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ALAN KELLY ON SHY

Not bad enjoying life, you know

I haven't,

Well it’s news to me

Oh you mean the Tony Mills solo project involving Roy Davis and Steve Harris and we’ll call it Shy to cash in on what ever is left of the name album

I know nothing about it, I wasn’t asked if I would be interested, it seems I was written out of the equation by Tony Mills who has some serious issues, not least with me.

It is my understanding (and I say this because no one from the band has had the decency to give me a call an explain what was going on) that some record company was interested in funding a new Shy album providing it included the original singer Tony Mills

Roy and Steve approached Tony about the offer (“it was just like old times” ) and he stated that he would be interested in the project if it didn’t involve me

Without the goose that lays the golden egg on board then there would be no album so, instead of trying to get Tony and my self to resolve what ever seems to be the problem like grown ups, they choose to stab me in the back, do the album with Tony anyway and not even have the balls the tell me

I was not impressed. I found out about this some months after I had moved to Cornwall, from a casual conversation with my brother, when he told me about what was going on I didn’t believe him. 'nah' I said 'I’ve been in touch with Steve a couple of times since I moved down here and he would have mentioned it surely, the band have been great friends for years, They wouldn’t sell me down the river for a few quid from a record company and chuck their lot back in with Tony Mills.' I genuinely couldn’t believe it. so I called Steve.

After several attempts to try and get hold of him (he was doing his best to avoid talking to me, and no wonder!) I eventually tracked him down I asked how things were you know all the usual stuff hoping that he would be open and honest with me and tell me what was going on but unfortunately he whimped out.

It was true Steve, best friend in the band, the guy I had written songs with, toured with, recorded with, roomed with for years had stitched me up and for what? A few measly pounds!

So I told him what I had heard from my brother and he just went quiet. He let me rant on about what a sham it all was and all he could say was that Tony had got some serious problems with me was not prepared to work with me. I said 'that’s ridiculous' I asked him to give me Tony’s number so that I could find out what was causing him such a problem but Steve said that he hadn’t got it.

'Steve' I said 'I can’t believe that you're willing to do this, you all felt the same about Tony as I did how quickly you forget when some one mention’s money' Steve’s final words to me were “business is business Al”

What a waste! I am proud of Shy any everything we achieved together it was a great laugh and I would do it again tomorrow. Shy had been given many chances over the years to get it right and had come very close on occasions and here we are yet again, some one is prepared to throw us a life line and what do we do! ‘What's in it for me’ ‘I will only do it if its going to benefit me personally’ kind of attitude.

Instead getting our heads together, all singing from the same hymn sheet, and making a product which shows the band in a way which lets people know Shy was truly worth all the time effort and trouble that everyone has put into it over the years. They spurn that chance due to petty indifference, which is probably the reason why the band has never realized its full potential

We were not bosom buddies from the start its true! Its was what I would call a working relationship, I did my bit, he did his and we worked well together on backing vocals. We were never really going to get together socially that’s just the way it was but we each found our ways of working with it and for the most part as far as I could see everything was fine.

It seems that since he left Shy he has allowed problems to fester into something they never actually were and is laying a lot of the blame at my door as to why he has not made a success of it on his own

I saw a him couple of time in bars in Birmingham and we always spoke and asked how things were going etc. it was all very friendly so quite where all his recent animosity has come from I don’t know.

We worked together for years and had the odd run in here and there, usually when one or another was pissed! On occasions like these all hell would break loose it would all get very serious and he’d ask me to tell him exactly what I thought of him. The thing is I would tell him in no uncertain terms and never held back. I may have been drunk at times but at least I was honest and told him to his face he may not have liked the answers 'cause for the most part they were true I just told it like it was and he didn’t like it. While on tour one time we sat opposite each other on the bus again after several beers and he looked at me with his angry face on and goaded me to tell what I thought of him, so I did , and gave him a verbal onslaught for five to ten minutes and when I stopped there was a quite pause before he leaped at me with such force had it not been for two burley roadies I’m pretty sure if he had of got hold of me he would have done some serious damage, the bruise across his legs from where he hit the table trying to dive across was black and huge and stayed for a couple of weeks.

We apologized to each other when sober the next day and just got on with it.

He was a sucker for punishment though he knew he was never going to like the answer but it didn’t stop him asking and it didn’t stop me telling him.

Generally it was just the usual friendly banter about him being a fat bastard and me being a skinny git. Everyone in the band came in for something Roy was always the old git, Paddy was a bit of a hippy and Steve was a Birmingham City fan need we say more!

From the very beginning’s of Shy Tony was a bit mercenary, very none committal. I had put in a lot of effort in to trying to get some interest going for the band. I used to work in a drawing office in Birmingham which gave me the opportunity to come up with the Shy logo, posters, cassette covers, letterheads just about anything you can think of to promote the band. We struggled to get the money together for various demo tapes, and waited each time for Tony Mills to be available from his various other projects to come and do the vocals. After each session we would always ask him if he wanted to join the band but you just couldn’t pin him down he was always hedging his bets. He seemed to be of the opinion that although he liked what we were doing we didn’t really have anything to serious offer him, so we just kept chipping away.

I got some promotional packages together you know, demos, photos, gig reviews and biog. which gave the impression the band was a complete band who was looking for a deal and sent them off.

We started to get quite a bit of interest from smaller record companies who were thinking about putting a couple of our songs on their compilation albums. One of these companies being Ebony Records in Hull we had to contribute, what was for us at the time, a large amount of money for the privilege of appearing on it and we ended up borrowing the money from my mother in order to do it.

Again we asked Tony if he would do the vocals for us which he agreed to do and we came away very pleased with the results. We recorded two songs ‘Tonight’ and ‘Stevie’ (which was written by ex Trojan guitarist Steve Cartledge) Only the first track made it onto the ‘Metal Warriors’ album and was used as the opening number.

We though after this, actually getting a song on vinyl would convince Tony to join, but yet again he was being illusive and non-committal and left us with the situation hanging in the air.

Still undaunted by this I kept pushing, sending stuff out here there and everywhere. I was in regular touch with Darryl Johnston Owner and producer of Ebony Records who kept me informed of any radio reviews or press that he had received regarding our track on the album and most of it was extremely favorable to Shy. This eventually lead to Darryl offering us an album deal of our own.

It seemed the appropriate time to ask Tony if he would finally commit himself to joining the band we had put up with the umming and ahhing for so long and we felt that we finally had something serious and worthwhile to offer him.

We wanted him to join the band, we wanted to be able to say yes we are a five-piece band, and yes Tony Mills is our singer. To be able to take the whole thing forward we needed him to say 'yes I will join your band' he may not have realized it but he made us work bloody hard to give him a reason to join.

So at our rehearsal studio I spoke on behalf of everyone and asked him if he wanted to be a part of Shy to forget about all these other little things that he had on the go and commit himself 100% like the rest of us were prepared to do. We needed to know that he was genuine and would not turn up in a weeks time singing for some other outfit.

I think he could clearly see from that where we were all coming from and after some deliberation on the 19th of April 1983 he officially joined Shy.

Here we were, about to record our own album in Hull. Not the most glamorous of places on the planet but for us it was great. Probably the first time any of us had been away from home for any length of time and Steve Harris was still only sixteen! We were like kids in a sweet shop and we had a great laugh

 Finally we were a complete band with a cracking album to boot! It went on to get some rave reviews and brought us to the attention of RCA whom we then signed to and went on to record the ‘Brave the Storm’ album produced by Tony Platt.

This to me is an odd sounding album. At this stage I thought we were more a kin to UFO but ended up sounding more like a progressive rock band, weird songs with weird lyrics, huge backing vocals and keyboard effects and massive over production and not at all how I imagined we would sound. I couldn’t understand why RCA were putting us on tour with Twelfth Night at the time, but when I listen to that album now I can see why they thought that was a good match.

It should have been the album that put us on the map but it served only to confuse everyone. It confused the record company the public and us. It was not really what everyone was expecting it just went off on a wild tangent, it was a nice enough album that wasn’t really representative of what Shy were trying to be.

It was our first time in a big time studio with a recognized producer who realized we were a bit naïve. He tried to guide us through the whole process of recording a professional album but in the process lost the essence of what ever it was that put us there. It lost that raw fresh just out of the box thing that was evident on 'Once Bitten' the first album. The edges were not only rounded off but the tracks were polished beyond recognition.

The next album was more like it ‘Excess All Areas' this album encompassed everything that Shy wanted to be great songs with great production. I feel that had this album been done instead of ‘Brave The Storm’ Then Shy would have gone on to be the stadium rock band that everyone was predicting they would be.

As a singer I have the greatest respect for Tony in the studio his approach was always very professional he was quick, accurate and his harmonies were excellent. Between Tony Mills and Neil Kernon I learned a great deal and for that I am very grateful and I strive to have a similar approach to my own work when I'm in the studio.

Tony the man, is a real Jekyl and Hyde type of character.

Press play (Contains swearing) How to win friends and influence people!

If he was behaving normal then there wasn’t a problem but you just didn’t know which Tony you were going to get. He also had an arrogant nasty side to him and when he was like this (which to be honest was more often than not) he was not someone that you wanted to be around if you could help it.

It is for this reason that no one in the band wanted to share a room with him and it was always a mad dash to the hotel to make sure that you didn’t get the short straw. That invariably fell to some poor unsuspecting roadie or sound engineer that hadn’t worked it out yet, and would be moaning about his misfortune to everyone a few days later when he realized what he had been landed with.

Tony preformed on stage but unfortunately performed off it as well

This was great if there were journalists about or some important people from the record company were around he would play up to them and they would love it, lap it up, he would be in his element and we could leave him to it and go to the pub.

Very often after gigs or recording when he wasn’t looking everyone would disappear and meet up at a pub around the corner. Then we could all have a quiet drink without his antics and performances and his need to be the centre of attention all the time. Showing off and making an arse of himself was funny some times but for the most part you just didn‘t want it, we had seen it all many, many times before.

Tony earned the knick name J.C. within the band (It wasn’t me who came up with it either). It stood for Jesus Christ because it was a miracle if he ever turned up for rehearsals or when new songs were being written. It became a long-standing joke, which I’m not sure he was ever even aware of. When we weren’t recording or touring we would be rehearsing and writing new material Monday to Friday every week, almost like a proper job but with a lot less hours. It was annoying to everyone that Tony didn’t put the hours in that everyone else was prepared to, but not having him present for most of the time was the lesser of two evils.

He was not the easiest person to deal with when it came to showing him new songs, lyrics melodies or him showing us his ideas it was always a kid glove situation. Again if you caught him in the right mood it wasn’t a problem but he was a nightmare to deal with if he didn’t like something and even worse if you didn’t like something of his. As Shy, we saw ourselves as a commercial rock band, good riffs, catchy chorus’s etc but as the years went on Tony was less and less into this approach and so the task of writing appropriate material became more and more difficult.

During recording 'Excess All Areas' in Holland things came to a head.

There were three songs that became a problem ‘Last Chance’ which Tony and Steve had co written with Don Dokken In Los Angeles, ‘Changing’ which Tony had previously written the lyrics for and ‘Under Fire’ which remained lyrically unfinished.

In Pre production Neil Kernon had decided that these songs had potential but needed work to bring them up to the standard of the others. He decided that the music was fine but the chorus’s or the lyric didn’t cut it and needed to be looked at. I had a go at rewriting the lyrics to ‘Last Chance’ and came up with ‘Breakdown The Walls’ while Steve had a go at a new set of lyrics for ‘Changing’ and Steve and myself came up with a joint effort for ‘Under Fire’.

The lyrics for 'Break Down the Wall' went down very well with everyone and so at least one of the songs was salvaged. Next the new lyrics for 'Changing' were reviewed and Tony flipped his lid. He accused us all of conspiring against him and not allowing him any input he threw his rattle out of the pram, got a bottle of wine and locked himself in the studio for a whole day without speaking to anyone!

When eventually he emerged we all put our kid gloves on again, you could cut the tension with a knife. Eventually we reached a compromise to prevent him having another episode it was agreed that Tony should have another go at the lyrics and try to come up with something more commercial. We were looking for a chorus with a hook if this wasn’t acceptable for everyone then Steve's lyrics would be used. Another concession (more of a good will gesture) was to hand over the verses for a rewrite on ‘Under Fire’ which at this stage had already got a completed chorus recorded with all the backing vocals in place.

Much to everyone’s relief Tony came back with a better version of the Lyrics with a hook that you could join in with called ‘Young Heart’ and a set of verse lyrics for ‘Under Fire’

The Net result of that little episode was that in the future the band presented songs to Tony that were already completed with lyrics because it was felt that Tony’s approach to lyric writing was not what we were trying to portray.

We wanted to be Def Leppard or Bon Jovi, but Tony’s lyrics were more a kin to Rush or Queensryche. Its not that we didn’t want him to have a go, it’s just that we didn’t want deep meaningful out-there lyrics over straightforward out and out commercial music.

Again if we all sang from the same hymn sheet instead of trying to pull in different directions it could only have worked to our advantage. But instead of everyone embracing this ideal and taking it forward a rift was beginning to appear between the band and Tony and unless we were gigging or recording we would never see him from one day to the next, hence the J.C. tag.

When it came to The MCA album 'Misspent Youth' I don’t think Tony had a hand in any of the songs.

It wasn’t planned that way that’s just how it turned out.

When we set out to record this album as a band we were convinced that it was going to be our best album to date. The songs had a bit more meat on their bones and some great hooks. (sounds like a butchers shop window)

We all would have liked Neil Kernon to produce it again because his vision of how big commercial rock anthems should sound was exactly how we wanted to be but unfortunately he wasn’t available. MCA came up with Roy Thomas Baker of Queens Bohemian Rhapsody fame. He also had a recent number one with the T’pau song 'China in your hand' Although he didn’t appear on anyone’s 'producer for the album list'. he was a big name he was available and for the right price he was willing to do it. Plus he wanted to record the album in Los Angeles, all of which presented a convincing case, so everyone in agreement off we flew to LA.

Mr. Baker was a big name big time producer with an equally big life style.

He came with a reputation of being a hard taskmaster whom many bands feared working with because of his strict nature. We were surprised then when he didn’t really want to do any pre-production on the songs, he turned up at rehearsals on the first day and we talked through some ideas we had and how he wanted to work things. He was very relaxed and laid back about the whole thing I don’t think he really wanted to be there. He listened to us run through a couple of numbers and suggested a little change here or there, he seemed to be suggesting change for change sake not to improve the arrangement of the song but just to say that he had changed it. I could go along with a few little bits here and there but one song in particular ‘Burning Up', which already had two long intros' he suggested that we add another one, we worked through his idea a few times but to be honest it was naff! When he asked us what we thought of it I told him that I didn’t think it worked, to add this third intro was not improving the song but causing it to sound bitty and breaking up the flow. He didn’t like me putting my ‘two penith’ in and criticizing his idea. I think he knew himself that it sounded naff but was just looking for any excuse not to be there, I just happened to provide one for him and off he went.

The net result of that was Mr. Baker felt that no more pre-production was needed and anything that may be needed could be done while we were in the studio. Neil Lavine our manager and MCA were panicking in case Mr. Baker should walk off the project completely and said in future we must not upset him. He was the professional, he knew exactly what he was doing and we should trust in his judgment and as a band we should say nothing for fear of upsetting him. We were told 'he has worked with bigger artist the you, do as you’re told and let him get on with it. He is a successful producer and you should learn from him' (Big Mistake!)

The drums were done in a week without any conflicts, I was a bit concerned by the easy going ‘that’ll do’ approach. Neil Kernon the producer on 'Excess All Areas' made me do drum parts over and over again until he felt he’d got the perfect take for timing and feel and that applied to everyone. Mr. Baker seemed to allow you to get away with anything and it would be accepted but we were told to trust in his judgment he knows best and if he says it’s all right then it must be all right.

So basically after the drum tracks had been completed I spent three months lounging by the swimming pool Yahoo! I would pop in from time to time to see how it was all progressing.

On one occasion Steve was putting down some guitar parts and the sound was set up so that Steve felt comfortable while recording. This was usually swamped in reverb, echo and various other effects as long as it gets the best out of him it doesn’t really matter how the sound is set up to record, provided you don't commit the affects to tape. If you record the guitars or any instruments with that amount of effect then you will not get any separation when the track is mixed. And all sounds like a big mess (oh dear)

It turns out that the feel good sound with the world and his mother effects on it was actually being committed to tape but hey don’t worry about it the producer knows what he’s doing!

At the later stages Tony and myself were doing the backing vocals, which we had down to a fine art. But on occasions the odd line was flat or sharp and we would look at each knowing that it wasn’t right. We would wait for Mr. Baker to say 'do it again' but he never did. We just shrugged our shoulders and carried on to the next bit, the backing vocals were finished in no time at all.

Back at our apartment everyone felt it was all going too easy and we all admitted that we had allowed ourselves to get away with mistakes that we would normally have put right. But if Mr. Baker was the big producer, who is supposed to know everything, thinks that its acceptable then it must be acceptable

We were convinced that he was going to have to work some serious magic in the mix if he was going to make it all sound good but as Neil Lavine says “that is why he is who he is, you must have faith”.

We were not able to stay for the mix of the album as Paddy and myself had prearranged plans to get married, (not to each other you understand)

and so the band, leaving Tony, flew back to England after all the recording was finished. Tony was going to be the voice of the band when it came to the mix. He was also having silicone cheek implants put in. This was at the band's expense and much to our disapproval it has to be said. Convinced by management and record company it would make Tony look better and therefore help the band, and that somehow Tony was going to pay it back to the band at some later date (add that to the list of never to be seen again expenses!)

He came back to England looking like a cross between Axle Rose and Kryton from Red Dwarf.

When I had the opportunity to sit and listen to the finished mix of the album, I sat there in shock, I thought that there must be something wrong with my stereo it sounded awful.

I decided that it must have been mixed at Fred's roadside café on the A38 and bugger the expense!

The keyboards sounded like eggs frying in a pan, the guitars were like trucks rushing past, the bass…. What bass? The drums sounded like some one was emptying the bins and the vocals were a bit “do ya want sauce on that mate!” It was crap a real dog's dinner, mix, it was more like a mixed grill.

I phoned Neil Lavine our manger to express my horror at what I was listening to, and appealed to him to get it re-mixed. MCA couldn’t put it out like that it was embarrassing, lord knows we came in for enough stick from the press without giving them a mixed grill to chew over, all the band were of the same opinion it was dreadful.

Neil told me that MCA were going to go ahead with it. It had gone too far and they had sunk too much money in to it for if not to be released. We had a hard choice to make either we go with it or we don’t have a product, in effect, no deal. So what’s it going to be? I kept protesting but it came to nothing in the end MCA had spent too much money on this project and were committed to it whatever the consequences.

Roy Thomas Baker must have been laughing all the way to the nearest Roll Royce show room.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t challenge himself to see how far he could go with the worst sounding album ever produced before someone from the band, management or record company would actually stand up and say something. The King really did have new clothes with this album and probably bought the entire wardrobe and shop. An old sound engineer ‘Big Mick’ had an adage which was well suited to this production “you can’t polish a turd” meaning if it isn’t right in the first place, it isn’t going to get any better.

It is a real shame that this album sounds so bad because I think there were some great songs on it

‘Burning Up’ the demo is great ‘Money’ was a great live track ’Never Trust A Stranger’ ‘Shake The Nation’ great on the demos and fantastic live. A superb power ballad in ‘After the Love Has Gone’And ‘Love On the Line’ is great on the demo

When you look back we can only blame ourselves for not speaking up when we felt something wasn’t right. We got ourselves into a position of being too afraid to speak out in case we upset someone especially the big cheese, and most importantly not being there when it was being mixed.

Being on tour was such a laugh it was like one long holiday and someone is paying for you to do it although we were all (except Steve) guilty of going to excess when it came to drinking and living that rock and roll life style. Especially when it came to going on stage drunk. It may have been a scream for us at the time but we didn’t see that we were making complete arses of ourselves. On many occasions this was in front of people who had paid good money to come and see us and we most likely lost a few fans because of it.

Press play (Contains swearing)Winning over an audience was not Tony's strong point!

During one song at 'Maxims' in Wigan we had a bit of music break where I stood up from behind my kit and tapped my sticks above my head to get the crowd clapping along. 

When I came to sit back down again I ended up going arse over tit off the drum stool, landing upside down trapped beneath the drum riser and the wall covered in wires and cables. To add to that I was wearing a head set microphone and you could hear me pissing myself laughing and swearing over the PA system.

At a gig in Germany Roy, while playing the bass during a big gig, fell backwards over a monitor on stage and two roadies rushed on and picked him up while still playing in true ‘Spinal Tap’ fashion.

Talking of ‘Spinal Tap’ we did the classic getting lost on your way to the stage bit. I think it was at Glasgow 'Barrow lands', wandering around like idiots trying to find our way, eventually emerging somewhere at the front of the gig and having to walk through the audience with spandex s and guitars and climb up onto the stage (Rock and Roll)

Tony was forever falling off the stage or saying the wrong thing ie at Edinburgh Playhouse he came on stage and said “Hello Edinburgh……(quiet response) …your not as good as Glasgow!” (Not good!)

There is a good deal of rivalry between these two cities and that was not thing to say to make the audience warm to you, but if you wanted to start a small riot …it’s perfect.

There is and endless list of occasions when we have all made complete arses of ourselves and I have to say Tony features in that list more than most of us, he had it down to a fine art. But what’s it all about if you can't have the crack and a bit of a laugh, given the chance as I've said, I’d do it all again tomorrow.

As a band we have been to and seen some fantastic Countries and places that we could only have dreamed about if we had all had ‘proper jobs’ I don’t know that we truly appreciated the position we were in or the opportunities that were there.

He called a meeting with the band and told us that he wanted to leave, he wasn’t happy with the direction that our music was going and wanted to look for something different. (It wouldn’t have surprised me if he sorted himself out with a solo deal on the quiet …that’s singers for you!)

You're kidding, we were all chuffed to bits. I don’t think we really thought about the singing aspect and how that was going to affect us but we were relieved that burden and baggage that came with Tony Mills was no longer going to be our problem.

He seems to think I’m the only one who’s got a problem with him, so I’m the one singled out for his dislike, but I can assure you everyone felt exactly the same. It’s just that I would tell him if he asked me! Whereas everyone else had a more diplomatic approach.

It was a great relief to all of us that he wanted out, if we could have organized a street party we would have. Only after we had calmed down did we think about how we were going to replace the vocals.

Although we no longer had the MCA deal at this stage we didn’t think there would be too much trouble finding a replacement and one or two suggestions were already being put forward.

One of these was John Francis the singer from ‘After Dark’ this band had supported us at a gig in Newbury and the singer really stood out. He had got the range that Tony had but he also had a really gravely quality in a Lou Gramm, Steve Perry kind of way

Efforts were made to contact him and see if he was interested, although he did have some other things on the go, he was willing to give it a try.

We rehearsed for a while and recorded a few songs on demo tape and it was really sounding good, we considered having a fresh approach to it all and changing the name of Shy to ‘Black Cat’ and even organised a few gigs. 

I don’t know what it is with talented singers, part of the job description says that they have to be complete arseholes as well as being able to sing. It’s a shame, we had it there, it was sounding seriously good and we were beginning to generate some interest, and he decides to caused major upset within the band (not with me for a change) and was ordered to sling his hook!

Next followed a succession of singers, we placed an add in a music magazine for a vocalist and held auditions at a rehearsal studio in Selly Oak. We picked out a few of the better ones from demo tapes which they had sent us and arranged times for them to be there. We would run through a Shy number of their choice and see how it all sounded. To be fair none of them were really bad but equally none of them showed that quality that we were looking for if we were going to do this they had to be as good as if not better so we decided to keep searching.

Roy put forward the idea of John Ward, or ‘Wardie’ as he liked to be known. Oddly enough he had done some gigs with us before in the early days when the band was called 'Trojan' I sacked him on behalf of the band after only three gigs because he did nothing but swear and basically 'busk' his way through the set. The first of these gigs was an important gig for us at the time we were only young and had girlfriends, parents and Uncle Tom Cobly and all in the audience. He upset a lot of people through his antics so he got the boot.

But that was a long time ago and he had been kicking around Birmingham for some time in various bands one of those bands being ‘Trouble’ in which Roy was the bass player before he joined Shy.

Later on Wardie married a girl in America and was at this point still living in California. We had met up with him a couple of times while we were out there on Tour 

and he was always a very infectious character and you couldn’t help but have a laugh. He was apparently good friends with ‘Slash’ from Guns and Roses and had been doing some vocal work for the band ‘Madam X’ but then he also had a habit of exaggerating even the smallest story so you took most of the bragging tales with a pinch of salt.

He was persuaded to leave sunny California and try out for Shy

It all worked out very well, his voice was a bit rough round the edges but was more made up for by his presence and enthusiasm for the project. It reminded me of the ‘Once Bitten’ period, raw and brash

It was never going to be the classy AOR thing but it suited our 'going with the flow and just having a laugh' attitude that seemed to be developing.

Again it was felt that we should change the name to reflect this, people who came to see Shy would be forever comparing Wardie with Tony and it wouldn’t really be fair on him. We opted to change the name to ‘Crazy Crazy’ after one of the song s we had written with the same name. We tried it out for a few gigs here and there and even ended up playing in front of 30,000 people, in the winter palace music festival in Russia's St Petersburg under that name.

I’ve never know anything like the flight over there, the plane was full of bands and journalists and models from the Sunday sport newspaper.

The Airline Company Aeroflot seemed to have no care in the world about safety, people were just allowed to lie around anywhere. You could fold the seats in front right down flat, put your feet up and be as comfortable as you like, wander freely around the plane. The drink was flowing and nobody bothered with seatbelts or safety demonstrations during take off or any other time nor paid a blind bit of notice to the no smoking sign. which I doubt even worked. It was a real rock and roll flight I’m surprised no one tried to throw a TV out of the window. The airport consisted of a couple of sheds it was not the most hi-tech places we had ever been to and I didn’t like having to leave my passport with customs in order to enter the country.

There was TV cameras everywhere as the gig was being syndicated live to thirty countries.

It was quite an event, the stage was huge and just in front there was a cordoned off area for the VIPs surrounded by thousands of screaming Russians who had been gathering throughout the day and must have been freezing. We were the first band on and what a reception we got, it was fantastic. I’m sure they couldn’t understand a word we were saying but they did their best to join in. Every song was greeted with huge screams and cheers it was like we were the main act. Awesome!

When we finished the set Wardie and I went walk about, we went into the VIP section and over to the crowd. They were quite overwhelming, shaking our hands, wanting autographs, photos anything we had to give them. We were surrounded by baton waving security guards and it was starting to get out of control when one of the barriers collapsed and hundreds of kids came stumbling into the VIP area. The guards just steamed in smacking them over the heads and backs one girl got hit in the face. It got quite scary for a while, we decided it was best to come away and not agitate the situation any further. Again it was a real shame its probably the first time most of them had seen a western band play live and were just a bit over exited but they certainly didn’t deserve a heavy handed beating from the security I felt really bad for them.

We spent four days in Russia it was a nice place with very friendly people one night we went to a bar round the corner from the hotel. It had a mix of Russians, Americans, Germans you name it and I’m sure they were in there. They had a little upright piano tucked up the corner. After we’d had a few beers Paddy leapt on to it and starts knocking out a few tunes, Wardie starts singing along and I'm doing the backing vocals and before you know it the whole pubs rocking away it was great. You’ve never heard Johnny B Goode sang in so many different languages, it was something to behold

However the journey home was not so pleasant, we ended up stranded for hours sleeping rough on the airport floor waiting to get a flight back to London. We became so frustrated with the situation that we decided to get the first available flight to anywhere just to get out of there

Luckily for us it happened to be Lufthansa 'oh joy civilisation, food' none of us had eaten properly since we had been in Russia. There was a general lack of food, caviar and vodka by the boatload but not a lot else. A fight nearly broke out over a unopened pot noodle that Steve forgot he’d packed in his suit case, I’ve never had a nicer in flight meal than that one. From Germany we got a connecting flight to London and eventually made it home, It was a long trip but a very successful one and quite an unforgettable experience

Starting again under a different name is bloody hard work, trying to convince people to give you gigs and the serious amount of touring involved to build up a new following we decided that we had already done that with Shy. Why waste it? It was easier to get gigs if we said we were Shy. Interviews for magazines and radio were available if we said we were Shy and people came to the gigs. So we said 'lets call ourselves Shy and get on with it'

If we, as a band could except the change, then any real Shy fans could. Also we would add a new Shy album with Wardie on vocals and he could stamp his own mark on it.

The album was ‘Welcome to the Madhouse' produced by Neil Kernon

Its up there along side ‘Excess all areas’ as far as I’m concerned. Maybe a bit dated in places, some of the pop/rock songs are a bit twee but people liked them and they worked well at gigs. There are some corking tracks on there, ‘Parasite’ which Steve wrote about Tony Mills, ‘Crazy Crazy’, ‘Girls like you’, ‘Who do you think you are’, ‘Everybody’, ‘Something for the weekend’ ‘Tonight’, these are all brilliant songs. It was great to work with Neil Kernon again. I like Neil, he’s a bit of a perfectionist but the results are always worth the trouble.

We didn’t have a great budget for this album and there was certainly a bit of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul going on. None the less the funding was raised and the project went ahead thanks to Tony Sylvester, our manager at the time and Mary Martin. It sailed closed to the wind on many occasions but somehow made it though to a finished product. Unfortunately Neil wasn’t available to complete the project, as he had to return to America, and Simon Hanhart stepped in to finish off some of the recording and also mix the album.

It was mixed at Puk Studios in Denmark. The budget wouldn’t stretch to sending us all out which we were not really happy with because of the last time that had happened. But we just had to bite our lips and put up with it. Steve was voted to be the voice of the band as he could be trusted not to get drunk, go out and get tattooed or have Silicone cheek implants fitted in the middle of it.

When it came back we were all very pleased with results, again good songs, well produced, we all thought it had to be a winner.

But it wasn’t to be, I remember sitting in Tony Sylvester’s office with hundreds of CDs stacked up in boxes against the wall and wondering why these weren’t being distributed to HMV and Virgin store’s across the country. He just didn’t seem capable of getting them out to the right people, he lacked the know how. I haven’t been there for years but they are probably still there holding up the wall now!

We did a video for ‘It’s Only Rock and Roll’ a Rolling Stones track we covered on the album which the manger wanted to put out as the first single. I think it was Roy’s idea to do a send up of the Rolling Stones video for the song as well, in which they were dressed up in sailor suits in a big tent which gradually filled up with foam. Paddy had reservations about dressing up as a sailor and thought that we would all look like a bunch of shirt lifters. He said he would be prepared to do it if we went the whole hog and did send ups of other bands videos as well.

We had such a squeal with this video we had guest appearances from Margaret Thatcher, Michael Jackson, Ronald Regan and a shark chasing a surfer! We wore sailor suits, Afro wigs and at one point dressed up as the backing group for Robert Palmer in his video ‘Addicted to love’. We all had little black dresses on with tights, high heels, lipstick, make up, the whole nine yards. We looked like a load of drag queens. It was all we could do to keep a straight face while being filmed, all this with our instruments set up in a blow up marquee which was full of foam. If you get the chance check it out.

Throughout Wardie's time in Shy we seemed to be permanently on tour we hired a big white tour bus which had tables and seats at the front, bunks in the middle and also housed the gear at the back. It became like a second home. We to played anywhere and everywhere. Although the press was never really kind to us, we pulled decent crowds wherever we went.

But the reality of all was that the rock music scene had moved on and we hadn’t move with it. 80’s rock and big hair bands had had their day and although we were good at what we did, the look and the style of music had been dying for a number of years and we were dying with it. A new rock order was developing which was more grunge, thrash and indie rock and it was becoming painfully clear that we were just clutching at straws.

Members within the band were developing outside interests which would eventually consume more of their time and slowly kill off the serious involvement with the band and so we just drifted away.

I don’t really know if there has been a recent revival in 80’s rock or weather its people just having a bit of a nostalgia trip, there is always some one around who think s he can see an opening and is prepared to try and cash in on it. With bands like 'The Darkness' making number one you never know it might spark a revival of stadium rock bands with a fan base to match only time will tell.

One thing's for sure if Shy are going to make a serious come back it needs to be the genuine article, to do it right requires belief and genuine commitment without all the outside interest. We need to spend time together writing material without the constraint of working round other peoples schedules in order to reproduce what Shy was really about. It came from everyone’s influence how ever large or small on the finished product. I’m afraid I don’t recognize a product, which has a different drummer, rhythm guitarist, keyboard player and programmed bass, as a true representation of Shy. Ex members may be involved with this latest project but it's simply to cash in on whatever is left of the name. Lets face it, as a representative of Shy, the band we know and love this latest product is a complete fraud.

So Alan to parody a bit from 'The life of Brian' film, apart from playing the drums, doing backing vocals, contributing to music and melody arrangements, recording, touring, interviews and photo sessions sending out promotional packages, posters, and designing the Shy logo.....what have you ever done for Shy?

ALBUM Once bitten twice  Album : Ebony Records 83' EBON 15   

Give me a chance /Lyrics by ALAN KELLY 

ALBUM  Brave the storm  RCA 85'Album : PL70605 Tape : PK70605

Hold on to your love /Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Keep the firers burning /Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Was I wrong /Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

SINGLE

Hold on to your love Lyrics /by ALAN KELLY A side 7" single 85' RCA PB41179     

Hold on to your love Lyrics /by ALAN KELLY A side 12" extended version 85' RCA PT40054 

Hold on to your love /Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 12" single 88' FM Revolver 12VHF43

Give me a chance /Lyrics by ALAN KELLY  B side 7" single 1985 RCA PB40231 

Behind closed doors /Lyrics by ALAN KELLY A side 7" single 1985 RCA PB4023

ALBUM Excess all areas RCA 87' Album PL71221  Tape LG0316  CD PD71221

Breakdown the walls /Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Talk to me Lyrics /by ALAN KELLY

Telephone Lyrics /by ALAN KELLY

Under Fire /Lyrical contribution by ALAN KELLY

SINGLE

Breakdown the walls / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY A side 7" single 87' RCA PB41179

Breakdown the walls / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY A side 12" single 87' RCA PT41180

Breakdown the walls / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 7" single 87' RCA SHY100

Breakdown the walls / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 12" single 88' FM Revolver 12VHF43

Talk to me / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 7" single 87' RCA PB41179

Talk to me / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 12" single 87' RCA PB41180

Don't wanna lose our love / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 12"single RCA 87' PT41296

Under Fire / Lyrical contribution by ALAN KELLY A side 7" single 87' RCA 100

ALBUM Misspent youth MCA 89' Album MCG6069  Tape MCGG6069  CD DMGG6069

Burning up / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Money / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Give it all you've got / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Broken heart / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY (except chorus)

Love on the line /Lyrics by ALAN KELLY 

Make my day / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

SINGLE

Give it all you've got / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY A side  7" single 89'  MCA1369

Give it all you've got / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY A side 12" single 89'  MCAT1369

Give it all you've got / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY A side 12" single 89'  MCATG1369

Give it all you've got / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY A side CD single 89' DMCAT1369

Give it all you've got / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY A side CD single 90'  CD45-18115(REMIX by Paul Lani)

Give it all you've got / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 7" single 90'  MCA1399

Give it all you've got / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 12" single 90' MCAT1399

Money / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY A side 12" single 90' MCATB1391

Broken heart / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY A side 7" single 90' MCA1399

Broken heart / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY A side 12" single 90' MCATB1399

Broken heart / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY A side 12" single 90' MCA WMCAT1399

She's got what it takes / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 7" single 89' MCA1369

She's got what it takes / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY CD single 89' DMCAT1369

She's got what it takes / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 12" single 89' MCAT

She's got what it takes / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 12" single 89' MCATG

If you want it / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 12" single 89' MCATB1391

Make my day / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY B side 12" single 89' MCATB1391

ALBUM Welcome to the madhouse : Granite 94'  CD GRC001  Tape GRMC3

Crazy crazy / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

What would your daddy do / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY (except chorus)

ALBUM Once bitten twice  Neatmetal 98' NM030 (RE-RELEASE)

Give me a chance / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

ALBUM Regeneration Neatmetal 98' NM033

If it ain't love / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

When you bad you're better / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY (except chorus)

Long time coming / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Are you ready / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Get what's coming to ya / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

What would your daddy do / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY (except chorus)

ALBUM Live in Europe Neatmetal 98' NM034

Telephone / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Talk to me / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Breakdown the walls / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Money / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

If you want it / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Make my day / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

ALBUM Let the hammer fall  Neatmetal 98' NM039

It's over  /Lyrics and Music by ALAN KELLY (except music on middle eight)

Your gonner lose her / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY

Standing in the line of fire / Lyrics by ALAN KELLY