Dave Reynolds was one of Kerrang!'s chief writers in the mid/late 80's through to the early 90s and, along with Derek Oliver and Paul Suter (amongst others), was one of the writers responsible for helping the 80's scene develop in the UK. An avid Angel fan, Dave also used to work on occasion in what was, at the time, the most 'visible' rock specialist shop, Shades in London.
His enthusiasm for promoting his 'pet' bands/artists is partly responsible for building up some artists semi-legendary status in the AOR and hard rock world. The list could be endless, but includes bands like Britny Fox, It's Alive, The Bang Gang, Nelson and Tyketto. He was also among the first to back Stevie Salas, Shark Island and Bang Tango. He was also on a personal crusade to break Crown Of Thorns in Europe.
In addition to his exploits with 'Kerrang!' Dave was one of the co-founders of 'Metal Forces', has heavily contributed to a number of book projects and has also written for the likes of 'Metal Hammer', 'Rip', 'Metalzone', 'Hard Roxx' and 'Heavy Oder Was?'. He currently pens a monthly column in 'Classic Rock'.

Well, just how does someone end up writing for the world's biggest rock magazine?
After living in Germany in the latter half of the 70s, I returned to the UK as a full on metalhead thanks to life changing exposure to the works of Kiss, Angel, Starz, Cheap Trick, Van Halen and, er, Status Quo!

I guess it was only logical that I should become a Kiss fan after being exposed to Slade, Sweet, Alice Cooper and T-Rex at an influential age in the early 70s.‘Destroyer’ was the first Kiss album I heard. I was fascinated by the cover art, but it wasn’t until some time later that I saw a TV broadcast of one of the band’s 1976 Japanese shows at the Budokan that I became hooked.

Kiss weren’t just mere musicians. They were like Slade, T-Rex and Alice Cooper rolled into one. No, better than that, they were gargantuan heavy metal rock gods.

Britain was in the midst of the NWOBHM boom at the time I moved back and I was soon scouring the record stores for everything and anything I could lay my hands on.

In the Sussex town I had moved to there was a market every Saturday and one of the stalls always had a very interesting array of import albums and singles. But it was the day I bought a copy of a fanzine called 'The Wocker' being hawked by a guy called Steve Hammonds - the only person I had ever seen with the Legs Diamond logo on his jacket - in the local 'W.H.. Smiths' that things kinda changed.

Steve shared the same kind of appetite for hard rock I did and he introduced me to the 'Record & Tape Exchange' stores in London and, as a consequence, I met people like Derek Oliver, Dave Ling and Kelv Hellrazer. Die-hard metal fans one and all.

This was a great period for record collecting. The great thing about those stores was that you could pick up even the rarest of import titles for a few quid, and albums we already had in our collection would usually be hidden in the disco sections in order for the others to find them on their next visit!

Steve was a huge tape trader and had a massive collection of live and demo tapes. Perhaps the only other people at the time who could beat his record collection were Derek Oliver and the Watson brothers, John and David up in Harrogate.

Steve, myself and a couple of others decided to start a new fanzine, 'White Lightning'. It would only run to three issues, but would lead us into contact with the journalist/broadcaster Tony Jasper.

Tony Jasper was the presenter of 'The Rock Show', a weekly radio programme produced for the British Forces Broadcasting Service and listened to by members of the British Armed Forces around the world. A friend of mine knew the show's producer, who invited us to watch a show being recorded. I think the guest that week was Paul Psilias, guitarist with German metal outfit Bullet. We also later hung out with Twisted Sister's Dee Snider, Girlschool and Brit tea drinking boogie merchants Spider on subsequent shows.

Tony asked Steve and I if we were interested in co-writing a heavy metal encyclopaedia. We eagerly began work, but knew that information on some of the more obscure hard rock bands was needed. And who had the best record collection? Derek Oliver came on board. And, mainly because Derek lived closer to Tony in London, Steve and I slowly got pushed out of the project.

While I'm certainly not bitter about this, it did irk us both that the book became known as 'The Derek Oliver book' when Steve and I had contributed just as much to it. That's life! And we learn from it. Or so we think! In late 1982 the legendary 'Modest' Mike Shannon opened the soon to be notorious 'Shades' record store. I seem to remember my first purchase being Night Ranger's 'Dawn Patrol'.

'Shades', initially nothing more than a leaky, lock up shed just around the corner from the old Marquee Club in central London, became the meeting place for the country's hard rock fans. And it was through 'Shades' that Steve and I got to know Bernard Doe.
Bernard was a highly respected figure on the tape trading circuit and a big NWOBHM fan. He also held a growing interest in what was happening over on the American west coast with bands like Metallica, Black N' Blue and Anvil Chorus.

'Metal Forces' was a publication borne out of our frustration with the clique who ran 'Kerrang!' Contrary to popular belief the magazine was not owned by Shades. It was, however, founded by Shades customers (including Steve, Dave Ling and myself) and initially co-owned by Bernard Doe and Dave Constable, The latter was a Shades employee at the time, but would later move to Sweden to manage Candlemass and form his Megarock empire. Dave was also the first person to give Max Martin a record deal.

I remember the controversy created by the first issue with the cover screaming 'Murray to quit Maiden!' Iron Maiden, particularly manager Rod Smallwood, furiously denied the story and claimed it was just dreamt up to sell issues. From what I knew of events, the story came from a reliable source and was thus true at the time.

'Metal Forces' quickly established itself as a minor, but nonetheless, nagging thorn in the side of the mighty 'Kerrang!' What we lacked in writing skills we more than made up for with enthusiasm. And the number of bands and records the title covered first is, even to this day, astounding. Some, like Poison, went on to, well, we all know.
The 'Demo-lition' section of the title was always one of the more popular features of the publication.

Despite not gaining national distribution through newsagents until the late 80s and its untimely demise, the mag proved so popular that it prompted 'Kerrang!' to produce the thrash metal spin-off 'Mega Metal Kerrang!' Contrary to what anyone may have told you, 'Metal Forces' coined the terms 'death metal' and 'thrash metal'. The former almost as a light hearted piss-take to anything that sounded as bad as Hellhammer!

But let's not forget that 'MF' led the way in its coverage of glam and AOR too. Even Del boy would be sniffing around 'Shades' looking for demos and new albums to feature in 'Wimpwire' from Kelv Hellrazer or myself!

By this time Mr Hellrazer was working in 'Shades', which had moved from the leaky lock up to a larger site in the basement next door, and I worked part-time for free records whenever help was needed. Or even when it wasn't! LOL. Those were amazing times. And I often wonder how things had worked out if the shop was still trading today. It was certainly the only store I know of that had its own groupies!! With the pictures to prove it. But that's another long and possibly too sordid a story….

By this point Steve Hammonds had became rather disillusioned with the rock scene in the mid 80s and opted to sell his vast collection of vinyl and demo and live tapes to go travelling the world. But it was pleasing to see him return to the music business in the late 90s and he's currently working on a multitude of projects for Sanctuary Records.

So how did I end up 'where the money is' (as one of my fellow MF writers quipped) over at the 'dark side' with 'Kerrang!'? Isn't that akin to a Notts County player going over the River Trent to play for West Bridgford Forest???? We all have ambitions and mine, at the time, was to write full-time and get paid for something I loved doing.

I had actually written a few things for 'Kerrang!' in 1983 almost a year before 'MF' appeared, but it was such a clique there was no way in the world that I would ever get a real foot in the door. It was more about being in the right place at the right time.
In November 1987, despite pleas from my boss saying I was in line for promotion again (bla bla bla) I left my office job to become reviews editor at 'Metal Hammer'.

The magazine was still owned by German publishers. The less said about this episode the better. But within two weeks of my arrival the Germans had decided to install a whole new editorial team and I was fired a week before Christmas by fax. I had seen the writing on the wall though. The next day I joined 'Kerrang!'

I don't think I could ever thank Sir Geoff Barton enough for having the belief in me that he did. I remember him telling me that although I might not have the same way with words as some of the others had he took me on because I wrote with authority. I knew my subject and was enthusiastic about the music I loved. Some of my colleagues thought I was too much of a fan to be taken seriously. I know someone who still feels that way about my journalistic ability, but what the hell….

I remember the first piece of work I had published after joining was a review of Great White's show at the old Marquee club. Oddly, I seem to remember more about drunken escapades after that gig than the show itself….
Obviously, once you're with a magazine that enjoyed the industry support 'Kerrang!' had at the time there exists the possibility to travel. I had interviewed bands abroad before, at my own expense, with 'Metal Forces'. And had also spent a quite farcical (looking back) 24 hours in New York to interview Anthrax for 'Metal Hammer'. But this was the big-time. And whom did I interview first? Erm, Krokus!

It was January 1988. At the editorial meeting the previous week Geoff Barton had asked if anyone wanted to do the story. Krokus had a new album due ('Heart Attack', the first for MCA) and would be playing a one-off date with Ted Nugent at Hammersmith Odeon in early March. Everyone seemed to look at the floor except me.
"It'll mean going to Switzerland", Geoff seemingly cautioned.
"Well, that's why I signed up…."

I was with 'Kerrang!' for nearly ten years. There were plenty of highs and an equal number of lows, but I feel extremely fortunate to have been able to do something that I loved for so long and get paid for it.

The highlights have to be the three visits to Japan, the numerous treks to the States and travelling with Crown Of Thorns and Bon Jovi around Europe in 1995. The lows? Aw, who cares now, eh?

Still, having been messed about for a considerable amount of time -, where work began not to be published and calls were never returned - it took a decision to start writing for the newly founded 'Classic Rock' to mark my departure from 'Kerrang!'. You see, no one at that magazine at that time seemed to want to tell me to my face I was no longer wanted. I'll admit, I am still very bitter about that.

However, although I had begun writing for another magazine, the money was no longer there to be able to do it full time. Thus, since September 1998, I have been employed in the world of IT. Interesting job, but you can't beat rock 'n' roll!!!

I've wanted to create my own website for a few years. I just didn't have the time until now. I have to thank people like Andrew McNeice at www.melodicrock.com (the world's finest hard rock website), Steve Price and Donna at www.z-roxx.com, Jo Croxall, my family, Andreas Gee, Dave Ling, Andrew Ellis, John Dryland, Paul Elliott, Alison Rye, Gary Banton, Magnus Sodervist, Ellen 'Ell's Bells' Ferguson, Mark Owen at www.rpm4music.com and my work colleagues (Tony Phythian, Alpesh Samani, Jon 'Dr. Evil' Crannage, Sarah Todd, Pete Keyworth, David Olivant, Amanda Hughes, Rob Clayton, Will Morlidge, Phil Taylor, John Meanwell, Leah Sanderson, Pauline Sweeney, Charlotte Ash and Amy Hill) for the encouragement.

The domain name comes courtesy of my mate Craig Short. 'The Craiger' (as he was dubbed by a few of us at the big K!) gave me the typical footballer's nickname of 'Reyno' some years ago and it stuck. Besides, it's better than 'Wiggy'...(The answer is 'NO' by the way).

With reyno-roxx.com I have finally become my own editor. This way I can write about what I want when I want. Look for plenty of reviews, interviews and features on the new and old. Look for classic 'Kerrang!' and 'Metal Forces' articles from my garage archives. And, hey, I might just throw in a bit of Kylie, Ginger Spice, Madonna, the Pittsburgh Penguins, 'Hot Wheels' and Notts County FC too. Ya never know!

Enjoy!