Originally formed as a side project towards the last couple of years of Motörhead by Phil Campbell, the former Motörhead guitarist of 32 years, the band decided to take it up a level and revealed the new name of Phil Campbell and the Bastard sons at Wacken Open Air 2016. A self-titled EP was released a few months later. Led by one of the genre’s most respected guitarists and completed by his sons Todd, Tyla and Dane the band emerged onto the 2017 touring circuit powered by a huge amount of good will, a smattering of Motörhead covers and a handful of new songs that crackled with passion and swagger. Landing themselves a prestigious support slot on Guns 'n' Roses 2017 summer stadium run, the Bastard sons hit the ground running.
There isn’t much Welsh guitar legend Phil Campbell hasn’t done. From three-plus decades as Motörhead’s axeman to being voted number 20 in the pole of top 100 Welsh Heroes (comfortably beating JPR Williams, Roald Dahl and Sir Anthony Hopkins) to covering a Norweigian promoter in squirty cheese, Pontypridd-born Campbell continues to live life to the fullest with guitar in hand and humour intact.
On 1978: The Year The UK Turned Day-Glo, we investigate the sounds of 1978 as the original punk template fractured into a dazzling day-glo riot of sub-genres: new wave, post-punk, proto-Oi, power-pop, punk poets, the mod revival, ska-punk, synth-oriented electronic/industrial music and a whole load of additional noises that, over forty years later, have still to be classified by the fifth estate, the fourth column or even the Third Reich. We document various regional scenes, paying close attention to the likes of Manchester, Scotland and, in particular, Northern Ireland, where the arrival of punk was a life-affirming relief from the horrors of everyday life.