Week of August 13, 2000
Formed: London, England, 1975, by the supergroup formation of vocalist Steve Ellis (ex-Love Affair), guitarist Ariel Bender (ex-Mott the Hoople, Spooky Tooth), bassist Bob Daisley (ex-Chicken Shack, Broken Glass), drummer Paul Nicholls (ex-Lindisfarne, Skip Bifferty) and guitarist Huw Lloyd Langton (ex-Hawkwind, Leo Sayer). Signing to Jet records, these hard-rock troopers should have secured immediate success after supporting The Who on their football stadium multi-band day outs at Parkhead and Charlton. Their eponymous debut was released early the following year, containing some excellent numbers, "When I Met You", "Ain't Telling You Nothin'" and "Pin A Rose On Me", although it failed to break them through.
Ellis and Langton subsequently left the group later that year (the latter rejoining Hawkwind and releasing solo albums), while vocalist John Butler was drafted in as a replacement for the US Top 200 album, "Too Late To Cry" (1977), released on United Artists. However, while Widowmaker were singing "Here Comes The Queen", a large chunk of the nation's youth were spitting out "God Save The Queen" as the punk revolution kicked in. Supergroup or no supergroup, Widowmaker couldn't compete and split a few months after the album's release, Daisley going on to join a plethora of groups including Rainbow, Ozzy Osbourne and Uriah Heep.
Singles:
Feb 76 (JET 766) On The Road / Pin A Rose On Me
Apr 76 (JET 767) When I Met You / Pin A Rose On Me
Jun 76 (JET 782) Pin A Rose On Me / On The Road
Jun 77 (UP 36263) What A Way To Fall / Mean What You Say
Albums:
Mar 76 (JET 2310 432) Widowmaker (US: United Artists LA642; CD issued Aug 94 on 'Jet/Line' JECD 9008580)
Apr 77 (United Artists UAG 30038 / LA723) Too Late To Cry (CD issued 1989 on Jet/Line JECD 9008670)
Taken from "The Great Metal Discography" by Martin C. Strong (Canongate Books, ISBN 0 86241 727 9)
Special thanks to Mark Ellison