Styx was the first band known for sure that Bruce was in. This was in Sheffield in 1976, totally unaware of the successful American band with the same name. The band had Bruce on vocals, guitarist Robert Hodgson, Paul Widdicombe on Bass and Paul Bray on Drums.
Speed was something that, described by Bruce himself, sounded like a crossover between Judas Priest and The Stranglers with a Hammond organ on top of it. The main direction was that any song they made had to be megafast, hence the name. "Damn, it was like Speed Metal, but ten years too early" Bruce reminices. By this time he was in College in London, and the band consisted of Bruce on vox and Guitar, Martin Freshwater on Guitar, Paul White altering between Keyboards and Guitar, Adam Hayand on Bass and Steve Jones on Drums.
Below are some exclusive pictures of Speed, kindly supplied to the site by Steve Jones. Please do not use without permission. Steve can be contacted through this email. hcjones30@yahoo.co.uk
There are two tracks that are said to be from Speed in circulation; "Down the road" and "Man in the street" taken from a 7" single. However, these are NOT demos of songs of the actual band Speed, but recordings that Paul White, the keyboardplayer of Speed, made for educational purposes and has Bruce on vocals. White apparently used the Speed name for this project but him and Bruce are the only original Speed-members to play on the recording. The tracks were written by White and other musicians are Steve Adams (lead & rhythm guitar), Gary Edwards (keyboards) and Jeff Moody on Drums. The single comes with an info-sheet which has a pic of Bruce from the Samson days on it which places the release nicely in time, around 1979-1980.
According to Bruce the two songs are not really representative of Speed's sound and with the circumstances of the conception of the recordings in mind he's probably right.
|
Drummer Jeff Moody tells the story about how this version of Speed came about:
"Paul White, one of the original Speed members, was advertising for a keyboard player and drummer. Gary Edwards and myself were in a band that split so we went to an audition and joined Paul White with Steve Adams the guitarist and formed Speed. We started playing gigs after some time rehearsing, the photo [below] was Paul White's Speed with the above line up playing at a pub called "The double 6" in Essex. Paul wanted to take us in to the studio and record the double sided A-side single. Bruce came in with us it was great fun. Bruce was really good, sounded like Gillan. This single was pressed 1000 copies only. Caused a sensation in the local press. The lyrics of 'Down the road' having a go at the local council. Front page press really wound them up!"
Paul White's Speed at the "Double 6" in Essex.
(Pic from an eBay auction, hence the "sample" text.)
After leaving Speed (or breaking the band up, sources don't give much info) he went on with a band called Shots. This band had Bruce singing, Tony Lee on guitar, Arthur Jung on Bass and Phil Adolfia on Drums. They used to play a mixture of own stuff and covers in the vein of old Montrose songs and sounded more like Deep Purple with Ian Gillan with some elements of the furious music of Speed, but more to normal hard rock.
A later line-up had guitarist Bill Leisegang who went on to form his own band Xero and on the back of their first single "Oh, Baby" there is a track called "Lone Wolf". This song is an 8-track recording made by Shots and has Bruce on vocals. The song was on a demo that was sent around to promoters to get gigs and it's the only track that has surfaced from Shots. The track "Dracula", which is included on the bonus-CD of Bruce's Best Of compilation, is actually from a recording that preceeded Shots. Bruce replied to an add which read "musicians needed for recording" and at the recording he met up with the guys with which he then formed Shots. The project was put together by the brothers Phil and Doug Siviter (on bass and drums respectively) but they apparently did not take part in Shots.
 Bruce in Shots |
 Guitarist & Bassist in Shots |
Shots used to play pubs and the next step in Bruce's career was taken in the presence of a Mr Barry Graham and a certain Paul Samson in a pub called the Prince of Wales in Gravesend, Kent. The bands stageshow had touches of street theatre and was centred round the fact that the pub didn't have a stage so they played in an area between the toilets where they had moved the tables away. So during the gig people would walk across the stage attempting to go to the loo. This gave Bruce the idea of making fun out of people here and there in the show. This had the effect that people were afraid of visiting the loo in fear of being grabbed by Bruce and interviewed on stage.
This was also the case one night when Paul and Thunderstick were there and Thunderstick became a victim of Bruce's gimmick. Obviously impressed with his stage-act they gave him a ring a couple of weeks later and asked him if he was willing to join their band, Samson. Bruce was of course interested since this meant he could play all these big gigs in London, and after completing his degree in history three weeks after, he went to rehearse with his new band.
 A very rare promopicture from Shots Spot Bruce in the flying hat! |
