Following "Disco Destroyer" and "Kings of Beer", "B-Day" is the third vinyl in High Roller Records' Tankard re-release campaign. As usual, frontman Gerre is answering my questions. First of all, I wanted to know what the title of the album actually stands for. Is it "Beer Day"? "No", says Gerre. "Of course it's a play on words relating to D-Day. 'B-Day' actually stands for birthday as it was the band's 20th anniversary back then. If I remember correctly, the idea came from our mad manager Buffo." Today Gerre is still absolutely sat'sfied with how "B-Day" turned out: "I'd say 'B-Day' somehow marked the rebirth of Tankard. We had a new record company (AFM), a new producer and our songwriting was getting better because guitarist Andy was having more creative input. It was a very important record in the history of the band. The production by Andy Classen was phenomenal, 'B-Day' is an old school Thrash album with a really powerful production." And how was the atmosphere within the band at the time? Gerre thinks back: "Very good I'd say, as our situation was slowly but'surely improving again, especially on the live front. Our original plan was to mix the record somewhere else but as we were having so much fun with Andy and everything was working out fine, we just'stayed with him. We are still playing 'Rectifier' and 'Need Money for Beer" from 'B-Day' live today. I also still like 'Sunscars' and 'New Liver please' but the whole record is just fant'stic. All killers, no fillers.
