A new book on influential Welsh rockers Budgie covers the period from 1980, when new guitarist John Thomas would prove to be just the tonic needed to launch the band into the ’80s.

Thomas, who passed away in March this year, recorded three albums with Budgie in the early 1980s – Power Supply, Nightflight and Deliver Us From Evil. The book, Time To Remember: Budgie’s Heavy Revolution 1980–2010, covers these three albums and three Reading Festival appearances, culminating in a headline show in ’82.

Budgie would also venture behind the Iron Curtain, visiting Poland in ’82 for a triumphant tour of sold-out stadiums, two years before Iron Maiden’s much-heralded visit. Forty of photographer Justin Thomas’s previously unseen photos of Budgie’s Polish tour are included in the book, which includes more than 750 images across 430 pages.

Budgie took a break in 1988, but returned in style to play before a huge San Antonio audience in 1995 – the music kept alive by Texas radio and Metallica’s covers of “Breadfan” and “Crash Course In Brain Surgery”.

Budgie remained active during the 1990s and 2000s, touring in the UK, Europe, the States and Australia, and releasing another studio album. The band last played live in 2010, when bandleader Burke Shelley would undergo emergency surgery for an aortic aneurysm.

The book features contributions from band members, roadies, promoters and photographers, including extensive interviews with John Thomas in the months leading up to his untimely passing.

The new book, the third in a trilogy of books about Budgie, can be ordered online here.