Tigertailz Fan Tribute Page

         Home / News / Discography / Sounds / Members / FAQ / Bio / Pictures / Links / About the Author / Disclaimer / E-mail me /

    Tailz Biography

Well, were should I start…How about at the beginning? I’ll give this a shot, but be advised, I’m not doing this alone, I had plenty of help writing this. So here it goes…

            Tigertailz was formed in 1985, the early lineup included Pepsi Tate, Jay Pepper, Stevie Jaimz, and Ian Welsh. Tailz acquired Steevi Jaimz from the band “Crash KO”, Crash KO was based in the United States it also featured Ace Finchum on drums. After playing a few shows, the Tailz decided they needed a new drummer. Steevi contacted his old drummer from Crash KO, Ace Finchum. At the time Ace lived in Colorado, he then decided to join band, so he flew to Wales to become the newest Tailz member. With their new lineup in tact, Tigertailz recorded the “Shoot to kill” demo, when they recorded the single Ace was not yet in the band, so they used Stephen Pearce from Tokyo Blade. They then released the “Shoot to kill” Single on TT Records, the B sides to the single were “She’z too Hot” and “Livin Without you”. The single sold a few thousand copies, thus drumming up support from a major label. After selling out 2 nights at the London Marquee club, they were signed to Music For Nations who, at the time, had Stryper, Poison and Metallica. This led to the 1987 debut album “Young and Crazy” which they recorded in 2 weeks with the producer Steve James (not the singer). The band toured to support the album, playing with Bow wow and Mamas Boys. After the tour, tensions started to mount with Steevi Jaimz. Tigertailz decided that they needed a new singer, so they let Steevi go.

Kim Hooker was in the band Rankelson (as the bassist) who already had record deal. Rankelson released 2 albums, “Hungry for Blood” and “The Bastards of Rock n Roll.” Kim left Rankelson to join Tigertailz as their new singer. When Kim Joined the band, they re-recorded the song “Livin’ without you” the B sides were “Nine Livez” and “For a Few Dollarz more”.  They toured through Europe with the new lineup; supporting UFO. Fans really took to Kim, creating a large following throughout Europe. When touring commenced, Tigertailz went back into the studio to record their follow up album to “Young and Crazy”.  The second album would be titled “Bezerk” which was recorded in January-March 1989. It was officially released on March 26, 1990. “Bezerk” was the most commercially successful album, and time period for the Tailz. “Bezerk” was a UK chart hit reaching number 36. The “Bezerk” album spawned several singles, “Heaven” (UK top 40), “Love Bomb Baby” and “Noise Level Critical”. The band also released a live video called “Bezerk: Live 1990” it reached number 5 on the UK charts. They even flew to California, to the Concrete Marketing, Foundations Forum, to do press interviews for it. In 1991 the band compiled all their home video footage. They put it together to create a “Televisual History” of the band; this marked the release of the home video “Video Frenzy”.  There was also another album released in 1992, containing unreleased songs, and the B-sides from the Bezerk album. The 9-track album was called Banzai. Sony only released it in Japan. However, it was only in circulation for less than a year, and abruptly taken out of print by the label, thus making it the most rare and hard to find Tigertailz albums.

            Later in 1991 in preparation for the next album “Wazbones” things became very chaotic. First, Ace was living pretty far away from the rest of the band, he was bored with the whole Tigertailz project, and decided to leave band. He never played on any of the upcoming albums but he did contribute in some of the writing. The Tailz acquired a local drummer named Andy Skinner to be the newest member. Tigertailz spent approximately 2 years making the 'original' Wazbones album, (leaving Music for Nations in the process) however, a month before it was released; the US record company (Amuse America Inc) had a huge bust up with the bands manager and they shelved the project.  At this stage they had spent approximately $200 thousand dollars on completing the whole thing, but were happy to write the whole cost off. The album theme was based on the film “A Clockwork Orange” and the band dressed as the characters in the film and posed around New York City. This whole saga resulted in the Tailz suing the company for the album. They eventually got the rights to the record back around a year later. By this time Jay had had enough and quit the band.  After he left; the band re-recorded “Wazbones” with a new guitarist, Cy Danaher. So the released version is not the original recordings. Only 5 of these can be found on the Japanese released version, which were the original tracks Jay played on, and Ace helped write.  Then Tigertailz flirted with the idea of changing their name to “Wazbones”. This was only a temporary name-change to allow them to keep working due to the contractual dispute they were going through with Amuse America Inc at the time.  However, they could not be guaranteed tour sponsorship in the UK. So the UK version of the album is by the band Tigertailz, but the Japanese version is by the band “Wazbones”, kind of confusing isn’t it. Eventually the Wazbones album was released in 1995, almost 5 years after the initial recording, and packaging of the album.

 The following year in 1996, Tigertailz released “You lookin’ at me? The best of live”, as far as I know it was only released in the UK. So now it’s 1999, and what is band up to now? How about all the members and ex-members? I’m not 100% certain that the band is completely over, you never know what the future may hold. Jay Pepper is living in Wales, and working as a computer network engineer, he has given up the music biz for good. Ace Finchum did some drum clinics around London after leaving Tigertailz, he also formed a band called “Freakshow”, nothing ever came of them. Steevi went on to form the band St. Jaimz, they released a 12” single called “Cat on a hot tin Roof”. Steevi was eventually kicked out of his own band (St. Jaimz). He later toured under his own name, with a constantly revolving band lineup. Rumor has it that Pepsi Tate is training to become a master butcher. I’ve also heard that he was involved in television production.  As for Kim, Andy and Cy…I’m not exactly sure….but I’d love to find out.

I would like to thank Matt and Jay Pepper for helping me write this bio…I couldn’t have done it without you guys!!!

Here’s a quote from Jay Pepper, former guitarist of Tigertailz:

“A bit sad really, I honestly believe that we had a great thing going in 1991 and had the ‘original’ Wazbone’s album been released when it should’ve been (1991) our lives could have been quite different.  I sincerely believe that we had recorded the ‘break-through’ album for the States – Bezerk was good but Wazbone’s had that little bit extra, it was hard, dark and had an excellent concept in the Clockwork Orange theme.  The record company had lined up the Concrete people to promote it, there was a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ TV documentary scheduled for a US coast-to-coast tour and the album was to be distributed by BMG – what a crying fuckin shame!!!

At least I have the memories and photos to prove our experience, otherwise it would feel like it happened to somebody else.”

J Pepper

10^th September 1999

Steevi Jaimz 2000 Update

After Steevi left Tigertailz he did go on to form St Jaimz and release Kick that habit, there were only 1000 records pressed. St Jaimz split and Steevi formed Warparty. Warparty recorded some demos and played a few shows around the UK. The band was made up of friends who were helping out and was just a stepping stone to JAIMZ GANG. Steevi and guitarist Joolz were the band as they were in Warparty. Warparty split due to the relocation of band members, Joolz is now living in the states while Steevi lives in London (Steevi did want to say that he is not welsh). Joolz still lives in the states but was in London recently helping put things together for another tour and they hope to record some new material. So it looks like Jaimz Gang is still together, and looking to release new music. Make sure you get Steevi's Album "Damned if I do....Damned if I Don't" It's available at Perris Records