Out of Control The recording of the Blackwych debut album took place over 3 days at SRS studios Slane. After the release of the Green Metal Compilation, Declan arranged a series of meeting with Shay Hennessy of Crashed Records and secured the release of a full debut album. This album was originally to contain 12 tracks, but with time restraints and cost limitations, the finished recording featured the 10 songs listed below. Song Titles 1 Out of Control 2 Rockin Lady 3 Man Hunt 4 Burning Down The Line 5 Deaths Dealer 6 Metal Mania 7 Mental Telepathy 8 Give Up 9 Rockin Roll 10 The Hangman Copyright Crashed Music The two songs that missed the cut were Bloody War & Metal Forever. It was difficult to cut songs, but sometimes you just have no choice. This was a fairly hectic session at Slane Studios, and no easy feat. Recording 10 songs in the short space of time took a bit of planing. We stayed with Mary and John at Slane for the session which saved on travel time up and down. By the time we had all the squeaks and rattles out of the drums, half the first day was gone. Many thanks to engineer John Dee, who with a fair bit of skill and lots of coffee helped us record and master “Out of Control” in only 3 days. SRS was a 16 track studio running 1 inch tape back then, and all you would expect from a seasoned recording studio.  The album was released on vinyl in 1986 on the Crashed Records label in  Ireland, and the Metal Masters Records label for the rest of the world. The line up Ciaran James                 Vocals Declan James          Guitars Niall C James                 Bass Bobby Tierney               Guitar Chris Andralinus          Drums The Art work on the front cover is by Alan Craddock signed “Alan 82” and in its self, has become a collectable. The art work had been used on two previous publications before it got to its home in heavy metal New 2013 CD    

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The band went on tour around Ireland, to promote the album. Playing anywhere that would have a rock band called Blackwych. Bobby Tierney left shortly after the release, and Chris was not available for gigs. So we went on tour without a second guitarist and drafted in Joe Byrne on drums. It was during our Irish tour we were offered a management deal from a UK based company, so like the the young boyo’s we were, we up stumps and moved camp London. Neither Chris or Joe were ready to move to London so we were without a drummer, not a problem or so we thought. But it did not far well on the management deal front. They were “not interested in half a band” to quote on quote So there we were, in London. No manager, and no drummer, and no gigs,   Great! This was a difficult time for us, we had no contacts in the bigger smoke, and despite having a full album release with Metal Masters, they did nothing to help us. it was all a bit sea sick and a sore lesson. I contacted Chris and asked him to consider moving to London, and after a time he followed on. This got the band back on the road. We had started work on our second album before leaving Ireland, most of the songs were already in the set. So after poping around a few studios in London and pricing up the cost. We decided to use the live performances we had recorded during the Irish tour for our second album. after the kicking we had taken funding our selves thus far, what ever money we had left would have to be used for a UK tour. Many thanks Shay Hennessy and Crashed,  whom gave us all they could, and a big thank you to Paul O Mahoney from Hot Press, Eric Galbrath at Two wheels Motorcycles, Gorge Canning kick boxing,  Pete Holidai, , Chris Connolly, Mag Brilly, Martin & Susan Eve, Eric Block, Danny, Damien Foy (Human), Conor Byrne, the Ma, the Da, , Paul Elliott at Three Bridges Studios, John & Mary Dee at Slane Studios, Eddie Donovan at Ashtown gate studios, Patsy Tracy, & Pat Mc Manus  and Mamas Boys for all the inspiration, “Straight forward no looking back” Dec James

Signed poster left in Slane Studios

© Blackwych2009