13. Judas PriestStained Class
There was a point in time when I was about 11 when I moved away from my mum’s house and my idolised brother, and I was on my own for music. I fell in love with hair metal, but not just hair metal, heavy metal, thrash metal, all of it. It’s when I first started playing guitar. I can’t tell you how thrilling it is to revisit Malibu Beach hair metal in the context of living in Berlin – listening to Def Leppard or Poison’s Look What The Cat Dragged In in winter here is just fucking amazing and makes me appreciate how I grew up. I didn’t want discussing this to seem like some ironic gesture because I’m trying to display my love for heavy metal and rock & roll. I chose Judas Priest, and particularly Stained Class, because I think it’s a phenomenal record – there’s so much you can get from it, rhythmically, and Rob Halford’s voice is amazing. I saw an interview with Rob Halford where he was asked for his favourite albums, and they were all heavy metal records. I love that. He genuinely loves heavy metal. Can anyone beat Judas Priest? When you think of a real metal band, there’s something very proper about them, there’s no frippery or naffness. It’s very pure. I try to get all of my friends into it.
In LA there was a club called the Coconut Teaszer. It was all pink neon, a glam metal club but they also had punk shows – it was very confusing. We were underage but they’d let us in and we could drink. We’d see glam metal bands and all the members were too old to be wearing spandex, but they did anyway. Their female friends would be dressed up in leopard spandex with their hair done as if it was the 80s, even though this was the mid to late 90s. The place was empty, but the bands were just rocking the fuck out. It was a wonderful experience to see how much they loved the music they were making and the music of that time, and that there was a space for them to not relive it, that’s very condescending, but to enjoy it. They would do the theatrics, these big show things – “Alright everybody! We’re Lipgloss Massacre from Anaheim. Give it up for the bass player!” Who are you talking to? There’s nobody here, but there was that intensity. When I see people who love music to such a degree, I just melt. It makes me happy.
