Former Wrathchild Frontman Rocky Shades Featured In Upcoming Documentary
Former Wrathchild Frontman Rocky Shades Featured In Upcoming Documentary
January 14, 2014
The upcoming documentary ‘What Are You Afraid of? It’s Only Rock N’ Roll!’ covers the life, trials and tribulations of ex-Wrathchild UK and current Wildside Riot vocalist Rocky Shades. The film, produced by DDDiFilms and slated for a summer 2014 release, also looks at the bands, fans, sights and sounds of the 1980’s UK Glam Rock scene before moving forward and looking at the present day.
The idea came from the director Michael Parkes’ observation that very little information and archival material was available covering this time, coupled with the fact that other era’s (the Manchester indie scene for example) have been covered repeatedly ad nauseum, it would be a a shame if this colorful era went relatively undocumented. It is also fascinating to catch up with those involved now as they have ‘kept the faith’ and not been swayed by fashion and changing tastes.
One of the reasons that Rocky Shades is an obvious choice for focal point is that not only is he a natural raconteur, but his unpretentious attitude and DIY aesthetic (the ‘Blue Peter’ Kiss as Wrathchld UK were affectionately known) has always been emblematic of a scene that, might not have had the dollars of its American counterpart behind it, but certainly had the guts and passion to rival, and often surpass it.
Meanwhile, Shades’ new band Wildside Riot have decided to release a few acoustic tracks before their new EP, titled ‘Come Along For the Ride’, gets released around May of this year. Wildside Riot guitarist Joss Riot tells Sleaze Roxx, “We are in the studio, recording around 7 or 8 acoustic tracks this month. We are releasing the acoustic tracks ourselves digitally, this way we keep all the royalties. The money we make from the acoustic tracks will be going into the EP.”
Wildside Riot released their debut album ‘No Second Take’ through Cargo/Livewire Records on January 28th, 2013. Known as the ‘Godfather of Glam’, Shades is best known for his Wrathchild UK work on such albums as ‘Stakk Attakk’, ‘The Biz Suxx’ and ‘Delirium’. Wrathchild were one of the forerunners of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and many of today’s leading glam/trash/sleaze bands admit to being heavily influences by the band’s imagery and music. Joining Shades in this new musical endeavour is Joss Riot (lead guitar), Jimmy Gunn (guitar), Jonny Suicide (bass) and Gaz Wilde (drums).
Keep up to date with Wildside Riot news at www.wildsideriot.com and www.facebook.com/Wildsideriot.
Courtesy of www.sleazeroxx.com