Interview by: Mark Lacey
Live Photos: Robert Sutton
Even from his earliest days recording with Requiem in 1980, Karl Wilcox has gained a reputation as one of the industry’s most versatile and energised rock drummers. As a self-confessed lifelong fan of Diamond Head, being invited to join the band in 1991, kickstarted a new era for the group, which has now lasted well over 30 years. However with founding member Brian Tatler currently seconded to Saxon for an extended tour, the band is on yet another temporary pause, and so when the call came in for Karl to join Tank on their own revitalised path, it as an easy decision.
“I was a fan of Diamond Head since 1978. When I’m playing live, I’m singing the songs, just as if I was down the front of the stage, but this time I’m singing at the back of the stage. Thank goodness there’s no mic on me”.
MGM: The last time we saw you in the UK, you were performing you first show with Tank at the Cart & Horses. How did you find that show?
Karl: Before that show, we’d all been individually working on the set that Mick was working on. We did a lot of wood shedding. We had a day and a half of rehearsals, and it really was fun. The band just wanted to go and do a show, and get ready for the festival show in Houston. Whilst we’ve all been around the block a few times, it’s nice to get to meet people in the room and actually jam and get to know each other, as opposed to over the internet. It’s actually nice getting into a rehearsal room, then go and do a show.
MGM: It’s become the norm for bands these days to write and they record their albums via sending digital files, and often the first time they play the songs is during the tour rehearsal or even more astonishing, at the soundcheck for the first gig.
Karl: That’s the way a lot of things are done nowadays. Obviously, as one gets older, you might not stay in the same city, where your band is located. The digital domain has made working with people on the other side of the world so much easier, cheaper, and cost-effective, and allowed people to be involved in a lot of projects that they might not necessarily have been able to back in the day. I did an album in 2022, ‘Brothers in Arms’, with the guitarist Jack Frost and Alex Jansen on bass, with several different vocalists. All I was sent was a stereo guitar track, a click tempo, and told to basically make the drums up as you go along. If they’re OK, they’ll go on to the next player, go on to the bass player. That’s how it came out, really. I’m pleased with it. Then to hear the five different vocalists, and what they made of the song without actually anybody being in the same room, was great. I think there’s still a younger generation who go into the rooms to rehearse, to do that.
MGM: How did you first get into playing the drums? When did you decide that that was your instrument?
Karl: I was a trumpet player for ten years. I’d worked my way up from fourth trumpet, third trumpet, second trumpet, first trumpet in the Cannock Music Centre. Basically, the drummer, Ian Richards, who was a great drummer, was leaving because he was 18, and according to the educational things, he could no longer be part of the band. My dad was a dance band drummer, and he had a practise kit, and I thought, you know what? I’m going to have a bash at this. That was when I made the conscious choice. My dad was a professional musician until the Beatles era hit, that’s when nobody wanted dance bands anymore. Before then, he was a professional and Secretary of the Musicians Union for the Walsall Pelsall Branch. He always said, you don’t want to be a drummer because you’re going to be the first to arrive, the last to leave, and you’re going to need a big car. It’s absolutely right. But, I think it was about 15 or 16 when I thought, I’m going to have a bash with this. By that age, I was into rock n roll and Slade, T-rex, Sabbath and Zeppelin and everything that came along in that ’70s period of music. I was crap. I was terrible in the orchestra. I had to do a lot of it in stereo because Ian Richards was just a phenomenal player.
MGM: When did you decide that you were going to go from doing it for fun, to doing it professionally or semi-professionally?
Karl: That came about probably ’84, ’85. That was when I made the decision to go and study at the Drums Collective in New York City. I just felt as if I wanted just to further my instrument. Obviously, if you want to be a hired gun, then you’ve got to be very versatile. You got to have at least some basic chart reading skills. I wanted to be versatile in different styles. Going to New York City and studying with the people that were on their roster, and being able to have master classes with Steve Gadd, Louis Belson, Dave Weckl and Vinnie Colaiuta at the time was just an opportunity from a little advert in Modern Drummer magazine. There was a big advert to go to the Percussion Institute of Technology in California, but it was just too expensive. So, I saw this little ad in the corner for the Drum Collective, I made a phone call, and it was in budget. That was the moment; walking around New York City and hearing the cats who were just jamming on the street and hearing how deep the fucking pocket was. My first memory was coming up out of the subway on 36th Avenue of the Americas, and I was coming up the escalator and all I could hear was this groove. I was expecting the radio to start. I’m getting further and further up the elevator and as I start to level off, there’s this drummer sitting a milk crate with a bass drum, snare drum and hi-hat and a shopping cart to push it all around, playing this groove with eight breakdancers in front of him. There must have been 200 people stood around this cat. He didn’t move, he didn’t play anything else, he didn’t fuck with the bass drum pattern at all. I stood and watched that, then he played a completely different beat and they had another thing and I just thought, Holy shit, dude, wow, this is what’s on the New York City streets. Then, of course, I got exposed to Greenwich Village, and I saw a lot of the fusion cats that were playing in town, and also some of the rock tributes which were starting to actually come about in New York City in around the ’87 – ’88 period.
MGM: You’re originally from the Midlands, but sounds like you’ve travelled around the world a huge amount in pursuit of this career?
Karl: I lived in New York for ten years, then San Francisco for ten years, and back to New Jersey for seven years, and then Vegas for the last eight, or nine years, as well as here in France, Normandy.
MGM: You recorded your first single with Requiem, back in 1980. With all that travelling overseas, did you get to experience much of the NWOBHM that was happening here around that time?
Karl: I didn’t actually go overseas to study at the Drummers Collective until maybe ’86. So, I was there in ’80. I remember seeing Diamond Head in ’78 at Bogarts in Birmingham. Then saw them at Walsall Town Hall or Walsall Civic Hall. I saw them with Foreigner. Obviously, by ’81, ’82, the whole thing was starting to slow down. Steve Mills joined Requiem from Trespass. We had a period of time with him. But for the bands who hadn’t made it, I think the writing was on the wall, with the new romantics thing coming in, and that new era of music and electronica was coming up through the underground movements and pushing that whole New Wave of British Heavy Metal thing down. Obviously, the Americans had picked up on it, and just added a lot more double bass drum and faster riffs. Just really pushing the envelope.
MGM: You’ve lived and breathed NWOBHM through Diamond Head for the last 30 years you’ve been playing with the band. But what did it feel like as a fan being around that in the late ’70s? Did you feel like it was changing the music scene at the time?
Karl: I think you could argue that. It was also just based on what was going on within the country, economically, socially, politically. It was coming out of the whole punk attitude. There was a whole economic thing going on in the country and power struggles and fucking power strikes and fucking turning the lights off. But yeah, there was something definitely happening. I think a lot of what was going on was inspirational to a lot of the folks who wrote the songs, and wanted to show some form of anger.
MGM: You didn’t join Diamond Head until around ’91, but how well did you know the guys in those early days?
Karl: I played in the band Chase, with Abbs, the other guitar player in Diamond Head. That was his band back in the day. When I joined Chase, and we used to rehearse, sometimes Brian and Sean would come in. There was one night I just purchased a brand-new Yamaha kit. I let Brian know that if he wanted to try recording it, I’d come over. I think it was ’84 or ’85, I received a phone call from Brian about 10.20pm saying, Look, do you want to come over? Bring your drums and we’ll do a track. I started working with Brian on what became the Radio Moscow period of his life. Then obviously, whilst I was doing that, Sean came down. That’s how I was introduced to Sean. Then I started working with Sean and Robin George (RIP) on the Notorious project. That’s how I got the Diamond Head gig, because I’d worked with Brian for two years. I’d worked with Sean for almost 18 months. I think it was at the end of 1990 when it was suggested. They just looked at each other and said, yeah, we’ll just use Karl. I was a fan since 1978. When I’m playing live, I’m singing the songs, just as if I was down the front of the stage, but this time I’m singing at the back of the stage. Thank goodness there’s no mic on me.
MGM: A number of drummers who’ve spoken to MGM tell us they don’t know the lyrics to their own songs. They hear the groove and the beat, but not the lyrics. That must make you an anomaly.
Karl: I was always a big admirer of Sean on vocals. He’s got a very unique sounding voice. I thought that it complemented what was going on musically with the band. They were just different from several of the other NWOBHM bands. Definitely a lot different from Requiem. Some people called us the forefathers of doom. Anybody who’s got the ‘Angel of Sin’ single, thank you so much.
MGM: Your first stint in Diamond Head is fascinating, because you collectively created the band’s first album in 10 years. ‘Death and Progress’ which featured contributions from both Dave Mustaine and Tony Iommi. You went on to support Metallica at Milton Keynes Bowl, but then the band disappeared shortly afterwards. How did that feel at the time for you?
Karl: It was, Wow. Just what is going on? The album got great reviews. I think it won Classic Rock’s album of the month. We did this big gig at Milton Keynes, which to be fair, I think both myself and Brian would agree we were just underprepared for. It’s a show, but when you’re looking from wall to wall and it’s like 30 feet across the stage and then you’re looking across the stage and it’s like it’s 250 feet. It’s a gig, but there’s just a suddenly a feeling like you got to do something and move around. We were a little underprepared for going from the shows that we had been doing, to do that. Musically, we were solid, but we were just slightly underprepared. Then, Sean and Brian do the interview with Lars, and then we were waiting to go out on tour and just nothing seemed to happen. But the next thing I know, three years have gone by.
MGM: Do you remember that pause feeling temporary rather than permanent at the time? It took almost eight years for you to get back together again.
Karl: Sometimes you’ve just got to work around all the circumstances you have. Whatever they are, whether it’s management, agent, band members, you just got to play to those strengths and do what you can do as a band. I thought there was a possibility of it just being a temporary hiatus. However, as time went by, you could see what was happening with the whole grunge thing, the way music was changing. You’re on the verge of ‘Nevermind’ and everything that was to come after that. After two years, I just brought my drums back over to New York and joined a band in Brooklyn. For me, it was like, this is not going to work again. Too much time has gone by since the album come out, and all that build-up. You can only ask so many folks who are willing to go to bat for you to give you another opportunity, and say this band deserves to be up there.
MGM: Since Diamond Head’s reformation in 2000, you’ve recorded some great albums, and are still going strong. What do you think has been the catalyst for that success? You’ve been able to bridge that gap between being a legacy band, whilst still remaining current.
Karl: I think Razz joining; obviously he’s a younger generation, so he brings in a whole new different vibe of what a new Diamond Head song could be. He’s brought in some more modern studio techniques which have helped separate us from several other bands. Brian is still coming up with the riffs, and the band is firing on all cylinders. We’re not sticking to a formula. Diamond Head has always pushed the boundaries. For some, the difference between the ‘Canterbury’ album and ‘Borrowed Time’ was too much of a leap. I think ‘Borrowed Time’ is brilliant, and I also think ‘Canterbury’ is brilliant. There’s a couple of tracks on there I might not have wanted to have put on, if I had been in the band. However, I still think it’s a brilliant album.
Brian listens to a lot of music, so too does Abbs and myself. Because we’re not all from the same genre backgrounds, we’re able to bring influences that can help keep us current. Having some younger cats in there just exposed us to some things that we might not necessarily have been exposed to.
MGM: One thing that will really grab fans about your own live performance, is that you play with a real intensity. It’s fast and it’s intense. As an older player, how do you maintain your physicality and your mental well-being?
Kark: It’s a little bit like somebody preparing to go out and do a distance run. Once, Mick had finally settled on a setlist, I started approaching the songs just very light-heartedly. Then I worked up to playing the set once a day, and then I started playing it twice a day, and then I started playing it three times a day. The third time was as if it was a show. So yeah, I’m just soaking wet after that because I’ve really gone for it. I work my way up to the point of knowing what I can do and what I can’t do, when I need to slow down a bit, get some more deeper breaths going on. Because I think the songs require that energy in order to do them justice. From my perspective and listening to the early Tank stuff, it’s like, Fuck yeah, there’s a lot of energy in this shit. If I can put that out, then hopefully everybody on the front line can add to that. But by the time I got to rehearsal, I was just doing the whole set once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and then occasionally, I’d go in and do the set for a third time, just to work up the stamina.
MGM: The physicality is one thing; being able to maintain that energy throughout a 60-90 minute show. But you also need to ensure you avoid injury to your hands, or pulling muscles.
Karl: You’re always cautious when you’re using somebody else’s drum kit because you can’t set it in exactly the position that you’ve been practising on your drum kit. It’s amazing, just this slight little nuance of a tom being at a funny angle or a cymbal not being quite the right height can result in the stick being whipped out your hand, or you cracking a stick or you even cracking a cymbal because it’s just not quite right. When I’m playing, I’m treating the other guy’s drums with some respect. I had a serious illness last year, which almost cost me my life. I’ve got the attitude now that you’ve got to live your day as if it might be your last, because one time it may well be.
MGM: Following your recent shows there seems to be quite a lot of noise around the new Tank line-up. Do you feel that sense of excitement and opportunity for the band to do more?
Karl: Yes I do. Mick and Cliff have commented that for the first time now, they actually feel like it’s a band. Everybody’s pulling in in the same direction. The tentative game plan, not necessarily in this order, is there’s a new record, a potential tour of America to reintroduce Tank back into the US after 38-39 years. We’re currently getting everything ready to record a new studio album, and hopefully that will come out early next year. Then, it’ll be all hands on deck to go out and tour and promote that in the UK, Europe, and then back over to the US. But hopefully the band can get onto some festivals as well.
MGM: To support that forward push, Tank are also connecting to new agents, but you’ve been an agent during your career as well, I think?
Karl: I used to back in the day. But I can still talk to people to get certain types of gigs. Sometimes If you have a real agency, it just opens a few more doors. I did it with Diamond Head in 2005, because nobody really wanted to work with the band back then. Obviously, we just parted company with Sean and people didn’t think the band would carry on. A whole nightmare of things just kept coming down the road at us as we tried to move forward. Sometimes you become a drummer, accountant, driver, agent, management, organiser of the merchandise, taking care of setting up tours all over. There was a lot of stuff that I did myself. It would be unfair of me to say I’m an agent, but I can get gigs.
MGM: What can you tell me about Diamond Head’s next phase? Obviously, Brian’s off doing his thing with Saxon, and he’ll be busy for a lot of this year. Will there be an opportunity for that band to get together and do some more things soon?
Karl: With Diamond Head’s current hiatus and obviously, Saxon’s schedule, you can see the next few years could easily be tied up for Brian. Obviously, the band recorded all the shows in the UK when we supported Saxon. We’re currently going through them and picking the songs that hopefully could come out as a live compilation, maybe early next year. The go ahead has been given for everybody to start swapping files for the next Diamond Head record. Hopefully, we can tie it in with the band’s 50th anniversary, which would be 2026, because Diamond Head formed in ’76. Obviously, there are certain parameters that the band has got to work around, and maybe we could do some selective gigs and make it ‘An evening with Diamond Head’ where the band can play for two hours; play from the deep catalogue of songs and make it a real celebration that the band has been here 50 years, and that we can still bring something to the table.
For more information:
www.facebook.com/TANKFILTHHOUNDS
www.facebook.com/DiamondHeadOfficial
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