The original band came together in nineteen eighty during the budding period known as the new wave of British heavy metal. The singer Graham Waudby had just returned from working in Holland and was introduced to Tony Dixon who shared common interests in music and drinking .There followed and explosion of new songs which produced the acclaimed single “Silver Woman.” This single was recorded at the metal minded/Neat records studio at Wallsend in Newcastle the very heart of the NWOBHM sound in nineteen eighty one. Recording engineer was Micky Sweeny, also making the Badge line up was Stu Mclean on rhythm guitar, Rob Zipfel on drums, the gentle giant Mike Cooper on Bass. Badge music at that time was a blend of bluesy melodic rock with an intentional bent towards song variation.
“Silver Woman” our 45 vinyl single sold really well achieving number one on many independent record shops play lists and made number twenty seven in the Sounds music papers heavy metal charts. As a result of this there were talks of supporting slots with Judas Priest and Budgie by the promoter Dave Woods. This tragically came to nothing as the band split due to in-band clashes, a critical time for the band..
Badge continued with various line ups through the eighties but never regained the lost ground of previous years or the chemistry of the “Silver Woman” days, the door closed on Badge.
The band played at a famous night club in Bridlington for the final time at the last night of the golden gloves gig.
From then the band just fizzled out with promises of re-forming which never really came to fruition.
Then in twenty twelve, High Roller Records from Germany released the first Badge album “Stormrider,” an album compiled by singer Graham Waudby and local guitarist Pat mount from old remastered Badge demo tapes. At this time Pat and Graham wrote a new song called Natalya from the Volga, a song about a girl trapped behind the Berlin wall in the sixties, not your average rock song theme.
Then Brofest happened in 2013.Badge played the first night of the NWOBHM themed festival at Newcastle University with Tony Dixon back in the band, Baz Gregory on bass, Tony Dean on rhythm guitar, Twig Johnson on drums and Graham Waudby on vocals. Well the audience went wild, they hadn’t forgotten us, we wowed the multi-national audience.. The old Buzz was back, really once you have been on stage it’s all you ever want to do, it’s a drug.
Since then we have discovered Florin Huluba from Romania who has injected a lot of new found enthusiasm and talent into our new projects with a professional heavy melodic drive .Problems finding a compatible drummer have meant we have only played the Utopia nightclub up to the present day. Two Youtube videos followed portraying the songs cry in the night and dogs of war.so started a period of protracted studio sessions, writing, composing and producing material which has culminated in the excellent Badge album Supernova.
Band Line Up:
Over the years we have had many talented members some of whom stayed longer than others including
Graham Waudby – Vocals
Lead Guitar – Pat Mount, Mike Minno O mahony, Tony Dixon
Rhythm Guitar – Stu Mclean ,Tony Dean.
Bass Guitar – Mike Cooper, Phil Star, Kev Trulove.
Drums – Steve Elliot, Rob Zipfel, Shaun Arnold, Ian Twig Johnson, Mark Wilde.
Current Line Up:
Graham Waudby – Vocals.
Florin Huluba – Lead Guitar.
Baz Gregory – Bass Guitar.
Mikey Bolton – Drums.
Read our review here.
