AMNESIA
SIMON FAIRHURST
Amnesia from Barnsley, UK rose to prominence with their first and only album to date titled Unknown Entity, a brilliant melodic thrash metal album similar to Bay Area bands such as Exodus or Testament. The album was released in 1991 through Major Record and Amnesia became an integral part of the first wave of British Thrash Metal, performing with the likes of Sabbat, Xentrix, Acid Reign, Lawnmower Deth, Toranaga, Slammer, Terrorvision and Metal Church.
A few weeks ago Amnesia surprised everyone with the news that they have reunited and new gigs are booked. Original members Simon Fairhurst, Clive Heeley and Simon Rose have teamed up with drummer James Moore and Bassist Deep Mazumdar to reform UK Thrash legends Amnesia. I have interviewed Amnesia's guitarist and founder Simon Fairhurst. This is the first interview with Amnesia since they announced their comeback.
We can begin with a small presentation of Amnesia.
Amnesia comprise of Simon Rose – Vocals, Clive Heeley – Lead Guitar, Deep Mazumdar – Bass Guitar, James Moore – Drums and myself Simon Fairhurst – Rhythm Guitar. Amnesia was born from a group of school friends from Sheffield, UK forming in 1986 and went on to release an album entitled Unknown Entity in 1991.
How come you reformed after so many years and what are Amnesia's former members Matt Foster and Michael Vincent up to these days?
Out of the blue in 2014 our lead guitarist Clive Heeley sent me a message on facebook. It read ‘Do you want to put the band together?’ I’d not been on contact with Clive since I left the band back in 1991 so his message came like a bolt out of the blue. I thought about it for a minute and replied, something along lines of ‘No dancing around the handbags then. Sure, let’s meet up and discuss it’. So we hired a practice room and met up for a jam together to see if there was any potential for a reunion.
Sure enough we clicked so all we had to do then was find the other members and see what they thought of the idea. This proved to be not so simple as none of us had kept in touch. A bit of detective work later, through checking electoral records and contacting various relatives, we managed to track them down. Unfortunately Matt Foster and Michael Vincent were unable to commit to doing anything musically due to health reasons. This came as a major blow which obviously led to a bit of soul searching as to whether we should press on. The conclusion we arrived at was that if we could find a suitable drummer we’d suck it and see. This ultimately led to the inclusion of James and Deep in the band.
Drummer James Moore and Bassist Deep Mazumdar are new to the lineup, what can you tell us about them?
Deep was invited to audition with us through our initial drummer Damiano Porcelli (formerly of Italian thrashers Golem). Deep and Dam were both scientific research assistants at Sheffield University and in conversation he mentioned he played a bit of bass. We were looking, so fate had it that he came along and tried out. Needless to say Deep ticked all the boxes playing with his fingers, like our original bassist Matt Foster before and the legendary Cliff Burton to name drop. We were wow, Deep, your in man. Thinking about it we should call him ‘The Prof.’ His proper title is Professor Mazumdar.
After Dam relocated from Sheffield to Cambridge, for research career reasons, it became blatantly clear it wasn’t going to work out so we invited music degree student James Moore to try out with us. As a nineteen year old we had some reservations but he loved our album and was looking for a challenge which would stretch him. At an understandably nervy audition it was clear to us that James had potential so we invited him back. Thank god we did. Now twenty, James is pulling up trees and drums with so much energy it’s frightening. James Moore is definitely one to watch for the future and it’s a real privilege to have someone so exciting in the band. We keep forgetting that James wasn’t even born when ‘Unknown Entity was released but it does help pull the average age of the band down.
You recently played your comeback gig, how was it to be on stage again?
It was a bit nerve racking after all this time but we had an amazing night. Everyone that came along was super supportive and the feedback after was fantastic. We can’t wait now until the next one. Unfortunately our lead guitarist Clive though wasn’t able to join us on stage as he accidentally severed a tendon in his index finger last year. He is still in recovery following a final operation last month and we’re hoping Clive will be back playing with us before too long.
Any plans of recording new material?
Most definitely. When that will be, and in what form, has yet to be decided. Our ultimate goal would be to record a follow up album, albeit 25+ years later. We have plenty of new material, which were all really excited about, so were well underway on that front.
Let's go back in time, You recorded your first demo in 1998 titled Something Wicked, how was those days and why didn't you include any of the songs on your debut album?
The ‘Something Wicked’ demo captured our very first attempts at song writing. Needless to say by the time we recorded our second demo ‘The Final Revelation’ we felt that we’d progressed fairly dramatically both technically and in our song writing craft. The Final Rev demo secured us a record deal and formed the basis of Unknown Entity with three songs making onto the album. The introduction of Simon Rose on vocals after this demo, replacing Andy Longley, meant we could be a little more expansive. We’ve always strived to move forwards so the older material simply got left behind. We’ve no plans to revisit those early forays.
Your album Unknown Entity was released in 1991, What do you think of it retrospect?
Were certainly proud of that album. It was recorded in only two days, on shoestring budget, so it’s pretty amazing it turned out the way it did. There’s a few areas which we felt could have been done better and it never quite captured how we sounded live. It was though a good solid debut which we unfortunately never managed to build upon.
The album was released through the Major Records label, how did you get in contact with them?
Major Records was a subsidiary of Peaceville Records and our then manager was good friends with Hammy who owned the label. He introduced Hammy to Amnesia and the deal was done relatively quickly. Peaceville Records was exclusively for doom metal bands at the time so our album came out under Major. The title song ‘Unknown Entity’ did also appear on a four track compilation EP called ‘New Blood from the Forearms of Peaceville’ released in 1990.
The album was produced by Andy Mitchell of UK Thrashers Toranaga, how was it to work with him and was he a friend of the band?
We’d supported and toured with Toranaga on a number of occasions so we were good friends with Andy Mitchell and the other band members. Our manager advised us to utilise the services of Andy as co-producer as he was familiar with us and our music. Andy knew what we wanted to achieve as he was part of the UK thrash metal scene and he likewise had similar musical aspirations. It served us well as we were relatively new to the recording process being a bunch of twenty year old lads.
You did some shows with Metal Church back in the days. Tell us more about it!
Our manager got us on the bill at the Manchester International 2 back in 1991 to play with Metal Church. It was a huge gig for us as we’d never supported anyone from oversea before. I was really excited to meet John Marshall after seeing him standing in on guitar for James Hetfield when Metallica played at the Sheffield City Hall on their Master of Puppets tour back in 1986. I remember my amp packing in mid-set but it was a great experience.
Amnesia gigged with British thrash metal bands like Sabbat, Xentrix, Toranaga and Slammer amongst others. How was it to play gigs with them, are you still in contact with them?
How was the British thrash metal scene in the late eighties?
Like the global thrash scene the UK had its heyday from the middle of the 80’s through to the early nineties. It was fantastic to have been part of that and having the opportunity to perform the music we loved around the British Isles. It’s amazing that this genre of music is having a renaissance and that the old bands (cough! classic bands) like us are back up and running again. Long may it continue!
You disbanded in the early nineties, why?
Events transpired which meant that I didn’t want to be in the group any longer and my involvement ended in late 1991. After advertising nationally I was replaced by Greg Coomer from South Wales and the group recorded a demo with the aim of getting a new deal. Shortly after Michael Vincent left and was replaced by Aynsley Dickinson. Matt Foster and Clive Heeley then left and I re-joined. Simon Rose then left and we eventually had to call it a day when Greg Coomer returned back home to Wales. I suppose I was the catalyst for the demise of the band as we’d had a constant line-up until that point in time.
What bands were you influenced by?
As thrash burst on to the metal scene in the mid-eighties we were listening to and going to see as many thrash bands as we could at the time. We started out trying to emulate these bands by doing cover versions. I remember us doing Brain Death by Nuclear Assault, Panic by Anthrax, Over the Wall by Testament and the obligatory Metallica covers – The Four Horsemen, Seek and Destroy and For Whom the Bell Tolls amongst others. In terms of influence I suppose the big four had the greatest pull but you can certainly include Testament in there. Our goal was to try produce an album which would sit alongside, or as close as possible, to thrash classics like; Master of Puppets, Peace Sells, Among the Living, Reign in Blood and The New Order. You can certainly hear some of these influences on ‘Unknown Entity’.
What's the highlight of your career?
Getting to play a handful of dates with Xentrix in Ireland was fab. Those guys absolutely smashed it and the Dublin crowd were absolute animals.
Have you got any funny story to tell, if anything weird has happened while touring or so?
One night after a gig we were dropping band members off home when the police stopped us. On seeing Rizla papers in the van they were suspicious we had drugs on us and proceeded to search the van. One of Bobbies removed his helmet whilst looking under the dashboard and forgot about it
leaving it in the van. They eventually finished up and left. I imagine a few folks in Sheffield got the shock of their lives that night seeing our vocalist Simon Rose wearing the policeman’s helmet, long blond curly locks flowing out below, driving an old beaten up NCB van with the remainder of the occupants shouting nee nor nee nor nee nor out of the windows. Needless to say we ran a few red lights. Happy days.
Any last words for our readers?
If you’ve never heard of Amnesia then get on Youtube, have listen to ‘Unknown Entity’ and let us know what you think. You can contact us and check out what were up to at:
www.facebook.com/amnesia1991
We’d f**kin love to have you on board and keep Thrashin!
By/Ruthless
(22-05-2016)
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