Devil's Island featuring Damnation's Hammer.
We're back on our tropical desert island, in the middle of the ocean, hundreds of miles from anywhere. This is Devil's Island! Every week we maroon a band on the island and see what they get up to. It's not your average desert island and we'll see just how each band copes with the extreme conditions.
This week when we arrived at Devil's Island we found Damnation's Hammer, fresh off the back of a critically acclaimed appearance at Bloodstock Festival. We thought the band were lost, but we've found them shipwrecked on our island!
How did they cope with life on Devil's Island? Find out now...
Welcome to The Razors'e Edge and our somewhat lovely, warm desert island. Don't worry about it's name I'm sure it's not as bad as that would suggest.
So you're marooned here on this island, but before you ended up shipwrecked you each chose one album that you couldn't live without. Which album did you each chose and why?
Tim: Only one album, that’s tough one! I’d probably have to go with Ride The Lightning and play Call of Ktulu on repeat to summon him from the depths of R’lyeh so we could hitch a ride back to dry land. No lives matter haha!
Ady: Jeeeez… you’ve picked an easy question to start with, haven’t you?! I think I’d have probably drowned while deliberating over which album to grab! Physical Graffiti, Live After Death, Heaven & Hell, Rising, Blackwater Park, Facelift, Lateralus, Angel Dust? Hmmm – I think it’d have to be Alice in Chains’ Music Bank – am I allowed that? I don’t think I could survive without Alice in Chains and this would keep me satisfied – plus it contains ‘What The Hell Have I’ and ‘A Little Bitter’ from the ‘Last Action Hero’ soundtrack, which are superb.
Gary: It would have to be Damnation's Hammer - Unseen Planets Deadly Spheres. Being in the band and playing drums on this album marked a massive turning point in my musical career especially with changing from guitar to drums. I am immensely proud of both the band and my own achievements, and its a fantastic album.
Just behind that palm tree is a shack for each of you to stay in, with enough space for you to put up a poster on the wall of one album cover. What album cover do you each chose?
Gary: Manowar - The Triumph of Steel. This is painted on the wall at the Sir Charles Napier pub in Blackburn. I always liked the image and the women are far better to look at than the rest of the band.
Ady: I was going to choose a Maiden ‘Killers’ poster, as it was the first one I ever bought – I remember taking it to school when I was 12 or 13, but I wasn’t allowed to put it up in my classroom! However, as I appear to be stuck on this island with Tim, Gaz & Jamie, I thought I might need something a little more ‘comforting’… so I’ll choose ‘Stick It To Ya’ by Slaughter please!
Tim: It would have to be a Maiden cover – probably Somewhere In Time as you can keep staring at it and never get bored – always something different to discover. Or the poster that came with Queen’s Jazz album, the one with all the naked girls on bikes ha!
There's also a bar on this here island. But alas each of you only get to chose one drink for the entirety of your stay. What's your tipple of choice?
Tim: How long are we here for? Any length of time it would have to be water if we wanted to survive. Although San Miguel is quite nice on a hot day!
Gary: Playing it safe im going to say Water. How boring eh!
Ady: Well, I am banking on the other lads to bring some ale - maybe mead in the case of Jamie - so I think I’ll choose a cocktail… maybe a piña colada or mojito – yeah, mojito! (I’m assuming this is a tropical island we’re marooned on?) Perhaps a container ship full of white rum, sugar, mint and soda water could have run aground further along the beach, just next to the lime trees!
Your suitcases were lost when your ship sank, but you each managed to salvage one item of band merch. Whats the merch and for what band?
Ady: It’d have to be one of our own gorgeous Damnation’s Hammer hoodies (available to order online, boys and girls) – just in case it gets a bit chilly at night.
Tim: I’ve a Manowar torch that projects the Sign Of The Hammer, that could be useful? Failing that I’d go for an Iron Maiden shirt.
Gary: I live in hoodies so as long as i grab any in black I'll be happy with that. I would be more worried about the undies situation to be honest.
There's a walkman in your pocket, on the tape inside is the recording of the one live show that stands out for you. It could be any show, from any band, anywhere in the world. What show is on that walkman?
Tim: A Walkman! Did we get marooned in 1985 haha! Voivod from Manchester in 2010 was an awesome gig, I seem to remember. However I’ve a Slayer bootleg from the Reign In Blood tour I used to listen to a lot when I was younger – I’ll go for that. It was from Nottingham Rock City.
Gary: Queen live at Wembley Stadium.
Ady: Lollapalooza, 18th July 1992, Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, California. - Okay, maybe a bit of a cheat this one (I don’t think TDK made C720 tapes did they?!) but look at this classic ‘90s line-up… Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ministry, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Rage Against The Machine, Porno for Pyros, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, NIN, Living Colour, and to top it all… Chris Cornell & Eddie Vedder performing “Hunger Strike” for the finale!
You're getting desperate, you decide the only course of action is to put a message in a bottle and hope someone finds it. Your message could be to any member of any band, but should be the one musician most suitable for a rescue attempt. Who is it?
Gary: Not sure why you think i would want to be rescued. It sounds like a nice place to be!
Ady: Hmm… I reckon there’ll be two or three addressed to Bruce Dickinson already, so I’d say Johnny Depp – He’s got a nice yacht, lives in the Bahamas and we’d have a hell of a party on board once we’d set sail!
Tim: It would have to be Bruce Dickinson he seems like he’s always up for a challenge and I’m sure he’d get involved with a rescue mission, although I’d put the message in a bottle then tie it to a balloon and hope he sees it as Ed Force One flies by! If that plan doesn’t work I’d throw another message in a bottle into the ocean for the attention of Sting, haha!
You've been stuck here a while and food supplies are running low. There's only one thing for it... which fellow band member gets sacrificed to help the others survive?
Gary: Well Tim would be too stringy, theres not enough of Jamie to go round and too hairy, Ady would take forever to cook so i think the only real choice would be to offer myself up as a willing sacrifice. (and hope I give them chronic indigestion)
Tim: It would have to be Gary as there’s a bit more meat on him! Even if he lost an arm or a leg it wouldn’t affect his drumming, ha! How hard is it to go bum tish bum tish through every song?
Ady: Gaz! Yeah, we’ve already agreed on that – ha, ha! We’d only eat him a bit at a time though, just in case we got rescued mid-way through the feast – we’d start with his right arm, the one he hits most of his cymbals with! We could evaporate off some sea water and harvest the salt to rub into his flesh – you get a nice bit of crackling that way!
Finally, when the ship sank you each managed to save one person from the wreckage. That person is the one musician that has influenced your career the most, shaped your way of thinking and your outlook on life. Who did you save?
Ady: Ritchie Blackmore – I don’t think I’d have started playing guitar if it wasn’t for listening to Purple and Rainbow when I was a kid.
Tim: Probably Steve Harris, always been a Maiden fan and met him a few times over the years, he’s always down to earth and he’ll have Bruce’s phone number so he could call him up for a rescue mission!
Gary: Well i wouldnt get to save anyone as Tim would be too busy saving me ha ha.
Thanks for your time. We hope you make it off the island soon.
Ady: Cheers! But to be honest, I’m marooned on a tropical island with Ritchie Blackmore, Jamie, Tim and ¾ of Gaz; my Alice in Chains box-set; an arm-of-drummer gently roasting over a wood fire, and gallons of Mojito – I don’t mind waiting a little while for Johnny Depp to arrive!
Jamie was missing from the island when we arrived, we didn't risk asking the lads where he was. We hope they haven't eaten him already....
