Heavy, heavy, heavy. Not so much a squawk as a volcanic blast. That is the second album form Welsh trio Budgie. Whilst there are certainly moments on the record to soothe tired eardrums and float away on dreamy tunes played on acoustic guitars, most of it is rude, loud, crashing, smashing, top gear, grinding, Panzer Division rock…I mean ROCK.
Budgie were always a second league band in their hey day but have inspired so many musicians after them that they have retained a cult status. They are greatly loved and sorely missed. In 1999 they played two gigs after a long absence and I was there at the first to see the monster pound through the greatest 'hits'. Their theme song, as it were, was called Breadfan, which has been covered by Metallica among others, and which starts with one of the all-time classic guitar riffs. But then riffs is what the band is all about. The original guitarist who has always been horribly underrated by the guitar establishment, Tony Bourge just kept on churning out one superb riff after another.
Squawk found the band getting into their stride. The album starts its assault in the style it means to end with Whiskey River, and winds its way through the battlefield with such moments of musical madness as Rocking Man, Drugstore Woman, She's as Hot as a Docker's Armpit and Stranded. Burke Shelley, the diminutive bassist and singer had the idea that eye-catching silly song titles were a good ploy to get people to buy albums. Well, he is welsh after all! Now a born again Christian, Shelley has always been the leader of the flock (it's a pun - budgies, church congregations). His voice is singular to say the least and is certainly not to everyone's taste, but he would construct as melodic a vocal line as he could over the angular guitar lines. His voice is far more suited to the quiet and reflective tracks like Young is a World which is a shame for a man so committed to HEAVY!
The album cover is a Roger Dean creation, he of Yes cover fame. Dean had made a model of a jet fighter to which he had glued the skull of a bird. He photographed the resulting incongruity for the cover but it didn't work as well as he had hoped. Rather than abandon the idea he resorted to drawing the odd machine. Is it a plane? is it a bird? No, it's Roger Dean being weird again. Production duties were given to Roger Bain who had worked so successfully with Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy too if my memory serves me right. Bain always put his own stamp on a recording that was to shape British heavy metal for many years to come. The sound he would go for is rather dry and in-your-face and demanding of the musicians, but he always seems to get the best out of them.
I saw Budgie a number of times on stage and they were terrific but I lost touch when Tony Bourge called it a day to be replaced by John Thomas. Thomas is an able and gifted guitar player but Bourge's style was unique and had a charm in a funny sort of way that Thomas could not emulate. With his arrival they started to sound the same as other bands, but then all things move on. I'll keep my memories of the original band.