Samson (band) - Career

Career

In 1976, Paul Samson replaced Bernie Tormé in London based band Scrapyard, joining Bassist John McCoy and Drummer Roger Hunt. The band name was changed to McCoy, and they built up a busy gigging schedule, whilst also independently playing various sessions. Eventually, McCoy left to join Atomic Rooster. His replacement was the bands sound engineer and close friend of Paul's, Chris Aylmer. Chris suggested a name change to Samson, and recommended a young Drummer called Clive Burr, who he had previously played with in the band Maya. Clive joined, and Samson was born, although Paul used bassist Bill Pickard and drummer Paul Gunn on odd gigs when Chris and Clive were honouring previous commitments. Although various other people were tried out to expand the line up. Paul got in touch with an old bandmate, bass player Stewart Cochrane, and asked him to try out for a four-piece, with current bass player Chris Aylmer on second guitar alongside Paul. Only one gig was played in this incarnation, at The Nag's Head pub in Rochester, Kent on 11 March 1978, where it was decided that Paul and Chris's playing styles weren't compatible, so they went back to a 3 piece. Stewart Cochrane subsequently left and joined an avant-garde jazz rock band named Spanish Fly; he later continued his career as an orchestra-leader for Holland America Line and Windstar Cruises. In October 1978, Lead vocalist Mark Newman joined, but after about 6 shows Paul resumed lead vocals and they were back to a 3 piece again.

At the end of 1978, Clive Burr left, his last show was at The Bandwagon in North London on New Year's Eve. Paul and Chris auditioned over 60 drummers, and eventually decided on Barry Purkis to replace Clive. The band were offered a recording contract, but Chris wouldn't commit, so Paul and Barry decided that as John McCoy was producing, and had co-written much of the material, they would ask him to play bass on the album. The album was recorded for release on Lazer records, and given the title 'Survivors".

The band's second album, Head On, was released July 1980, and peaked at No. 34 in the UK Albums Chart The supporting tour was full of controversy and legal issues, due to problems with their management. They kept writing and rehearsing for a new record. Ten songs had already been composed, by October 1980, and were ready to be recorded. At the same time, the band re-issued their debut album, Survivors, now with Dickinson handling vocal duties. The tour continued until the end of the year, when Samson entered the studio to record their third album, Shock Tactics. This was the last album Dickinson recorded with the band. Samson faced an innumerable amount of problems with their management. They were always being booked on ill-matched support tours. After leaving their management in 1981 they discovered that their record company was going bankrupt. Dickinson said they "made every mistake in the business". His last performance with Samson was at the Reading Festival in 1981. This was recorded by the BBC and released in 1990, as the live album Live at Reading 1981.

The group posted three entries in the UK Singles Chart. These were "Riding With The Angels (1981, No. 54), "Losing My Grip" (1982, No. 63) and "Red Skies (1983, No. 65).

Following Dickison's departure, former Hackensack and Tiger vocalist Nicky Moore was recruited to front the band who had also signed a new record deal with Polydor. Samson's first release with Moore was the "Losing My Grip" EP in 1982. The title track as well as "Pyramid to the Stars" had originally been cut with Dickinson. Those versions would remain unreleased until they surfaced on the Shock Tactics CD re-release in 2001. Samson would go on to issue 2 full-length albums with Moore, 1982's Before the Storm and 1984 Don't Get Even, Get Mad before the group disbanded with Paul Samson carrying on solo.

In 1990 Paul Samson asked New York singer/songwriter Rek Anthony to write lyrics and vocal melodies for Samson's studio reformation project. As a collaboration, Rek wrote lyrics, and Paul, Chris and Thunderstick wrote all of the music. Rek wrote and recorded the lyrics and vocal melodies for eight songs while in New York, and flew to London to re-record five demos at Picnic Studios. With limited time and a limited budget, the band could only record five demo songs and the project was never completed, and remained as demos. The Picnic demos were never picked up by Samson's record company, and sat idle for almost nine years. Rek, Paul, Gerry Sherwin and Tony Tuohy played some shows in Germany and Holland under the name English Rogues, and as Samson whilst opening for Girlschool. After the dates in Europe, Rek went back to New York. In 1999, Paul Samson released a CD containing five of the Samson, Anthony, Aylmer, Purkis compositions from the Picnic Demos, entitled Past, Present and Future.

In 1999 the Samson-Aylmer-Thunderstick line-up reformed for a live show in Tokyo, and in 2000, with Nicky Moore back on board, a series of live dates, including a "25th Anniversary of the NWoBHM" concert at the London Astoria on 26 May 2000, which also featured Angel Witch on the bill. Samson's performance was recorded and released as a live album. The same line-up later appeared at the Wacken Open Air rock festival on 4 August 2000.

The group effectively disbanded with Paul Samson's death from cancer on 9 August 2002. Nicky Moore paid tribute to his late bandmate at the Sweden Rock Festival on 12 June 2004, with a set entitled "Nicky Moore plays Samson".

Bass player Chris Aylmer died on 9 January 2007 following a battle with throat cancer. He was reported to have been responsible for suggesting the band's name. He assumed the role of bass player, having previously been the band's soundman.

The band appeared in a short-movie Biceps of Steel in 1980, directed by Julien Temple, which was intended as the B-film to a major feature produced and promoted by the record company. The film featured two music-video type sequences which form the 15 minute film. Though it has been largely forgotten, clips from it were seen in the movie The Incubus (1981). However, in 2006, Biceps of Steel re-surfaced on Bruce Dickinson's Anthology DVD.