Former WRATHCHILD Members Join Forces In New Project

Three members of '80s U.K. glam rock band WRATHCHILD are working on a new band, it was revealed in an interview conducted by Rockdetector.com with former singer Rocky Shades.

It appears that bassist Marc Angel, drummer Eddie Starr and guitarist Phil Volkins have assembled a new, as-yet-unnamed band unit. Volkins was WRATHCHILD's original guitar player, replaced by Lance Rocket (a.k.a. Lance Perkins) before the first album, 1984's "Stakk Attakk". Volkins left the band to work briefly with BLACK SABBATH drummer Bill Ward. An excerpt from the interview follows:

Rockdetector.com: How did you score the first British W.A.S.P. tour?

Rocky Shades: "We got the W.A.S.P. tour because our buddy Bruce Dickinson [of IRON MAIDEN] was on the same record label and knew that Capitol was looking for a British band not unsimilar to W.A.S.P. to co-headline. They had not been to the U.K. before. They would need some help to shift tickets, which we did. What none of expected was to find that on that tour we were the major draw of the fans — their words not mine — which made W.A.S.P. give us a crap deal with the P.A. and lights, etc. They said we couldn't set up our proper show."

Rockdetector.com: Nevertheless, you must have good memories of those shows. I understand you and Blackie Lawless fell out though?

Rocky Shades: "Apparently I was told by various members of the press at our Birmingham gig that Blackie was going to 'Do me' because I had pissed him off for the P.A. set-up and for using the bazooka onstage when I shouldn't have, blah, blah. So I flipped, I kicked open his dressing room door and said if he wanted finish what he started I was willing. Picture this — me all 5 foot 9 inches staring up at Blackie's 6 foot 3 inches and offering him out. We soon saw the funny side of it and I thought we had forgotten it until one day someone was playing me a W.A.S.P. bootleg, which had an interview with Blackie. When asked about the tour with us he does no more than slag me off for about 20 minutes. He wasted 20 minutes."

Rockdetector.com: You got your revenge though by sabotaging Blackie's torture shed.

Rocky Shades: "Yes. W.A.S.P. used to substitute the topless bimbo for a skeleton onstage in that torture shed. Well, while they were onstage at one gig we opened the back of the torture shed, sat the skeleton down in a toilet pose, with a newspaper in its hands and an old pair of jeans around its ankles. We then went round back to the audience to watch Blackie's face when he opened the shed. The look on Blackie's face. No wonder he hates me!"

Read the entire interview at Rockdetector.com.