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This biography would not be complete without mentioning two important behind the scene members. Pagan Altar were indeed fortunate to have had good personnel behind them in the shape of Tony (lighting Engineer) and Phil Hearne the sound engineer. Both were an integral part of the Pagan Altar set up and the band were very appreciative of the work and time both put into ensuring everything went according to plan and consequently looked and sounded as Pagan Altar should. Phil had worked with many artists in the past, including Richie Blackmore and his experience and knowledge was invaluable. Phil recorded everything Pagan Altar did including some live material, most of which was kept and stored, not it would seem, in the best place.
A serious attempt was made recently to salvage something from these earlier recordings, which took over a year. The tapes themselves were found to be in poor condition, after a time lapse of nearly twenty years, and were causing considerable damage to recording equipment.
All the original multi-tracks laid down between 1982-1986 were recorded on AMPEX 406 tape, which unfortunately had started to degrade (shed oxide layers). Even the master tape for the first album vol. 1 is now unplayable and that was kept in a safe place.
It was sheer luck to get all the tracks down in one piece for the CD.
As Pagan Altars studio has ceased to exist for some time it was farmed out to Phil’s own studio in Swanly, Kent to try to resurrect some live tracks. With overdubbing, sampling and lashing sections together it no longer was Pagan Altar and consequently finally given up.
The web site was repeatedly asked to remove what had always been an overoptimistic venture, but as far as I am aware this has not yet been done! In fact when it was first suggested to reproduce the albums they were asked not to put them on the site until it was certain they were of high enough quality to be used, but the requests were ignored causing considerable confusion to all and sundry! Although listed as the official Pagan Altar website the band actually had little or no direct control over what was installed there and this has caused Oracle all sorts of problems. The very fact that part of this bio is to be included on the website is a good indication that these problems have now been overcome to the benefit of all and the whole project can now progress.
An abortive attempt to get recorded material circulated in the eighties was doomed to failure and being partly my fault the less said about that episode the better! So what’s New!!!!
The necessity to issue the CD vol. 1 was originally brought about, not for reasons of financial gain as some have suggested, but for the fact that bootleg albums were being sold at exorbitant prices and honest fans were being ‘ripped off’, a situation that couldn’t be allowed to continue.
When this was brought to the attention of the remaining members of Pagan Altar they decided to do something about it and Oracle Records and Oracle Promotions was formed. The efficiency of both factions has fluctuated due to internal wrangling, but now having been brought under one roof, so to speak, a drastic improvement should be evident in the not too distant future!