Eklipse - The Best Heavy Metal Band of the Late Eighties (in Peterborough anyway!)

Eklipse were, in my opinion of course, Peterborough's best pub-playing Heavy Metal band of the late 1980s. Originally a five piece, I was drafted in as a replacement bass player by my old mate Danny Frost. The full line up was:

Nigel Smith: Vocals

Glen Stokes: Drums

Mark Guest: Guitar

Danny Frost: Guitar

Me: Bass

I think it's fair to say that our musicianship was pretty good. This was way before the Internet, and back then, the only way to learn songs was to either pick it up by ear (which we did) or hope you could get sheet music. I couldn't read bass clef then, and still can't.

Mark left after a gig or two, but the band continued as a four piece, performing songs including:

Dio - Stand Up And Shout

Dio - Rainbow in the Dark

Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer

Iron Maiden - Running Free

Iron Maiden - Moonchild

Iron Maiden - Two Minutes to Midnight

Black Sabbath - Iron Man

AC/DC - Let There Be Rock

AC/DC - Chase The Ace

Anthrax - Madhouse

Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon

The Cult - Li'l Devil

Steppenwolf - Born to be Wild

Twisted Sister - I Am, I'm Me (I think!)

and a few others which I can't remember.

There were also some self-penned songs including such forgotten classics as "Demon Mind Destroyer" ("You're the darkest demon in town") and "The Driver" which I wrote and was frankly a poor rip-off of a Y&T song. Titles of any more have long since faded from my memory.

L-R: Danny Frost, Me, Nigel Smith, Glen Stokes, Mark Guest

Rehearsals took place in a garage behind The Lion pub in the centre of Peterborough. The workers at a nearby solicitors regularly complained about the noise, but as we were practicing outside working hours, this only resulted in us turning the volume up.

This is from my final gig - a sold-out free to enter gig at The Scotgate in Stamford. We had blagged a 1,000W PA for the gig and in such a small space it was deafening. 
















There are probably many more things to recall, and I'm sure I've forgotten much of the history of my time in the band so watch this space...