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The Halls of Valhalla (R.I.P.)

Thursday, 6 June 2024

Graeme Hutchinson (Holland/Hammer): We simply loved hard rock and wanted to emulate our heroes

Middlesbrough's natives Holland (a.k.a. Holland) lived very typical life of a NWOBHM band: they played energetic and enjoyable mixture of hard rock and heavy metal and gigged wherever they could and trusted their succes to Ebony Records. Of course, this label helped Grim Reaper to get a major deal and also released albums of Savage, Dealer, Blade Runner and Cobra, but  most of these bands saw very little (if any) support from Ebony. So it was all about how enthusiastic bands were and how long they wanted to continue playing and recording. Holland, who changed the name to Hammer (more about that below), managed to record two albums before calling it a day in 1985. In 2019 I contacted Graeme Hutchinson to talk about the glorious days of NWOBHM and other things. Some of the info here is a bit dated (especially about Black Rose's new album) but other than that it is still interesting for a NWOBHM fan.