Martin Walkyier on Skyclad, Hell and Andy Sneap
Interview with Former Singer on the Prospect of a Skyclad Reunion
Suite 101: You've said you won't be recording a new Sabbat album - do you think it tends to be a let down when you go to see a reformed band and they reel out the new material?
Martin: “Well, I suppose that's what we’re saying about ourselves. It’s great for the people who maybe never got the chance to see us and for the young kids who’ve probably been introduced to it by older brothers and sisters – fathers and mothers even – and never had the chance of seeing us live.
To be honest, the way technology’s moved on with PA systems and the equipment we use now, we actually sound far better live than we did on the early recordings.
Sabbat Pair Martin Walkyier and Andy Sneap
Suite 101: Is there any chance of you working with Andy Sneap at all beyond live Sabbat shows? With The Clan Destined perhaps?
Martin: "The only thing me and Andy Sneap are about to start working on is an album of Hell stuff. Hell were a band who influenced Sabbat back in the early days and unfortunately their singer died some years ago now. The three remaining guys have got together, they’ve asked me to do the vocals on it and it’s just a huge honour for me.
Dave (Halliday, late Hell frontman) is my reason for doing this. Hell was one of the first metal shows I ever went to, in 1982 or ’83 and they were there all dressed in black, with whited out faces, eyeliner and goatee beards doing this strange progressive, diabolic, satanic kind of music that sounded like Rush meets Venom or something like that. The whole imagery of it just blew me away and something just clicked in my mind at that gig, telling me that this was what I wanted to do with my life.”
Martin Walkyier and a Skyclad Reunion - Never or Never Say Never?
Suite 101: As for the chances of ever seeing you with Skyclad again – is it never or never say never?
Martin: “That’ll be never, I’m afraid. All the things that went wrong with Sabbat in the old days were really nothing to do with me and Andy Sneap, even though we had our disagreements in the days when we were young. That was largely to do with record labels and management and things that were happening around us – the fact that we were selling hod-loads of records and not actually seeing any money at all and having to live on benefits at the time.
Whereas Skyclad was a whole different story. It was very disappointing to me and you have to have good reasons to quit a band that you’ve been in for over ten years, that you actually thought of and founded and recruited people for; to walk away from that took a lot but I was reduced to utter desperation.
Strangely enough I’m going out to Brazil to do some Skyclad covers with a band called Tuatha de Danann at a festival so that should be quite interesting. They’re a Brazilian folk metal band and they invited me out there. There’s another band called Skiltron who invited me to Argentina the week after. It’d be Martin does a South American tour but unfortunately I had to turn that one down.”
Click here for more from Martin on his new project The Clan Destined.
Or here for more on the Sabbat reformation.
