Tigertailz - Where they've been, where they're going

Kim Hooker - lead vocals / guitar

Jay Pepper - lead guitar / vocals

TBC - bass / vocals

Ace Finchum - drums / drums / drums

Twenty years after the release of their second album ‘Bezerk' - an album that defined the whole turn-of-the-decade glam metal zeitgeist - Tigertailz roll on to new and fairer horizons. Greater challenges met head-on by bigger riffs, sharper solos, melt-yer-brain vocals and hooks heavy and dark enough to reel in not only ‘Jaws' but all the sequels too.

Tigertailz may already have the distinction of being the only UK band to share in some of the success of the hairspray heavies of the day - Mötley Crüe, L.A Guns, WASP etc - but they only achieved it by being unique, by not following others and by doing it their way. Extremity in everything - in music, in image, in art, in life...

Roll back to 1990 when so-called ‘glam' metal for the then generation had hit its peak. A young bunch of beered up rockers staggered out of the Welsh countryside with their hair spiked to the heavens and guitars set to ‘melt'.

Having made a splash in 1987 with debut album ‘Young And Crazy', Tigertailz were ripe for promotion to the premiership. Having parted with singer Steevi Jaimz; guitarist Jay Pepper, bassist Pepsi Tate and drummer Ace Finchum enlisted the talents of longtime friend, Kim Hooker, a born-to-do-it frontman. Hitting the studio immediately the band released their debut single with Hooker, the re-written and utterly infectious ‘Living Without You'. It promptly hit the indie Top 20 and braced the rapidly growing fanbase for the advent of ‘Bezerk'.

It was an album that tattooed the name Tigertailz into the minds, households and nightmares of rock fans, not only across the UK but worldwide. In ‘Love Bomb Baby', the quartet had their first bona fide hit single, not to mention a bubblegum classic that seems destined to remain their calling card. It was also something of a one-off, as Jay explains: "Our image tied us in with bands like Poison and the like, but musically we were much heavier than those guys and fell more in line with Ozzy, the Sex Pistols, Kiss and Van Halen."

Hitting the UK charts twice more with ‘Noise Level Critical' and ‘Heaven', the band's OTT antics took them on the road for an eternity, helping ‘Bezerk' sail past the quarter million sales mark.

To reward the loyalty of Japanese fans, the band released ‘Banzai', a special ‘gift' comprising singles, B-sides, covers and new material. Incredibly, despite their popularity reaching new heights, it was to be the last album released by the classic line-up for over a decade. Frustrating delays and record company problems prevented Tigertailz from releasing ‘Wazbones', the hotly anticipated follow up to ‘Bezerk'. It was a blow that would send them into long-term hiatus...

In 2005, with the music scene beginning to look something like fun again, the core members of Tigertailz reunited. As record companies hurried to re-release their older material, the band prepared their comeback album ‘Bezerk 2.0'. They were back, on the big stages all over Europe, supporting the likes of Kiss, Crüe, Whitesnake and Velvet Revolver. Even better was to come, on the back of 2007's fantastic ‘Thrill Pistol', the heaviest album the band have made, and a true indicator of their current direction - British metal, twisted up with street punk and savagely singable melodies. Not only that, but its release finally enabled them to issue the fabled ‘Wazbones' as a second, bonus CD - free with every copy of ‘Thrill Pistol'.

Tragically, 2007 was to be remembered for the passing of Pepsi Tate, a terrible blow that left Tigertailz in pieces. After much soul-searching, it was decided to bite back, continuing to keep alive the great tradition that Pepsi had been such a powerful exponent of. Cementing a new line-up in 2010, featuring bassist Sarah Firebrand and drummer Robin Guy, the band unleashed the next phase of their rollercoaster story - the 20-year anniversary of ‘Bezerk', a live CD, two festival headline slots, and...the first steps toward the long-awaited all-new Tigertailz studio album.

As if all that excitement wasn’t enough... original drummer Ace Finchum returned to the Tailz line-up late in 2011 after almost 20 years absence to mark a milestone in the this latest Tailz reunion. The Tailz were now back to their most compete line-up possible at this stage.

Turning the corner into 2012 and Sarah Firebrand departs the band but the Tailz continue to march on with a new Bass player awaiting in the wings.. More to come on that soon....

As the road rolls on into 2012 and beyond, from a band that has survived challenges so bizarre that most wouldn't even believe it, expect blow-your-mind live performances, a new generation Tigertailz album to rally the clans, and a resurgence to make fans young and old proud of this classic Welsh metal band. The best advice right now is to brace yourselves...

Hooker - Pepper - Finchum