Here’s a press release about Thunderstick’s touring Band. The Stick is back on the road…….

The ex-Iron Maiden/Samson drummer is hitting the road throughout 2018. Viixen completes the band’s new touring lineup.

With several 2018 UK festival appearances announced already and more dates planned, Thunderstick creator and NWOBHM drumming icon, Barry Graham Purkis, has revealed his new-look live touring band. Viixen is the rock ‘n’ roll wildchild vocalist who will be fronting up the new version of Thunderstick and sparring with the crazed, masked drummer.

The band will be playing material from the recent highly-acclaimed ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ album, as well as from the earlier ‘Echoes From The Analogue Asylum’ album. There will be something special, too. By way of a tribute to the band that the drummer was such a big part, the set will also include some classics from the Samson era.

Thunderstick aka Barry Graham Purkis comments: “To describe the live lineup of Thunderstick as ‘explosive’ would be an understatement to say the least. We are calling the live gigs The ‘Tectonic Plates Dates’. After the phenomenal reaction last year’s album has had from both our fans and reviewers alike this year will see an all-new lineup of Thunderstick taking to the stage. It has been spectacular letting Viixen take on the mighty vocal melodies of Bruce Dickinson playing the Samson material. Headline gigs are being put together for this year, both in the UK and Europe, as well as festival appearances at A New Day Festival, Hard Rock Hell and Mearfest. We will keep everyone posted as the dates are added.”

Viixen herself adds: “This band is so right for me! Energy, power, theatrics and outrage are all extremities of my personality. This band allows total expression of those personalities…… I am rock roller coaster…… I am a women of paradox – with outfits to match!”

Also new to the band is guitarist, Baz Rose. Playing in popular gigging bands since the early nineties in bands such as Final Sunset, Black Rain and Black Roze, Baz adds: “When I was younger I remember recording Samson on the Friday rock show. ‘Riding With The Angels’ has always been on my playlist ever since then – and now I’m playing with Thunderstick. Crazy how things work out!”

The full Thunderstick lineup is :
Vocals – Viixen
Guitar – Dave ‘Kandy’ Kilford
Guitar – Baz Roze
Bass – Rex Thunderbolt
Drums – Thunderstick

‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’, the first new Thunderstick album in over thirty years, was released in July 2017 and has been attracting enthusiastic reviews from all over the world:

First noticed playing with a developing Iron Maiden in the seventies then moving to Samson (being instrumental in finding a very youthful Bruce Dickinson) Barry Graham Purkis became the figurehead of the newly emerging NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) scene. This was done by creating an alter ego Thunderstick, a masked persona known not only for his wild style of playing drums but doing so from inside a cage and playfully terrorizing audiences. He went on to form his own highly theatrical band in the eighties. Fronted by a female rock ’n’ roll wildchild (something comparatively new for its time) Thunderstick the band was a perfect ‘Beauty and the Beast’ combination, playing live and recording for six years until it folded in 1987.

The CD album ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ is available for purchase via via https://www.freewebstore.org/thunderstick-productions and in download format via Bandcamp https://thunderstick.bandcamp.com/album/something-wicked-this-way-comes

It is indeed a fine, fine album. Read my review in this post.