This section of the website is dedicated to John's band, Blue Murder, which existed between 1989 and 1994. John started the band off with ex-Whitesnake drummer Cozy Powell and Tony Franklin on bass. A record featuring that trio would have been something worth hearing! (Cozy is rumoured to play on some demos for the Blue Murder album, while ex-Deep Purple man Glenn Hughes and singers Ray Gillen and Tony Martin were also in the frame to be part of the band.) For most people, however, it is the trio of JS, Tony Franklin and Carmine Appice that truly represents the name of Blue Murder (Marco Mendoza and Tommy o'Steen replacing Franklin and Appice for the second album). The group saw its greatest success in Japan but sadly, they did not play one single gig in the UK, John's home country. After Franklin and Appice quit the band JS recruited Mendoza and O'Steen and brought in the multi-talented Kelly Keeling to sing lead vocals. However, with JS and the record label unhappy with the way the songs sounded, JS re-recorded all but one of the tracks for the band's second album. Keeling was retained to play rhythm guitar and sing back-ups, but a man of his abilities could not last long in such a role and he quit, subsequently writing with John Norum, Don Dokken, and Carmine Appice, amongst others. For a band with such ability and potential, the lack of promotion and backing from the record label Geffen was a shocking dereliction of duty. JS had put a lot of faith in Geffen, sticking with the same label as his nemesis David Coverdale and arguably suffering from the latter's influence on their mutual bosses. The fact that Blue Murder's debut album never received the backing it deserved, and that it was never toured on these shores must explain why any BM reunion remains at best unlikely, and hardly likely to be received with much enthusiasm at that (except by loyal JS fans, of course!). On this page I've tried to collect some material together (more on the Interviews page) from a time when enthusiasm, anticipation and interest in Blue Murder was high. It was one hell of a band...

'I would have stayed with David until the cows came home and I would never have done this. I've achieved more goals with Blue Murder than ever before'

'I'd love to get into doing a Sergeant Pepper-type album, where you could really get out there, a heavy Pink Floyd thing'

'I think the vocals will be the testing ground - I don't think people will be curious about my guitar playing. It's more the material and, 'God, does he think he can go out now and start singing?'

'I've learned that you play for the track, not to show off the solo'

'This is a funny old business. I've seen a lot of people get right up there, but when it's over, it's over'

'I've seen a lot of people who have started to believe everything they read about themselves. At the end of the day, you're the only person that has to deal with things. We're all the same'

IT'S ALMOST two o'clock, which means John Sykes is almost half an hour late for our scheduled telephone interview. He is in Los Angeles, where Geffen Records are subjecting him to photo sessions and advance publicity for his upcoming album, the first from his new band Blue Murder. Set for release in February 1989, the project features Sykes on guitar and vocals, bassist Tony (The Firm) Franklin, and drummer Carmine Appice. Patience has never been one of my virtues, but due to the fact that Sykes shares a publicist with another guitarist of tremendous consequence (Jimmy Page) and her track record is impeccable in the area of reliability, I'm convinced that eventually my telephone will ring. Blue Murder first came to the public's attention a couple of years ago, if memory serves correctly. There were press releases cropping up, noteworthy news bits of the upcoming new supergroup, linked with everyone from Ray Gillen to Cozy Powell. Of course, as a true expert on rock and roll titbits, it seemed logical to ignore all this talk, cos usually nothing ever comes of it. Until last week, when the reality of a Sykes interview was offered. Then, of course, there is Sykes himself. Reputed as, shall we say, his own greatest fan, there was hesistancy on my own part to tackle this one at all. Reputation preceding him, the talented guitarist is also recognised as an arrogant snot, preferring to gaze upon his mirrored reflection rather than dial out on a telephone to answer questions. Thoroughly miffed by now, I'm visualising Sykes fluffing up his endless waves of hair, preening and posing. By the time the telephone rings, it's all I can do not to bellow, "Where the f**k has he been?I" And when he mumbles, "Hello, how are you?" with all the excitement of a eunuch at the Playboy mansion, well.. . "He is an arrogant snot," I think to myself. But was I in for a surprise! Once he gets past the mandatory 'How I put this band together' speech (to follow), one that has been chanted God knows how many times in the past few days, his mood lifts.
Shift the conversation to his one and only solid-bodied true love (read: guitar), and he is suddenly transformed into a new man. Charming and delightful, he chatters away at a rapid pace and practically has to be surgically removed from the telephone. "This all began in February 1987," he begins the aforementioned speech, "when I got together with Tony Franklin. I've got a 24-track studio and someone was in there making tape copies. I was writing on my own and he asked what was the perfect band for me. I mentioned Tony Franklin, and he said, That's my wife's cousin!'. It turned out to be true, so I got his number. "I was working with Cozy as well, and he asked Tony-you know these rhythm sections, they like to stick together! Tony heard the demos and liked them, and we started auditioning singers. "I had been out of Whitesnake since February 1986. After Cozy left Whitesnake, he did Emerson, Lake and Powell, and we discussed working together. It was a case of getting the material and getting a singer. I started writing and Cozy came up and played the parts. Then we got Tony and put it together like that. I wrote for seven or eight months and Cozy got fed up with hanging around. He's a really nice person but sometimes difficult to deal with professionally. The project had taken two years from the beginning of writing to getting it finished, and Cozy decided he didn't want to do it, so he left toward the end of 1987. Carmine heard about this through the grapevine, called me up, came to England to audition and blew me away! "I had been talking with John Kalodner at Geffen Records. The deal was there because of the Whitesnake connection, and I always wanted to be with them because I know the ins and outs of the company. Sometime in mid-1987 I signed with them, and between all of this I had been auditioning endless singers, never finding what I was looking for. I sang on my own demos and everyone said it sounded great, so that's the way it's stayed." Sykes is certainly comfortable behind a microphone, having provided backing vocals for Whitesnake and, he wishes to clarify, "all the guitars on the 'Whitesnake 1987' album except one solo on 'Here I Go Again'. People are constantly confused about who did what on that LP. "Singing lead is a big step, but 'm always up for a challenge. Then we got Bob Rock to produce; I had met him in Vancouver when I did the '. .. 1987'album. He's guitar-mad, so we get on like a house on fire! I flew him over, he heard the demos, and was really into it. He was my first choice, and he wanted to produce it, so we started the album in February 1988, still wondering if we would get a singer. "We laid the backing tracks down and tried a few more auditions, but still couldn't find anybody. Bob finished the Bon Jovi album, the Cult album, and we hadn't been working. We started up again, and worked for two months."

Two years and probably a lot of sleepless nights later, the album is complete and Sykes expects to be on the road in March 1989. Curious ears will wonder until then what to expect on vinyl from the man we last saw at the Rock In Rio festival several years ago. "I'm doing a similar type of guitar work," he explains. "My solos and the sound are probably the heaviest things I've ever done, a cross between Thin Lizzy and the Whitesnake thing. It's a style that grew within myself, agd I am very fortunate to have worked with people like Phil Lynott and David Coverdale. There's a bit of everything in this band, and Tony and Carmine accentuate the whole thing. It's the best band I've ever played with." Assembling a three-piece unit is rather unique these days, but he "didn't want to follow the old routine, especially when we established that we couldn't find a vocalist. It began to have more and more appeal because no other bands are doing it. Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience-those three-piece groups are associated with the 1960s. "In this band, everyone is playing a lot. You see groups with two guitars, keyboards-everyone tries to fill in the sound and it becomes messy. This is a concentrated unit with a place for everything. No-one holds back, and no-one steps on anyone else's toes. It's like a '89-style Cream. We jam a lot, there's a lot of playing going down, but it's real rock and roll playing, not this jazz-rock type of thing. That would get pretty boring. It's between Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake, with slight shades of Led Zeppelin in there.
The guitars sound big, the biggest I've ever heard, bigger than Whitesnake. I'm using the same stuff- Marshall, Les Pauls - stock stuff, and I'm happy with that sound. I'm difficult to please in the studio, but Bob is great on getting those killer sounds. "I stick to basics. I'm not one of those people who gets a load of equipment, I just want to plug in and play. I don't read the equipment magazines, I don't have ten pedals on the floor. I don't think I'm the greatest guitarist in the world, or that I sound the best, I just do what I like and that comes across on record. Hopefully, my style appeals to people." On himself as a songwriter, Sykes says, "I'm the kind of person who wakes up at five in the morning with an idea and I have to do something about it then! I have to go and put it on tape, cos if I go back to sleep it will be gone. "Lyrically, I have to set a scene and lay the theme down in my mind before I write it. If I've broken up with a girlfriend, I'll write a love song (let's all sniff and reach for our tissues in unison!), or if I've just seen 'Ben Hur' I'll write something more powerful, it all depends. It all comes down to mood, unless it's a Heavy Metal Thrash thing, where all you do is grind your guitar into the ground and there's not much thought in it. "I don't sit and practice any more. I really can't, especially in a situation where I'm writing. I was in the studio 12 hours a day, and would get out of bed, have a sandwich, go to the studio and stay there until four in the morning, then go back to bed* "I did this for 10 months straight every day, playing guitar, singing, programming the drum machine to get the ideas down. I wrote two-and-a-half albums' worth of material before I picked out the songs I wanted to use. "It's difficult to get into regular practice when you're trying out song ideas and organising things. When I worked with Whitesnake, I just worried about getting up and playing a concert or doing a video shoot, whereas this time I took the reins, full control, making sure everything was right." Spending two years on one project sounds like walking the thin line between genius and madness. How do you avoid getting too wrapped up in that world, and losing all objectivity? "We had the breaks when Bob got involved, and when we changed drummers. Another great thing was getting out of the studio and into a rehearsal situation with a band- I had been messing around with machines forever, and there's nothing like playing with a real band. .
Jamming with Carmine and Tony is amazing, when you've got three people playing and you don't know what will come out, nothing is the same twice. You can't predict, and the uncertainty and excitement of what they come up with really makes me want to play. "There have been times in my life in the past when I was on stage playing, but thinking about something else completely. After seven or eight months on the road, you're almost on automatic. "What you hear on the record is pretty much what I want to do live. I enjoy that style of playing, and this situation. Song-wise, I'm happier than ever with the way things have turned out. I'm just looking forward to getting out there, because I'm really tired of the studio! "Sometimes;|(ou have to step back a bit. I do try to put the guitar away and leave it. But it's sitting there saying, 'Come get me out!' and I know I'll end up dusting it off and oiling my fingers somehow! If I haven't played in a while, it doesn't take me too long to get back into it.'I sort of know what I should be doing, and it's like swimming - once you learn, you never forget." John is looking forward to the complete freedom that come with live shows. "I felt a bit restricted before, because no matter what the situation was, I was always working with someone else's band," he admits. "It was sort of a set thing. And what I was saying about Cream before, don't get me wrong, I wasn't making a comparison. "The last time I toured was 1984," he remarks. "A long time ago. Too long. "I'm a bit apprehensive a moment, but I'm sure I will get over it. The idea of walking out there with Tony and Carmine gives me total confidence, because we're such a great unit."

Before JS settled on the definitive line-up for Blue Murder, he considered working with several different singers, including Glenn Hughes, ex-Black Sabbath man Tony Martin (who co-wrote 'Valley of the Kings'), and Ray Gillen - a fine talent who later went on to front Jake E. Lee's Badlands. This is an interview from when it appeared he and JS were going to work together. Gillen sings on the Blue Murder demo 'It's Too Late', which featured on the Discoverly bootleg.

The rumors started a year ago, stories that then-Black Sabbath vocalist Ray Gillen and then-Whitesnake guitarist John Sykes had met and discovered an instant musical camaraderie. Of course, at the time, both artists had more pressing matters to occupy their time. Sykes was busy laying down the wicked riffs on Snakes's latest multi-platinum effort, while Gillen was feverishly cutting vocal tracks for Sabbath's latest, ETERNOL IDOL. It seemed that some sort of miracle or at least the fickle fates of rock and roll would be needed to bring the mercurial pair together. "Actually, people had us working together before we even met," Gillen explained with a laugh. "But when we finally did get the chance to sit down and work on some material, it really was magic. John said to me, 'I can't wait until Dolly (Whitesnake's David Coverdale) hears you sing.' I'm certainly not comparing myself to Coverdale, but John gets a kick out of making the comparison." At the time of their first meeting, Sykes had already been handed his walking papers from Whitesnake, but Gillen was still very much a part of Sabbath. The job of extricating himself from that band proved to be a task and a half. "Things with Sabbath just weren't going well," Gillen stated. "The music wasn't bad. In fact, some of the material on the new album is excellent, but the vibe around the band just wasn't healthy. The bassist (Dave Spitz) had been sent home and then the drummer split, so it really boiled down to just me and Tony Iommi being in the band. I respect Tony a great deal, but it seemed like Sabbath was going backwards instead of forwards. It just hit me one day that the best thing to do was make a quick, clean break from Sabbath and start with a new group that was on the way up." Once Ray and John made the decision to form a band, their next job was finding the musicians to complete their fledgling unit. First to come aboard was bassist Tony Franklin, fresh from his stint with Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers in The Firm. After that band disintegrated following their 1986 American Tour, Franklin found himself playing a series of studio dates while waiting for the right opportunity to come along. When old buddy Sykes phoned him up, Tony knew that opportunity had arrived. "Tony is an amazing bassist," Gillen said. "He's able to do things with the instrument that nobody has ever done before, especially in a hard rock context. He really learned a lot touring with The Firm over the last couple of years and he's a great guy on top of everything else. What more can you ask for?" The last slot in the band called for a powerhouse drummer, a guy whose sound could complement Sykes' soaring riffs. The perfect man for the job was veteran rocker Cozy Powell, whose most recent gig as the sticksmaster in ELP had ended earlier this year. Powell's pedigree, which has included stints in Raindow and the Jeff Beck Group, marked him as one of power rock's premier drummers, but street scuttlebut had Cozy slated to replace John Bonham in the reformed Led Zeppelin. "There's been talk about that for a long time," Powell states. "But it appears that nothing is really going to happen there, at least for the present time. This is an exciting new group and I feel proud to be part of it. There's nothing more exciting than playing with talented young musicians." Once the band's lineup was secure, the quartet headed off to Spain to begin work on their debut LP. They already had a good head start, since Sykes had been working on some demo tapes prior to hooking up with Gillen. In fact, some of those tapes made the rounds at record labels, impressing many executives with Sykes' singing voice as well as his guitar skills. Gillen also had material remaining from the "ETERNAL IDOL" sessions. Mostly songs that Tony Iommi had rejected as not being heavy enough for Sabbath's use. In the studio, the group quickly formed a finely tuned rock and roll machine, cranking out a series of top-flight songs that mixed classic blues/rock formulas with the band's natural exuberance and talent. Those who heard the tracks instantly labeled them as "Zeppelinesque", a tag that Gillen, for one, felt somewhat uncomfortable with. "We've got to develop our own identity," Gillen said. "We expect people to make comparisons with bands we've worked with in the past, but we'd really rather have everyone just give the music a good listen and let it stand on its own two feet. We think it certainly does." One question that remains about this unit, which some have already labeled a "young super group", is their ability to work together on a long-term basis. Coverdale's problems with Sykes' alleged "childish behavior" in Whitesnake have been well chronicled and both Gillen and Powell's recent track records indicate they're not keen on staying in one place for too long. But the bottom line may well be that for the first time in their careers, none of these musicians have to answer to a group "leader". In this band, all are equals. Powell has no Beck or Blackmore to contend with; Gillen has no Iommi and Sykes has no Coverdale. All they need to do to succeed is deal with one another and according to Sykes, that will be no problem. "People seem to want to make trouble for musicians like us," Sykes said. "I know that I read in Hit Parader a few months back that I was supposed to have been thrown out of Whitesnake because I liked to party. Did that mean I did drugs? I certainly didn't like the implication, because it isn't true. I'm sure there are some people who would like to see this band fail. But I'm certain there are more who would like us to succeed and among the latter group are the musicians in this band. In truth, that's the only group that matters."

In 1987/88 John did a Q&A for the Sykes Appreciation Society newsletter. This must've been done while the band was in its relatively early stages, as John is talking about Tony and Cozy being his favourite musicians (Cozy, of course, quit the band before recording on the album got underway).

1) What equipment did you use in the studio for the Whitesnake 1987 LP? Marshalls 50/100s. Mesa Boogies. Gibsons, Strats. 2) Have you a favourite track on the LP? Still of the Night / Is this Love 3) How do you feel about the singles lifted from the album being so successful? Great (providing I get the royalties). 4) When you joined Whitesnake did you intend to stay as long as you did? Longer if he had not been an asshole!!! 5) is there anything you regret about your period with Whitesnake? No, I learned a lot. It was an experience. 6) How different was it being in Whitesnake compared to Thin Lizzy? No comparison - Thin Lizzy organisation was so much more professional. 7) Have you missed playing to a live audience? YES, very much. 8) How do you feel when you're onstage in front of a crowd? An indescribable high. 9) Have you decided on a name for the new band yet, other than Blue Murder? No, not at the moment. 10) Are you writing the music and the lyrics for the LP or are you collaborating with someone else? Both. 11) How many guitars do you have at the moment and what are they? 12/14 - Fenders/Gibsons, a double-neck Gibson. 12) Did you help to design a guitar recently? No. 13) Who are your favourite musicians at the moment? Tony Franklin / Cozy Powell. 14) Are there any other musicians that you would like to work with, present band excepted? Too busy to think about this one!! 15) Have you any favourite records at the moment, Hard Rock or otherwise? Haven't heard much to be honest. Just work, work, work. (Ah.) 16) Do you have a period in your musical life that you look back on as being the happiest? Yes. Thin Lizzy and now. 17) Have you any advice to give budding guitarists? Anyone can achieve anything. Just keep practicing.

I WAS keen to see John Sykes and the boys; their debut album impressed me so much that I had hoped they could pull off the power trio and the guitarist/frontman act at the same time. Tonight, the best way to describe the 50-minute performance is that the band blew hot and cold. At times, it seemed like something, some invisible switch, clicked into place and the band were on - steaming, firing on all barrels and thundering in epic fashion through layers of dense power rock! 'Valley Of The Kings' and'Blue Murder' captured this level best, although the former took two or three minutes to get warmed up. Other times, John and bassist Tony Franklin seemed a bit lost on the stage with no one between them, and John's extended soloing disappointed me with its lack of diversity. The star of the night was easily Carmine Appice, who truly opened my eyes to why he's one of the longer lasting drummers in rock. His incredible skin slamming was the one consistent high of the show and my eyes and ears were frequently drawn to him despite the more than competent performances of the outfit's other two-thirds. When they whipped out a rearranged 'Still Of The Night', images of David 'n' Tawny cavorted through my head and swamped out any identification John Sykes may have with the song. This may have been the biggest error of the night, because unfortunately the MTV-weaned fans in America think of Whitesnake only in terms of the band they've seen in the videos. Perhaps a more cohesive, dynamic visual presence is what Blue Murder really need to gel their live act together. As it stood, I was left mildly entertained and occasionally electrified. DON KAYE