Algy Ward

Alasdair Mackie "Algy" Ward (born 11 July 1959, in Croydon, Surrey) is an English rock and roll bass guitarist and singer. He is perhaps best known for founding and playing in Tank, which was a part of New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement.

Early Career

Ward first rose to fame by joining the Australian punk rock band The Saints, replacing their former bassist Kym Bradshaw. Ward began playing with the band in 1978, and played on their second album Eternally Yours and third album Prehistoric Sounds, both released the same year. A little after the release of Prehistoric Sounds, The Saints temporarily disbanded, and when the band got back together, Ward was replaced by Janine Hall.

With The Damned

After The Saints disintegrated, Ward joined the influential English punk band The Damned. The band recorded their comeback album Machine Gun Etiquette in 1979 and released it the same year. Critics and fans alike were pleasantly surprised, and applauded the band for making a successful bounce back to the scene. Ward played on all the songs on the album save for Ballroom Blitz, a cover of the song originally written by Sweet which had former Hawkwind singer/bassist and former Motörhead singer/bassist Lemmy. Ward played with the band for a short time after the album's release, even performing with the band on The Old Grey Whistle Test before leaving the band in late 1979. He was replaced by former Eddie and the Hot Rods bassist Paul Gray.