Brian Tatler

Brian Tatler is an English musician, best known as the guitarist and co-founder of the Stourbridge based heavy metal band, Diamond Head.

Diamond Head

For the history of Diamond Head see: Diamond Head

Formation

Originally trained as a mechanic, Tatler is most famous for his first band, Diamond Head. Tatler founded the band along with schoolmate Duncan Scott, playing on a cheap fuzz guitar and Scott on some biscuit tins. They later enrolled the help of Sean Harris and Colin Kimberley on vocals and bass guitar respectively.

The band recorded and released self-financed demo tapes in 1977 and 1979. Although only recorded within six hours on a four-track, they gained enough attention to tour as support with AC/DC and Iron Maiden. Although many record companies fought to sign the band, none were willing to commit fully. The band grew impatient and decided that they would release their material through their own label Happy Face Records. The band released their debut album on this label most commonly known as Lightning to the Nations, although it has never officially had a title. This album came in a plain sleeve with no title, having on it only a signature of one of the band members and no track listings. Amongst the stand out features of this album were the epic riffs created by Tatler, which prompted Sounds magazine to claim that "one Diamond Head song contains more Chords than an entire Black Sabbath album".