A ONE-OFF reunion gig has led to Hexham headbanger Alex Perry earning a dream trip to Germany to play in front of thousands of heavy metal fans.

Regarded as one of the best guitarists in the North-East, Alex (56) and his fellow band mates in cult 1980s group Mythra have been invited to play at the Keep it True Festival, in Lauda-Konigshofen, in April.

The gig came about when the band reformed after 33 years to play what was supposed to be a single concert at Newcastle’s three-day rock festival - Brofest - last year.

So storming was the reception to the return of one of the leaders of the era’s ‘New Wave of British Heavy Metal, further gigs have been pencilled in and a limited edition ‘best of...’ CD has been released as the calls for ‘more’ have been incessant.

The reformation has rekindled the passion for their music in fans across the world, and international record label Skol Records produced 1,000 copies of Warriors Of Time: The Anthology which features 13 of their most popular tracks, as well as five new songs written and recorded in the past year.

Caught up in a whirlwind, the highlight of 2016 will undoubtedly be the band’s first appearances overseas. Another date in Germany in June has been added to the Keep it True event in two months’ time.

Alex said: “Brofest is this great event run by three lads and their aim was to reform old New Wave bands.

“A lot of the bands are from the North-East and they asked if we could do it in 2015 and, as far as we were concerned, it was a one-off gig where we would have a big laugh.

“I hadn’t seen our singer for 33 years since we split up, and he hadn’t sung in a rock band since, so it was going to be a bit of an experience for us.

“There was only one period since 1982 when I wasn’t playing in a band and that was for about nine months for health reasons and, to be honest, I was thinking of packing it in just before we got this call.

“Two weeks before the gig, we got some t-shirts produced and put a Facebook page up, and it was just amazing when we got to the gig as everybody seemed to have a Mythra shirt on and there were people from places like Greece, Peru, America and Czech Republic singing our songs!

“The place was rocking and it was just a phenomenal feeling; we couldn’t believe the response. When we finished, the singer’s wife came up and said, ‘so, it’s not just going to be a one-off gig then?’”

And she has been proved correct as the band will have a bumper 2016, with warm-up gigs for the trips to Germany to be held in Manchester next month, in Consett in March and in Newcastle in April.

Alex said: “Never in a million years did I think, after that one gig, we would be preparing to play in front of 3,000 people in Germany.

“It will be a special one as Mythra have never played out of the country before, and everybody is really excited for it.

“We never knew we had an international fan base but, through Facebook, we’ve been contacted by people from the likes of America, Germany, Italy, Greece and even Brazil.”

To top things off in a remarkable year for the band, their Anthology CD has also been a hit with a global audience.

Such has been the popularity of the album, Skol is putting it to vinyl with 500 copies to be released in April.

Alex said: “The album has exceeded all expectations and it’s particularly pleasing that the new stuff has gone down just as well as the others.

“All the hype around us has been because Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich cited us as one of his influences on the band, and that’s amazing to hear from such a huge rock band.

“We have had such a good response to the new stuff that we would be foolish not to write a new album.

“We weren’t going to, but a lot of fans who had liked the stuff asked for it, so I think that might happen.”

The five-piece are currently loving the revival and enjoying the interest in a band who feel they just missed out on the big time while in their prime.

They were touted to join Whitesnake on tour but the record label overlooked them at the last minute because they lacked that extra bit of experience.

The same happened when they were in negotiations to support American singer/songwriter Ted Nugent too.

Alex said: “We could have made it if we had that bit of a break and joined these big stars on their tours.

“In some of the interviews, I get the blame about what could have been.

“There was an advert in the window at McKays (Sound and Music) shop in Newcastle for a guitarist in Mythra but I didn’t go for it originally.

“I was humming and harring and then went back a couple of weeks later and applied for it. The bass guitarist said that if I had applied first time, we would have made it!”