Witchfinder General

Read the Official History of Witchfinder General as told by Phil Cope, along with answers to some popular questions. Steve, Phil and Rod Hawkes had been in a school band called “Electrode” and Zeeb Parkes was the roadie, with the late Rob Hickman and singer David Potter. Steve and Rod went to a band called Medway and Phil went to another, but in the end they all came back together and WFG was formed. Here are some pics from their first gig ever. It was taken at The Crown, in Dudley. Click the image on the right middle or left middle to sort through all the images. This Midlands-based New Wave Of British Heavy Metal group are rather better remembered for two controversial album covers than for any of their actual music. Formed in 1979 by vocalist Zeeb Parkes and guitarist Phil Cope, with a name taken from a classic horror film, the initial line-up settled with a rhythm section of Toss McCready (bass) and Steve Kinsell (drums). Their debut single, “Burning A Sinner” (also jokingly known as “Burning A Singer”), revealed a primitive, Black Sabbath-influenced doom metal style, and was quickly followed by the Soviet Invasion EP, and a track on the Heavy Metal Heroes compilation. Saxon producer Peter Hinton was drafted in for Death Penalty, recorded in three days with a session drummer – this position remained unstable – and bassist Rod Hawkes replaced the departed Kinsell and McCready. The album showed promise, although it suffered from the rushed recording process. Most attention centred on its sleeve, which featured a mock-sacrifice scene photographed in a graveyard, with a well-known topless model and friend of the band, Joanne Latham, appearing semi-nude. The subsequent publicity reached the UK tabloids, and the band attempted to repeat the formula with Friends Of Hell, with the sleeve featuring several semi-naked models daubed with theatrical blood in a similar sacrifice scene, this time photographed in front of a church. This cynical effort succeeded only in losing what little support the band had garnered, and they quickly faded. If Venom are the spiritual descendants of the Marquis De Sade and Demon possess links with Dennis Wheatley, then Midlands quartet Witchfinder General have their roots buried deep within the fertile imaginings of Milton Subovsky, perhaps the greatest of all horror movie makers. For, like Subovsky, General have the capacity to invoke an atmosphere of gleeful Gothic torment, whilst never losing the ability to laugh at the ultimate absurdity of it all. Easily the best of the bands signed to Heavy Metal Records, Witchfinder General were born out of a relationship (purely musical, I must hasten to add) between guitarist Phil Cope and vocalist Zeeb, as the latter explains. “Phil was in a local club band a few years ago, playing ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ and crap like that. At the time, I was just the roadie but he started asking me to write lyrics and the band happened from there.” With Cope’s cousin on drums the embryonic General began gigging in early ’79, acquiring bassist Toss McReady by the end of June 1980. And, with a replacement drummer in Steve Kinsell soon being drafted in, the original band gained road experience up until Christmas of that year. At which time enter newly-formed HM Records. Anxious to acquire as much fresh Metal talent as possible, it seems that the company would indiscriminately snap up anyone and stick ’em in a cheapo studio but, fortunately, Witchfinder General proved an inspired signing and early last year came the first single offering from the lads. Entitled ‘Burning A Sinner’ (known to some wags as ‘Burning a Singer’!), it displayed a nice Sabs-influenced primitivism although, with the advantage of hindsight, Zeeb doesn’t regard it as an auspicious debut. “It was diabolical. We must take much of the blame for it, cos our inexperience in the studio came through. What made it even worse, though was that something went wrong during the cutting of the record and the bass l