LEGEND – Interview with Pete Haworth

LEGEND … is still screaming!!!

Hell yes, the next legendary NWoBHM power pack is back! LEGEND! After compilation CD, now we can listen to their fantastic brand new release titled „Still Screaming”. My questions were answered by Pete Haworth, the guitar wizard…

Hi Pete! Tell me please how does it feel to return on Metal scene in glory! Your new album is a great piece of NWoBHM, can you tell me more about recording session?

When Mike Lezala and I got together again after 20 years during the production of last years “Anthology” release we just agreed to write some music together to see if it was anything like the old days. A sort of trip down “Memory Lane” thing. We had no intention of the music ever being released, certainly not as a new Legend album. It was only when the music started to evolve and the riffs appeared that the excitement started. We both couldn't believe just how friggin' good the songs were. I would write and record the music in my studio and Mike would take it away and work on it in his. The end result was so impressive that we just had to play the album to people. It was only when we started doing that, and the reaction was “wow this sounds just like Legend … but in 2003”, that finally made us decide to release the album. Thankfully, Monster Records believed in it also and the album was released in April of this year.

Do you think that we can talk about the return of NWoBHM? Except you, also such premier acts like SOLDIER or JAGUAR have returned, and as I heard legendary Soundhouse Studio works again!

Yes the NWOBHM has returned … I think a lot of bands who played during that era are so hacked off with the legacy of what has come afterwards that they are showing the nu-metallers how it should be done. We laid the foundation as those that came before did, Purple, Sabbath, Zeppelin, yet in an effort to be fashionable (and rich), the nu-metal bands have bastardised the genre and turned it into a parody of what “real metal” is all about. The NWOBHM was nothing more than a time and place where metal musicians re-kindled the flame of the finest musical expression that was ever born. So much nu-metal doesn't even have a guitar solo !!! And the metal that's not “nu” just seems to have classical sweeps and arpeggios all over the place, no feel, no expression … emotionless.

If it's not a secret, tell me please why LEGEND finished its activity in 1984? Do you think, that if you wouldn't stop to play, you could now have such status like let's say SAXON, RAVEN or IRON MAIDEN?

Legend finished in 1984 because Mike Lezala decided to quit the band. His voice was so unique that it was impossible to find a replacement, simple as that. If we'd have continued to play then I think things may have been different, but I'm not one for looking back so what the hell.

Not so long ago Monster Records have released your compilation CD. Sadly I haven't heard it yet – can you tell me what it includes? All your 80's stuff?

The “Anthology” release contains everything we ever recorded, the two vinyl albums, “Legend”, “Death in the Nursery”, the 4 track EP “Frontline” and a six track demo that was going to be our third album.

It isn't common situation, when US label release a NWoBHM band… How does it happen, that you inked a deal with Monster Records?

Well, for some reason or another, a lot of our original vinyl releases got to America before elsewhere. Dennis and Phil from Monster discovered Legend many years ago and had always been fans. It was always their dream to release our old material on CD one day. The label specialises in releasing old classic metal, Manilla Road, Truth & Janey etc and it seemed appropriate that Legend joined their label. Dennis did a fantastic job remastering the material, even restoring the old tapes which had been badly damaged over the years. There is something special about working with a label who's “heart” is in the music. For me that was important.

Are you planning to promote those 2 releases (“Anthology” and “Still Screaming”) on tour? Any live shows planned?

Yes, for sure. We are currently putting the new band together. The new line-up will be announced shortly, and we will be back to a five piece. Hopefully we will get some shows in before the end of this year (which we intend to record) and start work on a new album probably in the autumn of 2003.

I had to ask about your guitar playing: what brought you to music? Why small Pete had decided to take guitar in hands for a first time?

Well it could have been that my mother bought me a plastic guitar when I was five because she liked the Beatles, or it could have been that I heard Jimi Hendrix when I was ten. Either way I just wanted to play the guitar, despite my father always wanting me to play the piano.

Do you have an idea for promo campaign of NWoBHM? I think title “Still Screaming” would fit perfectly as a slogan, haha…

Maybe you're right hehehe

Do you listen to young bands, or you prefer the old classic stuff? What do you think about present Metal scene in England?

I listen to a lot of music .. internet radio, tv/cable whenever I can. What surprises me is how much stuff seems to be just a re-working of whats gone before. Originality seems to have been sacrificed for fashion. The strange thing is that even bands like Korn are not doing much different to early King Crimson but just using seven string guitars to do it. I'm not one to condemn other musicians, good luck to them … after all it's the people who buy the records that are the ultimate judge not the bands themselves. The music of Legend is personal, not pandering to any fashion or style, it just sounds like it sounds because of the way I play and the way Mike sings … simple as that. But to answer your question, there's so much old stuff to discover that I prefer to listen to “old” until the modern gets a lot more inspired.

What bands of the NWoBHM movement were or are your favorite ones? With which of them you had gigs in the 80's?

At the time of the NWOBHM we did not realise we were part of the movement. We were just a metal band playing metal like we'd played for years. We were listening to a lot of metal, both British and American. Judas Priest, Budgie, Mahogany Rush, Rush, Scorpions, Y&T etc. Once we realised their was a movement actually happening I started to get into a few bands, Angelwitch, Raven, Saxon, Fist, Maiden, Leppard to name a few. It was very apparent at the time that some of the bands playing had been around for a while and quite a lot “jumped on the bandwagon” because it was fashionable.

Did you ever play in any other band except LEGEND?

Yes, my first serious band was Dogwatch then Dr Morbius, where I met Dave Whitley, and then Legend.

What do you do for a living? Regular job, kids, wife? How your family like your music?

For a living I work in the computer industry now … I'm married with two beautiful daughters … and we are a very musical family .. metal playing in the house all the time !!!

I think that's all I wanted to ask for. Thanks for a nice talk, last words are yours my friend!

As always, music is an expression that has to be heard, it does not exist if nobody listens. I'd like to thank everyone who's listened to our music, whether they liked it or not because finding time to listen to “real music” is hard these days. Anyone who wants to take part in the Legend adventure is invited to visit our website at www.cicd.com/legend

(c) Dragonight Agency 2003 – www.dragonight.de