Dearest readers, groovers and droogs, I must confess that Tuesday night finds me all of a tizzy. No, this is not the inevitable comedown after effects of an adrenalin-filled day at the office, I am hyper because this time tomorrow night I will be waiting for Judas Priest to take the stage at Leeds Arena.
YES! I’M SEEING JUDAS PRIEST LIVE FOR THE FIRST TIME TOMORROW NIGHT!!
No wonder I feel like a supporting character in a Jane Austen novel about to swoon at any point.
My chums and I all got into Priest via 1987’s Priest … Live!* and it was exciting, American**, full of anthems, guitar solos and studded leather. The VHS video we saw later that summer of the gigs even had naked lady breasts at one, oft-rewinded, point. Jammo, Colin, Julian and I were in.
As I now know is traditional for all bands ever, the first new LP they released after we’d got into them was pretty much their worst one ever; thanks Ram It Down for almost squishing my new love dead on arrival.
Let’s can the history though and review the, umm, history. I have a nifty promo LP on silver/grey/metallic vinyl it is the Metal Works ’73-’93 Promo and it is very metal indeed.
No promo frills here apart from a sticker on the generic black sleeve but what a good job they do putting together this little treat.
We kick down the doors with ‘Electric Eye’, which reminds me I still haven’t got around to replacing my taped copy of Screaming For Vengeance that hit landfill in about 1996. I love every blessedly smooth inch of this track. then we cut into the best track off Unleashed In The East^ ‘Victim Of Changes’ which features some particularly great work from Rob Halford.
‘Turbo Lover’ is pretty much one of my favourite rock tracks period, although, in hindsight my teenage visions of who I was turbo loving may have differed somewhat from Mr Halford’s. It is sexy, brilliant, rather campy and still the jewel in their crown for me. It is still on my subtly named, ‘Sexy Times Mix’ on iTunes; few have heard this playlist and escaped unscathed.
I really like the track ‘Painkiller’ in this context, although the LP was a bit too relentless for me, it works a treat here, everything turned up to 11 and played at 78rpm. I am more hit and miss with ‘Exciter’, the funny bit about knees still amuses but it does go a bit audible-to-canines-only in places.
The second side of Metal Works ’73-’93 Promo is no slouch either, kicking off with commercial Priest ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Coming’; a song that definitely shares kin with the Runaways ‘Cherry Bomb’ rhythmically. All formation pointy guitars and snug stretchy strides, killer guitar solo too. This version restores the missing ‘g’ to the end of the title too for some reason.
Something in me always stirs with ‘Heading Out To The Highway’, often played as I drive to the supermarket and this Priest…Live! version hits all my nostalgic notes. ‘The Sinner’ sounds nostalgically underpowered in this company, groovy rock, as opposed to anthemic metal and yet you can hear traces of exactly where the band were going after Sin After Sin in the chorus.
Then we finish with a great one-two combo ‘Screaming For Vengeance’ and ‘Night Crawler’.
I picked up Metal Works ’73-’93 Promo during one of my first forays onto eBay, back when the world was still young and fascism something we had vanquished in the 1940’s.
I really like how the label didn’t just go for a greatest hits set on this promo, using it to highlight different sounds and eras does the subject and breadth of their back catalogue justice.
As ever KK Downing and Glen Tipton slash and burn on every single track here, defining a certain type of incredibly powerful yet intrinsically very silly type of metal in the process; no mean feat. You can really commit to Judas Priest, punch the air and scream the lyrics and then catch yourself out of the corner of your eye, smile sheepishly and just bloody carry on.
And did I ever mention just how much I bloody love Rob Halford? because I do. The man is a national treasure, in leather and studs.
VERY METAL!
1221 Down.
PS: Jesus H! This song deserved a better video!!
*an LP I still haven’t got around to buying. Always interesting that everyone seems to think the LP was terrible apart from us.
**we assumed, wrongly. Info was scarcer back then folks.
^not an LP I have a lot of time for, truth be told; too shrill, not live enough.
How dare you post something that is not Invincible Shield!! Kidding…glad to see something else other than that album. This looks really great. An awesome find. Can’t wait to read about the show. Enjoy!!
Priest are brilliant live! Have a whale of a time at the gig and I want a full report.
Will do! Have you seen them?
Three times, 1986, 2009 and 2018
Respect!
Enjoy the show dude. I was talking to Scott and he mentioned you were going and Saxon is along for the ride as well. British Metal!
Cheers Deke! Saxon and Uriah Heep! (Heep must be about 200 years old now, minimum!).
I am really excited. Have you seen them?
Which has been documented many a time by myself lol. Priest was supposed to open for KISS (which I had a ticket for) back in ’79 as they were advertised as the opener but never made to the show I saw. They were replaced by John Cougar and the Zone (who got booed the whole set and this was a good 3 years before Jack and Diane).
Oh man. Thats a bad substitution.
An odd tracklist to be sure. I’ve never seen or heard of this. For a promo to be so deluxe? Coloured vinyl? All but unheard of. I’ve never seen a promo on anything but black vinyl. I have many questions considering the 90s were the era of CD and who was spinning a vinyl promo in 1993?
You were right, I do fancy this. I fancy it a lot. What an oddity!
Not sure how I feel about the tracklist with songs like “Night Crawler”…
ENJOY THE PRIEST!
It really is an eccentric track list. I really am glad they didn’t just lump all the singles onto it. It’s a real talking point and you’re right, so odd to see it on vinyl in 1993.
Basically, they made it just for me.
If so, it should have been free 🙂
It’s a true treasure and one I’ll likely never see. Metal Works was a packed album, two CDs loaded to the gills. To pick only a handful for one vinyl record…very hard. Unfortunately they didn’t have the rights to anything from the first two albums which is why you don’t see Rocka Rolla or anything like that.
I wondered why it started at Sin After Sin.
Thanks Mike, I will punch the air and shake my long flowing hair for you tomorrow night too.
The time I bought this is still the only time I’ve ever even seen this listed for sale. It cost me about £10, I think. So interesting that it is basically an entire LP’s worth of tracks, advertising (on vinyl) a 2 LP set (I think). I remember you having the box set, I think.