There’s nothing weak about WEAK13

"Best piece of documentation on my band done by an author or journalist. 
Thank you Paul Merry." Nick J Townsend, WEAK13.

BLUESMUSE33

First there was blues, but only after:

·         Ethiopian delineating in the 1820s and 30s

·         Minstrelsy from the 1840s to 1900s

·         The abominably-named coon songs of the 1880s and 1890s

·         Ragtime between the 1890s and 1912

This is because blues, of course, didn’t spring up fully-formed overnight, as my book How Blues Evolved explains.

Out of blues, as Muddy Waters sang, came its baby, rock & roll, in the 1930s, 40s and 50s; and out of rock and roll, via race music and rhythm & blues, came rock in the 1960s.

The power trio who started heavy metal, Cream.

The UK power trio, Cream, made rock heavy in 1966, with their thundering riffs and drums, and Clapton’s dynamic blues-based guitar, and when Cream disbanded, session guitar ace, Jimmy Page, immediately spotted the gap in the market. Page founded Led Zeppelin in 1968 especially to fill the massive void left by Cream’s departure. Zeppelin, of course, went on to wow the world with their powerful brand of blues rock.

That same year, 1968, another pioneering heavy rock band was formed, Black Sabbath, who rate, along with Led Zeppelin, as the founding fathers of heavy metal.

Considering half of Zeppelin came from around Birmingham in England’s West Midlands, as did all of Sabbath, one wonders why rock music from Birmingham is so powerful. Some say metal’s in the psyche there.  The sound comes from the non-stop banging of anvils and steam hammers from the days when Birmingham was known as the workshop of the (British) Empire; and the area around it was called The Black Country on account of its smokestacks, soot and smog.

A year after Black Sabbath thundered out of Birmingham (see the Brummie Blues post in April’s archive), Judas Priest also formed in Brum to crank out more heavy metal. Six years later, Lemmy Kilmister, from nearby Stoke-on-Trent, founded Motorhead, sparking phase two of the genre.

It’s been a while, but now I’ve noticed another heavy metal band from England’s West Midlands is making a bit of a noise or, should I say, creating a truckload of it. Like Cream, the band who started it all, this outfit is also a hard rock power trio.

Hailing from the ancient traditional carpet town of Kidderminster, 17 miles from Birmingham, WEAK13 isn’t so much garage rock as industrialized factory mash. Founder, main songwriter and frontman, Nick J. Townsend, must have

Power trio WEAK13 with Nick J. Townsend centre.

the most eccentric haircut in rock, having shaved off half of his beard and shoulder-length hair in 1999 as a protest against society. He sings like he’s protesting against society, too, with a voice that sometimes sounds reminiscent of AC/DC’s original singer, the late, great (but tiny) Bon Scott.

Nick looks twice the size of Bon, and you can have a look at WEAK13 and check out their music and videos by clicking on their official Australian WEAK13 fansite link now.

http://weak13.site4fans.com/music-videos/

Why their fan club’s based in Australia I don’t know but WEAK13 also have a following in the USA, having appeared on American heavy metal-themed TV show InsaniTV a couple of times.

WEAK13 are also graced with an S&M themed dancer, Mistress Satine, pictured left, and the band often put a bound-and-gagged 'Sex Pest' front of stage, which handily ties in (pun intended) with one of their better known songs, 'Sex Pest'. 
Again, you can catch WEAK13's strikingly theatrical stage show by logging onto their fan club link above.

Talking about Australia (as we were a paragraph back), the only band I know who matches WEAK13 for grinding industrial rock is Nick Cave’s Grinderman from Down Under. If you like your rock rock-hard, take a listen to this one, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuDP7c3Zd8I

And, should you be interested in finding out how this wonderful music of ours started its long journey to what's happening now, please follow the links to the book How Blues Evolved below. 

U.K. How Blues Evolved link

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=how+blues+evolved+volume+one

U.S. How Blues Evolved link
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=how+blues+evolved