Part One:
The band was put together by brothers Kev and Bri Shaughnessy in 1980. The idea
for Seventh Son was hatched in the King George Hotel in Barnsley, which in the Seventies
/ early eighties, was the hangout for Barnsley's ‘different’ crowd who listened to
the pubs excellent jukebox pumping out Zeppelin, Purple, Floyd, Hendrix, Bowie, T-Rex,
Pistols, Clash, Damned etc. Kev persuaded art student brother Bri to take the lead
vocalist role, recruited bass player Rob White and with drummer Bill Mc Neish (who
had played in Kev's two previous bands) became the first incarnation of Seventh Son.
The Punk explosion had stirred people into forming their own bands as Seventh Son
became part of metal's answer to Punk 'The New Wave of British Heavy Metal' (or N.W.O.B.H.M).
The first line up set about gigging and building up a following locally a notorious
stronghold being The Drum (Darton Hotel) as well as regular gigs in the town centre
at the Civic Centenary Rooms. The band picked up a support slot with fellow N.W.O.B.H.M.
act WITCHFYNDE with dates in Blackpool and Derby.
The band also headlined a festival in Locke Park Barnsley in August 1981. This first
line up never ventured into the recording studio but after a change in the drum department
with the arrival of Jon Shaw the band recorded their first demo at Streetlife Studios
in Barnsley in July '82, a four track effort which included Dark they Were, Killing
Yourself to Live, Red Procession and Alive by Night. The band now felt ready and
strong enough to record their first single on vinyl and did so at Fairview Studios,
Hull, Yorkshire in November 1982. The single produced by Roy Neave included Man in
the Street and Immortal Hours and was released in December 1982 on the band’s own
Rising Son label gaining reviews in Kerrang! (a short, sweet rocker) and Sounds as
well as numerous fanzines home and abroad. The band continued gigging throughout
the North and Midlands of England. A change in the bass guitar department occurred
in April ’83 with Rick Gregory from Sheffield joining the band after seeing an advert
in Virgin Records in Sheffield. After meeting Bri at Sheffield’s legendary Wapentake
Bar (where a few rounds of drink were consumed!) Mr. Gregory was recruited. The band
were now invited to record their first session for Sheffield's Radio Hallam ‘Hallam
Rock Show’ after the shows producer Colin Slade had heard the bands first demo.
The first session was broadcast in April 1983 with the band going on to record two
further sessions for the station in 1984 and 1985 the bulk of the material recorded
can be heard on the album ‘Immortal Hours’. In 1984 there was another change in the
Seventh Son line-up with drummer Jon Shaw leaving the band to be replaced by John
Talbot. This line-up recorded the bands next single (in August 1984) the double
‘A’ side ‘Metal to the Moon / Sound and Fury’. Once again the band recorded at
Fairview Studios in Hull with Colin Slade of Radio Hallam producing and John Spence
engineering. The non stop gigging continued with the single again being reviewed
in Kerrang!, Sounds and Metal Forces. Fanzines in Europe, The USA and South America
also picked up on the single. After recording the single the band added a second
guitarist, Kerry Scott in order to broaden the sound of the band becoming a five
piece for the first time but this version of Seventh Son was short lived and in 1986
Andy Frost replaced Kerry Scott on guitar maintaining a five piece line-up. In 1986
the Seventh Son track Stage Crazy (Recorded at Fairview in Hull at the Metal to the
Moon single session) saw the light of day on a Yorkshire band’s compilation entitled
Torn in Two released on the Torment label. A deal was secured with South Yorkshire
label Music Factory in 1986 with a single Northern Boots being released in the autumn
of 1987. After working on an albums worth of material for the label a tour of the
South of France was completed in the Summer of 1987. The single Northern Boots (a
re-working of Nancy Sinatras ‘These Boots are Made for Walking’) gained the band
much media attention appearing in the Daily Mirror newspaper and on Yorkshire Televisions
Calendar news programme. Kerrang! reviewed the single Chris Welsh commenting: “Here’s
a rocking version of the old Nancy Sinantra hit ‘These Boots are Made for Walking’
with howling guitars and raving vocals, I bet it goes down a storm in Barnsley pubs”.
After the French sojourn, and back in England, gigs with Demon (Retford Porterhouse)
and Shy (Sheffield Locarno) took place, a concert at Barnsley Civic Hall in November
’87 was filmed and released on video under the title Alive by Night in Yorkshire.
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