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Saturday, April 19, 2025

1291. Gogmagog / I Will Be There. 1985. 1/5

One of the most unusual and seemingly unlikely supergroups ever put together by anyone on the history of music is surely the tale of Gogmagog, the so-called brainchild of producer Jonathan King. King had had his own charting single back in 1965, and had been involved in producing bands such as Genesis, 10cc and the Bay City Rollers through the 1960’s and 1970’s. His list of credits in music is extensive, which eventually brought about this venture. But as will be shown, just what the actual end game was for this project is still a mystery.
According to several sources, originally King attempted to put together a supergroup revolving around then Whitesnake lead vocalist David Coverdale, bassist John Entwistle of The Who, and drummer Cozy Powell, all of whom were apparently keen on the project. It was initially imagined for a three track EP to be recorded and released. The lead song was set to be “I Will Be There”, a song composed by Russ Ballard and originally released by him on his solo album titled “Into the Fire” in 1981. Ballard had had a number of hit songs that he had written that were performed by other bands, including “Since You Been Gone” and “I Surrender” by Rainbow, “I Know There’s Something Going On” by ABBA member Frida, “So You Win Again” by Hot Chocolate, “You Can Do Magic” by America, and “New York Groove” and “God Gave Rock and Roll to You” which were covered by Ace Frehley and Kiss respectively. Cozy Powell said he thought that the Ballard song was "the best he's ever written". The other two tracks were composed by King himself, with the imaginative titles of "Living in a Fucking Time Warp" and "It's Illegal, It's Immoral, It's Unhealthy, But It's Fun", the second of which seems highly dubious considering that King was convicted of juvenile sexual abuse 15 years after this project for offences that occurred around this time.
Entwistle in particular was excited as the concept was apparently originally his idea. However, this early line-up wasn't working out, certainly according to later interviews with former Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno, and all three soon bowed out. That meant that a new line up for the proposed supergroup had to occur, and that was where Di’Anno came in.
Whatever this supergroup was meant to be, after the departure of the original three participants it looked as though the idea was to find members who were in a similar genre of music to those that had left the building. And as it turned out, their time of recruiting members could not have come at a better time. Paul Di’Anno as vocalist had of course been moved on from Iron Maiden, and then the previous year had recorded his debut eponymous solo album, one where he had changed style completely and also refused to play Iron Maiden songs in his set list on tour. That lineup had now dissolved, and when this opportunity had come about it feels as though it would have been one he couldn’t refuse. In interviews since he has had very little to say about it, and what little that he did say was not complimentary. He was completely dismissive of both the group and producer, referring to the failed project as "...nothing. That was some fucking idiot who got us doing that shit." He was also critical of the fact that none of the band members were able to contribute to writing any of the songs, something that if this HAD gotten off the ground would have been interesting to see if that would have changed.

The rest of the band came together from a similar fate and set of circumstances. Drummer Clive Burr had also just recently felt the wrath of the Maiden machine, and while he had had brief stints with both Trust and Alcatrazz, he was at a loose end before this came along. Unlike his former Maiden partner, Burr was more bullish about the project, saying in a later interview that "the others may not admit it, but this is some of the best stuff any of us has done". Pete Willis had also felt the sting of rejection from Def Leppard, and came on board with all sorts of credits behind him to match his two Iron Maiden contemporaries. Joining him on guitar was Jannick Gers who had been a part of Ian Gillan’s band, and of course had a bright future ahead of him a little way down the road, and on bass guitar was Neil Murray, most recently from Whitesnake but with many credits under his belt. As a who’s who of the recently spurned from very prominent hard rock and heavy metal bands, it would be hard to beat.
As to the songs themselves, even for the time that this was released, it is very formulaic. The producer obviously has a reasonable CV behind him, and Ballad’s propensity for writing songs that made charts and hit the right places musically is unquestioned. But there is certainly nothing here that drags you in has you excited to hear what has been laid down. “I Will Be There” is not standing up against ANY of the songs being released in any hard rock or metal environment at the time and certainly isn’t fitting in with the pop scene at the time either. None of the players in this band does anything here that makes you think “Aaahhh yes, that’s what I remember from so-and-so!”. No guitar solo’s, no dynamic bass lines, no dramatic drum fills. Everything is as basic as it can get. Di’Anno sticks out the front of the mix, but while he is serviceable there’s nothing that is in anyway inspirational. Other bands have made more of Russ Ballard’s songs than this group does here. Perhaps that’s just because the wrong song was picked, or the band was held rigidly to what the producer wanted them to do. As to the other two songs composed by the producer... well, he obviously thought they were top notch tracks that would act as a complement to the main track. But we are stuck in the same situation. There is nothing here for the performers to really get their teeth into and offer their undoubted skills to give the tracks the heart starter they need. Lyrically, musically, they are just dead in the water. The constant over repeating of the song title in the second song is just painfully predictable. And about the only thing that is in any way interesting about the final track is the lyrics that say “Don't put that weed in your mouth, boy, Take that sweet young thing off your lap, If you survive this antisocial behaviour, You're going to have to face a long-term prison rap”. It seems that the producer and writer was self-predicting his own fate in the future with this track!
I only ever tracked down this EP for the interest in the performers. The fact that I hadn’t heard about it at the time it was released more or less led me to believe that it was not something that I needed to hear, but when you have the names of Di’Anno, Gers, Willis, Murray and Burr involved in a band together, it is pretty hard to ignore. So I tracked it down, and was about as underwhelmed as I expected I was going to be. There just wasn’t any chance this was going to be an undiscovered gem, even with Russ Ballard also being involved. Is it worth the time and effort to listen to it? It is like everything in music. Listening once won’t harm anyone. And no matter who you are it seems unlikely you will search it out too often after that. I haven’t. I did burn it to CD when I found it, and have it sitting on my shelves as a result, but if not for this podcast episode it is extremely unlikely it would ever have been utilised. Again. Which, as it turns out, it now the truth of the matter going forward.
Being little more than a contrivance concocted by producer Jonathan King, the band quickly fell apart once he lost interest in his own creation. The five members of the group parted to move on to other projects, some with far greater success than others. And this sunk back into the mists of time, only ever to be revived by some tinpot podcaster in 2025 for the sake of filling some airtime. Some completionists are just kidding themselves, aren’t they?

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