Heavy metal fanzine marks 45 years with re-release of lost cassette

The creator of a fanzine produced at the height of the expansion of metal music in the UK is releasing a CD version of a cassette of bands from the period to mark its 45th anniversary.

The compilation tape, Steel City Rock, was originally compiled by Gaz Holmes who self-published Skullcrusher magazine in Sheffield in 1981 and 1982 during the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM).

"Skullcrusher started because when I was in a band, it was really hard to get publicity and I saw a few bands fall by the wayside so I started a publication," says Holmes, who began the magazine after the dissolution of his band Zayus.

"I ran it for exactly a year, we did 50 issues, I did it weekly off my own Gestetner printing machine in the kitchen, put it together myself, stapled it and went out and sold it."

Just before Skullcrusher concluded in 1982, Holmes put together the Steel City Rock tape which featured Sheffield bands who were part of the NWOBHM -including Alyx, Fallen Angel and Renegade.

"We just did it exactly the same as the fanzine, I sold them at gigs, they were at Virgin Records at the bottom of the Moor and in Record Collector," remembers Holmes.

The NWOBHM is generally accepted to have started in the late 1970s with artists such as Iron Maiden, Diamond Head and Venom fusing earlier heavy metal sounds with a punk DIY ethic, speed and intensity.

"The old school was fading out and the new school was coming in, that's why it got labelled as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal," recalls Holmes.

"Bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, they didn't die but interest was being created by these new bands; Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Saxon."

In 1981, Motörhead and Barnsley-based band Saxon, considered early members of the NWOBHM, broke into the top 10 of the UK album charts, signalling the start of the commercial success of the movement.

However, by the mid-1980s many NWOBHM bands, including Sheffield's Def Leppard, began moving towards a more glam metal and radio-friendly sound which led to the movement's decline.

"It just faded away through the 80s when different stuff happened and people moved on into different walks of life and that," says Holmes.

Just like it was in 1982, Steel City Rock is being self-released by Holmes but this time on CD and through a record label he has set up, Skullcrusher Records.

"All the proceeds after production costs will go to musical activities to help people with early onset dementia," says Holmes.

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North