TIGERTAILZ – For A Few Dollarz More! The Archives [HNE/Cherry Red 3-CD Box Set] (2025)

Here’s in exclusive at the Hear No Evil / Cherry Red Records 3-CD Box Set ”For A Few Dollarz More (The Archives Vol 1: 1984 – 1991)” featuring TIGERTAILZ music from their undoubtedly best era.
Disc 1 includes ”Young And Crazy (1987)” plus bonus tracks. Finally we can hear this album

properly remastered and with a defined sound quality. And there’s the impossible to find very first Tigetailz 1984 demo.
On Disc 2 we find ”Bezerk (1990)” also with bonus track & remastered, while CD3 is a treasure trove, including the rare Shoot To Kill EP, rarities, B-sides and live tracks, some of ’em never available on CD, some of ’em promo-only not officially released.
Cherry Red has done a fantastic job into this glorious, high impact, three-disc set. Presented in a clamshell box it also comes with a full-colour (and it is colourful!) 24-page booklet with an awesome white print on pink paper scheme. Dave Ling pens an excellent and entertaining historical essay and the whole presentation, done in collaboration with the band, has lots of rare photos and notes detailing their admittedly complex discography.

Welsh rockers Tigertailz were one of few UK Rock bands who fell under the Hair Metal spell and responded accordingly. It took them only two albums to catch up. The band began life much like many others in the underground. One man’s ambition. Adverts in music magazines. Chance meetings. Word of mouth, like that.
The bad recorded a demo in 1984 – fortunately featured here on this box – showcasing a bunch of rockers hungry for glory.

And so, in 1987, Pepsi Tate, Ace Finchum, Stevi Jaimz and Jay Pepper recorded & mixed ‘Young And Crazy’ (in a week), under the tutelage of rising star label, Music For Nations.
It’s raw, it’s exciting, a handful of tracks fail to ignite, but elsewhere, like on ‘Hollywood Killer’ and the poptastic ‘Living Without You’, Pepper’s biting axework and the band interplay frequently crackle into larger than life.
The energy levels remain high on the trashy ‘Shameless’, and ‘Shoot To Kill’, both punky outcasts swaggering their way to the stage front.
But the public didn’t take to it. Singer, Stevi Jaimz got the push and Kim Hooker was recruited to replace him.

On follow up, Bezerk, experienced producer, Chris Tsangarides made sure the production didn’t get in the way of the muzik. This time, the image didn’t obscure the songs. Hooker, whose vocals are much clearer yet sleazy sexy, animates every song without overdoing it.
In our estimation “Bezerk” is one of the very best Glam Metal albums of all time. See the almost relentless double-kick driven song, ‘Call of The Wild’ as proof positive of ‘Metalness’. Everything about “Bezerk” is perfect and a shining example of the oft-maligned genre done perfectly.

From the stunning visuals to the white-hot production (with many awesome studio tricks and sound effects) to the utterly bombastic performances and delivery this album rulez the sonic gutter. The album was produced by Tsangerides whose name is usually associated with Anvil and Priest but this production is among his best – however this particular album credit gets buried in his resume because, well, it’s glam metal.
Anchored with top-notch songwriting (for the style) bolstered with epic gang vocals a surprisingly heavy edge and punishing tempo “Bezerk” exudes radiant energy. No less than a four song flurry of punches to the head opens the album before we get to catch our breath with the ballad ‘Heaven’. Complete with strings and acoustic piano the Tigertailz song is a quintessential ballad with lyrics about dreams and angels, dripping with sweet emotion.

Disc 3 merges the 5 EPs (a total of 16 tracks) that the band released during the late Eighties into the Nineties, most notably the ‘Shoot To Kill’ and ‘Noise Level Critical’ EPs. Not forgetting the ‘Heaven’ EP, which includes compelling covers of Megadeath’s ‘Peace Sells’ and Metallica’s ‘Creeping Death’. These two were an unexplored side to the band.
In early 1991 Sony Japan asked Tigertailz to record some new tracks for an album of B-sides they wanted to release that focussed on the Japanese market – that album became ‘Banzai’. The band entered the Coach House studios, Bristol UK early that year with a plan to record two cover versions – ‘Peace Sells’ (Megadeth) and ‘Creeping Death’ (Metallica), plus a new track called ‘Taking The Pain’.
‘Taking The Pain’ turned out to be a truly fantastic song. It would also be the last thing the Hooker / Pepper / Tate / Finchum line-up would ever record together.
And then it was over.
Until… in 2004, the band reformed, and have only recently stopped touring.

”For A Few Dollarz More” is one of the best box-sets ever released by HNE / Cherry Red Records, not only providing proper remasters but also a bunch of almost impossible to find TIGERTAILZ material, or if found, with poor sound quality.
A killer set from a killer band.

DISC ONE: Young And Crazy (1987)
01 – Star Attraction
02 – Hollywood Killer
03 – Ballerina
04 – Livin’ Without You
05 – Shameless
06 – City Kidz
07 – Shoot To Kill
08 – Turn Me On
09 – She’z Too Hot
10 – Young And Crazy
11 – Fall In Love Again
BONUS TRACKS:
12 – Can’t Sleep (Demo 1984)
13 – Body & Soul (Demo 1984)
14 – Little Indian Boy (Demo 1984)

 

DISC TWO: Bezerk (1990)
01 – Sicksex
02 – Love Bomb Baby
03 – I Can Fight Dirty Too
04 – Noise Level Critical
05 – Heaven
06 – Love Overload
07 – Action City
08 – Twist And Shake
09 – Squeeze It Dry
10 – Call Of The Wild
BONUS TRACK:
11 – Cheap Talk (Kerrang! Flexi Disc)

 

DISC THREE: Singles, Live & Rarities (1986-1991)
Shoot To Kill EP 1986:
01 – Shoot To Kill
02 – She’s Too Hot
03 – Living Without You
Livin’ Without You EP 1988:
04 – Livin’ Without You (Extended Remix)
05 – Nine Livez
06 – For A Few Dollarz More
Love Bomb Baby EP 1989:
07 – For A Few Dollarz More (Live)
08 – She’z Too Hot (Live)
Noise Level Critical EP 1990:
09 – Noise Level Critical (Radio Edit)
10 – Murderess
11 – Million Dollar Smile
Heaven EP 1990:
12 – Heaven (Radio Edit)
13 – Creeping Death [Metallica cover]
13 – Taking The Pain
Banzai 1991:
14 – Peace Sellz (But Who’z Buying) [Megadeth cover]
14 – Taking The Pain (Radio Edit)

 

Kim Hooker – vocals
Jay Pepper – guitar, mandolin
Pepsi Tate – bass
Ace Finchum – drums

Additional musicians
Don Airey – keyboards, strings arrangements
Tim Lewis – additional keyboards
Glen Thompson – additional percussion
Peter Goalby, John Blood – backing vocals
London SSO – strings