Nathan Cox has been in contact with me at Bristol Rocks because of his involvement with Alkalyne Music. He let slip recently that he plays drums for Bristol based Metal band Jaguar.

Kevin:  "Jaguar have been around since 1979, tell me about some of the things the
band has achieved between 1979 and 2007"

Nathan: "Yeah, that's a long time ago! Well, Garry Pepperd (guitarist) has been around since day one, and could tell you all sorts of interesting and bizarre facts about what went on in the early days of the band (But that's another book!).

It all kicked off for the band really when in 1981, Heavy Metal Records approached the band to release the first Jaguar single "BACK STREET WOMAN" with a B-side entitled "CHASING THE DRAGON" featuring Rob Reiss on vocals, he left soon after.

Though as all bands Know, people come and go for one reason or another this left the band without a front man.

The band soon found a replacement, enter Mr.Paul Merrell, Paul was a lot more melodic and bluesy, up to Rob who was more alike Lemmy (Motorhead) in voice.

This was good timing, in 1982 the band signed to cult status label Neat Records
from Newcastle and were now label-mates with such bands as Venom, Raven, Blitzkrieg and The Tygers of Pang Tang.

What came out of the deal was a single called "AXE CRAZY" with a B-side entitled
"WAR MACHINE", then an album called "POWERGAMES" which really was the defining moment in the early years for Jaguar, released in 1983, it rapidly made a firm
impact in europe, especially Holland, Even when we are touring now, it is amazing
to see and meet so many metalheads who hold this album and single so dear!
We salute you brothers!.

Next, the band signed a deal with Roadrunner Records in 1984 and made the album
"THIS TIME". This album, didn't go down well with the "POWERGAMES" fans, the band had changed overnight from speed thrash metallers to AOR heaven. It
was a bad move!. However if my memory serves me right, it did get a re-release a few years back on a limited edition CD, I wish I had a copy! we saw one on e-bay for
£700.00!! They're all mad!!

That really was it for the band 1985 came and the band went their separate ways
until 1998 when Jess Cox from Neat Records contacted Garry and asked if we would do another album to coincide with the re-release of 1983's "POWERGAMES".

To cut the story short, we made the album "WAKE ME" produced by Dave Charles (The Charletons) and this kick-started the band once more. Off we went to Germany to test the water, Jess pick a cosy little festival for us, 30.000 screaming metallers "Wacken Festival"......Thank's Jess!!! It was the dogs B******s, After the warm reception we continued on the back of "WAKE ME", and in 2003 recorded "RUN RAGGED", which we licensed to Angel Air Records. We felt that this album was closer to the "POWERGAMES" era and was thankfully well received worldwide. On from that followed  "POWERGAMES THE ANTHOLOGY" on Sanctuary Records, It was a
bit surreal having an anthology, now we know how Girls Aloud feel...Mmmmmm!
Perhaps without the money then!

Well 2007 then, we have just released a live album recorded in Holland at the siesta club available on Majestic Rock Records, and have done another deal with them to release some more archive stuff, And finally we are putting out another studio album out at the end of the year...Yeah I think that sums it up so far!"
 

Play Stormchild

Kevin: "Well I must admit that I wouldn't mind sampling the untold riches and audience adulation. I played at a dive in Bristol the other week & nobody noticed, they were all too pissed.
Your advice to 'be yourself' is the same as that offered by Wayne Hussey from the Mission, so my last question is this; I am a young Bristol musician being myself in an excellent band with good original songs and a well produced CD, do you have any advice on how to take it to the next level?"

Well, apart from stating the obvious i.e. putting the graft in! and without going over other people's suggestions, in my experience, everyone in the band/outfit should be on the same level, in other words, they want this to happen as much as the first man.

I speak first hand about being a victim of circumstance, in another band a few years back I was again , lucky enough to be in a quite enviable position.

We were there...i thought, a nice production deal, here we go, the guitarist bless him, then realised that the next level wouldn't go down to well with his now wife!
so he quit!....Bang went six years of hard work.

You really need this one nailed otherwise you will be disappointed! Talking about labels, you can hit the majors if you are into telesales, but the fact is A & R men don't sign the cheques, in fact they don't really know what they are looking for, sometimes the need telling, don't be shy with them, obviously keep it polite but you need to get to the heads of A & R (the managers), convince them, do the showcase and then it will go to the board!

The satellite companies riding of the back of a major are far more receptive and a lot more human, just because it is not a major name does not mean they have not got the back up to make it work...they have!

And lets not forget targeting the small independents, this is a very good stepping stone, yes there is less funding, but usually you are dealing with one individual and you can come to good arrangements with them.
Perhaps, look at licensing your product to them...every label loves the word licensing, Admittedly you have to fund your own recording, but that is by the bye.

Even small labels have deals for distribution via the likes of pinnacle/plastic head etc, don't rule them out.

If there is someone who is a good communicator in the the band let them do it. You don't really need or can afford management, that will all come.

And finally, good old myspace, we would be lost without it, a nice interactive platform, direct radio stations to it, even A&R, If you sell it , get the buzz going they will listen and see what happens! 
Good luck.. and I mean that sincerely.