Ok, more outta curiosity cos I've been watching that program 'faces of britain') - I note your name is spelt 'Andro' so is that pronounced Andrew and whats the origin of that spelling cos I've never encountered that before....
Andro is my ‘stage’ name; it was devised by Montalo and was used from when we set up our fan club called the Coven. Montalo wanted us to be more mysterious I still use it as everyone knows me by this name and it is pronounced as it is spelt, Andro not Andrew.

Ok Andro, Battlehelm has already done an interview with Montalo (see www.battlehelm.com - interviews section) which pretty much covered Witchfyndes history from 1980 onwards. What I'd really like to find out from you is the history of the band from 1975 to 1980 (warts n all ha ha)!
Witchfynde began before I joined in 1975 and developed out of a Derby band called Mangalia who’s members included Gra Scoresby on drums, Butch Blower on bass and Neil Harvey on vocals. They teamed up with Somercotes based guitarist Montalo to form Witchfynde. The name originated from the Hammer horror film Witchfinder General. Meanwhile, whilst I was in my late teens I had taught myself to play guitar, but had never been in a band. I used to frequent the same pub in Derby as Gra and Rich Peach who was Witchfynde’s soundman. They were looking for a third person to share a house with them and I moved in with them. Not long after I swapped my guitar for a bass with Butch Blower Witchfynde’s bass guitarist. Witchfynde at that time were having a break and Gra and I formed the Holmes Street Jug Band (basically it was named after the street we lived in and was open to anybody who turned up, usually from the pub to play stuff like Lindisfarne). Yep Gra and I playing folk rock on guitar and bass! Anyway one of the people who turned up and sang was my best friend Steve Bridges who I first met when we were apprentices together at the Locomotive Works in Derby. Soon after in 1974 Witchfynde started gigging again with the original line up and I was now on lights (mainly because I fixed the lighting console). Then Butch the bass guitarist had a car accident and was forced to quit playing (no I didn’t get the gig). A new bassist was taken on who had been in the 60s band Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts, he did a few gigs and quit. However, Witchfynde had a gig to fulfil and no bass guitarist, so I offered my services. It was the night before the gig and Gra and I sat up deep into the night whilst I learned the set (which included Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water, Breadfan by Budgie and Rock The Nation by Montrose). I played the next evening at the Meadows pub in Derby using a borrowed Marshall stack. Gra told me later that apparently Montalo did not want me in the band as I wore glasses; in any case I always played without them. Sometime later, the vocalist Neil Harvey missed a gig and was sacked. We now had to find a replacement, so I suggested Steve Bridges and the band decided to give him a chance and the longest lasting version of Witchfynde was formed. To get Steve up to scratch we embarked on a short tour of Midlands pubs and clubs playing three half hour sets of covers, ranging from Tambourine Man to Paranoid. However, we soon got down to writing our own songs and began to get our own sound. Two of the longest lasting songs were Unto The Ages Of Ages and Tetelestai (which is on the reissue cd version of Give Em Hell). Songs came and went but these two survived right through to our first album. To begin with we did local gigs around Derbyshire and Nottingham, establishing the Blue Bell Inn Bolsover and after it closed the Brimmington Tavern near Chesterfield as our home crowd. One of these guys recently voted me as fifth best bass guitarist behind Geddy Lee, John Paul Jones, Chris Squire and Geezer Butler on the National Midday Sun Rush forum site. Thanks Nick a great honour to be mentioned in such illustrious company. In 1977 Gra decided that he wanted to be a session musician and quit, so we auditioned for a drummer and picked Rob Gilvarey and this led to us going to studios in Coventry to make a demo. Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath was supposed to be producing the demo, but the Sabbath album he was working on at the time over ran so he cancelled. Anyway, it didn’t really work out with Rob and we found out that Gra wanted to come back from London so we sacked Rob and reinstated Gra. We spread our wings and gigged in such places as Ipswich, Oxford, Thetford, Wales, Accrington and the North East. Before we were signed we played at the Music Machine in Camden where we were first on before Iron Maiden with Saxon headlining. It was in early 1979 that I first got disenchanted with the band as Steve and I became less and less involved with the decision making, song writing etc. Most decisions were made in our absence as Steve and I were working but Montalo and Gra weren’t and we were often told of decisions already made. Things came to a head and I nearly quit that summer, but I stayed on and we went to Fairview Studio’s near Hull to record some demos, which eventually became part of the Give Em Hell album. Anyway Steve and I were told that Rondelet were interested in signing us and we had a meeting arranged. We were naive enough to be persuaded to sign the crap deal offered and we went back to Fairview Studios to finish the album. The whole album was done in about five days and most of it we financed. We carried on gigging and in December 1979 the Give Em Hell single came out and was followed by the Album of the same name in February 1980. In April 1980 we started working on the Stagefright Album and it was made cleared that Montalo and Gra wrote all the songs now, Steve and I were no more than hired minions and told what to play. I was not happy with this situation and so things began to get worse. One night I was on stage in Bristol I was playing In The Stars and I just stood there and thought, ‘I hate this shit!’ I was not enjoying playing anymore I had no connection with this music, it was no longer Witchfynde but pop rock.Then in May 1980 I had a car accident after a rehearsal. I came round a bend in the road, there was mud on the road and the car skidded. I avoided a Mini coming the other way and hit the bank at the side of the road sideways, the car rolled over and over into a field and landed on its side. I remember getting out of the hole were the windscreen used to be. When the ambulance arrived I would not let them take me until they had got my bass guitars out of the car. I was lucky my injuries were only a broken right elbow, a torn thigh muscle and glass cuts all over. I had to supply the Management with a Doctors note to cancel a gig at Middlesbrough. Did the Guys in the band care? Hell no, they got Steve to knock on my door even though they were told I could not answer it, as I was laid up in bed and needed assistance to get up and down the stairs. After a week or so we had a gig at Brimmington Tavern and as it was for our number one fans I was not going to let them down. I was driven to the gig by my parents and later managed to play the full set sitting on a stool even though I was in great pain and was physically sick afterwards. Relations within the group were now at an all time low and at gigs after the sound check Steve and I would go in one pub and Gra and Montalo would go in another and would only meet up to play. Steve picked me up one day for a group meeting and told me in confidence that Montalo had lined up a replacement bass guitarist and that they had rehearsed with him. I told Steve that I no longer cared but I would always, always give all I could to the fans on stage even if I no longer felt it, I owed them that! In July 1980 after a gig in Wolverhampton, Alan Campion one of the Rondelet guys asked me to go into the dressing room with him. I knew only to well what was going to happen. He told me things weren’t working, I told him that was a understatement, he said that it was best if I left, I said that I no longer cared and told him straight that he had backed the wrong horse so to speak and left with my gear. Did any of the band say anything? No and I have never spoken to Montalo or Gra since that day. Steve I have spoken to we married two sisters and so he is my brother-in-law.

I understand that you also played on 3 songs offa the second album 'Stagefright' so which ones are those...
That’s right yes I played on In The Stars, Wouldn’t Been Seen Dead In Heaven and Wake Up Screaming. If you listen you can hear two very different bass styles, mine is more aggressive because I play with a pick and Pete Surgey plays with his fingers. Nice of them not to acknowledge my playing on the album and they put out the single In The Stars b/w Wake Up Screaming with a picture of Pete Surgey on the cover when he didn’t play a note on either song. I did try to stop the album and single but I was told by my Solicitor that I had a case but neither Witchfynde or Rondalet had any money and you cannot get blood out of a stone, so things got shelved.

Someone told me they saw Witchfynde on tour with Leppard in '79 or '80 - is that true? Admittedly it was a heavier Leppard but I still find it hard to reconcile Satan with spandex ha ha!!
Yes we supported Def Leppard on their first headlining tour in January 1980. Their management wanted a band to push them and push we did. By the time we were due to play at the Nottingham Boat Club about half way through the tour their tour manager wouldn’t let us play, so the road crew went on strike and we all adjourned to the pub. Things were settled before we played the next night at Derby. Nearing the end of the tour we even got an encore at the Newcastle Mayfair in front of 2000 fans.

By the time 'Give 'Em Hell' came out I would say thay Witchfynde were a big cult band so why did it take so long for you guys to get a deal? We didn’t really know how big a cult band we were until the start of the Def Leppard tour in Scotland. Kids of no more than fifteen or sixteen were waiting for us before gigs, how did they know about us when the furthest north we had played was Newcastle. We did have the Coven fan club and had sold demo tapes to fans, so that is the most likely way the name got about. Record deal? We had tried to get a deal sending demos arranging meetings spending days down in London from 1975 onwards, but we were not flavour of the month I’m afraid, it was all disco and punk up to 1979. Then it was in the right place at the right time, nearly.

Couldn't you get a better label than Rondolet - would've thought that the larger labels would've been queuing given the bands fame!
Now there’s the thing, by the time we had got to Glasgow on the Def Leppard tour (third gig) EMI wanted to buy us out of our contract with Rondalet. But Rondalet got greedy and EMI pulled out. Arista Records did the same later on in the tour and I am sure there were more. We had jumped in at the first crappy offer and we suffered ever since. We’ve never had a penny from any of the records; we were stupid and naïve as I said before.

Given that the band had been going since '75, would you lay claim to being the true originators of black metal. I mean, wouldya look at a band like Mayhem and say 'oh, we did all that' - well mebbe not church burnings ha ha!
I would say for a time we were up to and including Give Em Hell, after that we lost it. We didn’t sound like anybody else and had a unique sound at that time. The difference between us and other so-called black metal bands was that both Montalo and myself have explored and understood many areas of the occult. Montalo being a Wiccan and I have expanded my knowledge beyond the occult, so we were not just jumping onto the bandwagon.

What exactly were the musical differences that led you to leave the band. I'm not sure if its coincidence but history has shown that the band went downhill ever since!
Ha the million dollar question! Following on from my previous answer, I have to feel the music to create and feel the energy and for me the heavier the music the better e.g. Give Em Hell, Wake Up Screaming or a more atmospheric piece like Unto The Ages Of The Ages. But on Stagefright things went from bad to worse. The title track is a good song, I worked on this one in rehearsal and funnily enough the bass line is exactly the same on the record as the one I produced at the rehearsal. Wake Up Screaming was a third attempt at recording this song and was the best version. In The Stars, Witchfynde goes pop. It was awful, had nothing to do with writing this song or Wouldn’t Be Seen Dead In Heaven-Witchfynde goes Thin Lizzy, the rest of the album goes down hill from there and finally then there’s Madeleine. Steve Bridges thought this song so bad, he refused to have his name on the song writing credits and it is awful! I would say that Stagefright was 20% killer and 80% filler a dire follow up to Give Em Hell and a definite wrong turn. Then Steve left in October 1980 and Witchfynde reinvented themselves again with Luther Beltz, they became a clone of such bands as Judas Priest and lost all their originality and went from originators to a mere parody of the ‘flavour of the day’. That is why all the re-releases of the Witchfynde Albums when reviewed in Classic Rock, go down from four stars for Give Em Hell and get steadily less and less afterwards. Unfortunately many wrong decisions were made and all could be placed at one door, need I say more?

When you left Witchfynde were there no offers from bigger bands - I would've thought that Witchfynde would've been the perfect platform onto bigger and better things or doesn't it work that way....?
Three days after leaving Witchfynde I had a call at my parent’s house from a signed band who wanted me to be their bass guitarist, it was too soon after the split, my head was all over the place and I turned them down flat, I didn’t even ask them their name. Stupid I know but I was screwed up well and truly, although I was glad to be out, I had given five years of my life to that band and I was very bitter. Also, I lived in a one bed roomed house half a mile or more from shops, with no phone, so I was isolated and lost contact with everyone. In any case I started to write with a friend of Paul Gaskin (leader of Gaskin who were signed to Rondelet) which did not work as we lived too far apart and I formed my own band Malleus soon after.

What are you hoping to accomplish with your solo project - is it a relaunch of a career cos there are 2 Witchfyndes already out there right...?
Who knows were it will end, it started in 2002 when I was working with a sound engineer and we got talking about Witchfynde. When I saw him the next day, he told me he had typed Witchfynde into Google and had been astounded by the thousands of pages it had brought up. He had printed off pages from Witchfynde’s website, a fans Witchfynde site and one from a USA site selling the Best Of Witchfynde album. This site said that we had influenced Metallic and Bauhaus to name but two, I had no idea that we had been so far reaching and it transpires that Leaving Nadir off Give Em Hell is one of Lars Ulrich favourite tracks. The sound engineer said why don’t I start to play again, I mentioned it to my wife Shaz (who was a member of my post Witchfynde band Malleus) and she said give it ago. About this time I was approached by a band called Ego Prime (who included ex Hawkwind keyboard player Harvey Bainbridge) to join them, but after discussions decided to carry on with my solo project. I started with They’re Lyin and it as taken me two years to complete the album. Rather than toting it round the record labels, it as been released on Sharandor Records, which is owned by Shaz and I. The name Sharandor is formed from Shar for Sharon and andor for Andro with the o and the r reversed (Clever Hey). I now have a new band in rehearsal. We will gig as soon as we are up to speed. As regards two Witchfynde’s there is only one, the Montalo & Gra one, as the Luther Beltz Wytchfynde is no more. I have no intention of using the name Witchfynde that period of my life is well and truly over. I cannot claim that name, as it is Montalo’s by right and good luck to him and Gra as even though I have not spoken to them in 27 years and was the only member of the band 1975 onwards who was not asked to join in the reformed Witchfynde, I bear them no ill will. Good luck lads and blessed be! Shaz and I wrote the Dragonhead album, the music I wrote and most of the lyrics are Shaz’s. She is a most prolific writer of lyrics. Hells Fire, Dark Angel, Dragonhead, Poor Knights, Bring Me Down Gently are all her own work. Some of the others I wrote whilst still in Witchfynde (together with a tape full of riffs I kept for myself) and £50 Superstar, which I wrote after leaving Witchfynde, and is about things that happened in my Witchfynde days. We have enough lyrics for at least two more albums already and there is loads of music still to use and I have started laying down basic ideas for a 4 or 5 track EP! A lot of Witchfynde fans have bought the album but I have now a totally new fan base of people young and old who have never heard of Witchfynde and have accepted my music in it’s own right. I have also been asked by Witchfynde fans if I am going to record any of the old Witchfynde songs, I am afraid the answer is no. Why? Because I am not prepared to put any more money in the owner of Rondelet Records pocket. I am presently rehearsing a new band to take the new music out on the road, so let’s see where it goes, but packing up is not an option.

The sound on 'Dragonlord' had a very impressive 70s sound - was that intentional and how did you manage to achieve this given modern equipment (I'd like to know technically what effects, amps etc you used to get that sound).
Well the sound is what I have carried in my head for thirty years and how did I get it? Firstly I bought a Korg Pandora PXR4 digital recording studio cheap off a mate, it is a four-track box no bigger than an effects pedal and I recorded the bass and the drums to They’re Lyin on this. I set up a room in my home as a studio and downloaded the drums and bass from the Korg on to my computer studio software. All the guitar parts were played through a Behringer V-amp pedal for the amp models and effects and the bass overdub on Dark Angel was done through a Behringer Blue Devil guitar amp on the Hell channel. Guitars? Well basses used were my Aria Pro 2 bought in the late 80’s a Cruiser by Crafter, Squier Bullet restrung left-handed and even a Hofner Violin Bass. Guitars are an Ibanez I got off E-bay, then I saw a Squier Standard Stratocaster in a junk shop in Shanklin Isle Of Wight bought it and restrung it left handed Jimi Hendrix style and that is on Bring Me Down Gently. Then I bought a Johnson Les Paul fitted with EMG pickups, which completes the line up of cheap guitars on the album. My bass guitar with Witchfynde was a Shergold Marathon, a very different choice to the normal Fender or Rickenbacker. The album was recorded to re-create the sound of those first albums and EP’s that we from the NWoBHM created ourselves in small studios for not a lot of money in the 1970’s before we were signed by a record companies.