A II Z

Career

A II Z, whose name was taken from the A–Z Street Atlas, came together in Manchester during the early buzz of the new wave of British heavy metal. The band was made up of brothers Dave Owens on vocals and Gary Owens on guitar, alongside bassist Cam Campbell and drummer Karl Reti. They were quickly signed to the major label Polydor, and their sound was compared to Motörhead, Sweet Savage, and Weapon. Their first album, The Witch of Berkeley, came out in 1980 and was cut in the hall of Hazel Grove High School. They hit the road opening for Girlschool, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath, but those tours didn't boost their record sales. After the 1981 No Fun After Midnight EP and the single "I'm the One Who Loves You," Polydor dropped them. By then, trouble was brewing inside the band. The Owens brothers swapped out the original rhythm section, bringing in bassist Tony Backhouse for that final single. Backhouse later formed Mad Dogs and Mr Wolf with Wally Rumsey and drummer Simon Wright, who would go on to play with AC/DC. A II Z tried a slicker, more commercial AOR sound, but it didn't catch on, and the group fell apart by the middle of 1982. Gary Owens then joined Tytan, another NWOBHM band that also met a short-lived fate. In 1993, Reborn Classics put out a bootleg CD of The Witch of Berkeley that included both singles and a four-track demo from Jaguar. A proper reissue came in 2006 from Majestic Rock, which also added the two singles and their B-sides.