Bob Starling (Stormhunters, ex-Stormtrooper): Riding the storm

For many years Stormtrooper were known as a band who released sole single back in 1980 and detached Paul Merrell to Jaguar and Colin Bond to Stampede. But thank to Bristol Archive Records and High Roller Records who brought Stormtrooper's "lost album" to all NWOBHM followers, we discovered the mastery and the awesomness of this band. The Troopers managed to release another album before calling it a day once again. But guitarist Bob Starling refused to give up and is ready to release a new album with his new group Stormhunters (read the review here). I got in touchwith Mr. Starling for an in-depth interview about his music career with Stromtrooper and Hunted and the new beginning with Stormhunters.  

You met Colin Bond and Stephen Webb in the line for tickets to the Led Zeppelin show. I read somewhere that all this happened after midnight. How did your parents let you go there?

It was tickets for the Earls Court shows in 1975, and in those days you had to queue sometimes for a whole day. We got talking and they told me they played bass and drums, I mentioned I played guitar and they invited me over.

How did Stephen get his nickname “Squib”? I guess he had a sharp tongue?

I either didn’t know or have forgotten or the years, and no he was very laid back.

(UPD.: As Stephen Webb told me, "It was from a book at school about a scruffy young lad called Squib and they said I looked like him").

Colin said that by that time you were a better musician that he and Stephen were. Did you already play with some band?

I’d been playing a little longer than them but not really played in any gigging bands.

You, Colin and Stephen joined forces in a school band Digby Weed. Do you remember anything special about that time?

We played a lot of school dances and Squib only ever had one set of drum sticks. He would sometimes get carried away and they would fly out of his hands and he would stop playing and go and look for them.

Frank Powell

The early version of Stormtrooper included Nigel Lloyd on vocals and Frank Powell on drums. How did you meet them and what mark did they leave in the band’s history? Maybe they contributed to the songs which you later recorded or something else.

Frank Powell was my best friend and he joined Digby Weed when Squib left and Nigel also joined on vocals. I had a major falling out with the other guitarist and decided to leave, Frank left with me, Boggy (Colin Bond) said he wanted to still play with me as did Nigel, A new name and Stormtrooper was born.

Could you tell me about such places as The Granary or The Naval Volunteer pub (The Volley)? What comes to your mind when you think of them? Was The Granary really an old granary rebuilt to a music venue?

The Granary or old Granary was a world famous club, which was as in the name a converted granary. Bands like Genesis, Dire Straits and hundreds of others played there in their early years. We’d played there once or twice when the manager phoned me and asked if we could do a gig that night as the band had cancelled. “Who’s that?” I asked, “Oh, some Australian band called AC/DC”. I expect a few people were disappointed but we had a great gig. Over the next four years we must have played there a dozen times, such a great atmosphere. The Volly was a great meeting place right in the centre of the city, they had bands seven nights a week in the lower deck bar. We’d meet up and watch the bands. One of the best was Nervous System, great three piece who we became friendly with over time. Now and again they’d let us play a song or two, and when they took a couple of weeks off they gave us their three nights a week slot. This got us a Friday night residence which we had for six months or more, that’s when we really started to get better.

What were some other places in Bristol which were friendly to the local bands?

At that time there were hundreds of pubs that had bands.

By the way, did you attend the Scorpions show in The Granary in 1976? Was this band and their guitarist Uli Jon Roth your influence?

No I didn’t get to that one, and the Scorpions were not really on my radar at that time.

When Frank Powel quit, Stormtrooper had a drummer called Gus for a while and he even played one gig. What happened to him?

Frank got married and left the band so we started a search for a new drummer. Gus applied for the job and we couldn’t believe it when we went to pick him up for the audition, he was so young, but such a talented player. He was into Carl Palmer, but when we played him some Rush he took to it instantly. But he was bound for university so his time with the band was short.

Nick Hancox

Nick Hancox definitely was an awesome drummer but how could you describe him as a human being? Did you get along with him?

Nick approached us at a concert and said he’d seen us play and that he was a much better drummer than Gus. We had a jam, just the three of us, set up our gear and just started playing. You could tell right from the start there was something very special. Boggy and Nick could just look at each other and know exactly what to do. He was an awesome drummer and only seventeen with limitless energy. He was one of the most motivated people I’ve ever met, which is a good and bad thing. We were close for a long time.

What’s the story with Nick falling off the drum stool at the Granary and a guy from the crowd coming to rescue the band?

Nick was ill and half way through our set he just passed out and fell off his kit. Eddy Parsons who Boggy later played with in Stampede was in the audience and he got up so we could carry on in a limited fashion.

Could you tell me about the band’s chemistry, please? How did you work on songs? Were there some ego clashes or were you able to come to terms anyway?

We were writing from early on, songs like “Bounty Hunter”, “Mississippi Boogie” and “Boggs Song” were in the set when we played the Volly, but after Nick joined it seemed to move up a level. Boggy bought his first set of Moog Taurus pedals giving us a way to fill out the sound. “Flight Of Fantasy” was the next song we wrote and I would say it’s the first real Stormtrooper song with the sound we were moving towards. People would come to rehearsal with ideas and we would hammer them into a workable format. As time progressed Boggy came up with a lot of the basic ideas for material with Nick and myself putting lots of work into them, sadly without getting any credit. Nigel would write all the lyrics and vocal melodies for which he did receive credit.

How did Colin manage to reproduce his virtuoso bass lines and Moog parts at the same time during live shows? Did you think about adding a keyboard player to the line-up?

When he told us he was buying a set of Moog pedals which were very expensive we asked, ‘”How do you know you will be able to play them?” He replied, “I put blocks of wood on the ground and practiced hitting them with my feet while I’m playing the bass”. We were very sceptical but within a week or two he could get a melody out of them while playing his bass. Later he bought a Moog Prodigy keyboard so we didn’t feel the need to add to the lineup.

How did you get in touch with Simon Edwards who owned Heartbeat Records?

This is something else that’s escapes me over the years. I can remember a meeting at his house where we played him a live tape of the band which got him interested in putting something out.

Nigel Lloyd

Nigel Lloyd was sacked when he refused to pay his share for the studio time. Why did he do so? In hindsight, was it right decision to fire him?

Nigel was never fired from the band, when we said we were putting money in to record he told us he couldn’t afford to do it so he left the band. The ironic thing was Paul Merrell didn’t put any money into the recording anyway and we wouldn’t have asked Nigel to leave over it. He had written lyrics for three out of the four songs on that first Crescent session.

What are your best memories about the session in Crescent Studios in March 1980? During that session Stormtrooper recorded four songs, but picked only two for a single. Who decided which songs would make it to the single? What would be your personal choice?

We were very excited, it was a very good studio. We rolled up, set up our gear and knocked out the four basic tracks all of them are first takes. We were well rehearsed and didn’t have a lot of money so we had to get it done. Simon listened to the songs and decided “Pride Before a Fall” and “Still Coming’ Home” were the two to go with. He got in some arty woman to design the cover, we all hated it literally a real horses ass. I think Simon made the right choice of songs.

What are your memories about the Bristol riot of 1980? Did it touch you in any way?

I must admit I don’t remember much about it.

Next time you hit Crescent Studios a year later to record three more songs (“Battle of the Eve”, “Confusion”, “After Battle”). Were you more confident this time?

Actually we recorded four songs. We did ‘If It Takes A Man…” but realised later Nick had caught his jeans in the bass drum pedal so that’s why we rerecorded it at S.A.M. Studio. When we got to Crescent we told the engineer what we wanted to do, he said we had no chance and should only try to record one track. We finished all four basic tracks by lunchtime again all first takes. He said he’d never seen anyone record that fast. Again we didn’t have much money. I don’t think Simon was in the market to do an album and the songs where much too long for singles, so they just ended up gathering dust for thirty years.

“Battle of the Eve” is such a monster! How did you work on it? Did it just grow to a 12 minute song or was it you intention to create your version of “2112” so to say?

It just grew in rehearsals. Boggy came up with loads of ideas and they needed the length of time to let things build.

Colin Bond

Could you tell me about the story behind the sing? Is it about real battle or is it an allusion for “Battle of Evermore” of some band with Page and Plant in the line-up? Are “Battle of the Eve” and “After Battle” connected lyrically?

“Battle Of The Eve” is just about day turning to night, just played out in the form of a conflict. Although they are supposed to be linked in some way it’s not lyrically.

In July, 1981, the band recorded two songs at S.A.M Studios, Bristol. I still wonder what was the idea with the song “If It Takes a Man a Week to Walk a Fortnight Then How Long Is a Piece of String”. Who came up with this title?

The lyrics are about a young band with bravado the title is pure nonsense. It was the shortest song we ever did so we thought it should have the longest title. The riff comes from when Nick joined and we used it to introduce his drum solo called Hancox half hour. (Laughs)

How come that the songs you recorded during those 3 sessions were shelved for a few decades?

We were in Bristol, the back of beyond. Who even knew we existed? When “Pride…” came out we sold a thousand copies in a week or two and had to have another two thousand pressed, but outside Bristol we didn’t know anybody heard it until I was on holiday and opened a copy of Sounds to find it was in their heavy metal chart.

Did you think about moving to London like Lautrec, Stampede and Jaguar did? I believe Stormtrooper had everything to break big back then.

We did one gig in London at the Music Machine which I think was the Camden Palace, I can’t remember if we were second or third on the bill. The one thing I can remember is Boggy had more gear than the whole of Spider, the headline band. I think moving to London was never mentioned, we had no manager or anybody to push the band. Like I always thought the band was a force of nature and yes I think we could have made it with the right break.

By the way, were you friends with above mentioned bands? What bands from Bristol of that time deserved more recognition than they got?

No, I wasn’t friends with any of them, there were lots of good bands around at the time and I’m sure they all deserved more than they got.

Once Colin commented on Facebook that Paul Merrell didn’t fit the material of Stormtrooper and was let go and after that Nigel Lloyd rejoined the band. First of all, are you agreed with Colin on Paul’s singing? And secondly, did Nigel really rejoin Stormtrooper?

I wouldn’t say Paul didn’t fit the material, I would say at that time he wasn’t living up to his potential. Once he got into the band his work ethic wasn’t what it should have been. I was doing most of the driving as only Nick drove so I had to pick Boggy and Paul up for ever rehearsal and gig. I loaded my gear and the PA and then drove right across the city to pick them both up, and on one occasion we arrived at Paul’s to find him watching TV and he told us he had to wash his hair, so we sat around and waited. That was it for me I said I couldn’t work with him anymore. Ironically he got picked up by a London band, lost weight and his voice improved, then he got the job with Jaguar and the rest is history. After Stormtrooper I did some electrical work for S.A.M. Studio and they gave me some recording time. We recorded three songs that Nick and I wrote which Nick was going to sing on, he tried but he said his voice wasn’t good enough so we asked Paul and he did a bang up job.

What happened after that? Is it true that the band wanted to move in a more accessible/commercial direction and that caused a falling out with Colin?

Yea, Nick said he was fed up and wanted Boggy to simplify his playing. Boggy was having none of it, I was just trying to keep the band together but it all got out of hand and Boggy left auditioned and got the job with Stampede.

What were you doing between 1983 when Stormtrooper dissolved and 1992 when you founded Hunted with Dave Preston, Andy Milsom, Mark Williams and Andy 'Woody' Knight?

It was 1981 when Stormtrooper split and I continued to play with Nick for the next few years until he said he’d had enough and didn’t want to play drums anymore. I joined a band doing a lot of 80’s stuff just to keep playing. Nick started playing again and joined a long standing Bristol band Zed Alley. Nick phoned me and asked if I’d like to come to a gig that night and jam, so I got up and did three or four songs and they phoned the next day and asked me to join. We gigged a lot and after about a year they wanted a bass player, Boggy was back from London so he joined after about another year I came back from the USA to find out I’d been sacked for “being a rock guitarist“. What hurt most was Boggy and Nick stayed playing in the band. I had met Dave Preston whilst in Zed Alley and we became good friends, so we decided to form a band. I had seen Andy Milsom sing a few times and really liked his voice so we approached him and he brought along Mark Williams. Dave had played with Woody so the lineup was complete. The band was determined not to be just another pub band and to show we meant business we recorded the “Streets Of Fire “ EP after only a couple of months. We started to get good support gigs and won a BBC radio battle of the bands competition which got us a BBC Friday rock show session.

Bob Starling

Hunted was invited to the States to discuss possible deal with RCA. How did you get this opportunity? Did you go to the States? Why didn’t you sign with the label?

We got interest from RCA and Andy and Dave flew to New York to meet, after the record exec started saying how bad things were at that time Andy played him our songs and his attitude changed, he got enthusiastic but his boss said he couldn’t hear six hit singles so the dream was over. Things were never the same, Woody started working in London so it got harder and harder, eventually it just ground to a halt.

Hunted material was more American oriented hard rock. Were you really into this music at the time or was it more like an attempt to finally earn some money playing music?

I don’t know if Hunted sounded like American rock it was just what came out of us, we never made any effort to try to sound that way.

Fast forward to 2010’s. What were you up to musically when Mike Darby (Bristol Archive Records) offered to re-release old Stormtrooper’s demos? Were you all into the reunion right away?

Hunted got back together in 2010 for a year or so and we just missed out on getting the support slot for Bon Jovi at Bristol’s Aston Gate Stadium, big shame that things just didn’t work out again. Boggy posted some of our old material online and Mike Darby approached us to ask if we have any more. We said we had and he said he wanted to do an album so we said carry on. Boggy and I were still good friends and were reworking “Boggs Song” when the album was a coming out. We contacted Nick and Nigel because we wanted them to be involved and since I had the gear to do some recording. We thought it would be good fun to record some old songs we never got round to. So even though we hadn’t played them for over thirty years the chemistry was still there and we even rearranged “Staff of Life”. No one could even remember it we just found the lyrics so I searched my attic and found a very badly recorded live version. After the album came out we got offered a spot at Brofest in Newcastle, we asked ourselves if we could do and decided what the hell. So we had four rehearsals and just did it and I’m so glad we did.

It took quite a while to complete the album “Every Now and Then”. Was it hard to reactivate the chemistry that you had in the 80’s? , Could you tell me about the recording of “Every Now and Then”? Why didn’t Paul sing anything on the album? And why did you have to program the drums when Nick Hancox was still in the band?

Nick was suffering with Parkinson’s so he only played on five of the songs so as Boggy and I were writing the material I took it on myself to program the drums on the rest of the songs. Do you know how hard it is to find a good drummer when you’ve got nothing to offer? We asked Paul if he would sing on some of the old songs but he said he was busy writing his own material and it was not what he was into anymore.

There are five old songs on the album: “Flight Of Fantasy “, “Boggs Song”, “Staff Of Life”, “Joker Or The Fool” and “Mississippi Boogie”. Were they written in the 80’s and how did you manage to record them now, after so many years? Did you have some rough versions of the songs?

I’ve an electronic kit which Nick played and we just plugged straight into Logic. We listened to an old live tape for ten minutes or so then recorded them, it wasn’t first takes but it didn’t take long to get them down

“The Lost Album” was released via Bristol Archive Records and High Roller Records. Why didn’t the latter release “Every Now and Then”?

I think Mike Darby said they had a lot of stuff coming out around that time so it just didn’t happen. Which I think is a great shame because it’s a really good album that almost nobody got to hear’

Why did Stormtrooper split up again?

I think the old issues between Nick and Boggy came back and Nigel wasn’t really interested. Boggy and I went onto write and finish the album but when he came up with the notes for the album he’d credited himself as sole writer on some songs even though I’d put guitar parts in, programmed the drums and lots of the synths. When I challenged him about it reminding him how much work I’d put in to get the songs sounding like they should he said it didn’t matter and I wasn’t getting any credit. I thought after 45 years of friendship I deserved better. So Stormtrooper was over but I still wanted to make Music.

It’s great to see you playing music with Stormhunters. Would you say that this band is a natural continuation of what you did on “Every Now and Then”?

I just wanted to still make music, a couple of years ago I wrote a novel because I had this story in my head but I find it really hard to write lyrics and as Andy had contributed so much to “Every Now and Then” I asked if he would still write with me.

What is the best part of being in the band with Andy?

Andy I think has a great voice and a talent for melody and memorable little phrases that stick in your head. I haven’t actually seen Andy for more than three years, so I just send him the music I’ve done and he records the vocals and sends them back to be. If he needs anything changed in the backing he just e-mails me what he needs.

And again, you programmed the drums on the album “Eye of the Storm”. Was your budget too tight to hire a real drummer? I guess many fans consider programmed drums as a swindle… But anyway, hats off to you for doing such an amazing job with the drums! I believe it took so much time and effort to write all the parts, program them and make them sound as real as possible, didn’t it? Were there other difficulties in the making of “Eye of the Storm”?

I know some people are against programmed drums but when you have to try and do almost everything yourself there is no other choice. Not being a drummer this is by far the hardest thing I’ve had to as it’s not natural for me, but I’ve put a lot of work trying to make it sound like a real drummer. I wanted an organ solo on “Long Way Down” so I asked John, after he’d done it he said if I needed any more keyboards he’d love to do them. He plays on seven songs and having a real keyboard player gives some of the songs more depth than I could have.

What are your expectations about “Eye of the Storm”? Do you still want to prove something or get some recognition as a player/songwriter?

When I finished it I felt proud of it and as a musician would like people to hear and enjoy it, I’m just someone who plays bait of guitar but has the drive and hopefully the talent to produce something worth listening to.

Are you going to play live with Stormhunters? If yes, will you perform anything from Stormtrooper?

It seems like an impossible task to put together a band of likeminded musicians to put in that amount of work with no prospects, but never say never, and if we did play live I’m sure a few Stormtrooper songs would find their way into the set.

Stormhunters' debut album is scheduled for the summer of 2022 (SMC Records).

Visit Stormtrooper's Facebook page. 

Visit Bristol Archive Records.