Proto-metal bands: Bang

Often compared to Black Sabbath, this edgy trio’s debut album is a proto-metal classic. They formed in Philadelphia in August 1969, when 16-year-old high school dropouts Frankie Gilcken (guitar) and Frank Ferrara (bass) placed an ad in a local paper, looking for a drummer. They were joined by the older Tony Diorio, and despite the age gap and his having a family to support, they worked well together, jamming on Black Sabbath songs, and soon developed their own tough sound. An inauspicious debut gig was played at a local mental hospital with a short-lived keyboard player, but they quickly reverted to the trio format and named themselves The Magic Band. Having moved to Claymont, Delaware, they set up a rehearsal space in the claustrophobic basement of the discount store that Diorio managed, and rehearsed as often as they could, devising a complex concept LP to be entitled Death Of A Country.

Having renamed themselves Bang, they returned to Philadelphia in early 1971 and - through a chance contact — signed up with a management agency in Miami, necessitating a $1,000 bank loan for the trip. They stopped in Daytona Beach en route, where they learnt that Rod Stewart had a gig at Orlando Sport Stadium the following day. They duly got stoned, pitched up at the venue and begged the promoter - Rick Bowen, owner of East Coast Concerts — to add them to the bill. He auditioned them and granted their wish — so hours later they found themselves playing in front of 8,000 fans, alongside The Faces, Deep Purple and Southern Comfort. After the show, Bowen offered to manage Bang, and they were soon opening for Steppenwolf, Alice Cooper, Mountain, Humble Pie and Three Dog Night, as well as being supported themselves by Fleetwood Mac (during a dip in their fortunes) and Bruce Springsteen (well before he’d become a star).

Deciding to record an album before searching for a deal, the trio entered Criteria Studios in Miami to tape Death Of A Country, which they completed swiftly in August 1971. Capitol signed up the delighted band on the strength of it - but then stunned them by declining to release it. Instead, they said, they wanted a more commercial set of stand-alone tracks. They duly wrote another batch of songs in two weeks flat, and returned to Criteria with sometime Blue Cheer producer Mike Sunday. Packed with tough grooves and piercing guitar leads, as well as a couple of ballads, the resulting LP was issued in an eye-popping pop art sleeve in February 1972, and strongly calls to mind the work of Black Sabbath (whom Bang had by then supported live). On its release Billboard wrote that “Bang is a Florida based group who on first listen sound incredibly like Led Zeppelin. They play at the same frenetic pace as Zeppelin, and Frank Ferrara’s vocals are so similar to those of Robert Plant’s as to be downright amazing. This can work either for or against them, depending on whether or not the world is ready for another Led Zeppelin”. A rare UK pressing of the album also appeared, prompting Beat Instrumental to dismiss them as “the formula band of all time”, adding that “they sound like the result of feeding equal portions of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple into a computer”.

The band were pleased with the record, however — and so were Capitol, who promoted it with a special “Bang Day”, including the manufacture of Bang posters, balloons and toy guns. Their management even splashed out on a helicopter, which flew around Los Angeles trailing a Bang banner. Nonetheless, sales were mediocre, peaking at No 164 in the US charts, with the single Questions crawling to No 90.

Nonetheless, the label was eager for a follow-up, so the trio went into Hollywood’s Sound Factory with producer Jeffrey Cheen and legendary engineer Dave Hassinger to record Mother/Bow To The King. No sooner had they started recording, however, than Diorio was replaced on the sessions by ace drummer Bruce Gary (later with The Knack). Stunned by his 17-year- old bandmates’ acquiescence to the producer’s wishes, Diorio quit.

Despite that upheaval, the album was a smooth and mature refinement of their debut’s sound, with progressive leanings and an esoteric sleeve concept that implied you had two separate albums, depending on whether you looked at the front or turned it upside down and looked at the back. To their disgust, Capitol trailed its November 1972 release with a 45 featuring their cover of The Guess Who’s No Sugar Tonight - which they’d recorded under sufferance to appear more commercial. Billboard - evidently having forgotten about their first LP - wrote that the “Capitol group’s debut set features strong, commercial rock which should receive both AM and FM play.”

The LP sold worse than its predecessor, but with Diorio brought back in to replace Rick Bowen as their manager, Capitol agreed to fund a third album, the more pop-friendly Music, released in 1973.

Though it contained several commercial songs (prompted by Capitol’s desire for them to emulate labelmates The Raspberries), they had little support at the label by then, and the radical change in style from their earlier work must have baffled fans. Live work was drying up too, but the band only discovered subsequently that Bowen’s former company — who controlled a huge chunk of the US live market - had blackballed them. It was the final straw, and though a final 45 - Feels Nice/Slow Down — appeared in August 1974, they were too jaded to persevere and returned to Delaware and broke up. 

Four decades on, however, their reputation has grown, thanks to their debut LP. As Aaron Milenski writes in Endless Trip, “It gets points for being truly one of the heaviest American albums released at this point. It’s also the most uncanny Black Sabbath copy ever made.”

On January 6, 2014, Bang announced their reunion. Original drummer and lyricist Tony Diorio continues to contribute lyrics, while Matt Calvarese performs drums live.