Loading details…
Artist
The Handsome Beasts
12+ albums
NWOBHMheavy metalhard rockbritishNew Wave of British Heavy Metal
about
Playing in and around their home town Birmingham, the beasts, fronted by singer Garry Dalloway (nick-named "the original fat bastard" by the Kerrang! direktory of heavy metal), quickly became local heroes. consequently Paul Birch, who rated the band very highly, tried to get them a record deal asking numerous major labels if they would be interested. They weren't, so he founded his own label to put out the first handsome beasts single "all riot now" / "the mark of the beast" in early 1980. Later in the same year heavy metal issued the "breaker" ep which used the digital spiral technique - it played "crazy" or "one in a crowd" depending on where you put the record needle at the beginning - a gimmick later used by Kiss. Dalloway, bassist Steve Hough, guitarist Phil Aston and drummer Pete Malbasa played further gigs in the midlands area before recording their debut lp "Beastiality" in 1981 (by which time Aston had been replaced by Paul Robins). With an outrageous but humorous cover, the album showed that musically the beasts still incorporated massive blues influences into their meaty metal sound. It was a pity, though, that the album featured only four new songs ("david's song" / "another day" / "tearing me apart" / "high speed") as the rest of the material was already known from their three singles ( the latest being "sweeties" and the ballad-like "you're on your own" b side). When the n.w.o.b.h.m. lost it's momentum towards the middle of the 80's they split up. Garry refo
