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High Treason was a great band with the Saturday Night Special 7'' in their luggage. It's absolutely one of the best NWOBHM singles ever. Now in 2005 the band is split up for ages, but the singer Barry Fearon wanted to do this interview without hesitating. Read and enjoy a part of the NWOBHM history!
MAY 2005
How and where did you meet the other members of
the band?
I had known Malcolm Scott for some time as my girlfriend was at 6th Form College
with him. I had played with Malcolm in a couple of bands doing ZEP, Free, Deep
Purple covers – then we started writing our own stuff. I was then approached by
a guitarist called Mario Travaris who looked and played guitar like Jimmy Page –
he had started a band and asked me if I would head up vocals (I was around 17/18
yrs old at the time).
Mario’s band which we later called Kat Kool and the Kool Kat’s stayed together
for around 2 years and we played at many Universities. The other band members
were: -
Paul Young (Bass) – yes the actual Paul Young ‘Wherever I lay my hat’, but to be
fair he was a good friend of mine and we went to school together.
Tony Hughes (Trumpet) – he later toured in the USA with Adam and the Ants? (Sax)
who later studied at the Royal School of Music
Paul Edwards (Drums) – he later toured Europe with a band called the ‘Speed of
sound’ (720). After KK and the KK’s broke up Malcolm and myself got back
together. He already knew Gary, Mark, Larry. John Pritchard was a friend of
mine who joined the band for a very short spell and was around at the time of
Saturday Night Special, but Mark Taylor was the main musician.
How old were you when High Treason was active?
Difficult to actually remember but I think I was about 21 when we formed
and played together for around 6 years.
What was the reason for naming the band High Treason?
We had a brain storming session about the bands name where we nearly called
ourselves “Walls Have Ears”, but I think this was Garry’s (Drummer) suggestion
(I recently went to see him play with Mark in a band called “Giraffes from
Prague”, so you can see his off the wall thinking). I do believe that Malcolm
came up with the name “High Treason”, and I suspect he had probably just
committed a crime to suite.
The single you recorded is, as many NWOBHM singles, very rare nowadays.
Especially the one with picture sleeve. How many copies were actually made with
and without picture sleeve?
I believe we had 1000 cut
On the 7'' label it stands BURLINGTON. I guess it was your own label, right?
Yes – but we recorded about 12 numbers during the life of the band, but we
always used the same sound engineer “Dave”, we had a very good relationship with
him and he was always mesmerised by Malcolm, Garry and Larry who had the most
amazingly sharp brains and ‘out of the box’ sense of humour.
The NWOBHM Encyclopedia tells that you, the band, sold your spare copies of
the single in the early 90's. How much did you actually get for them? And how
fast did they sell?
That is a very difficult question. I think we sold all of them in one form or
another, but I know quite a few of them found their way to juke boxes (and
taking the shape of ashtrays)
I've noticed that many copies has photocopied picture sleeve. Is it High
Treason or other guys who did the copied sleeves? Maybe you made them when you
sold your copies in the 90's?
The sleeve was produced by High Treason, Malcolm Scott, was an amazing all
rounder, he designed the cover (he was very artistic, great guitarist, fantastic
song writer, studied for a degree in Psychology, completely mad, and developed a
great Hubbly Bubbly).
Quest Records made a sampler where two exclusive High Treason songs were
included. Did they ask for future releases or was it just a one-off?
It was just a one off
A guy wondered a thing: About High Treason, I would be curious to know why
they decided to have Saturday Night Special as the a-side for the single as this
song is kind of different from the other HT stuff, which is less heavy.
We were a fairly heavy band and did a few covers such as “Whole Lotta Rosie” and
a few ZZ Top numbers. We tried to keep our music interesting and did change a
little with the times (mainly due to Malcolm’s vision). As for myself, I
continued to sing mainly rock stuff and do so even now
As far as I know there are only four known songs with the band, you must have
had more songs? Please name a few.
Cake, Goodbye Berlin, Third Man, The Fridge, Living on Laughter, Siren song, On
the Beach, Tiger Bay.
What has been your most memorable memory with High Treason? Tell us
something.
Watching Garry and Larry (Drummer and Bassist) drinking about 12 pints of larger
and blackcurrant each, and then making themselves sick, so that they could
continue drinking.
We had a lot of lights and explosives when we played live. During a gig an
explosion did not work and as I continued singing I saw our Pyrotechnics
engineed, Pete, sneek up to push the cartridge into place. However, he had not
switched off the power and as he pushed the cartridge into its socket, it went
off in his hand. Amazingly he continued to finish the gig, then he was rushed
to Hospital with severe burns to his hand. From then on we always used to sing
the famous queen song to him “Flash----- Ahh AHHHHHHHHHHH”.
Never seen a demo or live recording with High Treason. Do they exist?
Yes I think there are some live recordings as I know when we played a few bigger
gigs, the mixing desk did record a few gigs, but I do not know where these tapes
are now
How come the band split up? And what happened after the band decided to quit?
I think the split was very gradual; we all developed other interests etc. I
continued to see Malcolm for a few years and we recorded a number of songs
between us, but Malcolm disappeared to Ireland for about 13 years and we lost
contact. He is now back in England and we have spoken recently – the intention
is to get the band back together to record some more material. Mark and Garry
have played in numerous different bands, I have continued to sing in bands and I
understand Larry has also done a bit.
Have you ever thought of getting back together and play a live show or two?
As my comments above – we hope to also play live again
Name your favourite High Treason song.
Goodbye Berlin – this was our opening number when we played live, it was very
atmospheric and coupled with the light show and explosions that accompanied the
song – I really enjoyed playing it – it always made the hairs stand up on the
back of my neck.
Do you like High Treason nowadays? Do you listen to your old music sometimes?
Yes I do – I am very proud of what we did and we were offered a contract by
Chrysalis, which we turned down. I feel very honoured that I have played with
such proficient and creative musicians – and hope to play with them again.
Who are your musical heroes?
Robert Plant was my main hero – and tried really hard to base my vocals on his
style. I also really admired Dan McCafferty (Nazareth), and Ian Gillan (Deep
Purple). In later life when I played in a cover band, I really came to admire
Freddy Mercury and we used to do quite a lot of Queen numbers
And the last words goes to you.
It is really nice that people still listen to our music and that there is still
an interest. The band were very talented but in my opinion, its success was
down to the incredible song writing of Malcolm Scott. I always remember he was
late for rehearsal one day, and when he eventually turned up, he explained that
he had caught a train to York and back purely to write a new song – The Fridge.
Thank you very much for your questions.
Interview by Gorgon.