The band 3Sixty
was formed only a few years ago and has released its debut album “#truestories”
earlier this year… So what the hell are they doing in the NWOBHM blog? Relax,
guys, it’s all right. 3Sixty is a Worcestershire NWOBHM All-Stars band as all
the members played in Black Dog, Raider, Virgin Star, Ipanema Katz and Grim Reaper.
This alone is a great reason to talk to guitar player Nick Singleton. Add to
this the fact that the album “#truestories” is a pure gem of melodic hard rock
and you’ll get a nice reason for an interview. So here are the true stories
from Nick Singleton about his friendship with Mark Grimmett, the name 3Sixty,
the new album and the glorious past.
Tell me about your meeting with Mark after
which you decided to form 3Sixty. How was it basically to meet an old buddy?
Who was the first to say: “Let’s do it again!”?
We were
both out for separate family meals in the same pub. Mark saw me first and came across
to say hello, he was with his son whom I had never met. Suddenly there he was
stood right in front of me, offering his hand and saying “Hi mate“. I was
really surprised at first, and it took me a second to realise who he was as he
looked quite different from the last time I saw him. It was great though, and
great to break the ice again after all these years. We parted, promising to
stay in touch, although it took some more time before we spoke again. I had
been putting off calling him, because I knew we would have to talk about the
old grievances, but one day I just called him out of the blue. We talked
non-stop on the phone for a couple of hours, it was great. It wasn’t too long
before talk turned to music, Mark told me all about his recording studio he had
in his garden and asked me if I had any songs I was working on that we could
get together on. I was very sceptical at first because I thought our tastes in
music were very different and it wouldn’t work. He eventually persuaded me to
go over one evening and we started writing some new songs. Very quickly it
became apparent that the old songwriting and personal chemistry that we used to
have in the old days with still there. The first song we wrote together was “You
Know My Name”. Not long after that we wrote “Long Time Coming”, and we started
to realise that we had to start another band to play these great songs we were
writing. It was great to be back together, especially as the initial thing was
just to be friends again, and the music happened naturally afterwards.
The band
name comes from the fact that me and Mark started out together in bands when we
were 15, and we have ended up back together in our 50s. We have come 360°.
Are the songs all new on the album or did you
us any old ideas? Didn’t you want to re-record some of the stuff of Empire for
instance?
All of the
songs on the album are brand new. Me and Mark never stop writing songs, and
struggle to keep up with all of our ideas, so we have no need to use old songs.
Plus the whole thing with the band is to write about our lives now, I also
think that these new songs are way better than anything we have written
previously.
How was it to work with Mark after all those years?
Would you say that the old chemistry returned as soon as you had started
writing songs?
Yes, as I
mentioned in the previous answer, the old chemistry was there straight away,
and working together again was so easy, like we had never been apart.
What about others? Did they contribute anything
to the songwriting? How was it to work with Russell Simon as your guitar
partner?
All of the
songs on the album were written by me and Mark, with the exception of one song
which used a guitar riff that Russell had written. Playing with Russell has
been fantastic... I had known him for years, but not seen him for a very long
time. I went to see a bar band he was playing in, and was really struck by his
rhythm guitar style and thought that it would blend really well with mine, as
we both play in quite a rock ‘n’ roll style. Russell is also a great rhythm
guitarist, which is what we were really looking for, I am his biggest fan.
The album has very simple cover and quite
fashionable title. What is your idea? Do you try to reach younger generation of
fans?
The album
cover is the way it is because once we had come up with the band logo, and had
our live backdrop made up with it on, we just thought that it looked really
striking, and instantly recognisable. I hadn’t thought about the album title
being fashionable to be honest, until you mentioned it. The album was
originally going to be titled “Long Time Coming”, but I had started posting
verses of the lyrics online, under the title #truestories, as all the songs are
written about real events in our lives. One day Juey said that he thought it
would make a great album title, and I had also privately been thinking the same
thing. So after Everyone agreed, at the last minute we changed it to “#truestories”.
Do you already have any feedback about the
album?
To be
honest all of the feedback for the album we have had has been very positive and
enthusiastic, a lot of people seem to be really connecting with the lyrics to
the songs, this is particularly gratifying for us as they were all written
about our personal experiences, and we really hoped they would connect with
people.
Why did you released the album independently
and not via any label? Do you think that bands don’t need labels anymore?
I think it
is true that bands don't necessarily need record labels anymore to get going.
We have our own studio and are able to take care of everything ourselves, with
no outside interference. The whole point of this band is to be a vehicle for
the songs that me and Mark write, so doing it this way we can express ourselves
exactly as we want to. Having said that, if a record label came along that were
in tune with our vision, and the deal was agreeable to us, we would probably
sign it.
What are your goals with 3Sixty? Do you want to
get a deal with a major label or do you just want to have a good time and do
what you really like?
Our goals
ultimately are to get our songs out there into the world, but only if we can do
it the way that we want to. We would definitely be open to a major label under
certain conditions, but at the moment we are very focused on promoting the
album ourselves and seeing where it can get us.
Now let’s get back to the time when it all has
started for you. Tell me please about your first steps in rock music. Was Black
Dog your first real band?
Yes, Black
Dog was my first band, and this was when I first met Mark Grimmett. At the time
Mark was a drummer and he answered my advert for a drummer, but me and Mark
soon began writing all of the songs for the band. Mark was always a very
extrovert drummer, and used to always come out from behind the drum kit to get
the crowd going, he was also always a better singer than the actual singers we
had in the band, so eventually we decided it would be easier for him to sing,
and for us to find another drummer. That really is where this whole journey to
3Sixty began.
How did you discover Mark’s ability to sing?
Was he multi-talented from the beginning of Black Dog or did he just start
singing during some rehearsal and the rest said “Ok, you have some potential”?
I suppose
Marks ability to sing first became apparent, when we were teenagers, and used
to play air guitar along to the likes of early Iron Maiden, Saxon and MSG in
front of Mark’s bedroom mirror... we played some great gigs in that bedroom (laughs). Mark always used to sing
along... he was untrained, but he obviously had the pipes... must be a family
thing (laughs).
Did Steve, Mark’s elder brother, try to help
him and his bands to get record deals or some attention in press?
No, not
really.
How did you get in touch with the members of
Black Dog?
I went to
school with original Black Dog members, John Green and Paul Robinson. John was,
and still is my best friend. We all learnt to play together, mainly at my
instigation... I wrote some simple songs and we used to rehearse them in a
local hall, and realised that we needed a drummer, so I advertised for a
drummer in a local paper, and Mark answered the advert, which is when we first
met. The strange part is, that I had already met Steve Grimmett as he was in a
local band called Medusa, who we used to follow and go and watch rehearse. I
had told Steve that we were putting together a band and were looking for a
drummer, but he never mentioned that he had a brother my age, who was a drummer.
Is it true that the name Black Dog was taken
from the Led Zepps’ song? Who else were your favorites at the time?
No, believe
it or not. I was into Led Zeppelin and knew the song obviously, but the band
was actually named after a fictional band called Black Dog, that were in a book
called “The Outsiders”, which I had read and was very moved by at the time I
was very into early Whitesnake, Scorpions, Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden,
Jimi Hendrix etc. When I met Mark, he was into Judas Priest, Boston and Saxon
and turned me onto them...
Tell me please about the singer Jane Bridges.
Did you play any live shows with her? How did the fans react on her? Why did
she quit the band after the first demo tape?
After Mark
joined on drums, we had started looking for a singer. At the time we were
hoping for a Paul Di’Anno, Rob Halford type singer, but Jane was the only
person who answered our advert. Jane was a lot older than us (I was 17, I think
she was bout 32) she came to me house and I remember us in my kitchen, me
playing guitar and her singing, running through “Ain’t Talking About Love” by
Van Halen. She could sing ok, and although she wasn’t really what we had in
mind, we had no one else so decided to go for it. We never actually got as far
as playing any gigs with Jane, as 3 weeks before our first gig (supporting Grim
Reaper at a local village hall in 1983) we had a big falling out, and decided
to recruit a friend of Mark’s, called Alan Clarke, who had suddenly realised he
could sing a bit after singing along to a rock disco with Mark and his brother
Steve that week. He was keen to learn and was very charismatic, and so we
rehearsed intensively for a few weeks, and played the gig, it was a big
success, and so Black Dog properly began...
What are some remarkable and memorable moments
of your time with Black Dog? Imagine you are in front of some students at
school and you need to tell them about some lessons you learnt during your time
with Black Dog, what would you tell them?
Black Dog
was really when I learnt so much of the basics of writing songs and how it all
works. The best moment for me was that first gig supporting Grim Reaper... There
were about 120 people there, and I was so nervous that I struggled to play the
first song intro as my hands were shaking so much, but at the end of the first
song, the whole audience were really cheering loudly, and from that point on, I
absolutely loved it, and replayed the whole gig on my head, on a high for weeks
afterwards. I also remember playing a few gigs supporting Virgin Star... We
went down better than them as I recall at a gig at the Waterside Club in
Worcester. Virgin Star of course, featured future 3Sixty members Mark Simon and
Russell Simon. My main memory about Black Dog though, is that it is where me
and Mark first learnt how to write songs and put all the music together,
lessons that we still refer back to now.
How do you view the songs of Black Dog these
days? Are still proud of them or are you embarrassed?
I look back
at the Black Dog songs fondly really. If I listen to them now I can hear all
the things that are kind of wrong with them, but they are where we were at the
time. But, I can also hear the good ideas in them, ideas that we would later
learn to develop to their full potential. I am certainly not embarrassed by
them, but see them as stepping stones along the way.
What about the band Raiders? Was it a logical
continuation of Black Dog? What kind of music did you play with them?
Raider came
about after Black Dog had split up. It was Mark who started the band, along
with our friend, a local singer called Martyn Arnold, who would later become
the keyboard player for Empire. At first Mark had wanted to break away from
Black Dog and play with new people, but they couldn’t find a guitarist, so
asked me to help out. I agreed, but as soon as we started playing together,
what always happens happened... Me and Mark started writing all the songs and
kind of took it over (laughs). Raider
was a conscious move in a more melodic direction, we were listening to bands
like Dio at the time, and wanted to move away from the thrashy heavy metal
sound of Black Dog.
Don’t you want to re-release the stiff of Black
Dog, Raider and Empire as you did it with the Crywolf’s anthology?
We did try
to get the record company that released the Crywolf Anthology to put out a
similar Black Dog and Raider album, but they weren’t interested. We would be
interested in putting together an album of the material, if a good deal came
along, but we are not bothered if it doesn’t happen to be honest. I don’t know
about Empire, as I was not in the band, but I expect those guys would probably
feel the same way.
Tell me a bit about the band Crywolf. When did
you form it? Was it popular among metalheads? Why did you fail to get a proper
record deal until 1989?
Crywolf was
formed by me and Mark in 1985, after Raider split up. The band was another
deliberate step in an even more melodic direction, mainly because mine and
Mark’s songwriting was rapidly developing, and this was also the moment that
Mark made the permanent switch from drums to lead vocals. Initially Mark was
still on the drums, but after auditioning another singer, we realised that Mark
was a better singer than anyone else were sussing out. The original Crywolf
demo that we did, featured Mark on both drums and lead vocals, and we set about
looking for a drummer. Jon Clayton had just moved to Evesham from London as he
was dating an old school friend of mine, which was how we met, and he became
our drummer. At first the band also featured a keyboard player called Lyndon
Major, and we still had Steve Smith on bass, who had also played with Raider.
Paul Robinson from Black Dog soon replaced Steve on bass, and we then got rid
of Lyndon, but the definitive Crywolf line up would not come together though
until 1987, when Chris Gyngell joined on second guitar. We had a lot of
interest from record companies around this time, but nothing ever came of any
of it, which is why we put out our own self financed EP, which is what “The
First 12 Inches” effectively was.
Can you recall anything about JAK Records who
released “The First 12 Inches” EP?
JAK
actually stands for Janet and Ken, who were Mark’s wife’s parents. They lent us
the money to record the album, so in effect, it was a self financed album.
What about that EP? Was it well received by the
press and the fans?
Yes, the
record was well received by the fans, at one point it was outselling Michael
Jackson’s album (“Bad” I think) in our local record shop... true story.
When and how did the band Empire come into the
picture? Who was in that band? When and where did you record the demo “Ready
For Madness”? What songs outside “Prisoner” were on that demo?
I wasn’t
actually in Empire, but as I recall, it was a band formed after Crywolf had
split up, and I had joined the Tattooed Love Boys. Straight after Crywolf split
up, me and Chris Gyngell were planning to form another band, we had written
songs and had actually demoed them with Steve Grimmett (Mark’s brother and Grim
Reaper vocalist) singing on them for us. Steve was just helping us out so we
could find a permanent singer, but then I got the job with the TLB’s, and so
Chris teamed back up with Mark and they formed Empire. I think the line-up was
Mark, Chris, Jon Mumford on drums, Richie Yeates on guitar, Juey D Hill (later
of 3Sixty) on bass, and Martyn Arnold (formerly the Raider vocalist) on
keyboards.
Crywolf had a chance to play at the “Friday
Rock Show” with Tommy Vance. How did you get that opportunity? Did you just
send him your tape? What songs did you play during the show?
We actually
got the “Friday Rock Show” session, because Mark and Jon Clayton went down to
London and waited around outside the BBC studios until Tommy Vance turned up.
They gave him a demo tape, and they got back in touch to offer us a session...
How did you join the band Tattooed Love Boys?
I saw an
news item in Kerrang! magazine, saying that the Tattooed Love Boys were looking
for a new lead guitarist, so I sent them a demo of a song of mine, that me and
Chris had just demoed, with Steve a Grimmett on vocals. The song was called “Bullet
From A Gun”. Unfortunately I no longer have a copy of it, but I do remember
most of it. They called me and I went down to the Point Studios in Belgravia,
where they were recording the album. We jammed on a “Johnnie B. Goode” and they
offered me the job. I remember driving to London and being so determined to get
the job, I remember psyching myself up, telling myself that there was no way I
was going o leave without getting it.
Please tell me everything you can recall about
the making of the album “No Times For Nursery Rhymes”. What was your input in
the album? Where was it recorded? Did Music For Nation do everything possible
to promote it? Etc. (Every detail is fine actually.)
The band
had already recorded the album with Marc Chan, the previous guitarist, but they
had split up with him, and wanted me to re-record all the guitar parts. I would
literally go into another room with the album on a cassette and learn the song,
then go into the studio and record my parts. It was a pretty intense process. I
didn’t copy exactly Marc’s parts but learnt the basic song and played it my
way, and did all of my own solos. I pretty much did everything in one take, and
they started to call me “one take Singleton”. Adam Godzikowski, the other
guitarist on the album used to call me “squeaky Nick” because of all the pinch
harmonics that I used to play. I slept on Adam’s sofa while we recorded the
album, it was a very exciting time for me, although Adam was pretty jaded with
the band at the time, but I was just thrilled to be in a London band recording
an album. When it was finished and we got the final mixes, we were all really
disappointed with the sound of it, so MFN got Kit Woolven in to remix it. Even
though I was the new guy in the band, they asked me to go into the famous
Wessex Studios in London with TLB’s drummer and leader Mick Ransome, so I could
show Kit what all the guitar tracks were, as by that point I had kind of
naturally assumed my usual role of musical director. Adam left the band/was
sacked around this point, as he didn’t want to rehearse or do anything unless
he was being paid, so after auditioning a lot of guitarists, my friend Chris
Danby eventually joined the band on rhythm guitar, but he did not play on the
album, despite being on the cover, all the guitars on the album were recorded
by me and Adam. MFN put a lot of adverts out advertising the album, and put the
money up for us to support Love/Hate on their European tour, but ultimately,
times were changing and the album didn’t sell enough copies and so it petered
out in the end.
You witnessed both NWOBHM and the rise of so
called brit rock (The Quireboys, Thunder, The Almighty, Little Angels etc.).
Would you say that the scene in the UK changed drastically by the end of the
80’s?
I think the
music scene did change a bit over that period, in the late 70’s/early 80’s the
only way you could see bands was to go and see them live, plus all the people
of my generation were young and wanted to go out, by the end of the 80’s you
could watch bands on video, so at grass roots level it was getting a little
harder to get people to come to gigs. The musical styles had changed somewhat
too, but that is what happens all the time, with tastes evolving.
By the way, what do you think about the music
of the 90’s? Was the damage caused by Grunge to traditional hard rock and heavy
metal as serious as people say now?
I loved the
music of the nineties, especially the Britpop indie scene happening in the UK,
but by far my favourite band of the era were the Black Crowes, who had a huge
influence on me. I don’t really take any notice of genres, I am above all, a
fan of songs and heartfelt music, and love bands from all era’s, looking back,
with a few notable exceptions, the hard rock scene of the time was sounding
tired and clichéd, and lacking a lot of authenticity, I think the naturally
evolving cycle of music is a healthy and vital thing, otherwise Music starts to
become stale. I am not a fan of tribalism in music, I am mainly interested in
hearing songs that move me. but yes, to answer your question, the Grunge scene
did have a big impact on the hard rock scene, as the young music fans suddenly
had their own thing, instead of listening to the music of the previous
generation. I remember clearly seeing kids who’d previously been coming to our
shows, suddenly lose interest and start dressing in plaid, and starting their
own scene. Despite being a victim of it myself, ultimately I think it was a
good thing. Strangely today, no one is much interested in grunge, and we are
seeing a huge swell of interest in hard rock, so what comes around, goes
around...
What you’ve done musically after the departure
from Tattooed Love Boys?
After the
Tattooed Love Boys split up in 1992, me and drummer Mick Ransome formed a new
band called The Firebyrds. The band was based on the new songs we had been
writing, and was influenced by the bands we had been listening to, bands like
the Rolling Stones, The Black Crowes, Free, and other soulful bluesy hippy
bands. The first line-up of the band included Paul Guerin and Keith Weir, who
would later join the Quireboys. The band played extensively around London,
including one gig supporting Little Angels at Hammersmith Odeon, but despite
having some great songs and starting to get a good following, the band failed
to secure a record deal and eventually split up in 1995—1996. Me and Mick stuck
together for a while, trying to get a new line-up together, but couldn’t find
the right singer and eventually called it a day in about 1996. I was burnt out
and disillusioned with playing in bands at this point, and bought an 8 track
porta studio and spent the following years, playing and writing songs for
myself, and had pretty much decided that was it. Then, in 2010, by chance I
bumped into Mark Grimmett in a local bar. We hadn’t seen each other for at
least 15 years. I think I have covered what happened next in my previous
answers, but here we are in 2018 with a collection of the best songs we have
ever written, a new album, and a new band. It has been quite a journey, but
here we are.
3Sixty's offisicial website - http://www.3sixtyrockband.co.uk/
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