From my METAL past

I was in a heavy rock band in the mid-late 80s called Targa.

We had a typical 80s glam look and played music in the vein of Motley Crue, with melodic influences by other bands out at the time like Dokken (with a good dose of the heavier incoming bands like Metallica). It was a good mix.

The band consists of:

Neil Waterman – guitar

Alan Wheatley-Crowe – guitar

Kris Bloomfield – bass

Reiko – vocals

and me on the drums.

We played loads of gigs including several gigs at the Wellington in Shepherds Bush and got our first headlining show at London’s famous Marquee club. Alas we never played it as we split just before. We lost our vocalist and found it really hard to find a good replacement. Then one of the guitar players left and we just fizzled out.

Last week Neil found a tape still in one of his old tape recorders and on it was a recording of one of our very last rehearsals. Recorded using a couple of mics and a tape deck it’s completely live. We were still looking for a singer so no vocals, and the song was a new one that never got lyrics. But it was completely live, and we were 22-23 years old, and I think had some good potential. If we’d have had Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, iTunes and all of the other stuff modern bands have who knows what we might have achieved. Anyway, I’m very happy for you to hear this, warts and all.

I hope you like it HEAVY!

17 responses to “From my METAL past”

  1. Very good, certainly could have been a hit and sounds very professional. Makes you think what path and how different it would be if you had gone down that route. Love the work you do now.

  2. Wow! Very together, especially for such young dudes! I must admit, though, I’m glad you went another way with your music or we wouldn’t have Damh the Bard as we know and love him! 🙂

    • couldn’t agree more with above comments, certainly has more listening pleasure than some of the ‘heavy metal’ bands that have ‘made it’!

  3. Thank you for sharing this. It’s very good. But with your performance at Witchfest this past saturday i am so pleased you took the musical path that you did.

  4. Oh yeah, that’s 80’s all the way! I thought I sensed a drummer in you! I’ve just connected with some old band friends from(hold onto your hat, now) the 60’s! Wish we had a recording like this to remember those times with. But alas, we were too stoned to think about turning on a tape recorder, ha-ha!

    Thanks for sharing this, Damh. I too am glad you took the road you did.

  5. You guys were AWSOME! I was very into the metal glam rock scene back in the 80s. I adored motley crue. & i certently heard motley crue in there. I loved your that! Very good, & i also agree u could have been famous here in the states back in tjosr days for sure. But im also happy you took another path, you are defenatly gifted in the music. & i think i would love any music you do. But love your pagan path.
    Blessed be damh

  6. To my ears it sounds like really good solid NWOBHM (Crue? Really? Nah…), and that lead guitar sounds rather special 🙂

    You know how much I love metal, and how similar our musical tastes are, by and large. In my all too large CD collection I have stuff from loads of great bands that sound similar to Targa. None, however, that sound like Damh the Bard, however. Lucky us.

    Glad the hair remains unchanged, though 😉 x

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