SamsonHistory

Paul Sanson adopted the stage name Paul Samson in 1976. That year, Paul Samson replaced Bernie Tormé in a band called Scrapyard, consisting of John McCoy (bass) and Roger Hunt (drums). They started touring with the moniker McCoy, until John McCoy left. At that point, Paul recruited bassist Chris Aylmer and drummer Clive Burr; together they assumed the name Samson, under Chris Aylmer’s suggestion.

First official gig: September 24^th, 1977.

Anyway, Samson used temporary members in 1978: Stewart Cochrane (bass - one gig in March 1978); Mark Newman (lead vocals - six gigs in October 1978).

September 1978: Telephone enters the Indie chart and gets good reviews.

December 1978: Samson opens for Gillan (Ian Gillan’s new band) on a tour. Since its inception in September 1977, Samson has already played 220 gigs.

February 1979: the second single, Mr. Rock & roll, is regarded as the very first NWOHM single.

May 1979: Samson, Iron Maiden and Angel Witch tour together under the banner The Heavy Metal Crusade. The London show on May 8^th is attended by 1.500 metal fans. The tour ends in July

June 1979: Bruce Dickinson joins Samson. He soon adopts the stage name Bruce Bruce. On July 2nd, the performance at London’s Music Machine marks the first appearance of Bruce Bruce as official member of Samson.

October 1979: Survivors is released. Samson tours with Gillan again on a 18-date of major halls. Survivors receives 4 star reviews on Sounds and Record Mirror, and stays on the Indie Top 10 album chart for 26 weeks, peaking at #3.

November 1979: Samson starts a tour as headliner; 26 dates. The tour ends at the Leas Cliff Hall, to over 1.000 people.

January 1980: Samson go straight back to work in the New Year of 1980 as special guests to Robin Trower. The Trower/Samson tour includes a date at Hammersmith Odeon, and finishes at Newcastle City Hall on Feb 12th. One week later the band goes back at the same venue, this time opening for Rainbow on their Down to Earth tour. This is a much better tour for Samson, who go down by storm every night. Shows to 10-12.000 people at Inglestone (Edinburgh), Bingley (Stafford), and Wembley in London are particularly good. The Rainbow tour finishes in March at Wembley Arena with standing ovation and encore for Samson.

June 1980: the second album Head on is released. It receives 5 star reviews on Sounds and Record Mirror and peaks at #34 in the mainstream chart. Samson embark on a big tour, culminating with a performance al the Reading festival which was recorded by Tommy Vance’s popular BBC Friday Rock Show program.

November 1980: Samson tours with Uriah Heep.

May 1981: the single Riding with the angels peaks at #54 in the mainstream chart. The third album Shock tactics is also released. It receives 4 star reviews on Sounds and Record Mirror. Samson starts a big UK tour.

August 1981: Samson performs at the Reading festival.

September 1981: Bruce Dickinson (formerly known as Bruce Bruce) joins Iron Maiden.

April 1982: Samson (now featuring Moore and Jupp in the line-up) tours with American band Blackfoot. The success of this UK tour resulted into Samson being signed with Polydor records worldwide.

June 1982: Polydor releases the single Losing my grip, and it peaks at #64 in the mainstream chart.

September 1982: Samson tours in France, as headliners of the Mulhouse Festival.

October 1982: their fourth album, Before the storm, is released. The album will get great reviews and stay in the rock chart for 11 weeks. Samson is then featured as special guests on Whitesnake’s Saints and sinners tour. The band plays to over 100.000 people.

1983: Samson toured extensively through the year. They went back to France, then to Yugoslavia, where they played to 30.000 people in 5 shows, then a totally sold out tour of Germany and Holland. Even though Before the storm notched up the best UK sales of any Samson album to date, it was completely dwarfed by their European sales.

January 1984: the fifth album Don’t get mad – get even is released. Samson embarks on an European tour with Gary Moore.

May 1984: Paul Samson disbands Samson in order to dissolve the deal with Polydor.

May 1986: Paul Samson’s first solo album, Joint Forces, is released. The album will be retroactively reinstated as Samson release in 1993. At the time of its release, the record picks up 4 star reviews and peaks at #1 of the German “Metal Hammer” chart (as well as being voted album of the month).

October 1986: the new band supporting the album, Paul Samson’s Empire, becomes the special guest act on Iron Maiden’s UK leg of the Somewhere in time tour. Through 28 dates, Empire are able to play to over 100.000 people.

October 1987: after a batch of warm-up dates in September, the new Samson line-up flies to Yugoslavia for another stadium level tour there, culminating in a headline spot at the Rock Spectacular festival in the Belgrade Red Star stadium, to an audience reputedly consisting of 66.000 people. The show is also televised (in black and white) on Yugoslavian TV. The band plays a short British tour on their return, which includes a sell-out at the Marquee, and completes the year with some French dates.

1988: the band gigs around the UK and Europe all through 1988. Their mini album, ‘and there it is...’, is released in the summer.

1989: in January 1989, Samson plays a tour of Germany using stand-in vocalist Mike Feather. In March, they return to the studio to record the new tracks, and in addition put Peter Scallan’s vocals on the Ignition tracks. They also record a session for the BBC Friday Rock Show (Paul’s 4th) which includes new jingles for the show. By then the jingles recorded by the Nicky Moore line-up had been in use for over 5 years. Finally they do another tour in Yugoslavia.

October 1989: Paul is invited to New York, as the reaction to the tapes was very favourable. It soon becomes apparent however that Samson’s reputation in America is built on what had been achieved with Bruce and Nicky in the early ‘80s, and Paul is required to deliver that kind of album. It is underlined when he meets up with Thunderstick there, and they undertake some rehearsals for old times sake, with NY bass player Eric Mauriello. Word soon gets out, and there are offers of gigs all down the East Coast. With Paul back on vocals, and a live set of mainly ‘79-‘81 Samson material, the dates ended with a show at the New York Roxy, where Samson are joined for the encores by Ace Frehley!

April 1990: Paul secretly assembles a Samson “reunion” line-up, featuring Aylmer and Thunderstick. New songs are written. Plans for the previous Samson line-up’s effort (Refugee) go ahead anyway.

August 1990: Samson’s eighth album, Refugee, is finally released worldwide. In the while, Paul is touring under the moniker Paul Samson’s Rogues and a new line-up featuring Sherwin and Tuohy.

March 1992: after many tours (UK, Germany, Holland, Scotland), Sherwin becomes ill and is replaced by Aylmer. The power trio drops the Rogues moniker and bills itself as Samson. This sets the scene for the next 18 months or so as they relentlessly play over 185 gigs from Inverness to Plymouth.

1993: Samson’s ninth album, simply titled Samson, is released. In the same year, Joint Forces is reinstated as the proper sixth Samson release and reissued as CD; the 1988 line-up’s recordings are as well reissued on CD under the title 1988.

1994: Tony Tuohy leaves in early ‘94, so Paul and Chris decide to call it a day for a while. Paul spends much of ‘94 negotiating with various companies that had been involved with Samson albums since 1984, and legally reinstates himself as the copyright owner of them. He is then able to negotiate their releases on CD all over the world.

May 1996: Samson is reissued and retitled Nineteen Ninety-Three.

November 1998: Paul assembles the last Samson spin-off band, Paul Samson’s Metallic Blue.

August 1999: the second reunion line-up finally operates on stage. Paul Samson, Chris Aylmer and Thunderstick together again to perform at the Metal Crusade ‘99 festival in Tokyo.

May 2000: a third reunion line-up performs at Astoria. This time, Nicky Moore is the fourth member.

August 2000: Samson plays at the Wacken festival in Germany.

2001: the first three Samson albums are reissued on CD by Sanctuary Records. In the while, Paul works to a new album – titled Brand New Day – with other musicians: Nicky Moore; Ian Ellis and Billy Fleming.

August 9^th, 2002: Paul Samson dies after a big battle with cancer. He will be always remembered as a genius, a terrific musician and the definitive pioneer of the NWOBHM movement. The band Samson and its epic odyssey ends with him.