{"id":14634,"date":"2021-03-01T05:00:17","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T05:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=14634"},"modified":"2021-02-20T20:41:24","modified_gmt":"2021-02-20T20:41:24","slug":"hrh-ivor-beynon-lord-of-steel-those-who-offend-beware-self-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=14634","title":{"rendered":"HRH Ivor Beynon Lord of Steel – \u2018Those Who Offend Beware\u2019 (Self Released)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>You may have seen the BBC recently reporting on legendary rock originating from Wales. No, not that programme about Stonehenge; I\u2019m referring to Tudur\u2019s TV Flashback, the show where comedian Tudur Owen looks back through the BBC Wales archive in search of long-lost televisual gold. A recent half-hour spectacular devoted several wonderful minutes to a name not heard in a long time… Ivor Beynon, Lord of Steel.<\/p>\n

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For those not familiar with the name (have a long, hard look at yourselves, seriously) Ivor Beynon was the nearest Wales got to a superhero after SuperTed\u2019s skirmishes with Texas Pete. Armed with just a CD player, DIY music releases (the best coming complete with a free Ivor mask), and a wizard stage prop, Ivor Beynon quickly strode from oft-kilter heavy metal curio to bona fide Welsh television star. The Biz, a partnership between BBC Wales and the Welsh Development Agency, found Ivor as one of six finalists on a televised quest for success, before an appearance on The X-Factor saw even Sharon Osbourne raise an eyebrow (the Lord of Steel could have saved her a fortune in plastic surgery bills). Also, I once gave the actor who played Mr. Muscle in the television commercials an Ivor Beynon album and he was thrilled. It seems apt, then, that the rebirth of this Welsh legend should come, at least partly, by way of a television show. But reborn it appears the Lord of Steel is.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018Those Who Offend Beware\u2019 is an epic comeback: a 32-track, double-disc album that is part reboot, part sequel; like that 2011 version of The Thing… but without the dodgy CGI. Split into two distinct halves, \u2018Those Who Offend Beware\u2019 will, from the first vocal spat out of the Lord of Steel\u2019s warpaint-smeared mouth, caress the auditory canals like a long-lost friend. Fear not, though, those unfamiliar with the Ivor legend for the first half of the album is a rollicking history lesson.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That first half – \u2018Born in Ebbw Vale (The Story of Ivor Beynon)\u2019 \u2013 is a sprawling 17-track fever dream of a life story that revolves around a masterful reworking of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA\u2019. With screaming metal mayhem (\u201cwe\u2019re a runaway heavy metal freight train; we\u2019ll give you a frigging heart attack!\u201d) riding shoulder to shoulder with more thought-provoking hard rock (take my hand, together we\u2019ll fly; not even death can stop us, we\u2019re gonna carry on…\u201d), this is a history lesson like no other, with Ivor\u2019s inimitable vocals like siren song to those semi-retired members of Team Steel; their sleeveless shirts and copycat make-up kits itching to get dusted down and reintroduced to an unsuspecting new decade. Those who never fell under the Lord of Steel\u2019s spell first time around \u2013and, remarkably, there were a few \u2013 will find this heaving half o\u2019 heaviness a crash course in all things Ivor and fall now they will. Spattered with a dash of timeless cover versions and audio from Ivor\u2019s X-Factor audition amongst the rocking original tracks, \u2018Born in Ebbw Vale\u2019 is a real-life rock opera, closed out by the iconic theme tune par excellence, \u2018Lord of Steel\u2019. \u201cYou want rock? I rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How could a local legend who even had his own comic strip in a local newspaper possibly follow that? By recreating those legendary Ivor Beynon live shows from the Noughties that saw gig goers openly weep such was the aural pleasure on offer, that\u2019s how. From \u2018Bark at the Moon\u2019 to \u2018Turbo Lover\u2019, \u2018We\u2019re Not Gonna Take It\u2019 to \u2018Tainted Love\u2019, \u2018Ivor Party 2021\u2019 is more than just the second half of a typically ambitious project from the Lord of Steel \u2013 it will quite possibly be the most entertaining thing that anyone will hear all year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wrapped in suitably grandiose artwork by Adam Llewellyn (the artist behind Valleys animated series, \u2018The Vale\u2019), with a fold-out inner sleeve capturing Ivor with all manner of miscreants from his chequered musical past \u2013 from Ben Shephard to Bob Catley to the Butcher of Bethcar Street \u2013 \u2018Those Who Offend Beware\u2019 might just be your first essential purchase of 2021.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve been apart, but this is our time,\u201d Ivor wails on \u2018Friendship Songs\u2019 and, be honest, we could all do with a friend, a superhero, in these troubled times. Now we just have to find a phone box for him to get changed in…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bandcamp<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: Gaz Tidey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may have seen the BBC recently reporting on legendary rock originating from Wales. No, not that programme about Stonehenge; I\u2019m referring to Tudur\u2019s TV Flashback, the show where comedian Tudur Owen looks back through the BBC Wales archive in search of long-lost televisual gold. A recent half-hour spectacular devoted several wonderful minutes to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[2113,6337],"class_list":["post-14634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-gaz-tidey","tag-ivor-beynon","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14636,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634\/revisions\/14636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}