ROB TIDD - BASHFUL ALLEY

đż Hi, itâs a pleasure for us to have on Hardrockheavymetal ROB TIDD of BASHFUL ALLEY! Welcome!!
Thank you! Itâs a pleasure to hear from you, too! đż Can you tell us somethinâabout your early days of your career? When is this all begun? Which bands have influenced you and Whatâs the matter of your moniker?
It all began at Lancaster University, in the North-West of England, in about 1980.
Thatâs where I met bassist Truff and we decided to form a band. I wasnât doing the vocals at that time so we recruited a guy called Dave Slamin as vocalist and we had Ian âDonkeyâ Brown on the drums. I started writing stuff for the band straight away. Influences? The usual suspects, I suppose â UFO, Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, Budgie, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Queen â although I was a huge Status Quo fan, which definitely influenced some of the material! â and we also liked early â70s Glam Rock (T.Rex, Sweet, Slade, etc.) and some of the punk bands, too.
The first bunch of NWOBHM bands were obviously an influence â we particularly liked Vardis (great to see them again at Brofest 2014!) and Girlschool. The name? Well, plenty of bands are named after real places â Boston, Kansas, etc â and Bashful Alley is a real (but very small) side-street in Lancaster.
It just seemed to fit and wasnât a typical HM band name, which we were trying to avoid â anything to help us stand out.
We relocated to Lichfield (in the Midlands) after about a year, and thatâs the part of the country that most people associate us with. Thatâs when I took over the vocals and we got Throbbinâ Robin Baxter behind the kit.

đż We have in our hands the reissue of your compilation ITâS ABOUT YOUR TIME, out this year via HIGH ROLLER RECORDS, enhanced by your live concert at BROFEST 2014. How much is regarding seeinâ interest about your name after so many years?
Iâve said this before, but it always amazes me that anyone remembers us at all!
After all, back then we only ever issued one self-financed 7â single and there werenât many of them pressed (about 1500 in total, I think) â although we did send out a lot of cassettes back in the day (remember them?), to anyone that wanted them, and that helped to get us a bit of a following.
But yes, I am still amazed â and delighted - to be getting any attention at all in the 21st Century! đż Why in 80âs havenât you the chance to publish a full-length?
It certainly wasnât for a lack of effort on our part! I think we were rejected by pretty much every record label out there â and somehow we couldnât get the money together to properly record and then release another single.
It was a very frustrating time for us, especially as other bands from our area were getting signed up to specialist HM labels like Neat or Heavy Metal Records.
That was a big factor in the band splitting up, in the end. Maybe we should have stuck it out and stayed together, but thatâs the way it goes! đż The real ânewsâ in music industry is the return of vinyl; Whatâs your feeling about this classic format and the current music âbusinessâ?
I do love vinyl, and getting our âalbumâ released on vinyl by High Roller was an absolute blast.
But Iâm not a vinyl snob â CDs and MP3s have their place, too.
As for the current music biz, Iâm not sure if Iâd want to be starting out again now â on the one hand itâs much easier to get your music âout thereâ via youtube and other online services, but on the other hand â everybodyâs doing it!
Must be so hard to stand out and get noticed.
But I think with rock and metal, where it really counts is if you can deliver the goods onstage. If you can do that, youâll get by.
But youâve still got to pay your dues!

đż On May 11th you will be on stage, with MYTHRA and JAGUAR, for the NWOBHM pre-party of FROST AND FIRE FESTIVAL! Are ready any surprises for your fans? Weâll be there to support the best UK (and not only) tradition!
If I told you, it wouldnât be a surprise!
We donât have a massive back catalogue of songs but weâll try to do at least one, maybe two, that we didnât play at out two Brofest appearances.
Weâre really looking forward to it! đż Can you tell us somethinâabout your next live and studio projects?
Nothing in the pipeline at the moment â we were hoping to do Brofest again this year (we were asked last year but couldnât do it) but they havenât finalized a date for it yet â not to my knowledge, anyway.
No recordings lined up either, but weâll see how this year goes â you never know⌠đż Thank you so much for your time! See you soon on Hardrockheavymetal!
Cheers Giovanni â see you down the front in London! All the best, Rob.