LIONHEART (UK)

LIONHEART is a band formed in the UK back in 1980 that featured a who’s who of rock musicians.  Guitarists Steve Mann and Dennis Stratton were part of the scene with LIAR and IRON MAIDEN respectively.  Joining them on vocals was Jess Cox from NWOBHM band TYGERS OF PAN TANG, Frank Noon who played on DEF LEPPARD’s self-financed single, and fellow THE NEXT BAND alum Rocky Newton.  They were all part of the blossoming British hard rock/metal scene that put out some amazing music.  Their first record didn’t come out until more than three years later and while it was a worthy release, it didn’t make a huge splash.  Unfortunately, the band split before they could release any more material.  

Well, fast forward to 2016 where there was some renewed interest in the band for them to play some shows.  With the reunion being well received, the guys decided to continue on with releasing new material which resulted in a couple of great melodic rock albums.  All of this leads to 2024 where LIONHEART unleash another record but with the added element of it being a concept based on World War II.  With “The Grace of a Dragonfly” just being released, I had the pleasure of asking founding member Steve Mann about this latest disk along, future plans, other projects, and some fun questions about his latest purchases.  So without further ado, Mr. Steve Mann:

 WORMWOOD CHRONICLES: Thanks very much for taking the time to talk to us!

STEVE MANN: No problem - it’s great to talk to you.

WC: Let’s start off in 2016, how did the reunion come about?

SM: The band members had kept in contact with each other since we last played together in 1985. A friend of Rocky’s, a guy called Dave Herron, was co-promoting the Rockingham Festival in 2016 and he just took a chance and asked Rocky what the chances were of LIONHEART doing a one-off reunion. We all loved the idea, with the exception of original singer Chad Brown who was tied up in his own business stuff. Lee Small was recommended to us as singer and we actually met him for the first time ever when we rehearsed for 2 days just before the show. To say we hit it off is an understatement. Somehow Lee was destined for LIONHEART! The rehearsals were remarkable because it’s like we had never stopped playing as a band - we somehow just carried on from where we left off 31 years previously.

WC:  Were there plans to tour extensively after the Rockingham Festival?

SM: Not at all. The idea was to do the one off show at Rockingham as a bit of fun. We thought no one would remember us anyway, but we were wrong! On our social media after the show we received what must have been hundreds of messages saying we should do a new record. So we did, and that’s how the “Second Nature” album came about.

WC: When did writing session start for “The Grace of a Dragonfly” and how do you start the process of creating an album?

SM: After we had finished doing the promo work for the previous album “The Reality Of Miracles” I started to put some new tracks together to send to Lee to write vocals to, so it was a pretty immediate process. I actually love blank sheets on which you can start to paint an album of music. At the beginning the possibilities are limitless - but as soon as the first idea is recorded the direction somehow already becomes established, so I am always particularly careful with the first track I write. As the tracks start to flow then of course the album starts to acquire its own character.

WC:  Why did the band decide to put out a concept record and what made you choose World War 2 as the story?

SM: As we started the album I wondered what we could do to progress the album up a level from what we have done before. I love all the old concept albums from the 1970’s like PINK FLOYD’s “The Wall” or Jeff Wayne’s “War of the Worlds”, so I mentioned to the band whether we could perhaps do something similar. Everyone was into the idea and Lee, as lyric writer, suggested we could do it about World War 2 as he has a real interest in that historical period. I agreed but stipulated that it must be an anti-war album, with no jingoism or any hint of nationalism, but still keeping great respect for those who fought for our freedom, very often making the ultimate sacrifice. Lee’s lyrics captured that message in his lyrics so very well, I feel very happy with the way it all turned out.

WC: The record musically is very upbeat but lyrically deals with a very serious subject.  Did you find it difficult to tackle a serious subject matter but still perform it with your brand or melodic rock?

SM: I love the juxtaposition of music to subject matter and what can be done with it. When a sad subject, or visual is put to upbeat music, or the other way round where a joyful scene or subject is put to melancholy music - this contrast of moods can work beautifully. You can suddenly feel the deep empathy of joy and happiness, or the irony of despair when the rest of the world happily carries on around you. Very strong emotions can be stirred this way and there are parts of our record which do the same thing. A sobering and thoughtful theme can be driven along by up-beat music and give you a new perspective on that theme, a new way to feel about it. So we didn't find it difficult to reconcile our style of music with a serious theme, it was actually a good opportunity to increase the power of the message we wanted to convey.

WC: “The Grace of a Dragonfly” continues with the melodic guitar riffing but the keyboards are a little more prominent than on “Second Nature” and ‘The Reality of Miracles”.  Was there a conscious decision made to bring in this additional texture to the music?

SM: There was no conscious decision, no. I just added keyboards where I felt they could fatten out the sound or add little atmospherics here and there. Or perhaps provide an 80’s feel to lift a chorus. It could be that the keyboards are perhaps playing a more prominent role because I picked up some fantastic new keyboard libraries and plugins and they’ve really expanded the kind of textures available for our music.

WC: When writing a song, how do you know it is “finished”?  Is there a point where additional tinkering harms the track?

SM: I will think a song is finished many times before it actually is. Yes, if you tinker too much you do start to harm the track because you are trying to be too clever but no longer hear what you are doing objectively. I’ve lost count over the years how often I’ve come into the studio one morning and completely scrubbed everything I did the night before! I’ve learned now to stop while the going is good, sleep on it and then carry on the next morning. But for me, songs are never finished. I’m still hearing arrangement changes or guitar lines I would like to add to songs from all our previous albums!

WC: . Are there any songs that did not make it onto the final release and if so, why?

SM: You know very quickly when a song is working and when it isn’t. Another thing I’ve learned over the years is that it’s rarely worth flogging a dead horse. A good song is like pushing a car downhill, it just picks up momentum by itself. There were plenty of songs we had which would have made great fillers, but we make a rule never to have fillers on our albums, and so songs which don’t make you punch the air get unceremoniously thrown out.

WC:  Are there plans to tour and is there any chance you would play the US?  My hope is that there would be a show in Texas.

SM: We’ve all been so busy with our other live projects that we weren’t even able to consider touring with LIONHEART. Certainly from my point of view working with MICHAEL SCHENKER was taking up a big portion of my time. But this year things seem to have cooled off somewhat on the live shows front, so this year could well be the perfect time to look at touring. We’d love to do it. We’ve always been a band of brothers so we really enjoy touring. We are playing at Firefest in Manchester in the UK on October 11th and hopefully we can add a lot more gigs to the roster. We’d love to go to the US, and of course Texas. We’ll have to see how things pan out.

WC:  I realize you just released “The Grace of a Dragonfly” but what is next for LIONHEART?

SM: We’re going to wait and see how the album performs. We are really hoping for a bit more of a breakthrough with this album. We are picking up a lot of new followers now and many of them are saying they couldn’t believe they didn’t discover the band before. So we are hoping we can reach a much wider audience than we have done previously so we can spread the word of LIONHEART as much as possible. That will help us to tour more and also give us the impetus to begin recording a new album.

WC:  You toured with MICHAEL SCHENKER a couple of years back and I was able to catch the shows in Houston and San Antonio.  Are you still part of MSG and how will that affect the LIONHEART plans?

SM: Yes, I am still very much an active member of MSG. I first joined the McAULEY SCHENKER GROUP in 1986 and then MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST in 2016 so I’ve racked up quite a few years with the band now. MSG was always my first priority, but as it looks like MSG won’t be touring so much this year it does leave a great opportunity to crack on with LIONHEART.

WC: What other projects do you have in the pipeline?

SM: I do a lot of session work and that will continue. That includes guitar, keyboards, mixing and mastering work and I love every aspect of that. There is also an album I’m doing with Robin McAuley which we will hopefully be able to crack on with this year. And there is a very special project called BLIND EYE which was actually our school band which broke up in 1974. I’ve been in touch with the drummer and singer, Pete Hinton who produced the first 2 SAXON albums and he has written a complete album roughly in the style of PINK FLOYD and I love it. We managed to contact the bass player, a guy called Slinky who has made a name for himself on the session circuit in Australia so we have the original line-up back together. We will finally release our debut album this year after a 50 year wait. That’s got to be the longest awaited debut album ever!

WC: What was the last concert you attended as a fan?

SM: Now you’ve put me on the spot! That would be either WISHBONE ASH or NIGHTWISH. I can’t remember which of those was last.

WC: What was the last piece of music you purchased?

SM: At the risk of sounding anal I think it was the sheet music to HENRY PURCELL's "When I Am Laid In Earth" (Dido's Lament). I needed the orchestral arrangement so I could record the backing track to a video I did on Ebow guitar.

WC:  This can be from any band you’ve played with. Have you ever had a “Spinal Tap” moment where things went haywire that you could share with us?

SM: I think I’ve been lucky and escaped pretty unscathed from too many Spinal Tap moments. There was one event with a band I was in back in the late 1970’s called LIAR. I was out in front of the stage playing a solo and decided for some reason to run backwards, still facing the audience. Of course, as you might guess, there was a bloody great floor wedge in my path and my legs literally shot up in the air. I thought that was it - end of career at 22. But like a cat I managed to somehow twist in mid air and managed to land on my knees. It either looked absolutely spectacular - as I convinced myself at the time it did - or it looked completely stupid. I suspect the latter.

WC: Any last messages or words to the fans?

SM: Absolutely. The band would love to say thanks to each and every one of you for not forgetting us over the years. We thought no one would remember us in 2016 and couldn’t believe how many supporters we still had out there. And thank you too to everyone who’s recently discovered LIONHEART. Please tell your friends about us, share our posts, talk about us in forums and above all buy the new album “The Grace Of A Dragonfly” available on vinyl and CD. We are so proud of it and we know you’ll love it. It’s worth it just for the incredible artwork from the awesome Tristan Greatrex!

Keep On Rockin’!!

LIONHEART UK