News

25 April 2008 - You wait years for a Lyadrive release and then two come all at once!

Announcing "Post Millennium Blues"

1. Someone Else
2. Black Waters Rising
3. Rock And Roll Hootchie Koo
4. Vililante
5. Warrior
6. Drop The Bomb
7. Cold Sweat
8. Colours
Bonus Tracks
9. Sign Of The Hunted (Live)
10. Madame Guillotine (Live)

The band are now on Facebook. You can purchase this album via the band at the gig or by contacting them via the website or Facebook or myspace

30 March 2008 - Lyadrive have a new release!

The Sands Of Time is a limited edition 500 copy LP. It can be purchased from High Roller Records (http://www.hho-records.de/high_roller/releases/lyadrive.html)

LYADRIVE - The Sands Of Time HRR 025, limited to 500 copies, 4 page insert

Nick John - Vocals & Keyboards
Steve Jones - Guitars
Dennis O'leary - Bass
Lee Burrows - Drums

- Another Time, Another Place
- We’ve Got The Rock (You’re Gonna Roll)
- Anytime - White Dress
- Rock Tonight
- Write Me A Letter

- Steal Away The Night
- Young Lover
- Brave Young Man
- Spinning The Wheel
- Fortunes Of War

21 Jan 2008 - New UK GIG! British Steel Festival III - Camden Underworld, London, Saturday, 26th April - Doors 4:30 - £12.50 adv. The current lineup is Witchfynde, PRAYING MANTIS, Elixir, Lyadrive, Redline. Tickets can be bought from Ticketweb

Lyadrive tracks can now be downloaded or previewed at

Since I last wrote an update on the site things have been slowly developing and Lee Burrows has kindly written an update.

2005

Nov 2005 – We completed transfer of ‘worthwhile’ Lyadrive demos & live Tracks to CD’s for assessment by Olli Klemm @ High Vaultage in Germany

2006

Original Guitarist Steve Jones came home from Alaska for a couple of weeks, an ideal opportunity for a LYADRIVE reunion!. So turned out to be a recording session! 

LIKE A PHEONIX FROM THE FLAME, LYADRIVE RETURN!! 

The Line up, from LYADRIVE MK1

NICK JOHN - VOX
LEE BURROWS - DRUMS
STEVE CHRISTIANSEN - BASS
STEVE JONES - 'KEYBOARD TEXTURE'

& From LYADRIVE MK6

GRAHAM 'STUART' BELLMAINE - GUITAR/B VOX

Recorded @ FFG Studio Bredon Gloucestershire

Tuesday 7th March 2006

Warrior sent out to various friends for private use, however our 2 DJ friends wanted to share it with some ‘other’ friends. It has been getting healthy airplay ever since.

Lyadrive join the new age & open up a myspace site www.myspace.com/lyadrivenwobhm

There is a trickle of fans & interest during the summer then we make contact with Rys Miller in the USA via the myspace site. (Oct 06) She’d been over helping out with the 1^st BRITISH STEEL FESTIVAL & was involved heavily with ELIXIR. She had got them a slot on a NEW YORK show called TRUE METAL AMERICA & was looking for other bands to do the same. She loved our version of ‘One Of  These Days’. The gig didn’t come off for us, due mainly to the expense, however it did get Us in contact with Phil Denton (ELIXIR & BSF Organiser)

2007

Nick’s on a writing course & has started a project to make use of all that useless rock n roll trivia & experience he has.  

Lee gets married this year & has sent out invites to various parts of the globe. Steve Jones & his new girlfriend say yes from Alaska ……. The cogs start whiring in that mind of Nick John!

APRIL 2007  - Word is sent out that to make the most of Steve’s return, we’d better do some more recording!

JUNE 2007 - Nick, Rhino, Steve C & myself manage 2 rehearsals of 2 old Lyadrive Songs – a 3^rd song promised us by Steve J from A hadn’t materialised. Time had now run out. The studio was booked and ‘Suck It & See’ was the new catchphrase!

 JULY 7^TH Lee & Lisa Married

JULY 9/10^TH  --

LYADRIVE MK1 (-barrie) RECORD AGAIN!

NICK JOHN – VOCALS
LEE BURROWS – DRUMS
STEVE CHRISTIANSEN – BASS
STEVE JONES – GUITAR !!!

+ RETURNING FOR THE TENTH YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE

‘ANOTHER TIME ANOTHER PLACE’ CD RECORDINGS :-

PAUL ‘RHINO’ RYAN – GUITARS
KEITH THOMPSON – GUITAR + B VOCALS

2 NEW RECORDINGS OF ORIGINAL LYADRIVE DEMOS FROM 83
                          + A TOTALLY NEW SONG !!                                 

 DROP THE BOMB
 VIGILANTE
 STANDING ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (Working title)

Meanwhile, on the wonderfull world that is myspace made a new contact called UKBill. It turns out he runs a blog called ROCK OF AGES & contributes to various other blogs including CLASSIC ROCK NEWSWIRE

Rock Of Ages     www.rockofages.wordpress.com
from 'classic rock newswire forum'  www.atfreeforum.com/crnewswire

He reviews "Another Time Another Place" April 27^th 2007

Introducing : Lyadrive

A change to this article in the 'Introducing.' series in that this time I'm featuring a band who are not future of British rock but instead are part of its illustrious past although may well yet rise (again!) from the ashes.
Lyadrive you see are a band born out of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and their's is a story of some achievement though not earthshattering, some recorded output though not that much and more endearingly a sense of pride at having been part of the whole chapter and survived it!

Having recorded a couple of tracks for metal compilation albums in the early 80s the band released their only, now highly sort after, single in 1983 which featured the tracks 'White Dress' and 'Anytime'. A further three tracks were recorded for Loose Records in '84 but the label went under and so subsequently did Lyadrive, splitting the following year. However 1996 saw renewed interest in the band's single and prompted a reformation that saw
the 14 track album "Another Time Another Place" released in 1998.

Lyadrive came to my attention through the modern medium of MySpace and through my involvement writing for Peacedogman. It appears someone clicked the link to Rock Of Ages at Peacedog and was interested enough to read through this site and end up at my MySpace page where through the magic of  the Add Friend link I discovered the band for the first time. Up at their myspace page (link below) is the fine Y&T tinged rocker Steal Away The Night and that is the song that really peaked my interest. A chat with the man  behind the invite, Lee (the drummer of the band no less!) and hey presto a few days later I've a copy of Lyadrive's one and only CD release for my listening pleasure.

Let me tell you that the spirit of the nwobhm is inherent throughout this album from the traditional metal riffery of opening track Sign Of The Hunter to the closing strains of one time Hard Roxx magazine sampler track
Lazerwind its a classically British metal romp of the kind Maiden, Saxon and Leppard used to make. Galloping riffs adorn the title track Another Time Another Place as does a Van Halen inspired intro, whilst Dangerline has
similarities to Leppard's Rocks Off. Hints of UFO on the track Spinning The Wheel whilst re-recorded versions of the elusive/expensive single tracks White Dress and Anytime are most welcome. I'm of a mind that most nwobhm releases usually have one really great track and honestly, this one has two!! Okay so one of them isn't their own, being instead a cover of the fine Trespass track One Of These Days but even that is eclipsed by the
afore-mentioned Steal Away The Night. A fine original piece that evolves from a slow opening with just a single guitar into a balls out rocker and if it had surfaced years ealier would adorn many a compilation; and there in lays the only problem with this release - it was about 18 years too late! A bonus inclusion of the three 'Loose Records' tracks is also a nice touch and Here Comes The Night stands out as the best of these.

Sporadic activity since the albums release, however the band have recorded a few further compilation tracks and recently recorded the Riot track 'Warrior' as a 25th Aniversary event - this track is also currently on their myspace page. I have it from Lee himself that further recordings are not out of the question and material is currently being written in Alaska of all places (he didn't say why Alaska though!). So having enjoyed discovering Lyadrive myself my recomendations are as follows :-

  a.. Get over to their myspace site and listen to the 4 tracks on offer
  b.. Visit the bands home page at www.lyadrive.co.uk and read their interesting story in full
  c.. Contact the band as I did and express your interest and encouragement. It's also worth pointing out that the CD turns up on eBay now and again with 3 copies available at present and rest assured if you shell out the cash, it's a keeper!

The trickle has become a small tributary, progress with the new tracks has been sporadic as we all have full time lives to lead! However …

2008

THIS VERY WEEK 14/01/08 Nick & I have a chance to finally mix 2 of the New songs & we have been invited to play at BRITISH STEEL FESTIVAL 3

That’s it, pretty much updated! Time for a cuppa

3 Nov 2004 - I have moved this site to a new server and put it back on it's old domain name.

26 Apr 2004 - If you e-mail sales@greatmusic.co.uk as per the message of 4 March 2004 please can you ensure you mention the title of the album and the catalogue number ie "Rockin' All Over The World" KBOX3338.

4 Mar 2004 - I have not been able to locate anyone selling the album direct from a website but if you e-mail sales@greatmusic.co.uk they will be happy to quote a price for the box set and send it. They get regular shipments from the distributor. They told me the album would be £10 plus £1.50 for UK postage. The album isn't advertised on their website as it doesn't fit the normal profiles but they are happy to supply it as a favour to the band.

1 Mar 2004 - There is a new compilation out called "Rockin' All Over The World" KBOX3338. It is marketed by Weton-Westgram B.V. Oud-Beijerland, The Netherlands. Why do you want to know this information? Well it contains all of "Another Time Another Place" plus four tracks recorded in 2000. They are:

Thin Lizzy's "Cold Sweat" as below
Rick Derringer's "Rock 'N Roll Hootchie Koo"

Colours

Someone Else

These last two tracks were written by Lyadrive's bass player Guy Wilson.

I am currently trying to locate an online store that sells it. If I get any joy I will try and update this page.

9 Dec 2002 - Firstly we decided not to renew www.Lyadrive.com so now we are on http://www.praying-mantis.com/lyadrive/. I am not sure if "Metal Daze" ever appeared but Cold Sweat is now on "Classic British Heavy Metal" (PEG CD 351/GAS 0000351 PEG)

3 Dec 2000 - News from Lee "Here is the info regarding the latest instalment of Lyadrive's world domination (cough) OK there is a box set called 'Classic Rock' released by Pegasus (PEG BX 042). It's a triple going for £9.99 out now! It will be available in 3 seperate CD's from Feb next year £3.99 each. (PEG 325/335/345 respectively) Lyadrive & Tempest Ride appear on 335, but on 325 Lyadrive have a cover of the old Johnny Winter/Rick Derringer number 'Rock n Roll Hoochie Coo'. Hopefully also in Feb next year will see the release of another compilation CD, this one called 'METAL DAZE', on which Lyadrive's version of Lizzy's 'Cold Sweat' will appear. Lyadrive are still a going concern as & when other commitments allow, as this is very much a pet project, a labour of love if you will, that unfortunately doesn't pay the bills! We have secured some studio time during the not too distant future and, with the help of one or 2 'new' friends, hope to work towards a 2nd CD release sometime next year."

23 May 2000 - Lyadrive have been working working on a 2 cover tracks for a compilation. The site moved to www.lyadrive.com

16 May 1999 - Lyadrive Live photos and video and more compilation appearences added. Including a rare verion of Another Time, Another place.

2 April 1999 - Delta have released a compilation cd under the modest title of "The Best Of British Metal" (Delta CD6184) with two Lyadrive tracks on it. "Another Time,Another Place" and "White Dress". Other tracks on the album are by Samson, Angelwitch, Girlschool, Rock Goddess, Tigertailz & Thunderstick

24 March 1999 - I added and Interview with the band that appeared in Iron Pages In Germany. Also a review from a Greek Magazine

13 March 1999 - Tickets are now available for the Lyadrive Concert. They cost 8.50ukp and can be got by faxing Nick on 01451 870702 or E-mailing Lee Burrows

8 February 1999 - LYADRIVE To Play LIVE again! In Lee's world "Lyadrive's buisness manager, (Sir Nicholas John Esq), says that negotiations have been completed, leading to the first official Lyadrive live appearance, since the neo-legendary final concert, at Southall Football Club almost exactly 14 years ago!

The date & venue for this concert is as follows:-

Other bands on the bill will be Blackfoot Sue & The Groundhogs. It is assumed that Lyadrive will be the first band on, playing a 30-40 minute set, as of this moment, any other details are somewhat scetchy. More news, film at 11!"

If you are interested in going I suggest you let me (Jon Hinchliffe) know so that I can keep you up to date on changes.

7 February 1999 - I have add the album lyrics.

3 January, 1999 - I have added some press cuttings and the following news from Lee.

"As I mentioned, we were trying to write a new tune, which was a partial success. We are rehearsing again on the 28th & if almost finished, we, hope to record it before the end of the 1st week of Jan! Of course this is the height of optimism so don't hold your breath!

Some interesting news which could be put on our site. Our guitarist/engineer Kieth has his own CD now available! It's a Blues/Rocker, in the vein of Robert Cray/Rory Gallagher & as that style goes it ain't half bad! Mainly originals + covers of 'Be Good To Yourself- Frankie Miller' & 'Crossroads aka Cream?' It is over 60 mins long

It's called 'Kieth Thompson & Strange Brew' it is on Brambus, cat no. 199812-2. Brambus can be reached the following ways

SNAIL--- Brambus Records

P.O. Box 44

CH-7004

Chur/Switzerland

Phone/Fax CH+(0)55 614 10 77

E-mail Brambus@access.ch

Homepage http://songs.com/noma/brambus

OR BY CARRIER PIDGEON!!"