ArtistInfo

Shiva

Band, GB
Rock

1979 Bristol, Southwest England. N.W.O.B.H.M. was about to hit the UK and Andy Skuse was about to set off on a round-the-world trip after several years involvement in various rock bands (Bison, Mantiss, Red Shift) and in need of a break. In the meantime John Hall had come to Bristol to join two mates in a new band they'd called "Shiva". The band comprised two guitarists, John and Chris D'Avoigne, a drummer Jack Carver and they were still looking for a bassist. Previous to this, Andy Skuse had quite a lot of dealings with local agents in the music business and knew Ken Lintern from the Rainbow Agency. Ken almost ran him down one day in his eagerness to give him Shiva's phone number with a view to completing their line-up. Andy Skuse agreed to play an audition "just in case" and was so impressed with the material and John's guitar 'shredding' in particular, that he cancelled the trip to join up. 1980. The band spent the next few months rehearsing, writing and recording until we were ready to start gigging in October 1980. They had a loose agreement with the Rainbow Agency and Ken got them some of their first gigs although some they had to organise for themselves. Shiva always felt a need to get things down on tape and had recorded several demo tracks ("Cut Me To The Quick", "The Gallery", "Thief", "Questions") at Cave Studios run by Andy Allan. Money was tight so they did odd jobs for the studio to help pay for their sessions. These first tapes were fairly well received and got placements in the demo charts, but it quickly became apparent to Andy Skuse that they wouldn't go far unless they got a more coherent sound. The twin guitars worked well for the likes of Wishbone Ash but the players were too different in their case. After a lot of soul searching the rest of Shiva decided to ask the other guitarist, Chris, to leave and thus Shiva to become a three piece. Some more demos were recorded ("Stranger Lands", "En Cachent", "Angel Of Mons") which had a tighter feel to them and they knew they were on the right track. But there was still something not quite right in the "engine"... Winter 1981. It was about this time that Shiva were approached with a management deal by Ken who'd formed a new company called Elephant Management. He already had other bands on board, including the infamous Beki Bondage and the Vice Squad, and Shiva jumped at the chance to have his expertise on their side. The first thing Ken did was to persuade them to audition the drummer from his dance band, Chris Logan. They were knocked out by Chris's playing and asked Jack to leave, a very difficult thing to do but the band had to come first. Chris fixed their "engine" troubles for sure, the bass and drums clicked right into place like they have been playing together for years! This was the definitive Shiva line-up and they were ready to go. Many gigs followed and a ton of writing and rehearsing saw an album's worth of good material developed. Times were hard though, the miner's strike was on and their main audiences were in the north of England and Wales, the worst affected areas. This was also Shiva's lowest point financially; it was never good money-wise but that winter they were literally burning furniture to stay warm. They survived on very little money but made some good friends during that time, most notably the excellent people in Chesterfield and Pontefract (where Keith and Sue who formed the Shiva Fan Club lived). They continued to record at Cave Studios with the help of "Cavemen" Andy and Bill who were always a huge help to them. 1982. The gigging and writing eventually started to pay off when Ken secured Shiva a recording contract with Heavy Metal Records. They went back to Cave and actually paid them properly to record the whole of the "Firedance" album with the advance that they were given. The first single that was released, "Rock Lives On", wasn't really their 'thing' but an idea of Ken's to make them more commercial - Shiva went along with it but never felt it was one of their better efforts! The second single, "Angel Of Mons", was most definitely Shiva at its best though. That track, and the flip side, were also included on the album which they continued to record during the summer of 1982. "En Cachent" was re-recorded to try to match an earlier demo of the song that they recorded with Jack. The same track also featured on the sampler album Heavy Metal Heroes Volume II. The original single tracks "Rock Lives On" and "Sympathy" feature on another sampler "N.W.O.B.H.M. Metal Rarities Volume 2", released in 1996 by British Steel. By the end of 1982 things were looking good; Shiva were gigging all over England, including the famous Granary Club in Bristol and the Marquee Club in London's West End. They recorded a good rocking session for BBC Radio 1's Friday Rock Show with Tommy Vance (recorded on December 5th), the album was selling well and creeping into the charts. Work was coming in for their sideline business - hiring out their PA system and/or truck. They did jobs for a lot of other bands including such diverse acts as Hawkwind, George Melly and The Platters! Shiva also gigged with Wishbone Ash, Diamond Head (2), the Michael Schenker Group, Deke Leonard and even Vice Squad. A tour with Iron Maiden was in the pipeline, and they had the beginnings of a second album of even better material. This was when the crunch came. Chris decided he'd had enough and suddenly left the band. It was a bombshell and nearly destroyed Shiva right there but they decided to bash on and try to find a replacement before the momentum faded away. This was, of course, very difficult as Chris was no ordinary drummer. Spring 1983. Shiva auditioned lots of competent players, none of them really fit the bill, but they eventually settled for a guy called Charlie and recorded a couple of tracks with him ("The Runner", "Burning Bridges"). Shiva knew Charlie wasn't quite right for the band though. Again fortune took a turn in the guise of their photographer Debbie Brady. Debbie put them in touch with Phil Williams who she knew was looking for work. Phil turned out to be an excellent player and they signed him up immediately while once again having to do the difficult deed of saying farewell to a band member, Charlie. More gigging ensued and Shiva continued to hone the new sound with Phil and the new tracks. Five more tracks ("Power Of Persuasion", "Ring Of Fire", "Not There", "Window On The West", "Eden") were recorded for a second album and they confidently took them to Heavy Metal Records to negotiate a continuation of the contract. In the end Heavy Metal Records didn't pick up the option for the album and the Shiva were left high and dry which proved to be the beginning of the end for the band. They struggled on for a little longer, extracted themselves from their management deal and tried to go it alone but it didn't work out. After four years of being poor, working extremely hard and not having a lot to show for it, Shiva called it a day in the Autumn of 1983 and so they split. 1986. John had moved to Los Angeles, Phil had disappeared up north to play the club circuit and Andy Skuse gone back to work. To make sure his career in the music business went out with a bang, Andy Skuse went to Los Angeles in 1986 to play one last time. He and John hired a drummer from Wisconsin called Ted, rehearsed with him for a week and played the Troubadour Club in Hollywood on September 23rd of that year. It was an excellent gig and they felt it was a suitable ending to what had been an adventurous few years for Shiva. 2004. Author John Tucker was writing a book on the whole N.W.O.B.H.M. period and interviewed Shiva for it. One of the questions he had for the band was the whereabouts of any unreleased material that we might have stashed away. Andy Skuse kept the tapes of the tracks for the second album since 1983 and this prompted him to get them transferred onto CD, something he'd been meaning to do for a long time. The older demos were also transferred from cassette tapes. The digital copies were then re-mastered, which resulted in 12 unreleased Shiva tracks lasting almost an hour. Majestic Records were keen to put the tracks out on a new CD, Shiva made a deal and in 2004 Shiva's second album recordings were finally released. The CD is named "Continuance" and contains all 7 tracks recorded in 1983 plus the 5 older ones as bonus tracks.

Members

	Andy Skuse b, key GB
	John Hall voc, g, key GB
	Chris Logan dr, perc GB
	Chris D'Avoine