Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
NWOBHM band Trespass did not originally start out that way, no, instead they began life as a cover band named Track IV. The Sudbury, Suffolk, England-based act consisted of brothers Mark (guitar, vocals) and Paul Sutcliffe (drums), along with their friends Dave Crawte (guitar), and Richard Penny (bass). Eventually, the guys got the itch to begin writing their own material, which they did and changed their name to Trespass around 1978.
The band would eventually be discovered by Trial Records, for who they would eventually release a pair of singles. The band self-financed a recording session that resulted in “One Of These Days” and “Bloody Moon”, the former of which was issued as a single that quickly garnered popularity on several radio shows. It was around this period that bassist Richard Penny left Trespass and was replaced with Chris Linscott.
Vocalist Steve “Sleeve” Mills and the lineup that recorded “One Of These Days“, their first effort for Trial which had a pressing of only 2000 copies, were all under 21 years old at the time. All of the copies on hand sold out in a short time, it was around this time that Trespass recorded a demo session at EMI, one expected to lead to a major record deal for the band. Enter the usual problems though as singer Steve Mills exited the band who then enlisted vocalist Rob Eckland to record their “Jealousy/Live It Up” single. The final recording and release for the label was the ‘Bright Lights’ EP in 1981.
In 1982, lead vocalist Adrian Grimes (aka Adrian Lynden) joined Trespass for the recording of a 6-track demo. Some of these tracks would end up on the ‘One Of These Days: The Anthology’ years later and while this version of the band did play some live shows, they soon disbanded after the untimely passing of Mark and Paul’s father, Allan Sutcliffe.
Though Trespass was officially over at this time, it did not stop their music from being included in a variety of compilations. These included a BBC compilation record, ‘Metal Explosion’, as well as two of their songs being included in the second volume of the ‘Metal For Muthas’ series.
In 1990 Lars Ulrich, the drummer and co-founder of the band Metallica, released a compilation entitled ‘NWOBHM ’79 Revisited’ celebrating the tenth anniversary of the new wave of British heavy metal. The double-CD includes some of the top acts of the time, with Trespass being represented with their biggest hit “One Of These Days” from the BBC session.
Post-break-up, members Mark, Paul, and Dave formed a glam rock band by the name of Blue Blud (later Blue Blood), releasing two albums: ‘The Big Noise’ (1989) and ‘Universal Language’ (1991). After Blue Blood’s break-up in 1992, the brothers revived the Trespass name and released an album of all-new, original material in 1993 by the name of ‘Head’ via Alien Egg Records.
Over the years, numerous compilations of released and unreleased material have been issued, both officially by the band and in unofficial bootlegs. Some of these include: ‘Through The Ages’, ‘The Works’, ‘The Works 2′, and ‘One Of These Days: The Trespass Anthology’.
Trespass started to reform in 2013 when they entered the studio once more to re-record their classic material so it would contain a consistent sound and feel. The band launched the official Trespass Facebook page in December 2013.
In 2014 Paul Sutcliffe decided he wanted to pursue other musical avenues so the remaining members of the band Mark Sutcliffe and Dave Crawte recruited James Last on drums, Paul Martin on guitars, and Danny B on bass. The band’s new lineup debuted at the Brofest #3 festival in Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. on February 28, 2015. The new eponymous titled album ‘Trespass‘ and accompanying website were launched in March 2015.
Crawte and Martin left the band in January 2016. A new drummer Jason Roberts and lead guitarist Joe Fawcett joined Mark Sutcliffe and Danny B signaling a return to the original Trespass twin lead guitar sound. An album of brand new material has been recorded and we are happy to announce that the band’s comeback album ‘Footprints In The Rock’, will be out January 12th, 2018 worldwide on Mighty Music.
Not just that but we also have a brand new official video from that new album for the song “Momentum“. Now, after nearly 40 years since their original formation, the mighty Trespass return to violate your senses with their unique style of true NWOBHM music!
