Interview with Phil Ayling
1. First of all, tell me how did you guys get together and how the band actually came to be ... We were just a bunch of mates that hung around together. I used to be the sound man for Paralex when they were a four-piece. When they decided to add a separate vocalist, I auditioned and got the job. I don't think it was because I had the best voice - I just knew all the songs already! 2. Sorry for my ignorance, but what does "Paralex" mean, and why did it get to be the band's name .. ? It doesn't mean anything. We just thought of a name that didn't exist so that nobody else would have it! 3. As far as I understand, Nottingham had a pretty strong Metal scene back in the glory days of the NWOBHM, so did you get a good share of the Metal followers back home ? Where was your popularity at it's peak ? Hmm, I don't know about Nottingham in particular, but the County of Nottinghamshire certainly had its fair share of talent. Race Against Time was one such band that stood head and shoulders above the rest. Our small town of Newark had some good bands also, not all of them metal though. Paralex spearheaded the metal scene locally and there was a lot of rivalry with bands such as Mayhem, Overlord and Radium. It was usually good-natured though. 4. How about gigs ? Did you get to play live a lot around England, or did you perform at home mostly ? There were our favourite local gigs, particularly when we played Newark or Nottingham, but we played many gigs up and down the UK. I think that's why Paralex got bigger than the other local bands, because we got around more. It was fucking hard work, though! All five members used to hold down day jobs so when we gigged away we had to book holiday for the gig. We used to pack the van ourselves (couldn't afford roadies!), which used to take about an hour - almost two and a half tons - then drive 2 or 3 hundred miles to the gig. It took us about 2 hours to set up and sound check, then hang around another 2 waiting to go on stage. After a one and a half hour set, we had to break down the gear, pack the van and drive home. We'd usually get in about 4 am and then have to go to work at 7.30. And you didn't get paid much in those days either - I remember doing a gig in Bristol (about 250 miles away) that we got paid £70 for. By the time we'd hired a van and paid for gas, we were out of pocket -Paralex NEVER made any money! 5. Any tricks you used on stage ? Pyrotechnics and such maybe ? Pyro's - yes we used LOADS of pyro's! You wouldn't get away with it today though, especially in small venues. We used flash bombs, maroons, smoke pellets, dry ice and fireworks - the whole works. Made our own maroons -basically just very loud bangs - from farmer's crow scarers because we couldn't afford the proper theatrical versions. Once we set off so many smoke bombs you couldn't see across the venue! The air was so thick that you couldn't catch your breath, and the guitarist, Mark, was sick while he was playing. He didn't drop a note though - what a professional! Another time we set fire to the stage curtains with a flash bomb. It was soon put out, but it just shows how dangerous these things are and that they should be regulated, as has been been seen in recent times at gigs in the States. 6. Do you recall any amusing incidents or bloopers you had with the band? Yeah - countless ones, but the one I always tell is about the missing cymbals - this is just lifted from the Paralex website: www.boldbelvoir.org.uk/paralex. Sometime during 1982, the band was playing a gig at the Cedar Club, Perry Bar, Birmingham. The band's manager decided to set up an interview with BBC radio the same day. It was a late gig and we would have plenty of time to fit it in. However, the band was late setting off and well behind schedule before even setting out. The van got caught in traffic in atrocious weather and was an hour late arriving at Pebble Mill studios. The interview was cancelled. No matter - on to the Cedar Club. Paralex arrived at the club ten minutes past the three o'clock deadline and found the doors locked until five. Two hours later the owners opened up and allowed the band in. We ferried our two-and-a-half tons of gear from the van on to the stage. The drummer then enquired "where's my fuckin' cymbals?'. In the rush to get away in the morning, thay had been left back at Newark in the rehearsal room. In a panic, the three people responsible rushed to get to a music shop in Birmingham city before they closed for the day, in the hope of hiring a set of cymbals. We found a shop but had no joy with the hire plan. Fortunately, a drummer was in the shop who kindly offered to us lend his cymbals on the condition that we ferry him back home 16 miles to fetch the kit then let him and his girlfriend watch the gig for free. Finally arriving back at the club, plus cymbals, at about seven the band assembled the rig and prepared for the gig. Doors opened at nine and the band were getting paid 50% of the door take. Admission cost £1. By half-past ten, there were five punters in the audience - two for free and three paying customers! The atmosphere in the dressing room could have been cut with a knife. all this effort for five people! The drummer (who had been pretty cool up to then, all things considered) then announced that "if we go out and play to five people tonight, I'm leaving the band tomorrow". To which the guitarist replied "if we don't go on, I'm leaving!" I don't remember how the conflict was resolved, but I do remember that we went on and played our hearts out for one and-a-half hours. We put on the full show including dry ice and pyrotechnics and the roadies were frenziedly dashing around the stage as if we were playing at Castle Donnington! As for the audience - two of them left after the third number and we played the rest of the set to three people and the bar staff. After packing the gear back into the van, we didn't even bother collecting our £1.50 door takings! We arrived back in Newark at about 4 am and I don't think a word was spoken during the journey. It was just one of those days when almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong, but we look back on it in the pub now and have a really good laugh. 7. The "White Lightning" EP was sadly your one and only official release. How did the recording go ? How did the public receive this now much sought after masterpiece ? The recording of White Lightning was never meant to be released. It was done as a demo. When Reddington's (Rare Records) got the demo they offered us a contract and said that they would send us into the studio to re-record it. In the end (to save money, I suppose), they cut the EP from the raw mixed-down demo tape. We were never happy about that. However, the EP went well and got good reviews in the music press. As for a masterpiece - I wouldn't say that, but White Lightning is certainly a well-crafted, powerful rock song. It was better played live. 8. Why green vinyl ??? It was the record company's idea for a gimmick to sell more records! Did it work? Search me!.. 9. Back to the Nottingham Metal scene ... The band Hell, one of the truely most amazing bands of the whole NWOBHM movement were practically spawned from Paralex, featuring 3 of your members, and the late and great Dave Halliday from Race Against Time. What do you think about Hell's music and success, and their rather sad fate? In all my years of watching live bands, I have only ever witnessed four bands play to perfection - Rush, Queen, Floyd and... Race Against Time. Dave Halliday was certainly very talented and a brilliant showman. Anyone who never saw RAT missed a real spectacle. I expected a lot from Hell when they formed, but to be honest, I was a little disappointed. I dunno, maybe I expecting too much from them. I only saw them once and their performance, although good, seemed, er, 'strained', as if they were trying too hard. There were at least 2 highly-strung members in that outfit, and that might have been part of the problem. As for the music, As I only saw them once, I can't really remember. I bought their 1983 single 'Save us From Those who Would Save Us' and it was OK. I could certainly hear quite a bit of Paralex in there! 10. Maybe you recall any more now forgotten Metal acts from your musically fruitful area ? No, not really. I was too busy concentrating on Paralex to be concerned what was going on outside! I don't really think we realised we were part of a bigger event (NWOBHM). We were all too busy getting shit faced and playing good metal. I do remember the brilliant Sabbat from Nottingham a little after the NWOBHM who featured the great Andy Sneap on Guitar and Martin Walkyier on vocals. 11. The NWOBHM seems to enjoy something of a revival these days. What do you think about it ? Any chance this would include Paralex ? The fans and collectors would surely love that ! Yes, it's satisfying to know that a little roots-level band like Paralex were part of it and had an influence on others. I dunno about any Paralex material getting out there. All of our demos were done on really low budgets and aren't very good quality, especially by today's standards, although I suppose there's always people who have to have everything in their collections. Whether or not there's a market for it... I'm too modest to say! There are a couple of things in the pipeline, so we'll see what turns up. I must admit it would be nice to have the material out that the fans deserved when we were actually playing. 12. Well, tell me why actually you guys split up ? I can honestly say you had the potential to go on to release at least one LP ... I don't think it serves any purpose to drag up the past and point fingers at people, suffice to say I wasn't personally happy with the situation as it was, same as the other members. But, hey - Paralex were around for nine years, which is longer than a lot of today's super groups! It was a real blast while it lasted, but I think the band had come to it's conclusion and wouldn't have evolved further. Back to the LP, I mentioned that Reddington's did the EP on the cheap, so they wanted to do the fist LP recording live at a gig with a mobile studio. We wanted our first album to be the best we could possibly put out for the fans, so we refused to do it and the label dropped us. Looking back on it, it might have been a mistake, but we did what seemed best at the time. Who knows what could've happened after we'd got that first album out? But we never got another deal, so that's now history. Nevertheless, I do sometimes think to myself "what if?"... 13. Are you still in touch with some of the band members ? Yeah. I see Mark (Gibson) occasionally. He's still playing with local club bands. I really think if Mark had put his all into it, he could have joined any band and gone right to the top. He's a really talented guy. And I see Lobba (Ian Dobbs, bassist) regularly down the pub. He's still playing with a local outfit. 14. What do you think about a future release of old Paralex material ? Some kind of an anthology perhaps ? I understand you have quite a lot of material recorded ... See 11. 15. Almost forgot about that one - My favorite Paralex tune happens to be the a side White Lightning. Anything special you can tell me about this song? Not really. It's just one of those songs that we did in about half an hour. The drummer - Neil Bryan - wrote the lyrics about riding his motorcycle and I think it was Mark came up with the riff. There's nothing magic to it - It's just one of those songs that came together so easy and became the definitive Paralex track. Just a slab of no-nonsense, kick-ass metal.
Boris 2005
Interview with Ian Dobbs (same questions as above)
1. I joined as vocalist in June ‘77 (I think?). Mark Gibson - Guitar & vocals, Carl Henfrey - Drums, Gary Curtis - Bass. Gary left not long after, he wasn’t keen on me singing, he wanted his mate instead. So I took on the bass as well. I used to play at school in a band. I can only remember 1 gig at our local youth club. We did a wicked 7 minute version of Purple Haze.
2. Don’t know the answer to this one I’m afraid.
3&4. Apart from the partisan crowds, we had a good following in Nottingham. We used to play at a pub called “The Imperial”. It had a biggish room at the back where the bands played. We could fill it everytime we played there. We also played from Newcastle down to Bristol, nearly always out of pocket, but I can say we never got booed or paid off from any venue we were at.
5. We used pyro’s and maroon’s where possible. We did a gig at our local theatre,the stage is very big so we constructed a large wooden cross and because we had little money for lighting we stuck hundreds of matches round the outside. Phil’s then girlfriend was positioned on the cross and the matches were lit to great effect, but the poor girl nearly fried though. (Copyright on this by the way!!!!).
6. Watch “The Bad News Tour” by The Comic Strip, that’s us. We did a gig in Birmingham once. We were there early to set up and found we had left the drummer’s cymbals in Newark, About 80 miles away. We went to a music shop to hire some but they wouldn’t entertain that. there was a guy in there who said we could borrow his. After a bit of running around we were sorted, only to play to an empty house. (Well the bar staff enjoyed us). Another time we were travelling back from London and ran out of petrol not too far from the only open petrol station we passed. There was some fruity language going about and the guy nearly refused to serve us. He did in the end.
7. We recorded 5 songs for a demo to get work with. Reddington’s the tight f*****s wouldn’t let us re-record the songs for the E.P. That’s why the sound quality is poor, although it held it’s own against some of the other stuff about at the time.
8. Again that was Reddington’s idea. The only other green vinyl I know of is Strife’s “Back To Thunder” album, but I’m sure there are more.
9. Hell was after my time in Paralex, but like Paralex they were at least 5 years ahead of their time. Dave Halliday was cool guy, he used to remind me in looks a bit like Frank Marino. R.A.T were awesome, “Bedtime” is a classic track.
10. Witchfynde were quite local, that’s about it. We played in a competition in Newcastle once. The Tygers Of Pan Tang were there as well. They beat us, but it was close. Jess Cox was vocalist with them then.
11. I can’t see a re-union in the near future, it would take alot of organising. But if anyone cares to take it on I would consider doing it. I still play in a couple of bands and when i’m rehearsing at home I still play along with some of the songs, so it wouldn’t take too long to learn them.
12. I quit to get married (sad), had a child, then got divorced all in 4 years. I agree there was potential and it would have been good to have heard an album.
13. Still see Phil and Mark, The others I don’t.
14. Well up for it, but getting the master tapes is the problem, that’s if they’re still available?
15. It’s about a motorbike that was out at the time. Neil the drummer wanted one. he wrote the lyrics, Mark and Rob Hunter (guitarist before Key Bower), the music, all in a few hours. My favourite is a song called “Southern Star”. It starts slow then builds and speeds up. The guitar solo Key plays in the slow bit still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stick up when I hear it.
Boris 2005 | 
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