METAL FORCES: No18

Gambler GAZ SHARPE talks to Accept bassist PETER BALTES.

Witnessing the photographer Matt Sampson spill coffe all over the table is an embarressment. As Rik Sayells (Dokken tour manager) rightly says - "Who is this guy?"

Watching Mick Brown talk however is an amazing experience. When do American’s breath?

So here it is the history of the world, pocket sized edition courtesy of "wild" Mick Brown...

"... a 17-year-old kid took this! (photo on reverse of "Tooth & Nail") George said "Well let’s stand here in between these amps and we’ll have some smoke’ and we did it. Then look at this ! (holding up the front cover of "Lock & Key"). Original huh! In fact we look like faggots on there. But hey, we’re not OK! Look at this one though. Ha! Ha!!! (he grabs "Balls To The Wall"). This was a guy who used to work out backstage at Accept gigs. London Leather Boys Ha! Ha!! Y’know all this "Accept are gay" stuff came from the CRUE. Some photographer asked them booth bands to pose in the showers - naked!!! So Accept said "Yeah, OK" and CRUE said "Uh-oh - flakes!!" Ha! Ha! Ha!! Actually Peeter Baltes played all the bass parts on our first album. Juan only did "Paris Is Burning" and one other before he left to join RATT. I bet he’s regretting that move! Ha! Ha! And, Ha! Ha! - I’ve gotta tell you this! When Jeff joined we only had twenty minutes to jam because we wrer using another bands equipment so we said "Well Jeff, what the hell - you’re in!" Ha! Ha! Ha! We had tom lip-synch this video for the "Breaking The Chains" song and Jeff turns and says "Hey you guys, do you realize this is the first time we’ve played together and it’s not even for real." Ha! Ha! Ha! (picking up Lock & Key again). We look so much like fags on there! In fact we are all members of the Purple Helmet Club and all girls are purple collar workers!

Uh? ....er, yeah. In the cup this time Matt. It’s hard to believe the zeal and all round enthusiasm the >Dokken drummer has without ever being big-headed. He’s curious about everything and quizzes me on the new Priest album, the Accept album and what the audience will be like tonight. After sorting out details with Accept’s manager Gaby I rush back to the hotel to find Mick in the foyer chatting to a couple of fans.

After checking out a tasty blonde in the swiiming pool and taking in the details of John Mills (Mercia sound rock show man) latest wenching exploits it’s time to interogate Accept.

When Mick was machine-guuning at me I vaguely recall a mention of the Accept man playing bass on Dokken’s first album. Is it true? "Yeah, they re-mixed it and Juan played two songs because I was in Germany at the time. Then they lost their bass olayer so I did it."

It’s been kept quiet though hasn’t it? "Well, they paid me so it was OK!"

Everybody and their grandmother must know by know that Accept have a mini-live album out. Emphasis on the ‘live’ as well - strictly no overdubbs. I whish more bands could be so honest. Rightly so it’s much in demand as it was for Japan only originally. So how long ‘till the full-blown double live?’ "We are definatily recording shows on this tour" says Peter. "Europe, Japan and America for a possible live album."

OK, here’s the crunch.

Are Accept gay? That titanic "BTTW" LP has a queer cover, strange songs and even stranger lyrics. Peter is surprizingly frank on what must be a touchy subject. "It was the song "London Leather Boys" which made everybody think we were a gay band or something. But we’re not! We had that cover because we thought it was provocative which we wanted for our first concept album.We’ve continued that with "Metal Heart" and now with "Russian Roulette" That "BTTW" album was about the situation everyone finds themselves in when they are knocked out y’know."

Whats the concept behind "Turn Me On"? Sounds like a quick groupie grope in the dressing room to me! "Mmmmmm" he muses a while before answering. "OK. That song was about...er...OK, I admit it was about me! Something liked that happened so we wrote a song about it."

What about "Lovechild"? "Thats about the problems gay people face. It’s not an official gay song or anything. Just how to describe how it feels and how it comes across."

Another weird one is "Teach Us To Survive" off the "Metal Heart" LP. Not exactly standard metal formula with all the fingersnapping and jazz. "True. It was written for a film soundtrack in the States with Golden Earring and loads of other bands. There were problems with the companies (CBS and Warner) so it was never used. When we were doing "MH" we had this song and put it on. It’s a good song, it’s different I played an acoustic bass and Wolfie played a very old guitar for the jazzy parts."

Where did you get the idea for the almost East European melodies in "Princess Of The Dawn"? It sounds like a very heavy Rumanian folk song to me? "That was one of the first songs where we used the diddy-da-diddy-da stuff and we’ve continued with that on the new stuff even. We use those melodies because we’ve always tried to be different. The classical Beethoven stuff was the next step, to see if we could play those songs with our instruments, so it sounds like Accept but still Beethoven as well."

How did you feel about the fact that everyone had demotapes of "Restless And Wild"

three months before the LP came out? "I never heard about that!" he states looking very surprized. "I think it was the thousand hands situation where our managers and friends all had a tape and were making copies of it. Probably the Dutch radio got a copy, they’re very quick on things like that!"

You had out the excellent "Breaker" album before so why do you think it took "RAW" to break you? "It was just the timing. We had done little tours of the Netherlands, not even a club tour of Germany because there was no possibility. Then we toured the first time with "Priest" which gave us the breakthrough in Britain and Europe."

At Donington you spend most of the set trying to trip each other up and fighting onstage. Why? "It’s just fun, we always do that part of the show."

It’s must be difficult for Wolf or Jörg to play lead if Udo’s trying to push them over all the time? "Thay may miss a few notes. Who the hell cares? It makes the show wilder. We had a kind of choreograohy but now we do it automatically onstage. Even with the new songs we didn’t rehearse so much. It’s just a certain rhythm and you start doing it, makes it more powerful."

OK, now here’s a difficult one for him. It wasn’t so long ago that rumours spread of Udo’s departure from the band and Accept’s imminent split. Well..."Not at all!" he exclaims forcibly. "There were rumours floating aroun when Udo produced the Raven album,

a lot of people thought he might leave the band. I don’t know where that came from but you can’t stop rumours once they start. Udo has stopped the production now anyway, it was just that Michael Wagener was an old friend."

Ah-ha! What about Faitful Breath’s "Cold ‘n’ Glory" album for which Udo gets a production credit? "He wasn’t really involved in that." he says trying to look as honest as possible! He was just sitting next to Michael, they wanted him there because he was a name."

I enquireas to the band’s feelings when reading articles on up and coming Deutchlander when the inevitable "We don’t want to go commercial like Accept or Scorpions" line is wheeled out. "I think it funny!" he laughs before explaining. "As long as a band is underground they’re great. When they grow up everybody says they are then commercial - it’s bullshit!! If you sell records it doesn’t mean you’re now commercial. On the new one we definetaly gone back to "Breaker" and "BTTW", we are getting tougher with each album. If we had stuck with the early stuff then no one would listen to us now. They constantly compare us to thrash metal or whatever but you have to progress and grow or you’ll get nowhere."

I couldn’t agree more. The cold fact is that Accept are getting toughter as Peter says... Check those guitars on the early albums to what they’re hammering out these days and there’s no comparison. These seems to be an ugly elitism in metal today, if the band is smallthey’re cool but three albums down the line the rejection factor hits fast. It’s happened with Accept, Priest, Ufo, Girlschool and Motörhead and to my mind it stinks!! Metal is about being fucking loud and possesing talent. That talent is hopefully why it’s weathered the storm against the flood of pop shit. I’m all for promoting young metal acts but not at the expense of those that have showed the way. OK? Lecture over.

Right Peter, in not more than a hundred words tell us about the new album and you could win a feature in Matal Forces!

"This is an anti-war album which is why Stefan is showing Ude the gun on the cover, it means - go and play the game y’know, what a silly game it is. One will die definately. "TV War is about people sitting in front of the TVwith people dying and they don’t even react anymore, they’re already full of that so they don’t react anymore. You see it everyday now. If the TV announced they’d just dropped the bomd above your head they would probably just change channels!" He’s got a point here. He should watch the "A-Team" coz no-one ever gets killed!

"There is a song about religion as well. How the church makes people believe in things they sholdn’t do. It says in the bible you should not kill your brother but they say it’s OK to kill him so long as he like’s something you don’t. The church as always supported wars but anyone who believes in the bible shouldn’t become a soldier, everyone does it though. There’s also a Vietnam song and one about Aids as well." I suppose a cover of the gay anthem by Ufo on this subject is next. Imagine Accept singing "Rock’s Bottom"!!

That winds it up as well as I had to belt cross Brum to catch Dokken do their thing. I won’t mention Accept’s live outing as the "Buddah Of Metal" Bernard Doe tells me that’s someone elses job. What I will say is that Udo’s piggy snorts at 30,000 watts was excrutiatingly wonderful! (oh, and Bernard , can Matt have danger money as bouncers have a habit nowadays on throwing wayward fans on his head. Maybe it was Mick Brown’s revenge - "Hey you bouncer, see that guy with the camera? He spilt coffe all over me. Throw a few fans on his head for me will’ya.")