Never Turn Your Back on a Friend [Original recording remastered, Import]

Never Turn Your Back on a Friend is one of the very finest albums ever made by the under rated and neglected 70's metal band Budgie. Tony Bourge is one incredible guitarist, Burke Shelley's bass is similar to Geddy Lee's playing as is his voice (old Rush, not post 1980). This album contains the song Breadfan (made famous by Metallica). Truly the earliest recorded example of thrash metal ever (1973). It also has a killer version of Baby Please Don't Go, an old blues standard, You Are the Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk (Stupid title, but killer song), In The Grip Of A Tyrefitter's Hand ( a Budgie classic), and Parents (one amazing song!). The other two songs are acoustic guitar ballads and they bring a nice balance to the heavier cuts on the album. If you have never heard Budgie before but like the Metallica versions of Breadfan or Crash Course in Brain Surgery, get this album, you won't be dissapointed.

The release in 1973, of "Never Turn Your Back On A Friend" was the band's third studio L.P. It proved to be a major mile stone in the long, hard gigging career of Welsh rockers Budgie. It also established their hard rocking style with the drums and bass thumping along together and Tony Bourge's lead guitar work ruffling even the largest feathers.
The first song off the perch was to become Budgie's standard bearer, "Breadfan". It opened with Tony Bourge's rocking guitar, then the bass and drums come thundering in with the fuzzy crunch of twelve thousand banging heads. Add to this Burke Shelley's very high pitched, quintessential 70's metal singing (reminiscent of Geddy Lee of Rush but much sharper) and this heavy metal bird takes flight.
Metallica tried to cover this song on their "Garage Inc". This revealed them to be the rather sad `covers' band that they are.
However, Budgie deliver it all in true hard rock style, pacing the album nicely with two acoustic songs to break up the heavy metal bluster. I'll even forgive the one minute thirty eight second drum solo at the beginning of the fourth song as it's so short, sharp and heavy.
It's the final song "Parents", which is a supersonic power rock ballad that elevates you through the stratosphere. A song very similar in structure to "Led Zeppelins" "Stairway To Heaven", Burke Shelley sings of the torment of turning from child to parent, hitting the heart fair and square with Mott who has a few puppies of his own. This song alone makes this album worth hunting down.
The parents tell their children, "Wash your hands & up to bed, mind your manners or you're dead, watch the cars `cos you got school on Monday". Haven't all parents at sometimes spoken in these jumbled spurts of love and warning?
Though they never reached the dizzy heights of success like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath or Cream, Budgie did leave behind 10 hard rocking studio albums. Really, this is a million heavy metal dreams from their wild concerts attended by their substantial live following.
Budgie also specialized in wonderful album and song titles. As well as the ones on this album, there was also "If I was Brittania I'd waive the rules", "Impeckable", "Nude disintegrating parachutist woman" and "Hot as a dockers armpit". This, at least, proves that the boys from the valleys had a sense of humour. Well, you try fitting those words in a chorus!
Add to this Roger Dream's stunning artwork and you always got the complete package with this bird.
This is one Budgie this Dog will never mess with.
Mott the Dog.

New Budgie fans start here! So you have heard of this lot because Metallica cover their songs and now you want to hear the originals. Without doubt this is the best of their back catalogue, every single track is a classic. The two standout tracks are at the opposite ends of this bands style. Breadfan rubbles along like you never thought possible from an early 1970's band, while Parents is a gentle ballard with depth that grows every time you here it.