Hard Stuff

I have been on the forums several times a day for the last year and a half or so, and i have never seen reference to this great, under-rated band, except by me, on a Rooster thread quite a while ago.
         Hard Stuff consisted of two musicians that split from Atomic Rooster, the guitarist John Du  Cann, and drummer Paul Hammond-also there was vocalist Harry Shaw, who left the band just before the release of their first album, so was not credited. Then came Johnny Gustafson from Quatermass on bass and some vocals, who ended up appearing on both resultant studio albums.
     They released two hard progressive rock studio albums, Bulletproof in 1972 and Bolex Dementia in 1973. Something that rattled the band's security was that  Du Cann and Hammond had a serious car accident, and that pretty well sealed things for Hard Stuff.
         Bulletproof is the best album, and is a five star record, as far as i see it. Bolex Dementia has some good songs, but is a little uneven. I like Hard Stuff just as much, maybe even more so, than the later Atomic Rooster records without Du Cann and Hammond.
          This band was short-lived, but i would recommend their two albums if you want a guitar-based trio that does things just right-man, they are even better than Budgie or Rush!
         Both albums are on cd, though they are probably deleted by now
        Would love to hear from other fans, maybe even someone that saw them live? Now. that would be really cool!


Edited by presdoug - June 23 2011 at 09:10

Kind of Deep Purple sound.

Also wanted to mention, between the Rooster split and Hard Stuff, this group was known for a while as Daemon, and recorded some music which was released on an album called The Entrance To Hell
       Never heard it, though
         Then the band was called Bullet, and the band released a single under that name, but there was a conflict with another band with that name, so the change to Hard Stuff


Edited by presdoug - June 23 2011 at 09:13

I have both Hard Stuff's on vinyl and for the most part when I did first listen to them some 20 years ago I was slightly disappointed. Bulletproof is the better of the two IMO. Hard rock but not proto-metal IMO. I have Andromeda(John Du Caan first band) and it's pretty good but I have a hard time with his vocals on the album. His work on the Rooster's Death Walks Behind You is his pinnacle IMO.

cannon wrote: I have both Hard Stuff's on vinyl and for the most part when I did first listen to them some 20 years ago I was slightly disappointed. Bulletproof is the better of the two IMO. Hard rock but not proto-metal IMO. I have Andromeda(John Du Caan first band) and it's pretty good but I have a hard time with his vocals on the album. His work on the Rooster's Death Walks Behind You is his pinnacle IMO.   Him and Crane had somewhat of a rocky relationship. I kinda wished the two stayed together as it would of interesting to seen what music they did produced but as it was on recording In Hearing Of... both had a different direction of style of music. They did reunite for the s/t album in 1980 but basically it was all Crane's material. Not a bad album, rather eclectic.

Looking at things now, i think that Bulletproof was the best thing that Du Cann and Hammond ever did, even better than Rooster. Andromeda are great, and find the vocals just fine, but Hard Stuff wrote better quality music. I quite like the Atomic Rooster 80 album, and the Ep sets that followed. Under-rated as anything.
        Surprisingly, Death Walks does not really do it for me anymore, i prefer Hard Stuff

presdoug wrote: cannon wrote: I have both Hard Stuff's on vinyl and for the most part when I did first listen to them some 20 years ago I was slightly disappointed. Bulletproof is the better of the two IMO. Hard rock but not proto-metal IMO. I have Andromeda(John Du Caan first band) and it's pretty good but I have a hard time with his vocals on the album. His work on the Rooster's Death Walks Behind You is his pinnacle IMO.   Him and Crane had somewhat of a rocky relationship. I kinda wished the two stayed together as it would of interesting to seen what music they did produced but as it was on recording In Hearing Of... both had a different direction of style of music. They did reunite for the s/t album in 1980 but basically it was all Crane's material. Not a bad album, rather eclectic. Looking at things now, i think that Bulletproof was the best thing that Du Cann and Hammond ever did, even better than Rooster. Andromeda are great, and find the vocals just fine, but Hard Stuff wrote better quality music. I quite like the Atomic Rooster 80 album, and the Ep sets that followed. Under-rated as anything.         Surprisingly, Death Walks does not really do it for me anymore, i prefer Hard Stuff

 

presdoug wrote: TODDLER, have you ever heard their first album, Bulletproof?

For some reason I don't quite remember ever seeing it anywhere. I couldn't have been anymore than 17 years old when I bought the Bolex LP. Wasn't that 1974? I can't really remember. I used to think that Vincent Crane was up to par with Greenslade and Wakeman. And I and a bunch of friends went bonkers over "In Hearing". We thought it was a very musically dark and lyrically strange album. The way Pete French would sing on "Breakthrough", "Head in the Sky" and Crane's strange voice on "Black Snake". Those songs were very strange to hear when you were a young teenager. They were unique and impressionable for the times. Parts of "Death Walks Behind You" were like that and the shame of it all was to be an American teenager and discovering that Atomic Rooster had this mystery first album featuring Carl Palmer. Kids would search Goldmine Magazine for U.K. mail order distribution vendors who just might stock the album.....and if you were quite lucky? you could obtain a copy in about 2 months time. It was the same deal with Triumvirat's first release available only as an import on Harvest Records.

presdoug wrote: cannon wrote: presdoug wrote: cannon wrote: I have both Hard Stuff's on vinyl and for the most part when I did first listen to them some 20 years ago I was slightly disappointed. Bulletproof is the better of the two IMO. Hard rock but not proto-metal IMO. I have Andromeda(John Du Caan first band) and it's pretty good but I have a hard time with his vocals on the album. His work on the Rooster's Death Walks Behind You is his pinnacle IMO.   Him and Crane had somewhat of a rocky relationship. I kinda wished the two stayed together as it would of interesting to seen what music they did produced but as it was on recording In Hearing Of... both had a different direction of style of music. They did reunite for the s/t album in 1980 but basically it was all Crane's material. Not a bad album, rather eclectic. Looking at things now, i think that Bulletproof was the best thing that Du Cann and Hammond ever did, even better than Rooster. Andromeda are great, and find the vocals just fine, but Hard Stuff wrote better quality music. I quite like the Atomic Rooster 80 album, and the Ep sets that followed. Under-rated as anything.         Surprisingly, Death Walks does not really do it for me anymore, i prefer Hard Stuff   A band worth checking out is the German proto-metal/heavy prog Night Sun with thier only album, Mournin' from 1972. Take Atomic Rooster and Hard Stuff and combine them in a nuclear missile.   On my primitive computer set-up,i cannot view youtube videos properly (every few seconds of time takes half a minute to load) but i will read of this band further-thanks!

Read the PA band bio and reviews for Mournin'-sounds interesting-producer Conny Plank was involved, and that is a compliment to the band in itself. And 72 was such a great year for prog and heavy music!


Edited by presdoug - June 27 2011 at 18:15

presdoug wrote: presdoug wrote: cannon wrote: presdoug wrote: cannon wrote: I have both Hard Stuff's on vinyl and for the most part when I did first listen to them some 20 years ago I was slightly disappointed. Bulletproof is the better of the two IMO. Hard rock but not proto-metal IMO. I have Andromeda(John Du Caan first band) and it's pretty good but I have a hard time with his vocals on the album. His work on the Rooster's Death Walks Behind You is his pinnacle IMO.   Him and Crane had somewhat of a rocky relationship. I kinda wished the two stayed together as it would of interesting to seen what music they did produced but as it was on recording In Hearing Of... both had a different direction of style of music. They did reunite for the s/t album in 1980 but basically it was all Crane's material. Not a bad album, rather eclectic. Looking at things now, i think that Bulletproof was the best thing that Du Cann and Hammond ever did, even better than Rooster. Andromeda are great, and find the vocals just fine, but Hard Stuff wrote better quality music. I quite like the Atomic Rooster 80 album, and the Ep sets that followed. Under-rated as anything.         Surprisingly, Death Walks does not really do it for me anymore, i prefer Hard Stuff   A band worth checking out is the German proto-metal/heavy prog Night Sun with thier only album, Mournin' from 1972. Take Atomic Rooster and Hard Stuff and combine them in a nuclear missile.   On my primitive computer set-up,i cannot view youtube videos properly (every few seconds of time takes half a minute to load) but i will read of this band further-thanks! Read the PA band bio and reviews for Mournin'-sounds interesting-producer Conny Plank was involved, and that is a compliment to the band in itself. And 72 was such a great year for prog and heavy music!

listened to some of Night Sun, and was  sort of dissapointed, and didn't like it near as much as Hard Stuff, oh, well, can't win em all, i guess 

Just bought and listened to Bolex Dementia for the first time on CD, put out in 2008 by Second Harvest
         Sounds fantastic and really well remastered-couldn't ask for better!