User:Tony Coldham/sandbox

Deep Machine are a heavy metal group from the East End of London that first came into existence in 1979. Throughout the 1980’s they were part of the NWOBHM. Founded by lead guitarist Bob Hooker, the band’s music was influenced by other NWOBHM bands such as Iron Maiden and in particular, Judas Priest. Various early line-ups existed but eventually Hooker recruited John Wiggins on guitar, Dave Orton bass, Rick Bruce drums, and Roger Marsden vocals. This line-up recorded some now much sought-after demo tapes including songs such as Demon Preacher, Asylum, Witchild and Deep Machine. Dave Orton then left and was replaced by Andy Wrighton on bass.

Despite developing somewhat of a cult following, and having an impressive reputation for their energetic live performances, Deep Machine were unable to secure a record deal. Eventually Bob Hooker left the band in 1981 and was replaced by Angel Witch guitarist and vocalist Kevin Heybourne. This line-up proved unstable with Heybourne, Marsden and Bruce parting company with the others to form a new line-up of Angelwitch. Marsden later went on to join the EF Band.

Wiggins and Wrighton quickly recruited former Minas Tirith vocalist Tony Coldham (then known as Smith) and were looking for other band members when Wiggins was invited to join Paul Di’Anno’s Lonewolf (later to become Di’Anno).

With the departure of John Wiggins, Wrighton and Coldham managed to convince a talented young guitarist Coldham knew by the name of Tony Harris (formally with Burn) to join. They were later joined by second lead guitarist Paul Smith (previously with Janine) and Steve Kingsley on drums.

This 1982 line up of Deep Machine released a two song demo tape (Saga and Nightstalker) and was particularly well received on the continent, especially in Holland. Most notably the bootleg recording of the gig at the Dynamo is still considered to be one of the band’s finest performances. Unfortunately this line-up also succumbed to stability problems and disbanded. Drummer Steve Kingsley went on to join Rogue Male, and Wrighton teamed up once again with John Wiggins as part of what was later to become Andy Boulton’s Tokyo Blade. Later Coldham joined Harris and Smith to follow a much more commercial direction with the rock band Strutt.

In 2009 Hooker, Wiggins, Marsden and Wrighton decided to jam together for the first time in almost 30 years, together with former Slam drummer Chas Towler. This eventually gave rise to a new line-up of Deep Machine including Hooker and Towler with Lenny Baxter (vocals), John Riley (bass) and Nigel Martindale (guitar) which started to gig in 2010. In February 2012 Martindale was officially replaced by guitarist Nick ‘The Beast’ East.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Blade