Scottish rockers Heavy Pettin re-released their first three albums on 29th November through Burnt Out Wreckords and Cherry Red Records – “Lettin Loose”, “Love Ain’ Dead” and “The Big Bang”. I’ve been a big fan of Heavy Pettin since seeing them supporting Kiss in Edinburgh in October 1983 and it was great to see the band reforming in 2017 and subsequently re-releasing their albums from the 80’s. The band has regularly been included on the Friday NI Rocks Show, with the latest track to feature being “Don’t Call It Love” from the album “The Big Bang” on 13th December.
Heavy Pettin formed in Glasgow in 1981 when guitarist Gordon Bonnar, bassist Brian Waugh and drummer Gary Moat from the band Weeper recruited vocalist Steve ‘Hamie’ Hayman and lead guitarist Punky Mendoza. A demo was released that same year with the tracks "Love Times Love", "Speed Kills" and "Hell Is Beautiful". A first single, “Roll The Dice”, was released in 1982 via Neat Records and that led to a major contract with Polydor Records.
The band’s debut album “Lettin Loose” was released in 1983 and was co-produced by Brian May from Queen. By that stage the band had already played the Reading Rock Festival and tour followed with Kiss and Ozzy Osbourne, and it has been stated that at one point Heavy Pettin were outselling English band Def Leppard. The second album “Love Ain’t Dead” was released in 1985. A decision to enter the Eurovision Song Contest in 1987 proved to be the turning point for Heavy Pettin and they were dropped by Polydor, with the band splitting in 1988. The album that they had been working on was released in 1989 as “The Big Bang”.
The band reunited in 1998 to release the “Demos ‘98” compilation and then “Heart Attack Live” in 2000. Those were followed by further compilations – “Pettology” in 2006 and “Prodigal Songs” in 2007.
In 2017 Hamie, Punky Mendoza and Gordon Bonnar reformed the band to play at the Winter Storm festival in Ayr. They were joined by Jez Parry on bass and Michael Ivory on drums. Original drummer Gary Moat continues to release albums with his own band Burnt Out Wreck and his label is re-releasing the three original Heavy Pettin albums. Former Gun guitarist Dave Aitken has now replaced Punky and the band continue to perform and are working on a new album.
Check out the band on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/heavypettinofficial/
About “NI Rocks Recommends”
This is purely a personal recommendation and some information about the artist and the album; not a traditional ‘review’. Most of the recommendations posted are for albums that have been sent to us digitally by the record label or promoter. Quite often I’ve also bought the album on CD or vinyl as well and sometimes I just feel the need to post a recommendation for an album that I’ve bought myself. Essentially these are albums that I like and which I’ve played some tracks from on the Shows on Rock Radio NI!
