Robb Weir is never a man to take what he has for granted. Having led the Tygers since their first album through a plethora of line-up changes he recognises that the current Tygers are probably the strongest since they were at the forefront of the NWOBHM. The original band, who made 4 albums for MCA records, survived the unexpected departure of Jess Cox to run Neat records and later John Sykes, who was bound for Thin Lizzy and a multi-million seller with Whitesnake.
What they didn’t survive was their greatest commercial success with the album ‘The Cage’. However, Weir, ever the optimist, formed a new version of the band to both play the old material and write songs that would represent this ‘new’ Tygers. The backbone of the band – Craig Ellis on drums, together with Jack Meille on vocals have now been together for considerably longer than the original Tygers and their last album ‘Bloodlines’ saw the arrival of Huw Holding on bass. Huw had history of working with NWOBHM bands such as Blitzkrieg, Avenger and Holosade. The most recent recruit to the Tygers ranks is John Foottit on guitar.
Having released three studio albums and one live album for their label ‘Mighty Music’, the Tygers have recently been in the studio recording a new album (due for release in September). A firm direction that would both hark back to their first album ‘Wild Cat’ whilst at the same time harnessing the creativity of Tygers both long serving and new was their aim. They also continue to tour internationally with shows this year across Europe and South America.
The last word comes from Robb Weir whose dream created the Tygers all those years ago.
‘I feel as confident with our new line up as I did all those years ago when Wildcat appeared on the shelves and was given a unanimous thumbs up. Our recent live shows have demonstrated a harmony within the band and, coupled with the ‘return to our roots sound’ of our soon to be released album, we have the potential to create music and perform live shows for some considerable time to come.’
