Diamond Head are a British heavy metal band formed in 1976 in Stourbridge, England. They were one of the leading members of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) and are acknowledged by later bands like Metallica and Megadeth as an important early influence.

Formed by school friends in 1976 Brian Tatler and Duncan Scott with Tatler playing on a Cheap Fuzz guitar and Scott on Biscuit Tins. The name "Diamond Head" came from a Phil Manzanera album, that Tatler had a poster of in his room. Sean Harris later joined the band after they learned about his vocal abilities while on a school trip, singing Gene Vincent's 1956 hit "Be-Bop-A-Lula", and auditioned him in Tatler's bedroom. Bassist Colin Kimberley, a friend of Tatler's from primary school, joined the band some months later (and was in fact Diamond Head's fourth bassist) and the band started to play local gigs in the Black Country area. In fact their first gig was at High Park School in Birmingham on 10th February 1976,[2] but things did not go too smoothly at that gig, with problems with feedback spoiling the songs.

Even from their early days the band refused to play cover songs and stuck to their own material. The only exception to this was the adding of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" in 1978[3] and "This Flight Tonight" plus "Rock The Nation" in 1991.[4] In one interview Brian Tatler reported that they wrote 100 songs before their first studio release. The truth can be proven in this statement by the fact that only one song (It's Electric) from their 1978 set ended up being recorded on their debut.[5]

The band recorded and released self-financed demo tapes in 1977 and 1979. Although only recorded within six hours on a four-track, their unique sound and quality of song writing gained enough attention to tour as support with AC/DC and Iron Maiden, the former showing the band the ins and outs of the music industry.[6] Although a clutch of record companies fought to sign the band, none were willing to fully commit. The fact that the band was at the time managed by Sean Harris' mother (Linda Harris) did not help the band's commercial momentum. So, while other 'New Wave of British Heavy Metal' bands, such as Def Leppard were signed to major labels and were headlining their own tours Diamond Head were growing increasingly impatient and decided that they would release their material through their own label Happy Face Records.

The first release from this label was the 1980 single Shoot Out The Lights (B-side Helpless), having already had a previous single Sweet and Innocent (B-side Streets of Gold) released by Media Records in the same year. In the same year the band also recorded their debut album on Happy Face most commonly known as Lightning to the Nations, although it has never officially had a title, within seven days at The Old Smythy Studio in Worcester, which the band described as 'dead'.[7] This album came in a plain sleeve with no title, having on it only a signature of one of the band members and no track listings. The reason for this was that the band's manager, Reg Fellows, who passed away in 2005, owned a cardboard factory and could produce blank sleeves at a low cost. There were originally only 1000 copies pressed of the album, which were only available at their concerts or through mail-order at cost of £3.50. In fact the only mail-order advertisement appeared in Sounds and ran for four weeks. However, the band did not pay for the ad and ended up being sued. The idea from recording this album came from Fellows and Linda Harris, and was an attempt to lay down some tracks so they could send it to a record company who would release it, as the recording costs had already been covered.[8] This album has become one of the most sought after record collector items from the time. Later 1000 more copies were pressed, which contained the track listings. Unfortunately, the only original one-and-a-quarter-inch master tapes were lost after the band sent them to the German record company Woolfe Records, and they were never returned. However, Woolfe Records did release the album, which is the version with a picture of the world burning on the front cover. The album was also re-released via Sanctuary Records in 2001, although Brian Tatler had mentioned in an interview in 1982 that it was never going to be re-released.