1978
1978 was a stellar year especially if you were a punk/post-punk or new-wave band, in fact I bought my first ever singles at this time (actually they were bought for me) and they were Blondie, Boomtown Rats and Showaddywaddy yep **** Showaddywaddy! It was also a fantastic year for AOR and in fact a great year for most musical genres. But for the ‘heavy scene’ it was very much a year in the doldrums creatively and would throw up one of the poorest years since I started with this journal. As always the half dozen or so great albums at the top end of the list easily picked themselves, but it was something of a struggle to fill out the rest of the list with quality releases! Now at first glance 1978 is a very deceptive year, because as already noted it was a poor year BUT that tag refers largely to studio releases and not live releases, because 1978 threw one of the best years on record with quality live releases! The crisis affecting the ‘heavy scene’ as a whole was not largely unsurprising as its early pioneers in Led Zeppelin, Back Sabbath and Deep Purple were either struggling to push the cart out or were simply no more. It’s next wave of bands such as Uriah Heep, Budgie and Alice Cooper amongst others had run out of steam, and other bands such Nazareth and Blue Oyster Cult were looking to realign themselves with current trends. The flag was therefore kept flying by the likes of UFO, Rainbow and Thin Lizzy in the UK and with Aerosmith and Kiss doing the same stateside. This was all good and well, but it was certainly at the expense of new blood not only not coming through, but not getting the right exposure once it did and the scene was therefore in an urgent need of inspiration, but all was not lost as two bands would prove there was still hope! Firstly Judas Priest were the pivotal band here and not only for the year but also for the final quarter of the decade, as they essentially traced their metal line right from the heart of Black Sabbath and blasted it right through to the explosion that would be the arrival of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in 1980. Not only were Judas Priest one of the most important metal flag bearers ever, they were also one of the most innovative as well, as they not only carried the metal flag, but basically re-wrote large chunks of the script. Secondly and running parallel to Judas Priest stateside, were new arrivals Van Halen who would typify a number of different characteristics in the metal genre in relation to Judas Priest, but in their own way would prove to be as equally influential.