South Hill was formed on New Years Day 1978 in Helsinki, Finland by bassist Ian Towns who had just been kicked out of his previous band, Parcel of Rogues. Towns attributes the band's name to a poem in book of poetry he was given by a friend; South Hill by Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei.
Towns flew home to Blackpool and put up a flyer in several pubs which read, “Bassist looking for metal musicians to jam with”. Guitarist James Tanner and drummer Hugh Hetfield answered the ad and a few days later singer Dennis Day joined. The band spent months rehearsing and writing and made their debut on the 28th of April 1978 at the Cart and Horses Pub in Maryland, Stratford. The original line up did not last as according to Towns, Day lacked stage presence and energy. Day was replaced with Paul Wilcox and another guitarist was added, Dave Rance, much to the dismay of Tanner. With all the turmoil, a frustrated Towns temporarily disbanded South Hill in November 1978, though it quickly reformed soon after with Towns, Rance, Hetfield, and new singer Ron Matthews.
In 1979 South Hill recorded a demo at Soundhouse Studios as they tried to secure more gigs. A copy was given to Kay Neal, the owner of a heavy metal club “Heavy Metal Bandwagon”, who played their tracks. South Hill’s popularity grew, and an EP named ‘Heavy Metal Bandwagon’ was released named after the club. In December 1979 to group was given a major record contract with IME. Drummer Hetfield left the bad due to ill health, being replaced with Adrian Burr, a childhood friend of Towns, and another guitarist Clive Smith was added.
On the 14th of April 1980, South Hill released their album, Now Grunt Twice For Yes, which debuted at #9 on the UK Albums Chart. This led to a UK wide tour followed by a disastrous US leg in which singer Ron Matthews was so high on cocaine at a gig in New York, he fell off stage and broke his legs, leading to him being fired from the band.
The band searched for a singer and IME put forward a few suggestions; Ron Di’Anno of Iron Giant for instance, but when Henry Dickinson auditioned, he was hired immediately. The band recorded their second album, Strike At What Is Weak, and it was released on Christmas Day 1980 with the lead single Gangland hitting #8 on the charts in the UK, and #5 in Sweden.
In 1981 the band toured America again and were met with Christian resistance, churches bought their albums to burn them. Dickinson commented that “this is just free publicity” and South Hill was “as Satanic as devilled eggs.” Strike At What Is Weak sold 3.4 million copies in its first year, 15 million by 2010, and 25 million by 2022. It was around this time that the undead figure on their two album covers got a name, Bruce, named after preacher Bruce Sampson who led some of the protests.
Unbroken For All Eternity was released in February 1982, and bowed by the success of the previous album and tour, but when the tour ended the band were spent from the gruelling schedule. Singer Dickinson was admitted to hospital with throat nodules and the band took a break for most of 1983.
During the break guitarist Adrian Burr released a solo album, Silver & Bronze, and singer Henry Dickinson appeared on the West End production of Jesus Christ Superstar as Pontius Pilate.
In 1985 the band released Never Surrender and went on a four-month, nine country world tour, (Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Japan, Finland, Germany) In total, South Hill played for some two million fans.
But tension grew and the band took a break. Burr left the band to be replaced with Rob Owen who was playing in a South Hill cover band in New Zealand.
In 1988 South Hill released Glory In Living Lies, whose chart scores were the band's lowest to date. The album peaked at No. 19 in the UK; the band's lowest for a new studio record. At the same time, Ian Towns assisted in remastering the band's entire discography, up to and including the bands live album Live At The Dynamo Open Air, a Dutch rock festival. The band went into hiatus as they pursued other projects.
In 1990 IME released a compilation album, The Good The Bad The Greatest Hits, which based impressive sales led to a European tour but lead singer Dickinson was in a creative rut and left at the end of the tour leading to the band beginning a search for a new singer. The band listened to hundreds of tapes sent in by vocalists before convincing Bayley Wolf, formerly of the band Baneblaze, to audition for them. Bayley had a different vocal style from his predecessor and ultimately received a mixed reception among fans.
The 1991 album with new singer, Full of Evil People, is notable for its "dark" tone, inspired by Ian Towns’ divorce. The band toured for the rest of 1991 and 1992, playing their first shows in Israel and South Africa as well as Malta, Bulgaria and Romania in Europe, before concluding in the Americas.
By 1999 the band and Wolf parted ways and negotiations began with bringing Dickinson back into the fold. In 2001 a reunion tour was announced, and the band played in Brazil at the In Rio We Rock festival to 350,000 people, the bands biggest crowd. During the 2000–2002 tour, South Hill played 107 shows for over two million people in 29 countries. In addition to their touring success, the band were nominated four times for the annual Grammy Awards but did not win.
In 2005 a movie project was optioned, and Donnie Wahlberg was cast as the lead alongside Lisa Kudrow. It was released in November with the title We Rock: The South Hill Story and was panned by critics and fans alike. It cost around $57 million and only made $19 million at the box office. The band returned to touring with a massive tour: Hell is Everywhere which lasted two years and a concert documentary was released afterwards which was nominated for an Oscar.
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This is reworked heavily from the band history of Iron Maiden, with a few twists and changes by myself.
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