11

Alan and Terry composed and wrote all Pagan Altars music between them and this was very much a joint effort. Alan would compose and put together the music and then do a basic recording. Terry would then listen to it, sometimes for days, see how it made him feel in regard to subject matter and then write the lyrics to suit. On one occasion he sat alone in Nunhead Cemetary at 12 o/c at night whilst working on ‘March of the Dead’ and ‘Judgement of the Dead’ to get the right vibes. The next stage would be to structure the song. This was done together and often led to arguments between them. The end result though always came out as an amicable effort that was agreeable to both. Both had been in other bands Prior to Pagan Altar, possibly the more notable being ‘Hydra’, but the hankering to write and play their own brand of heavy Rock was always uppermost in their minds and so in 1978-79 Pagan Altar was conceived. The original name was to be just PAGAN, a name they liked but one that didn’t really conjure up the right image, although, was easy to remember! And so it became PAGAN ALTAR after Stonehenge and Avebury, places that are of considerable interest to Al and Tel. It was a name that gave a wide scope for songwriting material subject matter and also projected the effect they wanted. Pagan Altar started life as a 5 piece and this situation existed for the first 2-3 years or so. There were obviously numerous member changes before settling on the final 4-piece line up. Some of these were such ‘arseoles’ that I can’t even bothered to mention them. There is one Dickhead though, that I feel must, but only because inadvertently he had a hand in the evolvement of Pagan Altar.
The band travelled to play a gig in Reading but was unaware that Ian Gillan was appearing just down the road, so the audience was obviously somewhat thin on the ground. The prick thought he would do a ‘Bill Ward’ and walk off stage with his gear following an argument. If you do it front of thousands of people you make a point, to do it in front of a handful, you look a pratt, nuff said. Pagan Altar still went on stage, but as a 4-piece, they liked the sound and that’s how it stayed.The following rhythm sections I thought I would include as being worthy of note for the part they played in the evolution of Pagan Altar.