Andro Coulton was the bass guitarist with the legendary New Wave of British Heavy Metal band Witchfynde from 1975 – 1980. Witchfynde toured the UK from 1975 –1979 establishing a large fan base in the UK and had their own fan club called the Coven. In the summer of1979 Witchfynde went into the studio to record some demo tracks (which later became part of the first album) at Fairview Studios Hull. Rondelet Records signed the band on the strength of these demos and the band went back to Fairview in October to finish the album ready for it’s release in February 1980. Their first single ‘Give ‘Em Hell’ was released in December 1979 and soared up the Sounds independent Label charts to No.1 (as did the album later).
Witchfynde embarked on a UK tour supporting Def Leppard in January 1980 to promote the releases of the single and album.
After this tour Witchfynde embarked on many headlining gigs around the UK and also began writing songs for their second album Stagefright. This is where however ‘musical differences’ began to appear and Andro was becoming disenchanted with the direction the band was taking. They however recorded three songs Wake Up Screaming, Wouldn’t Be Seen Dead In Heaven and In The Stars, before Andro left in July 1980, after a gig in Wolverhampton.
After leaving Witchfynde Andro received a phone call offering him the chance to join a newly signed band but he declined and formed his own band Malleus. After several false starts Malleus started to tour the UK and after a line up change of drummer and guitarist became Sabotage, which eventually disbanded in 1983. But Malleus/Sabotage guitarist Gary Lorking asked Andro to help him form a new band in 1986, which he did but unfortunately business commitments as Managing Director of a hydraulics company prevented Andro from being able to fully commit to the project and so he left.
Andro kept his ‘hand in’ so to speak as a sound engineer during the 1990’s and on meeting a fellow engineer in 2002 realised how much interest there was now in ‘Old School’ heavy metal and in Witchfynde. Especially as it was said they were an influence on such bands as Metallica, Paradise Lost and Bauhaus! So he decided to take up the guitar again and this has so far culminated in the solo album Dragonhead together with the formation of a new band Prophets For The Damned. He is currently recording a second solo album and writing and rehearsing with the new band.
