Photo gallery 95

Atom Seed at Metropolis Festival, Rotterdam, The Netherlands – 31st of August 1991.

By pure coincidence the Funk Metal crossover formation Atom Seed was founded. Several band members were involved in different bands and projects. Through an advertisement in Melody Maker, singer Paul Cunningham met guitarist Simon James, who also happened to have placed an advertisement. After some line-up changes, the bass player and drummer were respectively replaced by Chris Dale and Amir. In the beginning this London-based band struggled to get good gigs. And they started from scratch, playing in the dodgiest places you can imagine. Well known as the “toilet-circuit”. But this sacrifice paid-off, better gigs came around the corner and the band became the support act for the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their UK tour. Meanwhile the band struggled with distribution problems of their debut album “Get in Line” which was released on a small independent label (FM/Revolver/Heavy Metal Records). The record was simply not or difficult to get in England. This problem was solved when London Records took over the rights of the record and immediately ensured worldwide distribution. Accompanied by the necessary financial resources for tour support and promotional activities, finally things were happening for them. Before the European tour started Amir was replaced by Jerry Hawkins on drums. For about 70,000 spectators under a sweltering sun, Atom Seed gave a dazzling energetic show at the Metropolis festival. The audience thoroughly enjoyed it. And it immediately became clear to the audience that there was indeed a difference between British and American Funk Metal. The British variant is more brutal and straightforward. And the Funk ingredient in it is much more aggressive and solidly built on a Hard Rock/Heavy Metal foundation. After the tour with Mordred, the band went back into the studio to record the follow-up album. But it does not get past the final mixing stage as the record company suddenly comes up with all kinds of proposals. With this they tried to push the band in a direction that most band members were not happy with. One of the most extreme suggestions was addressed to singer Paul Cunningham who had to shave off his chest hair to gain more popularity within the female crowd. Uncountable issues appeared between the record company and the band; Atom Seed decided to split up in April 1992 with still a complete unreleased album in the can. After parting this crazy rollercoaster, Chris Dale played bass for Tank and Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden). And is still going strong with his own band Sack Trick. Guitar player Simon James released in 2006 an acoustic album “The Old Straight Track” for Stovepony Records under the name “Onions”.

 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•  

© Deze gallery bevat beeldmateriaal van Marko van Haren. Hij heeft alle rechten op het beeldmateriaal. Het ongevraagd gebruiken van de beelden valt onder auteursrecht en rechten zoals creatief eigendom. © This gallery contains images from Marko van Haren. He has all rights to the image material. Unsolicited use of the images falls under copyright and rights such as creative property.