Black Widow are warned by a witch

Black Widow's stage act is, apparently, dangerously near the doors of hell. Their naked sacrificings and other such black deeds are to near the real thing. So much so that a male witch was concerned - enough to warn them to stop.
    The climax of their act is "Sacrifice", the title track of their album, which entails the sacrificing of a naked girl called Katie who, like the group, comes from the cavernous city of Leicester.
    So this witch, Alex Saunders heard ab-out it, went along to see them and warned the group that they were in danger

conjuring up a she-devil, which sounds fun but on the other hand could be a bit nasty.
   The warning has not yet deterred Black Widow from their over authentic stage act, but drummer Clive Box is beginn-ing to crack.    
    He's been having a more unusual number of minor catastroph-ies recently.
    His car keeps going wrong and he's convinced it's the work of devils.
   Black Widow have only been going four months and their line up is: Jim Gannon (guitar) Clive Jones (sax-flute) Clive Box (drums) Jeff Griffith (bass) Kip Trevor (Vocalist) Zoot Tay-lor (organ).

 

newspaper collage

 

Ban on group's nude 'Sacrifice'

A POP group who base their act on b l a c k   m a g i c and "sacrifice" a nude girl on stage, have been told to change performance for a concert in London next Sunday.
    The Leicester group, the Black Widow, are sur-prised at the ban, imposed by the Mecca group. Said drummer Clive Box:

The girl is c o m p l e t e l y   n a k e d for seduction and sacrificial scenes. The only warning we have ever had about the act before have come from witches who claim we could annoy spirits. But the group have agreed to cut the act and sacrifice, Helen Jones, will watch from the wings.

Black Widow's "magic" is not just a gimmick

Black Widow don't need your prayers or your warnings. Eight month ago as an unknown, impover-ished Leicester group they hit on the idea of using Black Magic as a musical act, and now, swept along by a barrage of outcries and sensationalism, there is no stopping them.
    Not that they want to stop. At the moment they're hot property - in constant demand all over the country with a possible tour of America lined up. They've sparked off con-troversies on TV and in the Sunday newspapers, and been taken under the wing of head witch, Alex Sanders.
    The question most people want to know is just how safe and genuine are they? Is this six-piece group in danger conjuring up something evil or being possessed? Kip Trevor, vocalist and focal point in their frenzied act, reckons they're quite safe. And yet after the outcry they caused at London's Lyce-um recently, when the girl in their act stripped off against the management's orders, and whipped Kip until his back bleeding, she passed out and Sanders had to be called to bring her round.
    "The management seemed to think Joyce and I were possessed", says Kip, who's got a far from evil face, and looks rather like Alvin Lee. "That Sunday we had to call Alex to bring her
round. He just chanted something over her. It's true we had been warned not to strip off but we got so carried away."
    They're closely asso-ciated with Alex Sanders. Kip describe him as "a good guy", and although they won't admit it outright it looks like as if they belong to his coven. Sanders instructed them on their act to make it more authentic, and consecrated the sacrificial sword that Kip uses. He even lent them his wife, Maxine, to play part of the woman when they appeared at London's Carousel.
    "He says we've got the power there to bring out a force", says Kip calmly. "And although I think we know enough about it now to consider ourselves quite safe, the effect on the audience does worry us sometimes. But if anyone did freak out at our music, as long as we hadn't damaged their minds in any way, it would be terrific. We'd be dead chuffed."
    As to their authenticity and how far the act is a gimmick, the group insist that they were interested in Black Magic to begin with. Says Kip: "What gets me is that when so much work has gone into this - hours and hours of research, linking up songs to make the story - people disregard that and put it all down to sensationalism.
    "The idea of witchcraft has been there as long as Black Widow. We formed Black Widow eight months ago, and it was just a natural thing, not 'oh that's a good gimmick, let's do that.' We were interested in

it, Jim (Gannon, guitarist) started writing it and that was it."
    Now they are all better versed on the subject, have read a lot on it, and are planning a story for their second album. The first album is the content of their stage act - the story of the conjuring up of a she-devil and its conse-quences. In the future they want to make their act less visual, with music more to the fore.
    "We weren't going to use the stripping to begin with", says Kip. "But then we thought if there was a girl onstage anyway, why not go all the way?"
    Despite his calm, unperturbed manner claims he feels in no danger, Kip can't recall what he feels like onstage or remember much about the act he's so far into. He admits that by using witchcraft the group has become know and to this degree it's a gimmick, but they're continuing on the same theme with the act in future of dropping the girl from the act but using more probs.
    But musically they're a good group, and time will be the test as to how much is sensationalism and how much is good music.

Caroline Boucher


Widow: Not as black as they're painted
    "At the beginning there was a big mix-up between us and Black Sabbath. Everyone wanted to know about the black magic group, and Sabbath only had sinister lyrics in their songs. It was purely coincidental that both groups had the first same name and it probably accounted for the flop of our first album."
    This was Kip Trevor speaking, lead vocalist with Black Widow, the black magic group who, until fairly recently, had a very impressive theatrical stage act going, but which they had to drop when it caused more trouble than they had bargained for.
    "The act was great", he continued, "and people are bound to remember it because it was such a strong selling point. Despite everything it's what most people will always identify us with."
    "We found it very interesting subject and did a deep study of it, but you can only say so much about black magic. If you start delving any deeper the majority of people don't really understand and are only bored. But in the space of an hour we included just about everything that the general public know of black magic."
    "For me it was very enjoyable doing the act because it was so demanding - going on stage knowing I had to put over this occult character. And the atmosphere was so heavy every night, so thick you could have cut it with a knife."
    "We formed from different bands in Leicester and all thought that a black magic act would be very exhilarating. It was really just an idea to work on, but it ballooned into something bigger than we had expected."
    If everything goes well, Widow will be going to the States next year. To date they've had three tours arranged, even down to the billing on one occasion.
    "If we could have gone over after the release of our first album we would have gone down very well, I'm sure of it. The album had received excellent reviews in the American press, and they were playing it on the radio stations. Black Sabbath had just been over, and people were interested in who we were."
    "But the Embassy wouldn't give us visas because they thought that the subject of black magic would be a bad influence on the people."
    "It's about a year since we last tried to get in. Since then we've dropped the theatrical part of our act, so it might be easier this time."
    Six months ago, guitarist Jim Gannon left the group and was replaced by John Culley. "We've

gradually been working John into the band, getting to know his ideas and using him to the best of his ability."
    "He was with the group for nearly two months before he even came on stage with us. This was because we had so many gigs lined up that we hadn't the time to work him into the act."
    "If we could have afforded to go off the road for a while we'd have got everything sorted out sooner, but you can't always do that, especially in the position we're in at the moment. We were going down so well on live gigs it would have been a shame to pull out of some of our bookings. We had to keep the name there on the circuit. So we just rehearsed with John and took our time."
    "We had been doing all right without a guitarist, just going on stage as a five piece, and going down fine. But now it's a much fuller sound."
    In late January or early Feb, Black Widow will release their third album, but it's taking longer to make than they expected.
    "We went into the studio and recorded all the numbers we had chosen, but when we listened to the acetate there were only a couple of strong tracks on it that we thought were really suitable. So we finally decided to get back in the studio and put down some more songs so that we'd have a bigger choice of material."
    "As every song on the album depicts loneliness we thought it would be nice idea to base the title on that theme, but I think it's decided that it will be called Black Widow III."
    "We put out a single a couple of weeks ago, a terrific Yardbirds rock song called 'Wish You Would'. We wanted to use the number on stage, so we tried it as an encore, because we needed something to really build the audience up, and people started going mad over it.    "We still play 'Sacrifice' as the last number in the act, because it's one of those involved songs that it's very difficult to follow. So we decided to go right back to the roots and do straight rock, and 'Wish You Would' had everything we wanted."
    "But we're definitely an LP group; it's such a different market to singles. If you stick to albums you're not really put in a bag. As long as you can get a nice LP out every six mouths or so, then the group can play along nicely and have a long innings as opposed to the quick in and out."

Pamela Holman

 

 

IT NEVER ceases to amaze me how all the music papers after one whole year are still confusing Black Widow with Black Sabbath. In your album review of Black Sabbath's album "Paranoid", you refer to their last album, "Sacrifice", which was in fact Black Widows first album and Black Sabbath's first album was simply called "Black Sabbath" - Ozzie Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Lodge Road, Aston, Birmingham 6.


Spiritualists warn: This is playing with fire. Police watch on black magic show by city group

DETECTIVES and a vicar, will attend a pop show by Leicester's "Black Widow" group when they appear at Derbyshire tonight - to prevent black magic rituals from getting out of hand.




BLACK WIDOW'S "sacrifice" is yet another album that dabbles into Black Magic. Writer Jam Gannon has what sounds like a collection of very authentic Black Art lyrics, which Kip Trevor sings in a nicely mystic and evil way. Only seven tracks on this album, but a lot of thought has gone into arrangement and production so the dire-ness of lyrics is somewhat alleviated by some nice sax and expressive backing. (CBS)

Strip scene after whipping: ' All went berserk'
A MEMBERS of the Leicester group Black Widow were shocked and badly shaken 'up' after an incident during their act in London when a girl was stripped naked and whipp-ed the lead singer on stage.
    The group who are involved in the occult and have been advised by "King of the Witches" Alex Saunders were treated for shock afterwards.
    The girl, a 19-years-old student from Wimbledon Joyce Terry, was found unconscious on stage after the curtain came down at the Lyceum ballroom where the group were playing.
    The Mecca group who own the ballroom, warned the group not to include the whip and the naked girl in the act and are con-sulting solicitors over the matter. Managing director
Mr. Eric Morley was not available for comment today.
   Teenagers watched as Joyce Terry, wearing a white negligee, viciously whipped lead singer Kip Trevor (21) of 7 Abington Road, Leicester. He turned round after the whip had cut his face and tore off the girl's clothing. Shortly afterwards the group left the stage.
    But today, a spokesman for Worldwide Artists in London who manage the group had deliberately contravened their agree-ment with Mecca.
    "Everything went berserk. The group lost control of the power", she said, "Alex had been advising the group on how to perfect the act and he was afraid something like this might happen."
    What precisely caused everything to get out of control? "The magic circle was not complete", she
added.
    Kip Trevor who was thesubject of the whip attack was bleeding badly after the act. "Joyce really let loose with the whip and hit him too hard. And hitting him across the face was just stupid. Kip was taking revenge when he stripped her. This was not part of the act."
    The plan had been to have the girl on stage clothed in a veil but not to involve her with whipping. This was how performance had gone the previous night and, it is understood, would have been agreeable to Mecca.
    The group, who were said to be badly shaken up by the incident, were resting today before going on to play in Sunderland later this week. There is some doubt now as whatever they will continue to use the occult quite so much during their act.

Witches warn pop group!
BRITAIN'S WITCHES have warned a Black Magic pop group against dabbling carelessly in the Black Arts. The warning came by anonymous telephone calls to Record Mirror and from Alec Saunders, King of England's witches and possibly the most powerful witch in Europe. The group involved is CBS's Black Widow.
    "If you use magic in the sense that you are using it in your act, it can lead only to dire conse-quences. Those who do incarnations could go mad, die or both. The danger is both mental and physical", said Mr Saunders.
    The group have constructed a stage act that involves obtaining occult powers, conjuring the demon Astaroth, seduction and human sacrifice, as reported in the Crawling Eye (RM Feb 7th).
    "Even if they do not mean to do it, they can conjure something terrible by accident", explained Mr Saunders. You can do it in a clumsy and dangerous manner, because everyone has latent power

whether they can control it or not. If you had sufficient power and knew what you were doing, you could summon a whole horde of demons to do a cabaret for you, but otherwise, you are asking for trouble from the church, possibly Scotland Yard and the forces you are playing with.
    "Astaroth is not even a demon - she is goddess of the witches and she would be insulted by this handling of her name. She is a benevolent spirit, but capable of great harm if misused.
    "Spirits are there whether they are personified or not. With an audience that becomes that involved, the concentrated power is tremendous. They could release dies of a person that he never knew existed and severe damage could result."
    Black Widow release the album of this act on the 6th of March. Next week the Crawling Eye probes in depth what Alec Saunders describes as the consequences of such a ritual, plus some of the attributes and side effects of being a witch.
                                       Lon Goddard


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