Vardis are an English three-piece

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

boogie rock Boogie rock is a style of blues rock music that developed in the late 1960s. Its key feature is a repetitive driving rhythm, which emphasizes the groove. Although inspired by earlier musical styles, boogie rock has been described as "heavier" or " ...

and heavy metal

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran *Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

from

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

, West Yorkshire, who enjoyed hits between 1978 and 1986, and reformed in 2014. They formed a prominent part of the

new wave of British heavy metal The new wave of British heavy metal (commonly abbreviated as NWOBHM) was a nationwide musical movement that started in England in the mid-1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Journalist Geoff Barton coined the term i ...

scene, then prevalent in the United Kingdom. They consisted of

frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

Steve Zodiac Steve Zodiac (Real name Stephen John Hepworth) is a guitarist and songwriter, who gained recognition in the early 1980s as frontman of new wave of British heavy metal band Vardis. He is credited as writer of heavy metal songs "If I Were King ...

(real name Stephen John Hepworth) on guitar and

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

Alan Selway on

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

and Gary Pearson on

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s. Alan Selway was later replaced by Terry Horbury (previously of Dirty Tricks) on bass guitar.

Background

The band were originally formed under the name 'Quo Vardis' (a misspelling of the Latin for 'quo vadis', or 'whither goest thou?'). This was later abbreviated to Vardis. Their first recordings were made at Holyground Studios in Cass Yard, Kirgate, Wakefield. The first ever track laid down on vinyl was titled "Jiving All Night Long" with the B-side titled "Stay with Me", both penned by Zodiac. This was followed up with a second record, both cover versions, those being "

Roll Over Beethoven "Roll Over Beethoven" is a 1956 hit song written by Chuck Berry, originally released on Chess Records single, with "Drifting Heart" as the B-side. The lyrics of the song mention rock and roll and the desire for rhythm and blues to replace clas ...

" (

Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

) and "Don't Waste My Time" (

Status Quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, political, religious or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the current state of social structure and/or values. W ...

). Vardis quickly gained notoriety for their high energy live performances, the unique approach of incorporating elements of 1970s

glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diver ...

and heavy metal music and frontman Steve Zodiac's searing

Fender Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...

sound. Zodiac was reputable for playing Vardis concerts barefoot and bare chested, his look completed by long, naturally ice-blonde hair. They took the unorthodox approach of comprising their debut album, ''100MPH'' (1980), of entirely live recordings. This is largely considered to be their finest hour and gained the band a large following early on in their career. They were invited to play the Heavy Metal Holocaust

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...

in August 1981 alongside

Motörhead Motörhead () were an English rock band formed in London in 1975 by Lemmy (lead vocals, bass), Larry Wallis (guitar) and Lucas Fox (drums). Lemmy was also the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band are often considered a precu ...

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...

and

Triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

. Around 30,000 heavy metal fans were estimated to have attended with the PA reportedly reaching new heights of amplification at over 100,000 watts. Their second album, released in April 1981 and called ''The World's Insane'', featured a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard ...

's "

Silver Machine "Silver Machine" is a 1972 song by the UK rock group Hawkwind. It was originally released as a single on 9 June 1972, reaching number three on the UK singles chart. The single was re-issued in 1976, again in 1978 reaching number 34 on the UK s ...

", and featured

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...

played by

Judd Lander Judd Lander (born 1 March 1948) is an English harmonicist. Originally from Liverpool, Lander was previously a member of the band The Hideaways. He has experienced success as a prolific session musician, record industry executive, and company direc ...

, making it one of the few heavy metal albums of that time to ever feature bagpipes. The album also featured a guest appearances from Status Quo's

Andy Bown Andrew Steven Bown (born 27 March 1946) is an English musician, who has specialised in keyboards and bass guitar. He is a member of the rock band Status Quo. Career Bown's first major band was The Herd, along with Peter Frampton. After The H ...

on keyboards. In 1982, Steve Zodiac was voted in the top 15 rock guitarists by ''

Sounds In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

'' magazine readers. Vardis dissolved in the mid 1980s amid lengthy legal disputes with former management. Vardis reformed with the Zodiac/Horbury/Person lineup in March 2014, and performed at festivals in the UK and Germany until Gary Person's departure at the end of the year, with Hoplite Records reissuing a remastered edition of ''Vigilante'' (1986) on CD and digital download for the first time on 1 April. New drummer Joe Clancy was unveiled in January 2015, as Vardis announced plans to write and record new material. This new lineup released the EP ''200 MPH'' on 18 July, the first new Vardis material in 29 years, to critical acclaim. In November 2015, Vardis penned a worldwide deal with

SPV/Steamhammer SPV GmbH (short for ''Schallplatten Produktion und Vertrieb GmbH'', "Vinyl Production and Distribution Company") is a German independent record label. Founded on 1 January 1984, it has slowly grown to be one of the largest independent distributor ...

, with the German label announcing the fifth Vardis album, ''Red Eye'', had been scheduled for release in 2016. On 15 December that year, bassist Terry Horbury died suddenly after a short battle with cancer. Bassist Martin Connolly stepped in to fulfil live obligations in support of ''Red Eye'' the following year. Roly Bailey was unveiled as the new permanent bassist in September 2019.

Discography

Live albums

* ''100 M.P.H.'' (Logo, 1980) - UK No. 52 * ''100 M.P.H. @ 100 Club'' (SPV/Steamhammer, 2021)

Studio albums

* ''The World's Insane'' (Logo, 1981) * ''Quo Vardis'' (Logo, 1982) * ''Vigilante'' (Raw Power, LP022, 1986) * ''Red Eye'' (SPV/Steamhammer, 2016)

Compilation albums

*''New Electric Warriors'' (Logo, 1980) *''Metal Power'' (Logo, 1981) *''The Lion's Share'' (Razor, 1983) *''NWOBHM'' (

Phonogram Phonogram may refer to: * A sound recording – see Geneva Phonograms Convention * ''Phonogram'' (comics), a comic book by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie * Phonogram (linguistics), a grapheme which represents a phoneme or a combination of phone ...

, 1990) *''New Electric Warriors'' (British Steel, 1997) *''The World's Gone Mad'' ( Essential, 2000) *''NWOBHM Rarities'' (British Steel, 2000) *''Metal'' (

Sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...

, 2001) *''Rock of Ages'' (Sanctuary, 2002)

Singles and EPs

* "Jiving All Night Long" (Holyground Enterprises, 1973) * "Roll Over Beethoven" (Holyground Enterprises, 1973) * "100 M.P.H. EP" (Redball, 1979) * "If I Were King" (

Castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

, 1980) * "Let's Go" (

Logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

, 1980) - UK No. 59 * "Too Many People" (Logo, 1980) * "Silver Machine" (Logo, 1981) * "All You'll Ever Need" (Logo, 1981) * "Gary Glitter Part One" / "To Be With You" (Logo, 1982) - (double

A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

single) * "Standing in the Road" (

Big Beat Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as ...

, 1984) * "200 M.P.H. EP" (Hoplite Records, 2015)

References

External links

Official website: www.VardisRocks.comSee Vardis on youtubeHear Vardis on soundcloudVardis on Last.fm
{{Authority control English hard rock musical groups English heavy metal musical groups British musical trios Musical groups established in 1973 Musical groups disestablished in 1986 New Wave of British Heavy Metal musical groups