| Cloven Hoof | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Wolverhampton |
| Genres | Heavy metal Power metal |
| Years active | 1979–1990 2000–present |
| Labels | Elemental Music Neat Records FM Revolver Escape Records |
| Associated acts | Budgie Judas Priest Deep Purple |
| Website | Cloven Hoof |
| Members | |
| Lee Payne Russ North Joe Whelan Chris Coss Peter Baker Mark Gould |
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| Past members | |
| Former members | |
Cloven Hoof are a heavy metal band from Wolverhampton that was active from 1979 to 1990, and again from around 2000 onwards. The band were associated with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, alongside bands such as Iron Maiden and Diamond Head. Enduring many lineup changes through their career, only founding bassist Lee Payne has remained throughout the band's career.
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Cloven Hoof went through a few early line-up changes, including a brief spell with vocalist Steve Sammon, before settling on a steady line-up that would last their first few recordings. Theatrical from the beginning, the four band members took up pseudonyms after the four elements - David "Water" Potter, Steve "Fire" Rounds, Lee "Air" Payne and Kevin "Earth" Poutney. This line-up recorded the band's successful demo tape from 1982, along with The Opening Ritual EP, and Cloven Hoof.
Following the release of their self-titled debut, David Potter left the band to be replaced by Rob Kendrick, who took up the "Water" pseudonym. This line-up only managed to record the live album Fighting Back, before splitting up completely soon after the release of the album; Lee Payne was the only member left.
Lee Payne started the band again in 1988, hiring vocalist Russ North and guitarist Andy Wood from Tredegar along with drummer Jon Brown.
With a whole new set of musicians in place, the band dropped the stage names and went on to record two more albums - 1988's Dominator and 1989's A Sultan's Ransom. Former member of Tredegar Lee Jones was brought to the band for the role of second guitarist soon after the release of these two albums, but contractual difficulties caused the band to split up in 1990.
In the summer of 2001, Lee Payne began putting a new line-up together for the next reincarnation of Cloven Hoof when Andy Wood had phoned him about the contractual difficulties that had ultimately caused the band to split up for a whole decade.
After a few years' work and failure to entice back any previous Hoof members, Eye of the Sun was recorded and released in 2006 with the help of studio musicians Matt Moreton on vocals, Andy Shortland on guitars, and Lynch Radinsky on drums. According to Payne, it was the first Cloven Hoof album to have been produced without any obstacles that plagued them in the 1980s, but even though he was proud of the album's successful production, he still wanted Russ North to provide his own vocals for it instead of Moreton's.
Following the successful comeback release, the three hired musicians by Payne left once Russ North returned to the band. A brief period of line-up fluctuation could be seen on the band's website over the following few months, with former member Jon Brown briefly listed as being back on board.
Eventually the line-up seemed to settle with Mick Powell, a guitarist almost hired by Cloven Hoof in the early '80s. In another unannounced change, Jon Brown rejoined, shortly before which lead guitarist Ben Read was added to provide twin guitars to the line-up.
A collection of re-recorded songs The Definitive Part One was released in early 2008, with a new album to be called Throne of Damnation scheduled for release in 2010. Mick Powell played rhythm guitar and keyboards on The Definitive Part One whilst lead guitar duties were dealt with by Ben Read, however Powell had left the band by the time it was released. Cloven Hoof continued for a few months as a four-piece again before Powell briefly rejoined in April 2008 and was eventually replaced by Christian Horton.
In October 2009, both Horton and vocalist Russ North left Cloven Hoof, and Mick Powell joined the band for the third time to replace Horton.
In early 2010, following the exit of Russ North, Matt Moreton was hired to record the vocals that appeared on the Throne of Damnation EP although never committed to rejoining the band. In early 2010 they toured Valencia and touring vocalist Carl Grocutt was added to the lineup until Russ North rejoined the band sometime in 2010. and the rest of the band members (guitarists Mick Powell and Ben Read, and longtime drummer Jon Brown) left bassist Lee Payne during their 2010 tour after musical differences. Carl Grocutt and Ben Read now play for local hard rock band Undue.
On December 13, 2010, Cloven Hoof released their first DVD, A Sultan's Ransom - Video Archive, taken from the original 1989 concert at Lichfield Art Centre and also features two music videos for the songs "Mad, Mad World" and "Highlander," both from the studio album of the same name.
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