Description
High Roller Records, reissue 2020, silver vinyl, ltd 300, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, lyric sheet printed on uncoated paper, 12 page A4 booklet + 2 x poster, A5 promo photo, silver vinyl “Axe Crazy” 7″ with p/s + bonus track “Dirty Tricks”+ lyric sheet, Original transfer, audio restoration and mastering by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in March 2020. Cutting by SST Germany on Neumann machines for optimal quality on all levels… The ultimate audiophile edition of this eternal NWOBHM classic! Including original “Run for Your Life” Intro and “Coldheart” Outro! High Roller Records is proud to announce the ultimate re-issue of one of the most important albums of the entire NWOBHM period. The vinyl edition of »Power Games« will include the band’s legendary “Axe Crazy” single as a separate 7”. Some people argue that Jaguar’s legendary »Power Games« début album was the first speed metal album in music history. But where did this “need for speed” come from after all? Was Motörhead the single most important influence for Jaguar regarding pure speed? “I’ve answered this question many times,” answers the band’s long-serving guitarist Garry Pepperd. “As I’ve always said, we simply played fast because it was fun and the faster we played, the more fun it was! We used to have a great time with this in a bedroom in Chris Lovell’s parents’ house way back when we started. We were just kids enjoying ourselves. The speed influence for me came from my love of punk not necessarily Motörhead or any specific band. We loved both, punk and metal and it was fun to play fast. So the two styles got married together, I guess making us what we were.” Back then in the press Jaguar were sometimes described as “Maiden on speed”, which is news to Mister Pepperd: “Well, I’ve never heard that before but yes, that’s an accurate description of how we were back then, ha, ha!” In addition to that, Pepperd was once quoted as having said: “I suppose you could say we were thrash metal before there was such a thing.” Arguably a very true statement, as he explains: “Looking back on it, that’s how it turned out. I mean, we had no idea of knowing how things were going to go and in any case, as I already mentioned, playing fast was simply just fun. I guess that’s how the history of thrash metal went, but we had no idea of what it would become.” Originally »Power Games« was also issued in a very limited pressing on purple vinyl. Did the band know that, did Neat tell them about it and does Garry own an original purple vinyl copy himself? “I’d heard there was a purple pressing of the album”, is his answer, “but I’d never seen one until I saw fans posting photos of it. I can’t remember if Neat ever told us about it and sadly I don’t have a copy myself.” Like with a lot of other NWOBHM bands (for example Satan or Raven) Holland took Jaguar to its heart almost immediately, especially the famous Dynamo club in Eindhoven. So is it fair to say that the Netherlands became Jaguar’s second home during the 1980s? Garry Pepperd agrees wholeheartedly: “Oh yes, we played there so many times and it was the first country that really took to us. We loved going there to play and still do.”
