Midlife Metal Crisis- top 10 Heavy Metal albums of the 1980's #10 Hear'n' Aid

Due to a CD transport failure on my old Rotel CD player (it only works if it's been switched on or an hour) I've been playing records a lot lately. The problem is I stopped buying records in around 1990 when I switched briefly to cassettes for my Walkman as worked away at the time and then on to Cd's
So barring some twisted nerve vinyl and stuff I've found in charity shops most of my records are eighties heavy metal. Or to more accurate, the heavy metal I couldn't bear to part with when I unforgivably donated most of my vinyl to the cancer research shop in the mod nineties. Don't judge me, at least it was a good cause.

So the stuff I have left is what I thought was irreplaceable at the time and as a rule it does stand up. So to celebrate what I am calling my midlife metal crisis I am going to revisit my top ten metal albums from my eighties hey day. I'm not getting into arguments about what is metal and what isn't or what types. Also most of these are in the mid to late eighties period when I was most rock. I assume there are pictures somewhere of me with Iron Maiden T-shirts, bullet belts and Mullets but thankfully the Internet wasn't around then and they will stay safely stashed in the my Mums big box of photos.

The Best Heavy Metal Albums of the 1980's #10 Hear 'n' Aid - Various Artists

This starts the list not as an actual favourite top ten album but out of respect for it's existence. It's release was instrumental in showcasing to the 12 year old me the bands out there. Also there is not enough written about heavy metals very own Band Aid charity record - Stars.

Heavy Metal pioneer, the late great Elf himself Ronnie James Dio's self named band at the time looked on as Sir Bob led the pop world in raising money for famine relief in Africa and set about uniting the Heavy Metal scene for the power of Good. Ronnie James Dio, Guitarist Vivian Campbell and Bassist Jimmy Bain wrote the song Stars, the word went out and the Heavy Metal Heavy weights turned up in their droves.

Members of Dio, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Judas Priest, Blue Oyster Cult, Twisted Sister, Dokken, Journey, WASP and many others entered the studio in May 1985 to record the lengthy epic.

Fuck Bono and his "tonight thank god it's them..." line this thing had Iron Maiden's twin guitars as a rhythm section and no less than 12 fucking lead guitar players banging out 6 guitar solos, all trying to outdo each other with more and more ridiculous licks. Reports suggest there was enough spandex in the room to cover a herd of African Elephants and that the hairspray bill ran into thousands.

Stars was released almost a year later due to record company legal wrangles reaching the dizzy heights of #26 in the UK charts.

There are few versions of this on Youtube but I thought this was the best, plus it has the lyrics so you can sing along.






The subsequent compilation album that was released featured the full extended version of Stars and 8 other tracks donated by bands that barring Dio and Y&T didn't perform on the charity record. These were Accept, The Scorpions, Kiss, Motorhead, Rush and Jimi Hendrix ( although to be fair he couldn't really be expected to have heeded the call to perform on the record). I didn't hear the Hendrix track for a couple of years as my friend who the album belonged to hated it so much he physically scratched it out of existence so I could never tape it. When I finally got the vinyl a couple of years later this so-so track was like a revelation.

The rest of the compilation is standard eighties heavy metal fair with mostly exclusive live tracks from Dio, Rush, Motorhead, Kiss and the Scorpions. Heavens on fire was my introduction to Kiss and although I can appreciate the attraction to their seventies make up clad hey-day I still have a soft spot for the ropey eighties years that most Kiss fans disown. Destroyer does Rock but give me Animalize or Lick it up any day.





The Scorpions will feature later in the top ten but The Zoo live is awesome:
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Motorhead's On the Road.




Dio's contribution was a live track from his Sacred Heart album:


And don't forget the merchandise available to JOIN YOUR FAVOURITE HARD ROCK HEROES IN THE FIGHT TO END WORLD HUNGER!

Above all things I wanted and still want a Hear'n'Aid Bandanna. I've tasked Shelley with getting me one for my Fortieth Birthday.If anyone has one of these send me a pic and I'll post it.

So in at number ten is the Heavy Metal charity album that never got the recognition outside the heavy metal community. Although it was covered in the heavy metal press, looking back I'm not really sure what to make of the Kerrang cover at the time, they probably meant well:

The 1980's was the defining decade for heavy metal although it was destined to be it's final days. Grunge was on its way to destroy the genre, its spandex trousers, hair spray and leather. In its final days would produce its greatest moments. The next few posts will go into them.