UK rock legends Trespass have recently signed to Danish label Mighty Music and are set to release Footprints in the Rock on January 12, 2018.
Trespass was formed in Sudbury, Suffolk, England in April 1979 by brothers Mark (guitar, vocals) and Paul Sutcliffe (drums) Dave Crawte (guitar) Richard Penny (bass)
Around this time they started gigging around East Anglia, playing a mix of rock covers and original songs including early versions of “One Of These Days” and “Lightsmith”.
The band were spotted by Trial Records, a new local independent record label and were offered an opportunity to release a single.
Trespass recorded a self-financed session at Hillside Studios Ipswich in October 1979. This featured “One Of These Days” and “Bloody Moon” which were destined to be the bands first single on the Trial label.
“One Of These Days” was released as a single in January 1980 and gained airplay on Radio One’s Friday Night Rock Show hosted by Tommy Vance and was also played by legendary DJ John Peel.
“One Of These Days” became a firm favorite with the Soundhouse rock disco hosted by Neil Kay in London and featured regularly in their metal charts featured in Sounds magazine.
Richard Penny, despite all he had contributed it was decided, was not right for the long term and he was replaced on bass guitar by Cris Linscott.
The band recorded a session at Spaceward studios in Cambridge which was also used by Iron Maiden for their Soundhouse Tapes.
A new version of “One Of These Days”, a new track called “Stormchild”, “Lightsmith” and a potential new single “Live It Up!” were recorded.
These versions of “One Of These Days” and “Stormchild” were to ‘headline’ the EMI compilation Metal for Muthas Volume II. All other bands on the album were represented by one track.
During this period Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield of the fledgling Metallica joined the Trespass fan club.
Many UK shows followed including at the prestigious Marquee club in Wardour Street London.
A radio one session for The Friday Night Rock Show was recorded. A track from which – “Visionary” – with an excellent lyric written by bass guitarist Cris Linscott, was featured on the BBC compilation album Metal Explosion which also featured bands such as Samson and Gillan.
Trespass then recorded a demo session at EMI which it was expected to lead to a major deal.
A second single “Live It Up” was delayed by the departure of singer Steve Mills and the recruitment of Robert Eckland also due to major label interest in the song.
In 1981 the band recorded their third single the “Bright Lights” EP. Bob Irving left the band during recording.
Following the tragic early death of Mark and Paul’s father, Trespass finally split in 1982.
Despite their fairly short-lived time on the metal scene Trespass made a lasting impact.
Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield remained fans and “One Of These Days” was featured on NWOBHM compilation 79 revisited put together by Ulrich and Geoff Barton in 1990
The band released their highly acclaimed greatest hits album The Works in 1992.
In 1992 the brothers Sutcliffe revived Trespass and released a critically acclaimed studio album Head in 1993 showing a marked change in sound and style.
A 1999 Trespass concert live in Tokyo Japan, was released through Pony Canyon
as Metal Crusade along with NWOBHM bands Samson, Tank and Preying Mantis.
A further major worldwide release was One Of These Days the Anthology released in 2004 through Castle/Sanctuary Records.
Paul Sutcliffe left the band in 2014 to pursue other avenues and by 2016 only Mark Sutcliffe remained.
The band currently has Mark Sutcliffe at the heart of things and a new line up.
Dan Biggin on bass, Joe Fawcett on guitar, and Jason Roberts on drums.
Trespass have played live shows at festivals in the UK and Europe in 2015/16/17 and hopefully, the release of Footprints in the Rock will herald a new chapter in the extraordinary Trespass story.
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