BUDGIE - Might Flight?
by Martin Popoff
Legendary Cardiff heavyweights Budgie have been grinding out seminal heavy rock since 1967, but the actual new studio offerings petered out with 1982's Deliver Us From Evil. All that's gonna change, given that bassist, vocalist and bandleader Burke Shelley is preparing for release into the wild another aviary album for the band's tight but vocal legion of fans the world over.
Add to that continual (although not all that far-flung) touring, as well as flocks of live records, compilations and rarities packs, and it ain't a bad time to be a birdwatcher. Also on the agenda has been a remasters series, with the latest being Never Turn Your Back On A Friend (1973), In For The Kill (1974) and Bandolier (1975), each with bonus tracks and band interviews for liner notes (go to studio albums section of the discography page at the band's official site, www.budgie.uk.com for more info).
But it the prospect of a new studio record that has beaks pecking. "I'm at home, working in my studio, finishing off what is going to be the new Budgie album," sez Burke. "It's about half complete. It should've been out before our British tour last September, but I'm afraid my studio wasn't running by then. It's like updating your computer and all that, so I did all that, so I'm busy working on the album. I know there are other things like remasters coming out."
Do tell. What's it going to sound like? "Well, Budgie has always been a band that has served up helpings of rock, so there's about five or six or seven rock things. I always stick a few of my acoustic tracks on for dynamics. One or two other songs I'm still trying to write. Me, I'll keep on recording until they put a cap on it, but I'll keep on fighting anyway (laughs). But at the moment, I've got 12 tracks, and eight of those are sort of rocky. So that's the balance. Our guitarist is called Simon Lees, and he's in his early 30s. He grew up on stuff from the early '80s, I suppose, the Metallica scene and the grunge scene. He's a top shelf shredder (laughs). He loves all that and I love it too. A bit of bedlam from Simon. And he's a class player, so that helps. The sound... it's changing as much as it's gone with the times, I imagine. The effects we use are more modern than they ever were back in the '70s, of course. I suppose in a sense, you get a better sound."
