THE REAL TAILZ HISTORY PART 2
Tigertailz Version 3
Tigertailz acquired Stevie Jaimz in 1985 after he responded to an advert in Sounds Magazine placed by Jay, Pepsi & Ian Welsh.

The picture on the right is one of the few pictures showing the original Tailz members (Jay, Pepsi & Ian Welsh) with Stevie James.

Stevie had been playing in a band called Crash KO and had spent some time in the US where he also played with Ace Finchum on drums.

After Stevie joined the band  the Tailz decided to record a new Demo but things weren't working in the 'drumming department' and it was agreed that a new drummer would benefit the band longer term.  Inevitably, Ian Welsh was asked to leave the band.  This was a difficult decision for Pepsi as they'd been friends since school.

The band were now stuck for a drummer...!!!  Fortunately, Stevie was friends with some of the guys from Tokyo Blade and asked their drummer Steve Pearce if he would play on the Demo.  Steve kindly agreed and this turned in to the original 'Shoot to Kill' Demo (cover of Demo below).

<<<  (Original Shoot To Kill Demo Cover)

Look at the picture of Ace Finchum on the right..?   It's actually Stevie..  Ace had not arrived in the UK in time to do the cover photo shoot so Stevie pretended to be Ace..  Can't remember anyone ever commenting on this....

After recording the new Demo Ace flew to Wales to become the newest Tailz member and the the band released “Shoot to Kill” as a Single on their own TT Records.  The B sides to the single were “She’z too Hot” and “Living Without you”.  

The band played as many shows around the UK as possible to try and promote the new single. and also played a number of dates in Germany & Holland supporting Tokyo Blade.

Shoot To Kill sold a few thousand copies and created interest from a number of record labels .  After selling out 2 nights at the London Marquee club, the Tailz signed to Music For Nations who, at the time, had Stryper, Poison and Metallic.

In November 1987 Tigertailz released their debut album 'Young and Crazy' which they recorded in 2 weeks with producer Steve James (no relation to Sid James or the singer Stevie James).

Recording Young & Crazy was stressful due to the time limitations and cracks were starting to appear in the bands relationship Stevie James.

The band toured in support of the album playing a combination of headline shows and support slots to Vow Wow and Mamas Boys. After the main UK tour tensions started to mount even further with Stevie Jaimes. 

Stevie was gaining a reputation for not only drinking (as all the band did) but for being agressive & fighting with anyone who upset him.... This came to a head when James apparently spat beer into the face of a leading rock journalist just because he'd given the bands album a bad review.

After discussing the situation with their record company & management, Stevie James was asked to leave Tigertailz.

This was the end of Tigertailz version 3.   However, their most successful period was still yet to come.

Tigertailz Version 4
Kim Hooker was a friend of Jay Pepper & Pepsi Tate who both knew he had a decent voice and image to front the Tailz. However, Ace Finchum was not convinced so the band recorded a Demo of Kim singing 'Living Without You' and presented it to Ace and Music For Nations. Both came to terms with the fact that Kim was the man for the job and he was announced as the new Tigertailz vocalist.

Shortly after, the band went into the studio and recorded a new version of 'Living Without You' with 'Nine Lives' & 'For a Few Dollarz More' as the B sides of what was to be their first official release with Kim Hooker.
Tigertailz then toured Germany and the UK which climaxed in a support slot to UFO at the Metal Hammer Xmas party in The Astoria London. The band then set-up shop in Tim Lewis's (thighpaulsandra) Cardiff Studio to write songs for the new Tigertailz album 'Bezerk'. This would prove a long process before the band headed into Great Linford Studios, Milton Keynes to record Bezerk in 1989.
Although 'Bezerk' was recorded in January-March 1989, it wasn't officially released until March 26, 1990 - God knows why...
'Bezerk' was the most commercially successful album and time period for Tigertailz. The album was a UK chart hit reaching number 36. Bezerk also spawned several singles; 'Heaven', 'Love Bomb Baby' and 'Noise Level Critical'. The band also released a live video called 'Bezerk: Live 1990' which was mainly shot from their home-town show at St Davids Hall Cardiff Wales & The London Astoria. The Bezerk Live video reached number 5 on the UK Video charts.
After the Bezerk UK tour, Tailz members Jay & Pepsi flew to California to the Concrete Marketing Foundations Forum to do press interviews & meetings.   An interesting fact about this trip is that Tim Lewis (Tailz Keyboard & Producer) and John Lee (Feeder Drummer - RIP)  also travelled with Jay & Pepsi to LA.  John was a good friend of the band at this time and played in Tim's band Temper Temper (Feeder had not started yet).  John would later play on the 'Live' B sides for the 'Love Bomb Baby' single (For a Few Dollarz More & Shes to Hot)  as Ace was unavailable.
Quote from Pepsi, Jay & Kim
"John is sadly miissed by us all.  He was always the joker messing about and we had some great times whilst recording in Loco Studios and our trip to LA.  We used to laugh about John's Newport accent and his constant smile is still with us.  God Bless John., we'll all be there soon to go 'Out on the County Town"
In 1991 the band compiled all their home video footage and released a  “Televised History” of the band; this marked the release of the video “Video Frenzy”.    However,  another  line-up change  was about to happen....  After a series of misfortunes and terrible circumstances Ace Finchum was asked to leave the band..  A lot has been written about the exit of Ace & Stevie James but the fact is that both were asked to leave the band and did not leave of their own accord.

There was also another album released in 1992, containing unreleased songs, and the B-sides from the Bezerk album. The 9-track album was called Banzai. This was a Sony released for Japan only. However, it was only in circulation for less than a year and makes it the most rare and hard to find Tigertailz albums.

Later in 1991 in preparation for the next album “Wazbones” things became very chaotic.  The band acquired a local drummer named Andy Skinner to be the newest Tailz member.  Tigertailz spent approximately 2 years making the 'original' Wazbones album, (leaving Music for Nations in the process).  However, a month before it was due for release the US record company (Amuse America Inc.) had a bust up with the bands manager and they shelved the project.  At this stage they had spent approximately $200 thousand dollars on the project..

The album theme was based on the film “A Clockwork Orange” and the band dressed as the characters in the film and posed around New York City.   The Tailz eventually got the rights to the Wazbones record back around a year later but by this time Jay had had enough and quit the band. 

After he left; the band re-recorded “Wazbones” with a new guitarist, Cy Danaher. So the released version is not the original recordings.  Only 5 of these can be found on the Japanese released version, which were the original tracks Jay played on..  Eventually the 'Wazbones' album was released in 1995, almost 5 years after the initial recording, and packaging of the album.

The following year in 1996, Tigertailz released “You lookin’ at me? The best of live”..

More Tailz history facts to come soon....