gloom I’ve mentioned here but the harsher times had really taken a toll on my confidence and self esteem. On the whole I decided I never ever wanted to have to deal with the music business ever again. Especially the U.K. press. I don’t think that view will ever change.
Looking back on those days, and your time with Slammer, is it more fond memories, or bad ones?
As time goes by you tend to only want to dwell on the better aspects of your past. I think that’s only natural for anyone. There’s a hell of a lot about my experiences in Slammer that I know I’ll always regard myself as really fortunate to have had. On the whole I wouldn’t change a single thing about it. I’m in a good place in my life right now and the memories of the journey to this point are what make me appreciate that.
Were you aware of the impact of the band on thrash metal? Were you aware of people still listening to its music?
If people still regard us as one of the leading bands in the U.K. Thrash scene, then that’s great but I wouldn’t like to say we had any lasting effect on the genre. We just did our best and got on with it. We didn’t really stop to think about how we would be regarded in the years to come or even weather people would be listening to us ten years down the line. It’s really good to know our efforts didn’t go totally unnoticed though. It was hard work getting it to sound like that!
You moved to very different pastures musically, how did you turn to such a different, far less-aggressive musical outlet?
Well as I mentioned earlier, I was never just into metal. I’ve always been into songwriters. Particularly lyricists and I love acoustic instruments because they’re so uncomplicated and pure sounding. I believe the mark of a good song is that it should be able to be played by the same musician in a subway or a concert Hall. I know it’s a far cry from any of the songs by Slammer but I have to say that writing my own stuff and getting it out there without having to compromise any of it to suit the style or limitations of another musician is very satisfying indeed!
Since some other important British UK thrash bands re-united in the last few years, such as Sabbat, Onslaught and Xentrix, did you and any of the old band members ever talk about it too? Or perhaps re-releasing your albums?
I haven’t seen anyone from the band for many years now. I personally have no desire whatsoever to go back to that scene. Been there, done that. I suppose I should say never say never though. I do miss the aggression and the power sometimes. Who knows? Maybe one day.
Finally, any last message to the metal heads here in Israel reading this?
I’d just like to say thank you to any of you over there that backed us by buying or records and playing them and spreading the word for us. It’s really touching to think we had all that support so far away but we never even knew at the time. I know we would ALL have jumped at the chance to come to Israel and play for you but we never got asked. Such a shame but hey…That’s Rock ‘n Roll baby.
Remember…SMASH ALL BORDERS…BURN YOUR FLAG…BE SET FREE!
