CLOVEN HOOF
THE BBC SESSIONS (GREEN VINYL)

Midlands outfit Cloven Hoof must rate as one of the most legendary bands of the entire New Wave Of British Heavy Metal movement. The origins of the group go back to the year 1979, when they first formed under the name of Nightstalker. In 1981, however, the band switched to their new moniker: Cloven Hoof. For a long time, fans have been asking for Cloven Hoof’s two BBC sessions (from 1983 and 1989) to be made officially available. Finally, the wait is over. But why has it taken such a long time to get the tapes released? “Because the BBC offered the session, the BBC have the rights to the recording,” explains Lee Payne. “Permission had to be obtained from the BBC of course, but it is no secret that I have bought back most of the publishing rights from Universal. The time was right to release those much sought-after BBC sessions that we did. High Roller Records are a fantastic label and it is a pleasure to release these sessions for the first time on vinyl.” Cloven Hoof did indeed get a lot of positive feedback for their two BBC session, as Lee Payne explains: “‘The Friday Rock Show’ was a national institution and Radio One the most important radio station to be on if you were a young heavy metal band. We were inundated with fan mail from all over the world. Tony Wilson was the man in charge for both sessions and he produced all our work personally. The BBC equipment was far superior to what we had used for our first three studio albums! It was a shame that we couldn't have had Tony Wilson producing those albums. He did a better job in two days than the other producers did in two weeks. Abbey Road basement studio was incredible, I wish we recorded our albums there.”