John Verity - Guitarist & Producer

Image by Roy Cano

Here at Enter Sadmen HQ we don’t have many rules, but there are two that we’re pretty intransigent about: we don’t review Greatest Hits or compilation albums, and we generally only consider albums released between 1970 and 1995 (though between you and me, we’ll probably make an exception in the cases of both Zeppelin and Purple … ).

But that means we risk missing out on some of the legendary behaviour and music of the decade that ultimately gave birth to the entire heavy rock genre - the Swinging Sixties, where rock and roll was subversive and anarchic and loud and grubby. All the things, in fact, that drew us to it in the first place.

Luckily, we occasionally get to sit down and chat with people who fuelled that underground swell, riding in on the vapour trails of distortion created by BB King and Hendrix et al. And just as well, really, because it meant we had the chance to spend a couple of hours one evening with John Verity, front man for the John Verity Band who had some hilarious tales of derring-do to share from his early days on the scene during the mid- to late-Sixties all the way to the trials and tribulations of his transition to record producer during the Eighties.

Over the course of our chat John, who counts spells with Argent, Phoenix and The Dave Berry Band and an ill-tempered support slot for Jimi Hendrix on his CV, recounts the night a member of Hendrix’s road crew tried to sabotage their set, how their manager was dropped four floors from an apartment block by Miami cops in a drug bust, being ‘persuaded’ to leave the United States by the US immigration service, how record execs at Carrere managed to review Saxon’s debut album played at the wrong speed, and the moment he thought (wrongly) that Motorhead manager Doug Richards would fire him from a production job on an early 80s live album …

You can listen to the episode by clicking the player below (or find it in all the usual places, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Soundcliud, Tunein, Pandora and Iheartradio). You can also scroll down to discover the top 10 albums that have inspired John along the way, and tune in to the episode to hear him talk about why they’re his desert island picks.

John’s latest album, Passion, is available to buy, stream and download now and you can keep up to date with tour news and all things JV on Facebook at www.facebook.com/johnveritymusic

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John’s Top 10 Albums of All Time

10. The Beatles - Rubber Soul (1965)

“This was the moment they moved away from beiing a pop band. The stuff on here has got some substance and I suppose it lit the songwriting flame in me - all of a sudden, things were changing.”

9. BB King - Live At The Regal (1965)

“A lot of musicians say this is one of the things that started them off. The audience is going bananas all the way through it and it makes you think, Wow … this is what it could be like!

"The adulation is there and he’s just on fire. It leaps out of the speakers, you know? The guy had chops.”

8. BB King - Indianola Mississippi Seeds (1970)

“One of the nicest things about this album is he’s working with a real rock producer - Bill Szymczyk - who did stuff with Joe Walsh and the James Gang, and he brought modern musicians in with BB - and it just really works.”

7. Joe Walsh - The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get (1973)

“When I signed to ABC I got sent all their stuff and that turned me on to a load of different things. It was great! Anyway, I’d never heard of Joe Walsh and this album dropped through my door and I put it on … and it was fantastic. There’s some brilliant stuff on here.”

6. John Mayall & The Blues Breakers - Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966)

“Most guitarists will own up that this changed their lives, really. maybe not at the younger end, but for us older guys this was the first time any of us had heard a Les Paul through a Marshall amp and what it could sound like. It was unbelievable.

“People are vey unkind about Eric Clapton, but he changed everything.”

5. Jeff Beck- The Jeff Beck Group (1972)

“The first two Jeff Beck albums were really the template for Led Zeppelin. Beck must have been really pissed off when Jimmy Page put Zeppelin together because it was basicall The Jeff Beck Group with Robert Plant.

“Zeppelin even lifted a couple of songs off the first two Beck albums!”

4. Terry Reid - Superlungs (1973)

“Terry Reid was supposed to be the singer in Led Zeppelin - he was offered the gig first. In the late 60s he was quite hot and he was probably the first rock artist to be produced by Mickie Most.

”He had this amazing voice. We opened for Terry when I was with the Dave Berry Band and he had the same high register as me - and it was then that I realised I could be a singer, too.”

3. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin (1969)

“I don’t think people now can really appreciate what the first Zeppelin album did - it was really ground breaking.

“It was so powerful compared to how everything else sounded then. Everyrthing was really big - the way Bonham played, the big sound. Everything was ambient - nothing about the sound was dead.”

2. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland (1968)

“Hendrix was in a typical production situation in that he was being forced to be a pop artist, and he wasn’t that. But his record company was trying to make him write 3 minute pop singles like The Wind Cries Mary.

“When he did this, he was let loose and as a result the album is amazing. I saw him on his first club tour of the UK and the place was full of other guitarists with their chins on the floor. It was just killer.”

1. Jackson Browne - Anything by Jackson* Browne

“If you write songs for a living, listening to Jackson Browne can make you feel like giving up. His songs can either bring you down or inspire you.

“You find yourself listening to his work and thinking, Where did he get that from?”

* John didn’t specify any one album, but Late For The Sky is widely seen as Jackson Browne’s best recorded work, and so we have chosen that album cover to reflect the scope of his output.

Doro Pesch - Warlock / Doro

When Warlock first hitched their wagon to hard rock’s runaway train back in ‘84 with their debut Burning The Witches there was only one person the journos from the world’s music press were interested in hearing from: the band’s iconic siren, the then 19-year-old Doro Pesch.

Burning The Witches was a cacophonous whirlwind of brute force riffery and superior melodies, delivered by an immediately and identifiably unique voice that managed to somehow balance raw power and beguiling lyricism. That Doro was backed by some kick-ass musicians was, at that time, perpetually in danger of becoming a sidebar to the main story: the emergence of a new powerhouse in German hard rock.

Warlock, as a brand at least, is now defunct, the innocent victim of a legal wrangle with the band’s previous management, but its legacy and principles live on with Doro the now long-time solo artist who is still backed by fabulously kick-ass musicians and who still brings that same seductive Jekyll and Hyde blend of the angelic and the defiant to her vocal performance.

In truth, the Doro of 2021, caged like all of us in a virtual world during lockdown, is not so very different to the young woman who found herself quite by accident to be the new darling of the rock music press all those years ago.

Older, yes - though her unfailing authenticity and undimmed enthusiasm for her music makes her ageless, somehow. Wiser? Certainly - life in a rock band has given her survival instincts and resilience a sharpness that is more than a match for the cut-throat politics of the music biz.

It’s also a Doro who has viewed the world through the lens of rock and roll and has found it wanting, igniting in her a compassion and kindness that have long informed the code by which she lives: a committed vegan whose vocal advocacy of ethical practice is as loud and compelling as the music that still drives and warms her soul - just as it ensures her leather stagewear is, in fact, not leather at all, but rather hand-tailored non-animal materials to look like the real deal.

There are many things that personify the Doro the boys meet over Zoom towards the end of lockdown. The first thing is that she smiles and laughs. A lot. Far from eroding her capacity for answering questions about her life, the passing years seem to have bequeathed her an indefatigable appetite for the opportunity to share her life and her passion.

And while the Sadmen may delude themselves - perhaps justifiably, perhaps not - that their questions were hardly from the same journalism buffet table at which Doro may have been forced to dine in the past, what ensued was a converrsation that was wonderfully candid, totally guileless and full of good humour.

In the interview, which you can listen to below, Doro talks about how her lack of English in the early days of Warlock's global success made her self-conscious and anxious; the wild excitement she felt at appearing on the Donington Monsters of Rock tour in 1986; how Lemmy, that been-there-seen-it-drank-the-tee-shirt scion of rock and roll royalty, took her under his wing and became one of her closest allies, confidantes and friends (and how she keeps a part of him close to her to this day … quite literally!); her love of Ronnie James Dio and the paralysing grief she felt upon hearing news of his death; and how W.A.S.P.’s Blackie Lawless temporarily slipped off his artistic cloak of misogyny and objectification to look after her when she fell ill before a show.

We also count down Doro’s top 10 albums of all time …

A remastered edition of Doro’s 1998 album Love Me In Black is now available in multiple formats

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Doro’s Top 10 Albums of All Time

10. Saxon - Denim And Leather (1981)

“We did many, many festivals with Saxon, like Wacken, and we always invited each other to our shows when we were touring.

“We went to their anniversaries and they came to my anniversaries, so yeah - we’re great friends and Biff is a great inspiration to me, so we have a lot of history with Saxon, and I love this album.”

9. Judas Priest - British Steel (1980)

“My favourite Judas Priest album. Man, they were heavy! This record is as good as they’ve ever been, I think. ”

8. Metallica - Kill ‘Em All (1983)

“This was so fresh and so new when it came out. It wasn’t like anything else I had ever heard.”

7. Whitesnake - Live … In The Heart Of The City (1980)

“The atmosphere on this album is incredible - about ten times better than a studio album. The vibe is awesome and I just love the energy.

“When Coverdale sings ‘There ain’t no love in the heart of the city…’ I’m, like, wow! I’m just melting away. And Mistreated … oh my God!!”

6. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975)

“The songwriting and playing on this album is unbelievable. It’s an album everyone should listen to at least once in their life.”

5. Motorhead - Ace Of Spades (1982)

“Oh man - Lemmy! He was such a big influence on my life and my career. He was a great friend - I can’t really believe he’s gone.

“This is such a powerful album, with great songs and great production. An awesome album for me.”

4. KISS - Alive II (1977)

“I love KISS. Their shows are such an event, so full of energy and I think this album has all of that.

“It’s got so many of their classic songs on it - it’s one of the great live rock albums.”

3. Dio - The Last In Line (1984)

“I had the privilege of getting to know Ronnie and counted him as a friend. He was such an awesome singer - there was nothing he couldn’t sing, and he was such a lovely person, too.

“When he died, I cried for two weeks. I couldn’t do anything at all. This is my favourite Dio album of all.”

2. Accept - Restless And Wild (1982)

“This album is just so mean and heavy, and full of energy.

“Judas Priest was the second concert I went to and I was the only one among my friends who had a licence, so I was driving everyone over to the Priest concert … only to find that they were already on!

“So, we stood at the back and it was great and I turned to my guitar player at the time and said, ‘Oh, man - I love Judas Priest! They’re even better live than on record!’

“And he turned and looked at me, and said, ‘That’s not Judas Priest - that’s the support band! And it was Accept. At that time, I didn’t even know Accept was a German band.”

1. W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol (1992)

“It’s very close between this and The Last Command or the debut album, but this is such a great album. The Great Misconception of Me and Hold on My Heart are just awesome.

“Our first UK tour was as support to W.A.S.P. on the Inside The Electric Circus tour and he [Blackie] was so nice to me.”

David Croft - Sports Broadcaster

There are some sports that are just more heavy metal than most. American Football, for example. Boxing. Wrestling. And then there’s motorsport. Specifically, there’s F1. And it’s just as well that F1 is the sporting equivalent of a KISS show in full flight, because the man whose voice has become synonymous with the sport is at his happiest when the guitars are turned up loud.

David Croft - or Crofty as he’s been affectionately known by everyone who’s worked with him since he started his career as a PR for the Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage back in the 80s - is possibly one of the world’s biggest Bruce Springsteen fans, and over the years that devotion has grown rather than diminished, to the point where he’s a walking encyclopaedia of knowledge about all things Boss-related.

But co-habiting with Springsteen in his ears is also metal. And not just old skool metal either, though he’s a very definite fan of Metallica, Iron Maiden and The Black Crowes, among others. You’ll also find him listening to the likes of Parkway Drive (a firm favourite also of McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo), The War On Drugs, and Guns N’ Roses. Oh, and he’s also an avid listener to - and champion of - independent metal station Primordial.

His tastes are so metal, in fact, that the rest of the Sky Sports commentary team (Martin Brundle aside) can’t bring themselves to listen to his pre-race playlist

Earlier this year, the Sadmen got the chance to spend an hour with the man himself and delve into his love affair with hard rock and heavy metal - an affair that started in earnest at Knebworth Park in 1985 and his first encounter with Deep Purple, Meat Loaf, UFO, the Scorpions and Blackfoot - among others - and has continued to his karaoke choices at the F1 constructors’ Christmas parties that he’s occasionally invited to.

Listen on the player below to discover how a eve-of-race Springsteen show in Barcelona almost rendered him literally speechless for the following day’s Spanish GP, his and the boys’ tribute to the simple pleasure of visiting a record shop, and how his journey with the music he loves - metal or not - has helped shape who he is today.

You can also scroll down further to find out his top 10 albums of all time.

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Crofty’s Top 10 Albums of All Time

10. The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream (2014)

“There are some tracks on here that are unbelievably good. Underneath all of this is a man who’s really suffering - a lot of these songs build into a climax and I love the way the album just builds and builds and builds. I absolutely adore this album and I put it on when I just need to sit down and let music wash over me.”

9. Guns N’ Roses - Appetite For Destruction (1987)

“Appetite For Destruction is in the top ten because it has to be in the top ten, and if Guns N’ Roses had stopped after this I don’t think I’d have been disappointed, because nothing they did afterwards was as good. This is their Never Mind The Bollocks.

“This is just a sensational album. Twelve tracks by a band who were burning at their brightest and who weren’t going to burn for long.”

8. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (1968)

“I put this in because there are some albums that you have to listen to at a certain time of the day, and if you listen to Astral Weeks for heaven’s sake don’t listen to it before eleven o’clock at night because you just won’t get what Van Morrison was trying to achieve.

“It’s a stream of consciousness that doesn’t necessarily make much sense. It’s rock folk blues jazz, a jam session with a bunch of musicians who were absolutely in the right moment together. And it contains Sweet Thing, which I think is just one of the most gorgeous tunes ever written.”

7. Jason Isbell - Southeastern (2014)

“This is not necessarily a happy album but it’s an album written by a man who is coming to terms with the way his life is, who doesn’t have the answers to how his life will pan out, but knows the answers will come eventually.

“No one is writing songs like Jason Isbell at the moment. I adore great lyricists, and he absolutely falls into that category.”

6. Queen - A Night At The Opera (1975)

“This was the most expensive album album ever made at the time they recorded it and this was Queen showing what Queen could really do when they were let loose in a studio - A Night At The Opera is every bit of this band’s talents.

“Bohemian Rhap[sody does tend to dominate most people’s view of this album, but The Prophet’s Song is an amazing piece of operatic rock, 39 is a wonderful folky tune that George Michael used to busk to, Love of My Life is a beautiful song. There are so many great tracks on this album.

“It’s the first album I ever bought and I still play it to this day.”

5. Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast (1982)

“I loved Number Of The Beast. This was just the dog’s, wasn’t it? Invaders could have been a better opening track, but it starts slow and builds to a cresecendo. Then there’s Children of the Damned - my god, you see the difference between DiAnno and Dickinson on a track like that!

“But it’s tracks 5 through 8 - Number of the Beast, Run to the Hills, Gangland and Hallowed Be Thy Name - that make the album. Commercial they may be, but they’re still staples in a Maiden set today.”

4. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978)

“There are a lot of Springsteen fans out there who’ll be wondering why this isn’t in the top 3, and the simple reason is that I prefer the other one that is in my top 3.

“I’m a hopeless optimist. I dream of better days and there’s something in Born To Run that strikes a chord with me in every single track.

“Darkness On The Edge of Town is a great introduction to Springsteen, but it’s an album he wrote after a long protracted dispute with his former manager that stopped him recording any music for a couple of years.

“This is a more grown up Springsteen. There’s a more guitar orientated sound than was on Born To Run. This is regarded by many of his fans as his best work.”

3. Metallica - Ride The Lightning (1984)

“Who agrees with me that this is the best Metallica album of all time? Ride The Lightning is the album that introduced the proper Metallica to the world.

“The confidence this band had to put out an album with acoustic guitar in a thrash metal album showed they had the guts and belief that what they were doing would be appreciated by the majority of people.

“They could have continued doing what they were doing and we’d all have been very happy with that, but they experimented and there are just some intense tracks on this album as a result.”

2. The Black Crowes - The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion (1992)

“The Black Crowes could have been the biggest band on the planet, but a mixture of greed, drug taking, the fight for control that wasa going on, and several bad decisions, they didn’t become the banmd they should have become.

“This album is The Black Crowes’ legacy - a great album that the world should appreciate and enjoy. It took eight days to record and I think it’s incredible.”

1. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run (1976)

“I think Thunder Road is the most beautiful song ever written. The whole album is full of images that Springsteen set to music. Lyrics like these only get written once, and for me this is an album of hope.

“The album is a band that’s finding its feet. The Vietnam War had just ended and Springsteen captures the mood of a nation with this.

“It’s also the album where the band is joined by Clarence Clemons and its a colelction of songs that celebrates Springsteen, the white rock star and Clemons, the Black horn guy, not just as friends but partners.

“Just a fabulous album.”