Iron Pig

(c’78-’80) Jeff Ward (drums), Graham Dundas (vocals), Simon Pengilly (Guitar), and Gerald Goff (bass)

This Farnham based NWOBHM band formed in ’78 with Nigel Augur on drums. Augur was replaced by Ward as Iron Pig’s drummer in ’79. That year the band recorded and independantly released two demo cassettes titled, imaginatively, “Demo I” and “Demo II”.

The first was available in April ’79, having been recorded at at Chestnut Studios, Churt on 5 April ’79, and carried five tracks: ‘Song for a Princess Grace‘, ‘All Night Long‘, ‘Strangers‘, ‘Oxenford / Chains of Destiny‘ and ‘The Iron Bridge Song‘.

The band returned to Chestnut Studios on 16 October ’79 to record Demo II, which included five new tracks, and repeated ‘Song for Princess Grace‘ and was released in late October ’79. The new: ‘Black Gull of Triumph‘, ‘Strange Satin Lady‘, ‘Under the Knife‘, ‘My England‘, and ‘The Whore‘, along with the repeated tracks, totaled just over 23 minutes of play time. Geoff Barton choose to include ‘Strange Satin Lady‘, although it was mistitled as ‘Strange‘, in his Sounds magazine playlist selection along with ‘Monolith’ by Kansas, and ‘Sure Know Somethin’ by Kiss.

The longer, “Demo III” cassette was published in March/April ’80, having been recorded on 20 March ’20th ’80 at Jacob’s Studio, Farnham. It included a cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’, repeated three tracks from “Demo II” and added ‘Wine to Water‘, ‘Tobetty Mole‘, ‘Winter‘, and ‘Children of the Hyperboreans‘ to the catalogue.

We know the band appeared at the Marquee, London and Park View Dance Studio, Hampton Wick at some point, but we have no dates. In 2018, Ward released a CD compilation, via his own Bluestone Recordings label, of Iron Pig’s demos for which, it is reported, he received a cease and desist from Pengilly.

Augur would go on to join Addlestone’s Seducer, while his replacement joined Mournblade in the mid-’80s. Ward also performed in Ragged Boys, The Barrelhouse Brothers, The Hollow, and White Lightning. The latter was formed in ’84 by Pengilly (was he related to Chuck Pengilly of Threewheel?), Goff, with Ward joining later along with ex-Static vocalist Noel James. Dundas, who was also in The Hollow, has sadly pasted.

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