NWOBHM is born
No jacket required: Samson ride the New Wave…
MAY 19
Sounds reports on a May 8 gig at Camden’s Music Machine promoted by metal DJ Neal Kay, when Angel Witch, Iron Maiden and Samson all play. Writer Geoff Barton notes that Angel Witch wear cheese cloth and loons and play Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray clangs his guitar with a crowd-member’s homemade cardboard flying V, and argues that Samson’s use of stage pyrotechnics is better than Kiss (he’s also struck by masked drummer Thunderstick). While admitting to certain reservations about the bands, he’s impressed, and the intro to the write-up features the first use of the phrase ‘The New Wave of British Heavy Metal.’ The wording was later credited to Sounds editor Alan Lewis.