Budgie Discography

If Swallowed Do Not Induce Vomiting (1980)

Burke Shelley - Vocals, bass
John Thomas - Guitar
Steve Williams - Drums

1. "Wild Fire" (5:13)
2. "High School Girls" (3:39)
3. "Panzer Division Destroyed" (5:55)
4. "Lies Of Jim (The E Type Lover)" (4:45)

As the '70s came to a close the '80s came riding in on a red horse and bent on destruction. The face of Rock and Metal was drastically changing due to the arrival of cutting edge bands such as Iron Maiden and already well established bands re-emerging with new personnel (ie. Black Sabbath and AC/DC among others) and Budgie was no different. The change came in the form of "Big" John Thomas who took over guitar playing duties when ex Trapeze guitarist Robert Kendrick was replaced in '79 and in order to showcase the new line up Budgie released a four track EP entitled 'If Swallowed Do Not Induce Vomiting'.

The EP starts out in a fury with (1.) which never let's up and introduces us to a new whole different Budgie, one that is more straight forward and quicker in pace. "Big" John Thomas demonstrates some serious pentatonic fury during the solo, great album opener. (2.) is a mid paced rocker with a rather simple but effective riff reinforced by Burke Shelley's bass onslaught. The solo is very much in the style of AC/DC's Angus Young with a little of then KISS lead guitarist Ace Frehley. (3.) quickly busts out of its shell with one of the best Budgie riffs ever and arguably the best song in the entire Budgie canon and my personal favorite. Great fast paced tune. (4.) is another mid paced number with the kind of lyrics Budgie is known for. Another great solo on this one as well. This EP was later released as bonus tracks on the reissue of Budgie's next full length studio album 'Power Supply'.

Gone are the ethereal acoustic numbers, odd time signatures and turn on a dime eight minute opuses yet this is my favorite release by the Welsh rockers. 'If Swallowed Do Not Induce Vomiting' although short in length takes no prisoners and leaves no spoils.

Sounds pretty cool man, I only have there 1st so that's all I know, from all I read, they seem to be so underrated sadly.

Back to Impeckable for a minute.

I think this album is underrated, it's as strong as any other hard rock/metal release from 1978. At this point the band sounds American, but again they tend to be better than the average.

"Love For You And Me" could have been a radio hit with the right promotion. It basically sounds like a more inspired Bad Company. In fact, by this point in the 70's there weren't many people working from that old "Free" template, but Budgie manages to get a little more mileage from it.

Shelly's voice continues to mellow, he's quite restrained on this album but it works perfectly for the material.

This album should be better known.

Detuned wrote:

Back to Impeckable for a minute.

I think this album is underrated, it's as strong as any other hard rock/metal release from 1978. At this point the band sounds American, but again they tend to be better than the average.

"Love For You And Me" could have been a radio hit with the right promotion. It basically sounds like a more inspired Bad Company. In fact, by this point in the 70's there weren't many people working from that old "Free" template, but Budgie manages to get a little more mileage from it.

Shelly's voice continues to mellow, he's quite restrained on this album but it works perfectly for the material.

This album should be better known.

I thought the same exact thing, Shelley seems to be working his voice around the songs better on this one meaning that he's really restrained but it worked great.

UP!

It's alive! It's alive?

Oddly enough idk why I thought their next album 'Power Supply' was their best but when I listened to it for the upcoming review my thoughts changed a lot!

Power Supply sounds like they tried to dumb themselves down for the US market. I listened to Impeckable again last night and I think that record is one of my favorites.

Ooh, how'd I miss this? I'll be quick:

Budgie-Great album, wicked heavy. "Guts" is one of my favorite songs of theirs
Squawk-Eh, never liked this one much. Not bad, but not one of my personal favorites
Never Turn Your Back On A Friend- Awesome album, and "You're The Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk" is one of the best song titles ever.
In For The Kill-Another awesome record, probably their heaviest and most progressive
Bandolier-My personal favorite of theirs. Not a single bad tune on it. Even the commercial tune "Slipaway" sounds really ahead of its time.

That's all the Budgie I've got, but I gotta say I dig em quite a bit. I usually describe them as "Rush without the talent". Even Burke Shelley used to look like a sexier Geddy Lee.

Interesting things 2 say Special Guest, Never...is my least fave out of the 70s era and the way you described ...Kill was great! You gotta check out the rest of the 70s stuff ASAP! Thanks for posting.

Personally, I think "Never Turn Your Back" is a little overrated, I prefer the album before (Squawk) and after (In For The Kill) more.

Squawk seems to be a very polarizing album among Budgie fans.

Akeldama wrote:

Squawk seems to be a very polarizing album among Budgie fans.

I don't see why, though. I think it's my favorite of what I've heard (only the first three).

The debut is a punishing platter of Sabbath-style proto metal with some over the top vocals (that I didn't like at first), and is probably 2nd best out of their first three albums.

Squawk is another great album, and it's slightly better than the debut IMO. The songwriting is better, and the production sounds a tad bit cleaner. Hot as a Doctor's Armpit, Rocking Man, and Whiskey River are all great songs, and my favorites.

I think Never Turn Your Back on a Friend is overrated, but it's still really great. Especially the tracks Breadfan, Parents and You're the Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk.

All of their albums through Impeckable are worth checking out.

Budgie live on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1975.

I'd say 'Squawk' is prolly my fave as well. Wait until you get to 'Bandolier' and "Brittania", the latter has a different kind of quirkiness, just check out the title track and see how they tastefully explore Disco! The EP is still prolly my fave release but it's so hard to say.

Guts is one of the coolest riffs ever.

S.D. wrote:

Guts is one of the coolest riffs ever.

Agreed. Add In For The Kill and Panzer Division Destroyed. Hell, they have lotsa kewl riffs.

C'mon Met, post your thoughts on the individual albums!

Akeldama wrote:

C'mon Met, post your thoughts on the individual albums!

Let the guy listen to them a few times each first.

Damn AK, I'll get to it! I think I've heard all of them at least once through Bandolier now, so I'll post some proper thoughts on 'em later.

I've been trying to get into Squawk more, since everybody seems to love it. It's got a cool sound and is nice and bluesy, it's just that I don't find any of the tracks memorable. The one that actually had a hook, "Hot As A Docker's Armpit" is annoying as fuck. Like I said, it's a good album, but nothing grips me the way that Guts or Breadfan did.

S.D. wrote:

Budgie live on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1975.

I finally got to watch this, I gotta see if there's a whole album of this show...

I think Budgie only performed two songs for that show, the other was "Ain't No Mountain" but I wasn't able to track down a decent quality clip of that performance.

Power Supply (1980)

1. "Forearm Smash" 5:40
2. "Hellbender" (Shelley, Thomas, Steve Williams) 3:25
3. "Heavy Revolution" 4:28
4. "Gunslinger" 5:03
5. "Power Supply" 3:41
6. "Secrets in My Head" 3:58
7. "Time to Remember" 5:27
8. "Crime Against the World" 5:36

Burke Shelley - vocals, bass
John Thomas - guitar
Steve Williams - drums

Budgie returns in 1980 with "Power Supply", their first full-length album of the 1980s as well as the first full-length release with John Thomas on guitar who has the unenviable task of filling the shoes of one Tony Bourge.

"Power Supply" picks up where their EP "If Swallowed Do Not Induce Vomiting", (released just 3 months earlier in July), left off which sees Budgie further eschewing the quirky yet organized chaos of heaviness that was their 70s output for a more British Heavy Metal sound. The album starts out with frenetic, crisp sounding guitars and enough musicianship to let the listener know this isn't the Welsh rockers first rodeo but just doesn't have the density or tenacity of their earlier releases. Although I don't think "Power Supply" is a bad album by no means as the always competent duo of Burke Shelley and Steve Williams are continuing to hone their craft, the eight tracks that comprise "Power Supply" show the earmarks of a veteran band revamping their sound to stay relevant in the dawn of a new decade. Steve Williams is a good guitarist but doesn't have enough personality to carry on through an entire album. "Power Supply" is still better than the New Wave sound that was gaining momentum in the 80s but was easily Budgie's weakest effort. Key tracks: "Hellbender", "Time To Remember", "Gunslinger".

John Thomas! His parents must have hated him!

I still haven't listened to the Budgie releases past Do Not Induce...

I've sampled them, but I'm kind of afraid they will turn me off so I've been avoiding it. Kind of like listening to the later Lucifer's Friend albums...which turned my stomach.