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DARK MILE – An interview with Tracy G.

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A vertical shot of a wooden road leading to the train covered with snow

American guitar player Tracy Grijalva, who goes simply by the initial ‘TRACY G’ will be best known to rock & heavy metal fans as the guitarist in DIO in the 90s. He played and co-wrote on the albums Strange Highways and Angry Machines, as well as the double live set Inferno. Tracy’s latest project is the band DARK MILE, which also includes former QUIET RIOT singer Mark Huff. The band has put together an excellent debut album (on CD), please check it out! in our conversation Tracy talks about the new DARK MILE release, as well as some of his past, and recordings, such as DIO and BLUE DAHLIA (w/ Paul Shortino). Tracy’s also done numerous solo album (+ TRACY G GROUP), which can be found at his website.

Are you guys in the Dark Mile band, are you guys all relatively close?

Most of us are, but not the singer. The singer’s in Washington and we’re in California.

How did this project come together, because obviously you’re associated with DIO and some other stuff, and Mark had that run with Quiet Riot, which is what most people would recognize him from.

Yeah, me and Paul, Paul Alfrey’s a good friend of mine, he’s a guitar player, Randy Oviedo is the bass player, and then Mark Huff is the singer, as you know already. So, it’s really Paul’s project; Paul and me went to dinner one night and he just hit me up and said if I would want to do a project with him, and the first thing he said, because I’m not known for really being in a band with a project with two guitar players, I’ve always just played as the one guitar player guy, but I’ve known Paul since about ’83, so I’ve known him for a long time and he’s just a super guy and real humble, a real good musician, just a real straightforward kind of dude. So, he said, ‘would you want to play guitar in this project of mine? You can do all the solos, I’ll do the rhythms, and you can do the rhythms, but when it comes to the solos, you can do all the solos,’ because he knew that meant a lot to me because that’s kind of how I express myself, so to speak. And I go, ‘Yeah, no problem’, because it was him – it wasn’t just any guitar player, it was Paul. So that’s how that came about, and we started, it was a few years ago. It’s been a few years since we had that dinner and we found a singer and we did an album, but it was called something different, and it was with a different singer.

Was that the one with Paul Shortino?

No, that was a completely different project, that was mine and Paul’s project and we did with Randy, Randy played bass on it, the same guy that’s playing bass now, he played bass on a ‘Blue Dahlia’. Yeah, that one had Billy on the keyboards and Chuck on the drums and we had a line of different musicians on that one. And I was writing songs for Paul, and we did it and he got a friend of his to sign it and it came out and, you know, I think this sold a few copies or whatever. I really liked that CD too, but no, that had nothing to do with this. But we did do an album, going back to Dark Mile, but we didn’t have that yet, we had a band called ‘Gale Force’. Gale Force is me, Paul, Randy Oviedo and Michael Lee was the singer. Michael Lee comes from a band in the 80s called ‘Baron Cross’. And we did an album, and we didn’t wait around to get signed with a label, we let Michael take care of all the CDs and all the merchandising and he kind of had all that down, so Michael went ahead and ran all that and we sold a few CDs and stuff. Things didn’t work out the way we wanted it, so we went ahead and replaced Michael, and we found Mark. And we changed the name of the band, and we kept writing, but now we’re writing for Mark. We’ve been writing together for three or four years, but Mark’s only been with us the last year – year and a half. And we did the Dark Mile album, and then with Paul’s connections and stuff, that label in Germany signed us, Pride and Joy. They put it out (I think), in July, and it’s been floating around, I think, Europe a lot.

And Paul told me right away, up front, even back before Dark Mile (but for Dark Mile), that it was going to be kind of 80s, 80s-ish, but with a modern slash to it, because the labels he knew in Europe were kind of looking for that kind of stuff. And, if you give them stuff that they’re not interested in, you have less of a chance of getting signed. We tried to give them stuff that Paul knew they were kind of interested in, which is not full-blown 80s, but kind of. So that’s what Dark Mile is.

I’m going to look for this Blue Dahlia CD. So, you worked with Paul Shortino and now Mark Huff – 2 ex Quiet Riot singers!

(Haha) Yeah, both really great! Paul Shortino’s a great singer. I was always a big fan of his voice. There’s some good stuff on that CD.

Yeah, I’m familiar with your past with Dio, and those albums kind of have that slower, heavy sound, and these kind of incorporate more of like a bright 80s kind of sound, especially with the choruses and that. So I think it’s a very accessible album for people that like heavy stuff and 80s stuff as well.

I grew up on all of it, really. I grew up in the 80s, kind of. 70s – I was a little bit young, but all the 80s groups. and even in the 90s. In the 90s, I started with a band called ‘World War III’, and then I ended up with Dio.

World War III became before Dio with those guys? World War III was the one with Vinny Appice and Jimmy Bain and those guys?

Yeah, that was before Dio; that was like 1990, 91.

I want to go back a bit. How did you find Mark Huff?

Paul went seeking on the internet. We ran into a couple guys; we tried a couple people out, but once we heard Mark… We tried him out on a song that we already had written called “He Said, She Said”. We threw that song at him, the lyrics and everything. Him and Paul made a couple adjustments to my lyrics, I’m not really a lyric writer, but I do the best I can. They liked the song, so they fixed up the lyrics a little bit, and as soon as he sang that one and I heard it, and everybody heard it over here in the band they said, Yeah, that’s our guy!’ Mark’s a super, super guy; super nice guy, Super easy to work with. But he’s in Washington, so we’ve only met him once… a year ago. I don’t know if he still does, but he played in a Van Halen tribute band. It was a tribute to the Sammy Hagar era. So they were playing over here in the desert, so – me, Randy, and Paul went to meet him and went to see him. And that’s the only time we’ve met him. And all the songs he sings all the songs over there in Washington on his little laptop. And him and Paul talk on the phone and work on the stuff on the phone all the time, and then he emails it to Paul. Paul does all the production and the producing in his studio. And he flies in his vocals. I have a studio just like Paul and we bounce ideas back and forth. But Paul does the final mixing of everything. He does about an hour for me, Paul. And that’s kind of how we ran into Mark. …He’s a good, he’s a good fit for our music, I think.

One thing I don’t see on the album is who’s playing drums.

We don’t have a guy playing drums. We have a computer playing drums. We program the program that’s in the computer. Paul turned me on to it, it’s actually a real guy playing, but it’s more like just pieces, just loops and we grab them, and do our best to make it sound real.

I assume that when you guys get around to playing live, you’re going have to find a drummer then, right?

Yeah, if and when that happens, we would have to, we would have to haul in a real drummer. I have a couple in mind that I would call first, but you never know on that one. But there’s a guy named Adrian Aguilar, he played in my Tracy G group. He’s a local here, phenomenal drummer. And then of course there’s Patrick Johanson. I think he’s in Florida and he’s another I’ve done stuff with him. He’s played on a couple of my things already. These kinds of guys can play anything. So, I don’t know who we would get, but I do know who I would call.

Can we talk a bit about some of the songs? You said, you wrote the lyrics and so some of the songs that obviously stand out, for me, are “Is Anybody Listening”, “Games” and “Where’s The Love?”

I wrote both those songs. But I mean, in this group, it’s not really like one guy writes everything. I’ll have like an idea, or Paul will have an idea, or Randy, and then we’ll throw our ideas on the table. You know, we all kind of put our fingers in and play around with it. And, make it a song, kind of.

“Listening”, the words were written by me and a fellow friend of mine named Mark Bramlett, who’s not even in the band. I used to be in a band with him, but he writes good lyrics. So, Mark (Bramlett) helped write. And then I wrote the other part of the lyrics. And then, um, Randy and Paul helped piece all the rest of the song together and threw in their ideas. The song was basically there, but they touched it up. And Mark Huff is mainly the voice, I call him. He doesn’t write, he’s not writing anything for us right now – we’ve got that covered. But he just takes direction, like ‘tell me what you want me to sing. Just tell me what the words are and where’s the melody, and I’ll just go’.

But that was the story with “Listening”. I think it’s a very strong song, it’s got a strong chorus, and I like the meaning of it and everything, it’s clear.

And “Games”?

And “Games” is a strong chorus, a strong song too, but it’s kind of like a ballad.

Yeah, it’s got that intro to it…

Yeah, and it comes in heavy and stuff, but the same story on that one, I kind of had that idea already. I wrote the lyrics to it, Paul touched them up and Randy puts in his two cents and then Mark sings it, and there you have it!

And then you have the ballad “Where Is The Love”…

Same thing with that song. I had that song, but Paul changed some of the lyrics to it. Basically, I already had the music and the melody for that song. And that’s one of our favorites too. And then “United We Stand” was something we just wrote last year. Me and Randy wrote that song, no singing at all. And then we gave it to Paul and Paul played rhythm guitar on it, and he wrote the words. That’s one of my favorites.

“The Boy” – who chose that as the first single?

We all kind of did. That’s another one of my old songs, but we thought it was just appropriate because it was, it pretty much says it all – “I’m just a boy who wants to rock”. It’s pretty simple and straightforward and in your face and there’s really no fancy nothing to it. We think it’s fun and it would be really fun to play that live; it’s like a live song; you could hear it.

We think it’s a good rocker, we all feel the same way. And the same thing, I wrote the words, but then Paul and Mark kind of made them make more sense, update them a little bit. Some of these songs I wrote a few years back, and I just had as demos because they didn’t make the projects I had at the time. So, if I don’t redo them, I figured no one’s ever going to hear them.

When you write stuff, do you keep your riffs and kind of your solo ideas and then eventually they turn up or…?

Sometimes… mostly no solo ideas – I do them on the spot. Solos are kind of spontaneous for each song I get, I just go for it. Once in a while I have a solo idea for a song, but that kind of comes last for the song. Most of the time I’m improvising on the song that I’m given.

How much were you guys involved as far as the packaging goes, the album cover and all that stuff?

We did the album cover; I think Paul mostly did the album cover. At first, we were trying for crazy stuff, but then we just figured ‘let’s just make it fucking simple’. And my friend Susie took the photos of us. It’s pretty simple, no big deal.

You guys have already started on a second album!?

We have. While the first album is going out there, we’ve been writing the second album. I think we’re up to maybe six or seven songs now on what could be a second Dark Mile album. Just in case…if this label asks us to do another one (or whatever), we’ll be ready.

So, I think it’s great. I would love to see it issued on vinyl. Do you keep a lot of records yourself?

I’ve got a lot of CDs, quite a bit. I haven’t bought any really, in the last few years. I don’t really buy any CDs anymore. I hear them online, on the internet and stuff. But, I’ve got a lot of my own stuff that I do myself in my little studio, you know, my solo stuff. But I try to keep up on any new groups and stuff. Paul turns me on to all kinds of stuff too.

Can we talk a bit about some of your previous work? You go all the way back to the early eighties with some of these bands – Swift Kick and Driven and some of these other things.

In the 80s I had the band ‘Swift Kick’ with some friends and then I kind of always had a Tracy G Group. So, most of the time it was instrumental. And I sometimes I had different singers, and I put out a couple of CDs as the Tracy G Group. And that was way back though. And then I didn’t get the gig for World War III until like ’90.

And that, we did that one album and then, we did a small tour in the United States and then that split up. Then I had like a year off, so I started another band called ‘Mankind’. That’s where a lot of these demos came from because I thought a lot of the songs were really good, but the band ended up breaking up because I joined DIO.

And some of the, some of the Dio riffs came from my demos because I practiced with Vinnie and Jimmy Bain. I would start playing my riffs. And if Ronnie liked them, he’d start to write some words on them. And a lot of them turned out to be songs on Strange Highways, the first album I did.

How did that whole Dio gig all come about?

They called me. You know, I had already been in World War III with Jimmy Bain and Vinnie. And one day, I think I read in a local paper, that Dio was starting his band back together with his original guys, but they’re looking for a new guitar player. I read that and I thought ‘well, Vinnie and Jimmy, they know me, and if they think anything of me, then they’ll let Ronnie know’. I wasn’t going to call them and say ‘hey, remember me?’ And then Vinnie called and said, ‘hey, do you want to come down and audition for Dio?’ I said ‘I think so!’ I go down and I audition with them, play a few, just jams. We didn’t play any songs. Ronnie didn’t sing; Ronnie just sat there and listened. We played and then ‘okay, we’ll call you’. And a month went by. I didn’t think they were going to call me, and then they called me and said ‘he wants you to come back. And so I did. And then after I played again, when I played the second time, Ronnie came up and sang, but we were just making stuff up, we weren’t playing any of his catalog, any of my catalog, no World War III, no Dio, none of that, just jamming. But the thing is, when I jammed with Jimmy Bain and Vinnie, it kind of already sounded like a band because we were a band. It sounded heavier than anything Dio had done, which was my goal anyways.

I always loved Dio’s voice, obviously, but I always thought his music could have been heavier. And in all the 80s and everything, my thoughts were – Vivian Campbell, Craig Goldy, Rowan Robertson, all great guitar players, but they needed to get heavier. With that voice you can’t really get too heavy with the music, and I thought I had the music and the guitar sound for that. I told Ronnie that, after the second audition I said, ‘I know you can get whoever you want,’ he pretty much could get any guitar player in the world, really… and I said ‘but I think if I get the gig we can make one of the heaviest DIO records there is.’ And then a couple days later they called me and said, ‘you’re the guy!’ I was pretty blown away, I didn’t expect it, but I am proud of the music that we made. I think it is the heaviest Dio stuff.

I was wondering how much of an influence you had on the sound, whereas if you listen to that Sabbath Dehumanizer album, and it has that heavier, slower sound to it.

Yeah, that big fat Sabbath sound, which I loved. I love Dehumanizer, but Strange Highways has nothing to do with it. A lot of people still email me and say “hey, is Strange Highways a lot of Dehumanizer leftovers?” And no, I love Dehumanizer, and I love Tony Iommi, but No – it’s all original riffs that I brought in, or we wrote right there on the spot. It just happens to be as heavy or heavier than Dehumanizer. I am heavily influenced by Tony Iommi; how can you not be!? He’s like the King of heavy guitar. In my day he was, at least.

What are the highlights from that era? You did the 2 albums, and the live album. Any favorite songs, or any shows you played that stood out for you?

It is one great big giant grey thing to me. The very first time I stepped on stage; it was in Greece. I was pretty much in Awe the whole time I was in the band. The whole thing was a giant rush. It really wasn’t ever bad to me. Most of the time I was playing I had Ronnie James Dio as the singer, Vinny Appice as the drummer, and Jeff Pilson as the bass player. How are you going to go wrong with that!? I just had to make sure I could cover my own shoes. And I got to say with that line-up there wasn’t much of a weak link. Ronnie said the same thing; we could feed off each other musically each night and make it special and make it heavy. And i knew what Jeff was going to play before he played it; I knew what Vinny was going to do, and vice versa. It was just a real musician’s band; we were all on the same page. We did have different line-ups, and everyone was great! Larry Dennison was a great bass player, and a great guy; Bob Daisley played bass for a little bit. Simon Wright filled in for a bit, a great drummer. And Ronnie, of course – The greatest! I think with Jeff. Vinny, myself, and Ronnie – there was really no stopping that, as far as live.

Was it a tough era for Dio (?), because in the ’90s and into the 2000s a lot of that stuff got shoved off to the side.

It probably was for him – with all the grunge and music changing, the times, but for me personally, again – playing with top notch musicians like that, there was really no low point. Yeah, it changed a little bit, but it was all rocking to me. I live about an hour from where we practiced, every day. And when we practiced, I didn’t mind the drive. I mean – I was going to work doing that!? I have no complaints!

Did you keep in touch with Ronnie after you’d left the band?

Not too much. Most of our relationship was business. We didn’t go out all the time, sometimes. I never smoked pot, I never got high, and they kinda do, so we didn’t have that in common. I was just mainly his guitar player.

Other than Tony Iommi, what were some of your favorite guitar players, and bands from your youth?

I’m all over the place. I liked all the typical guys – Angus Young, Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore. Eddie Van Halen came along, and you know!? And then going to Allan Holdsworth, Al Di Meola, and all these fusion guys, and different types of music. I like all kinds of stuff, and all kinds of guitar players. Jeff Beck was one of my favorite players, and he wasn’t a ‘metal’ guy, but I like what he got out of the guitar. A couple of local guys, one guy named Shawn Lane- amazing guitar player, I took some lessons from him.

What else do you got on the go?

I’ve got a couple of projects; I’m always working on my instrumental CDs. I’ve got a couple in the works, I’m recording. I record a lot of local guys too, and different guys fly in from different states, and I help them record with their demos and stuff. And I work around the studio, keeping busy. And I’m working on new Dark Mile songs.

LINKS:

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558042420831&name=xhp_nt__fb__action__open_user

https://www.instagram.com/darkmileband?igsh=MW9kbnY1eWJ3cjJ2ZQ==

http://www.tracyg.com

http://www.prideandjoy.de

BADFINGER: ‘Head First’ to get official release for 50th anniversary

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Badfinger’s Long-Lost Album “Head First” Set For Release in 2024, Fully Mixed and Mastered and On Vinyl For the First Time

HEAD FIRST: 50th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION

In an exhilarating announcement for music aficionados and rock historians, the iconic British band Badfinger is proud to unveil the forthcoming release of their long-lost album “Head First” scheduled for 2024 – exactly 50 years after its original recording. This historic release features Peter Ham’s final studio recordings and marks a significant milestone in the band’s legacy, bringing forth an album that has been shrouded in mystery for decades.“Head First” will be released on vinyl on December 13, 2024 on Y&T Music (CD TBA).With hits such as “Come and Get It,” “No Matter What,” “Day After Day,” and “Baby Blue,” Badfinger has long been recognized as a formidable force in the power pop and classic rock genres of the 1970s

A Historic Recording…Originally laid down in 1974 at The Beatles’ renowned Apple Recording Studio on Savile Row, London, “Head First” encapsulates a transformative era in Badfinger’s storied career. The sessions for “Head First” took place during a tumultuous period for the band, marked by personal struggles and external challenges, which ultimately led to the album being shelved. For years, only a rough mix survived, with the master tapes thought to be lost. However, the recent rediscovery of the original multi-tracks has allowed for a meticulous mixing and mastering process, breathing new life into this long-hidden masterpiece. The release promises to provide fans with an authentic glimpse into the creative spirit of Badfinger during one of their most artistically rich periods.

A Landmark Release for Fans and Collectors…The official release of “Head First” is not just an addition to Badfinger’s discography; it represents a rediscovery of a pivotal moment in rock history. The album features tracks that showcase the band’s raw energy and emotive songwriting, resonating with both long-time fans and a new generation of listeners. The newly mastered sound highlights the band’s musicianship in an unprecedented way, revitalizing their enduring legacy.Bob Jackson, the sole surviving member of the lineup, expressed his excitement: “On behalf of my bandmates – Pete, Tommy, and Mike – I am thrilled to say, ‘We did it, guys!’ This marks the culmination of a 50-year journey and it’s an honor to complete the vision we had all those years ago. The last piece of the puzzle is finally in place.”

The Songs:
Lay Me Down
Hey Mr Manager
Turn Around
Back Again
Rock ‘N’ Roll Contract
Keep Believing
Moonshine
Rockin’ Machine
Passed Fast
Savile Row (2024)

Badfinger’s music continues to captivate audiences around the world, and the release of “Head First” is set to be one of the most anticipated musical events of 2024.

New Tracks: Magnum, The Damn Truth, BOC, Grave Digger, Sven Gali…

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A new listing of some cool new (and newer) song releases. Please check out the details in the video descriptions!

MAGNUM – Kingdom Of Madness (live)

For MAGNUM’s new Live At K.K’s Steel Mill release, the first single us a lyric video for the classic “Kingdom Of Madness”.

“The title track ‘Kingdom Of Madness’ from our 1978 debut album is one of the most frequently played songs of our career, an absolute fan fave and typical of the music we wrote back then. A true classic and the perfect encore at every show for almost fifty years. A MAGNUM gig wouldn’t have been complete without this number!” (Bob Catley)

GRAVE DIGGER – Killing Is My Pleasure

“Here it is at last, our new studio album, true to the motto: #gravediggeroldschool. With Tobi Kersting in the band, we have focused on the essentials of our sound again after many years with numerous concept albums: Concise straightforward metal songs that burn themselves into your brain stems after the first listen. “Bone Collector” doesn’t sound like off-the-shelf stuff, but highly energetic, fresh and you’ll notice that we had a lot of fun with the songs. We’re looking forward to your reaction, the release of the album in January and 45 years of Grave Digger live with you,” (vocalist- Chris Boltendahl)

ORIANTHI – Some Kind Of Feeling

Blues guitarist ORIANTHI (ex Alice Cooper) has a new album coming in spring 2025. This is the 3rd single (and title track) from it. Produced by Kevin Shirley.

UTILITY POWER – Challenger

Vancouver metal band UTILITY POWER release their 3rd album this week. This is the title track from Challenger.

WHISKY OF BLOOD – Baby Revolution

Hard rockers WHISKY OF BLOOD’s new single from their latest album Diablesse Of Revolution (released in September). The album features a couple of guests, notably Chris Holmes (Wasp).

THE DAMN TRUTH – The Willow

Canadian band THE DAMN TRUTH have released a new single from their next album (2025). Great psych influenced hard & classic rock!the band start a UK tour Nov 24, and have album launch shows in Montreal and Quebec City in March.

BLUE OYSTER CULT – The Alchemist (live)

From the band’s upcoming live release 50th Anniversary – Third Night, from the 3rd New York show in 2022, celebrating the band’s 50th anniversary, and performing the album Secret Treaties. “The Alchemist” comes from the band’s last studio album The Symbol Remains in 2020.

ROD RODRIGUEZ – Mom’s Lullaby

From the new album Tales Of A Changing Life, Part 2, by this Canadian -Brazilian guitarist. Influenced by, and recommended for fans of Dream Theatre, Rush, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani.

SVEN GALI – Lunatic Fringe

SVEN GALI has released a cover of the classic “Lunatic Fringe”, originally by another Canadian band- RED RIDER.

TRAPEZE – Lost Tapes, vol. 2 (review)

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Vol. 2 of the Lost Tapes from legendary British 70s hard / funk rock act TRAPEZE, curated, compiled by Tom.Galley, brother of guitarist Mel Galley (RIP), and packaged brilliantly by Mel’s son Marcus, with photos from Carl Dunn. Although TRAPEZE split in the early 80s (following Live In Texas), there was a reunion or 2, and judging by the amount of and quality of the songs on both releases, an abundance of leftover finished tracks from every period. There have been 2 singles released – the rocker “Fighting”, which actually came from the first PHENOMENA sessions (feat Don Airey on keys, Ted McKenna on drums), and “Homeland”, an absolute classic, which sounds like it was done in later years. The lyrics and video pay homage to where the band came from.

There is also alternate takes of a few well known Trapeze favorites, such as the title track to 1979’s Hold On album (sung by Peter Goalby), and one of the band’s best lived tracks – “Coast To Coast”. I kinda prefer this version of “Coast To Coast”, a little rougher, and less smooth compared to the original album version. Also alternate takes of “Loser”, and Trapeze funk- rock favorites”Way Back To The Bone”, and “Midnight Flyer”. Other highlights include “Must Be In Love” , from the Goalby era. This one’s a bit more late 70s Apr, with,a bit of a country feel. “Welcome To The Real World”, from the early 90s reunion, including Geoff Downes on keys, another excellent post-70s track. Also included is the last track guitarist Mel Galley ever did – “Live Fast Die Laughing”, another rocker, well fitting here. 14 tracks total, all worth checking out.

Lost Tapes – (both volumes), are highly recommended, not merely just for Trapeze completists, but for fans if classic British rock. Trapeze may not have released a ton of albums, but both these albums (on vinyl & CD via Metalville) add greatly to the band’s catalogue and legacy! Out now!

Trapeze – Lost Tapes Vol.2 CD Digipack

BONZO DOG BAND – ‘Still Barking’, 20 disc box set

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Madfish Music is delighted to announce the forthcoming release of “Still Barking” a highly anticipated CD/DVD box set of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. This deluxe compilation will be on sale from today for release on 13 December 2024.

This major retrospective box set has been in the making for seven years. Band members Roger Ruskin Spear, “Legs” Larry Smith, Rodney Slater, Vernon Dudley Bowhay Nowell, Sam Spoons and Neil Innes were involved in defining the original concept. Titling the set “Still Barking” was very much Neil’s idea. Sadly, Neil, Sam and Vernon passed away before the set’s completion, but their involvement has been immeasurable.

Initial work on the box set was halted by a court case which the Bonzos eventually won. Madfish Music overcame numerous hurdles to clearing material, finding masters and sourcing unreleased material. Surviving and former band members contributed reminiscences and pithy tales and fans were invited to put forward their own memories and memorabilia.

The result of everyone’s hard work and dedication has culminated in two editions of the box set (see Editors’ notes for list of contents). The Standard Edition will feature 17 CDs and three DVDs plus a hardback coffee table book featuring a new essay by esteemed music journalist Chris Welch, archive writings, memorabilia and photographs, and a detailed chronology (cornology) of the band. The Special Edition release will also include a shellac 78 rpm record, an etched, one sided 7” single featuring a previously unreleased version of “Boo!,” reproductions of early promotional posters and booklets, plus an exclusive signed print of the box set artwork by artist Dan Abbott.

Formed in the early 1960s by art students Vivian Stanshall and Rodney Slater, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band began as a jazz ensemble parodying the music of the 1920s and 30s. Already proving they were a creative force, their art school training further encouraged them to think outside the box – twist the norm and mix genres. Elements of slapstick comedy, music hall, Mariachi flavors, psychedelia and bawdy seaside humor all conspired and inspired the growing band to evolve into a pioneering force in rock and comedy. Their satirical songs, surreal humor, eccentric and eclectic performances quickly made them a favorite on the London underground scene and secured them a permanent residence in the counterculture prevalent at the time.

Their appearances on the TV show “Do Not Adjust Your Set” gained them national fame and featured many of the songs that have become lifelong favorites of fans and critics alike. “I’m the Urban Spaceman,” became the band’s most successful UK hit produced by Paul McCartney under the pseudonym Apollo C. Vermouth.

“We know Bonzo’s fans will be excited about this release,” a spokesperson for Madfish Music explains. “In addition to remasters of the band’s original albums, we have sourced rare and previously unreleased outtakes, BBC Sessions, short films, vintage footage, live recordings and films of concerts in Europe and USA. This was a band that would leave an indelible mark not just on their fans but the music and comedy world.

“‘Still Barking’ is the definitive 20-disc limited edition boxset, the ultimate tribute to a band that defined a genre. Dive into the eccentric world of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and experience their enduring legacy.”

BOXSET CONTENTS
17 CDs documenting a spectacularly entertaining career featuring:
• Stereo versions of all the band’s original albums, carefully remastered to capture their idiosyncratic charm
• Additional versions of “Gorilla” and “The Doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse” in their original mono mixes
• A newly compiled CD of all the band’s singles
• Two discs of demos, rehearsals, and outtakes
• A single disc of backing tracks
• Three discs of BBC Sessions that capture the band’s eccentric live energy
• Two live discs:
Studio Bellevue, Amsterdam. Recorded: November 1968. Transmission date: 3 January 1969
Fillmore East, NYC, 17 October 1969
• A CD featuring a live rehearsal for a show from London’s Marquee Club and additional material of band rehearsals from the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire.

Plus:
• Three DVDs of visual material, including the complete “Do Not Adjust Your Set” shows, “Colour Me Pop,” “Beat Club,” and more. Highlights include rare appearances, short films, and vintage footage from the height of their career.
• 148-page hardback coffee table book featuring an essay by Bonzos authority Chris Welch and an in-depth Day By Day Chronology/Cornology by noted author Andy Neill (The Who; Ready, Steady, Go!). Also includes tributes and remembrances from fans, friends and band members including Rodney Slater, Yvonne Innes, Roger Ruskin Spear, “Legs” Larry Smith, Pete Townshend & Stephen Fry, alongside images and photos from throughout the band’s career, and much more.

Note: the following content is only available in the Special Deluxe Edition:
• Seven reproduction band photo prints individually signed by Roger, Rodney, “Legs” Larry & Vernon
• 3 band art prints
• Reproduction of Imperial Records US promo poster
• 1967 Liberty Records press release

Release Date: 13 December 2024

To pre-order: https://bonzodog.lnk.to/Still_BarkingTW

New Tracks: Kings Of Mercia, Louisiana Child, Trapeze, Envy Of None, Goddo, Storace….

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Well, another list of new (or fairly new) tracks from recent weeks. Some cool Canadian rock, newer and old bands with some great new releases coming out.

Check out the songs, as well as links in video descriptions . If there’s anything you’d recommend (not here), drop it in the comments!

TRAPEZE – Homeland

The 2nd single from TRAPEZE’ Lost Tapes vol. 2 . Classic tune featuring Mel Galley and Glenn Hughes. Not sure when this one is from, but sounds very fresh and lively.

GODDO – Pretty Bad Boy

originally a hit for Canadian band GODDO in 1981. The band (along with guitarist Sean Kelly) have recorded a new version of the song for their new 50th anniversary compilation album Decades: The Best Of GODDO. http://www.rockpapermerch.com

KINGS OF MERCIA – Battle Scars

The title from KOM’s 2nd album . “That’s about post-war distress syndrome. It’s about a guy who comes back from fighting and can’t really deal with real life. He realizes that he can never be what he was before he went away and did this. But he really, really wants to, but he’s trying to get that across to everybody that loves him. But the problem isn’t him–it’s what he’s been through. I came up with the title ‘Battle Scars,’ and I think that suggested the subject matter.” (Steve Overland)

LABYRINTH – ‘Welcome Twilight’ is the first single from this Italian metal band’s upcoming album – In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye. Labyrinth features singer Roberto Tiranti of WONDERWORLD (and ex of Ken Hensley’s band Live Fire). Their new album is due out January 25, on Frontiers. Describing the single, the band declare:
“After the absurd circus brought on by COVID-19, not only have we not emerged better, but we now find ourselves in a truly complicated historical period. Now more than ever, si vis pacem, para bellum — if we want peace, we must prepare for war. Our freedom, entirely illusory, is subordinate to those who decide the balance of this weary planet.”


BURNING WITCHES – The Spell Of The Skull
Swiss female metal band BURNING WITCHES has a new 2 track single coming out (yes, on limited 12 inch vinyl, in red or gold colored, or CD), due out on December 10.

LOUISIANA CHILD – Cocaine Cowboys

Toronto’s LOUISIANA CHILD have just released their debut single. The band mixes up Southern rock, blues rock, country… Fairly Lynyrd Skynyrd influenced on this first track, Check it out.

STORACE – Screaming Demon

The first single from the upcoming album from STORACE (Marc STORACE of Krokus). A great heavy rocker, kinda like if Bon Scott era AC/ DC were a more metal sounding band.

ENVY OF NONE – Not Dead Yet

Brand new from ENVY OF NONE, the band featuring Alex Lifeson (RUSH) and Andy Curran (CONEY HATCH), plus singer Maiah Wynne. Very unlike what Lifeson or Curran have done in their known bands. Very cool, haunting track.

TEAZE – Reach Out (live)

Video from the TEAZE’s performance in Belgium. If you aren’t familiar with this Canadian band, you have missed out. Teaze has a brand-new live album – ‘Live In Liege‘ out now. This track, from that show was originally from the band’s 1979 album One Night Stands. Order Live In Liege at- http://www.rockpapermerch.com

SEVENTH CRYSTAL – Siren Song

Sweden’s SEVENTH CRYSTAL have released their 3rd album Entity. Full of heavy guitar driven rockers like “Siren Song” .

IMPELLITTERRI – Hell On Earth

The new single from IMPELLITTERRI’s new album War Machine, out now.

“I had this really fun addictive riff that just allowed everyone in the band to shine. It was amazing how powerful the song sounded when we first played it together…. The music really inspired an interesting lyric and amazing vocal performance from Rob Rock! – Chris Impellitterri.

GLORIA PERPETUA – Mothers Of Juruselem

This Brazilian band plays heavy power metal, influenced by the likes of Hellloween and Accept. A great single from off their new album The Darkside We Wanna Hide, which can be ordered at: https://shop.rockshots.eu/en/home/6898-gloria-perpetua-the-darkside-we-wanna-hide.html

WILDNESS – Crucified

New single from Swedish band’s upcoming album Avenger. Singer reminds me Jimi Jamison. Great 80s type hard-rocker.

THE WRING – An interview with Don Dewulf

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Canadian band THE WRING, is lead by guitarist & songwriter Don Dewolf. The Wring’s 4th album is titled Nemesis, and now available on CD, and in digital form. A progressive -metal type of sound, The Wring will appeal to fans of Rush, Queensryche, and Dream Theater. A few weeks back I spoke with Don about The Wring, the newest album , as well as his his other gig – RUST (a Rush tribute). Check out our conversation below, as well as the clips, and the links below!

So, to start off, is The WRING a band or is it more your own project?

It started, it’s always been my project, but it did start as a band. I’m from Sudbury. The music scene there is like cover bands and tribute bands. Original music, especially, in the prog rock kind of thing, it just doesn’t exist. But I did manage to round up some guys and we did the first record as a band, and we did some shows and all. It was super fun, but it’s hard to get paid and, guys kind of lose interest. So, they went their own way, but the process was fascinating to me. I wrote everything all the way along, so I thought, I’ll just keep going.

And then COVID came, and the world shut down. So, the bass player from the original band said – ‘listen, there’s guys out there at home and you never know unless you ask’. So, he connected me with Thomas Lang – a world-famous drummer… Like cover of Modern Drummer Magazine kind of guy! And I sent him my stuff and he goes, ‘Yeah, I’m in! I’ll do it for free….Well for an incredibly reasonable price. (lol) So that sort of set the ball rolling. And I’ve done three more albums kind of that way because I can’t get players, so I just, I find them.

So, there’s been three previous albums. What did you do before this? Did you have anything else going on before the WRING, any other original stuff?

No.

Or is it just the Rush thing?

Yeah, I do the Rush tribute just to stand on the stage. I’ve always loved Rush. So, it almost feels legit to me, even though it’s still a tribute thing.

But yeah, I can’t get anybody to do The Wring. So, I just do the Rush tribute. Before that it was cover bands and whatever I could find.You know, it’s a tough scene, not only in (as you said) down your way too, but in Canada in general, it’s just tough.

(Brief discussion on local cover band scene here, there and Nashville!

Are all these songs on the latest album written specifically for this project? I know you’ve written over the years, so is there stuff that’s been hanging around, or is it kind of, when you decide to do a new album, you’re writing as of then?

I would say for this album…this would be number four …if there was anything hanging around, it probably got used in some way. I would say, when I’m starting, and (I suppose) I’m kind of in that cycle right now, I’m starting from zero and building out maybe record number five. So, everything was unique and fresh for this record. There were a couple of riffs that I had, but they’ve been turned around so many times, and twisted up that you wouldn’t recognize the original one anyway.

Now the album’s coming out, or is out on CD, correct?

The last two records, plus this one, are being released by Wormhole Death Records out of Italy. It’s a distribution deal, so it’s not that fancy, but they put it out there. They have a unit in Japan, a unit in the U.S., and then, of course, they’re a European business unit. So they insist on CDs; they still think it’s a thing, so they make CDs. They should be out probably within the next couple of weeks. So, yeah, I like a physical copy. I don’t think I have enough uptake to do vinyl, but I’d love to do that. But it’s expensive, very expensive.

So, let’s talk about some of the songs. “The Nail”, that intro had a bit of a Maiden feel going in it for a bit there.

A little bit, yeah, for sure. They were an influence. Everybody’s an influence. I’m sure if you sat down and listened to, or you picked apart, you’d hear somebody, everything’s been done. (haha) I try to make things a little bit original as much as I can, but it’s hard.

It’s funny, when I first got to listen to the first song off the album that came out a few months ago, I immediately thought of the Rush sound, just in the guitar and the bass, like that kind of feel.

Definitely, yeah.

And then I looked you up on Facebook, and ‘this guy plays in a Rush cover band’!

(haha) Yeah, it’s an influence that won’t go away. They were huge to me, So it’s always there somewhere.

Yeah, and there’s a lot of, you’ve got a few instrumentals on here. Are you familiar with a lot of the modern prog stuff, like Dream Theater, that sort of stuff?

Most definitely! And actually, I’m in Toronto right now, I’m going to see Opeth tonight, ne of my favorite bands. So, not all, because some of it is too much. Dream Theater I’ve kept up with over the years. I think they’ve got a formula now, and it’s hard to distinguish one record from the next, but I still like to go see them.

I saw them on their last tour here, and he (James LaBrie) did a great job, I gotta say. He’s over 60 years old, and he’s trying to bang this stuff out. Images And Words was 1992, that’s a long time to be doing this.

The one I am most familiar with is Scenes From A Memory. After that, I don’t know… I like to hear songs; I like to the songs to have an ending…

And that’s kind of what I go for with The Wring. There’s stuff in there, there’s some weird times, there’s some weird shit, there’s some interesting parts (I like to think they’re interesting). They go by, and the songs are five minutes or less, and it’s not agony to get through them.

Yeah, can you tell me a bit about a few of the songs, lyrically and musically, like ‘The Nail’; obviously, ‘The Sword’ stands out, and the last one, ‘Nemesis’ (?)

Well, lyrically, like, I do all the music first, all the songs start with a riff. I write everything on guitar; I’ll come up with something that I like, and then I’ll set it aside, I’ll come back to it, make sure that it’s not too much of a rip off of something else, and if it is, it goes in the garbage, and if it’s something else, I might spin it around a little bit, try and make it interesting that I’ve not done before, And then, you know, once I have all the songs written, then I do the lyrics. And all of my lyrics come, kind of, I seem to, my muse is anger, so, you watch the news, and it’s easy to get angry, like, there’s so many, just horrible, horrible things going on in the world at any given moment, you just almost can’t even believe it. And that’s the theme; it wasn’t intended as a concept. But the theme of Nemesis, which is kind of an unstoppable enemy, it takes many forms, and we’re all fighting that in some way every day, whether it’s a bad breakup with your girlfriend, or Donald Trump, or the war in Ukraine, … it’s easy to find material to write about, and you can trace pretty much every song back to that theme. So I thought ‘what a kind of a cool kind of thing to tie it together’, lyrically. And then the writing is just riffs, and I try and structure things that are interesting. I demo everything myself, and then I send it to the guys, and let them do their thing, and both players in this record are just off the charts, they’re so good.

The guys you have on this album, Reggie and Kyle, have they been on the other albums as well?

Kyle was new for this one, I seem to change drummers every record. Reggie played bass on the last record on Spectra, and he’s such a good bass player, so I wanted him back for that. And then I sort of discovered that he’s also a singer, so he’s a great guy to work with. He’s malleable, if you hire a guy like Marco Minivan, who played drums on the last record, and of course, you’re not going to tell Marco what to do – you’re going to say ‘here are the songs, Marco, please play drums.’ And he’s going to say ‘sure’, and he’s going to hit it out of the park, but he’s not going to take suggestions, whereas Kyle did, and Reggie does. So this one… because these guys are excellent, but they’re not famous; when you’re dealing with famous guys, they’re just going to do a great job, but you’re not gonna have a lot of input in it, whereas with these guys, it felt more collaborative, So it was much more satisfying to me in that regard, that if I heard a lyric, or a melodic phrasing in the vocals that I didn’t like or whatever, I could say ‘Reggie, could you please – don’t do that, and he would’, And it was all good. So, I like that part of it, and they’re great, great players, and the performances were killer.

Have you played any of this stuff live at all, or do you foresee yourself doing any live shows?

You know, I keep hoping. The original Wring band did play live, and it was, it was so much fun. And, I layer so many guitars into it, and it’s like… (and I don’t want to compare myself), but Jimmy Page – all the Led Zeppelin records have, layers and layers and layers of guitar, but then live, you see him sort of aggregating those into one, because he’s not overdubbing anything on stage. And it was always fascinating to me how he would interpret his own songs to make them into one guitar part. And The Wring is kind of the same, there’s lots of stuff going over the guitar, it’s just me, so on stage it was it was great fun to do that very thing, so I keep hoping, and Reggie, Reggie was living in Vancouver when he did these records, but now he’s moved back to Montreal, which is, you know, six hours from me, not a plane ride, so, you know, and drummers are drummers, so, you know, I’m hoping, you know, now that he’s a little closer, we actually might be able to put something together and stand on a stage together and play some of these things.

Do you get much of a response from Europe and elsewhere?

Yeah It’s amazing because, with Spotify and Apple Music and all these services, like, they drill down, like, so far, right, like I could tell you a city where people are listening to this stuff, and it’s amazing, it’s like Helsinki, Finland, Stockholm, Sweden, London, England, you know, around London, a couple of different cities in Germany, and then throughout the United States, it’s pretty good, there’s pockets in the U.S. that are very supportive of this. There’s very little in Canada, it’s all Canada is, name a metal band called ‘Canada’. Ancients, I guess, I don’t really know anybody who’s doing too much, in the genre here.

Would you ever be, if the opportunity arose, be open to going to Europe and doing festival shows, that sort of thing?

I’d love to play live, for sure, it’s special to do that, especially with your own material, So, absolutely, yes!

Can you tell me a little bit on the cover design for the album, the artwork, do you get involved in that?

Well, it’s always funny, because obviously, I write all the words and the music, and I’ve got a vision in my head of what that looks like. So, I always sit down, and I go through graphics sites and find images, and this is what Nemesis looks like. And I’ve got a friend here in Toronto, actually, who’s a graphic designer, so what I do is I put a whole bunch of ideas together, and I send it over and say, ‘this is the concept, this is what I want to do, can you make it proper?’ And so, he did Spectra as well, and it was funny, the process for that, he went, ‘yeah, okay’. He takes my ideas, and he maps them all out, and does some mock-ups, and then at the very bottom of the page, I did a couple of my own too, so you can have a look at what my vision would be, and of course, he’s always right. So, the end version of both Spectra and now Nemesis was all him, and he came up with the jellyfish, and the red color, and I thought, ‘wow, it’s so simple, and so cool’. And thematically, it kind of speaks to Nemesis as well, so it’s cool.

You don’t have any new, any special guests on this album, correct? I know you had Marc Bonilla on the previous album.

Yeah, he was on Project Cipher, which was two albums ago. He did all the vocals then, but no, no famous people on this one, it’s just me, Reggie, and Kyle. Wow, that’s an interesting connection with him.

He (Marc) came from Thomas Lang, actually. It’s funny, because I got connected to Thomas, and he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it for sure.’ and I said, ‘Since you’re being so nice, do you know a vocalist?’ And he goes, ‘I do.’ So, he connected me with Marc, and Marc’s a super pro; he’s got Grammy awards, and I think he was out with Asia, maybe…But what a talented guy.

Like, wow! It was, when you’re dealing with a guy who’s that professional, it’s great fun. And to have him be interested in my stuff was pretty gratifying, and humbling, I guess.

I’m just going to ask you for a few short lists. A few albums, favorite albums growing up.

I would say, best album of all time, which would be my favorite album, would be Moving Pictures, Rush. Another very influential record on me was Megadeth’s Peace Sells. Ozzy – Diary of a Madman, Randy Rhoads, lhe changed the world. In my view, he made it possible for a lot of these things to happen And then I think the next step for me was Opeth, Blackwater Park was a huge influence in terms of how I approach, and what’s possible. Just an amazing record! And then, I don’t know… Voivod’s always been there, Nothingface, I still listen to Nothingface and think about what they were doing back then. So, yeah, that’s another huge one for me.

You said Moving Pictures, I’m kind of into that whole era from Hemispheres up to Signals. You play all the Rush stuff, can you give a few favorite Rush songs – playing-wise, or as a fan?

Yeah, I’m the same. Hemispheres is a close second in Rush for me; I absolutely love every inch of that record, right through, I went to Grace Under Pressure, I found Grace to be a very good record, like, guitar-wise, after that, Alex, he really stopped playing, he didn’t really do anything after that. So, playing live – really the whole Moving Pictures thing, because we do everything except “Witch Hunt”. “Limelight” is a fun song, with “Tom Sawyer”, it’s always amazing to play that; “YYZ”, of course. We do a little chunk of “Natural Science”, off Permanent Waves, we do a chunk of ” La Villa Strangiato”. I do “Broons Bane” on a nylon string. We don’t go past Grace Under Pressure, our set is almost two and a half hours, and it’s all Grace or older. So, it’s all fun stuff to play.

Do you guys ever play down this way, or is it all up in Northern Ontario, that way?

Oh, gosh, we’re trying to make some headway down there. I think it would actually serve better, because it’s interesting, there’s so many Rush Tribute bands out there, and the most famous ones are at least four members. They’ll always have…most often have a girl singer, and stuff like that, they have original albums and all that, I think, okay, that’s cool. And they do a good job, but they have a girl singer, like, the whole mystique of Rush is that three guys were able to pull that stuff off. So that’s our approach, and it’s hard – the guitar player has the easiest job, drums are obviously ridiculously difficult, and then trying to play the Geddy thing – sing, and we do everything legit, there’s no backing track, so we’re playing the, you know, the keyboards on the floor, the pedals, and then he’s got a full set of keyboards. It’s pretty authentic, it’s not perfect, but it’s certainly authentic, and it’s fun. So I think it would be something that we could catch on down there, Our first show was actually just in April past, so we’re hoping, in early 2025 to be doing some stuff down there, for sure.

One last thing, if you can give me a favorite underrated Canadian album, or a couple?

I mentioned Ancients earlier, and I don’t know if anybody knows who Ancients are, but they’re fantastic, and they just put a new record out, and, and their previous one Voice of the Void, is incredible! I would say it’s a combination of Opeth, Tool and Mastodon, it’s like – put all those three things together, there’s clean vocals, there’s growls, it’s amazing! I love those guys, so I would say that.

LINKS:

https://the wring.ca

https://rustband.ca/

https://www.facebook.com/thewringband/

https://m.facebook.com/rusttributetorush/

BTO, APRIL WINE, HEADPINS to tour Canada in spring

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Three big names in Canadian rock will tour coast to coast in the spring. BTO – featuring Randy Bachman headlines the Back In Overdrive tour, along with APRIL WINE and The HEADPINS.

Check out the dates below, and more recent clips…

MAGNUM to release final show ‘Live At KK’s Steel Mill’

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Super excited to see this news! A live album from MAGNUM’S final performance, before the passing of guitarist/songwriter TONY CLARKIN. Set list is below the press release, as well album artwork and ordering Link. There is a few clips from this show online (shared below. The DVD was included as a bonus disc to the band’s last album). A great looking set-list, largely earlier classics, with a few newer gems, should be a another great sounding release as with previous MAGNUM live albums!

British rock icons MAGNUM have announced the release of the band’s final live album with founder Tony Clarkin. Recorded December 10, 2022, ‘Live at KK’s Steel Mill‘ was the memorable night when they played the final show of their European tour at KK’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton and, as they had done on all previous nights, wowed their fans from the first to the last note.
The concert was recorded by state-of-the-art audio equipment, which later turned out to be a real blessing because it was – as we now know – the last official live recording starring Tony Clarkin. The guitarist and main songwriter died unexpectedly on January 7, 2024, just a few days before the release of MAGNUM’s studio album ‘Here Comes The Rain.’

The album presents MAGNUM as an enthusiastically celebrated act whose repertoire of hits, classics, and newer material could hardly be more varied. “It was the perfect evening,” recalls singer Bob Catley. “We finished our The Monster Roars tour in Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill was packed out and the promoter was a passionate MAGNUM fan. I couldn’t imagine a more worthy farewell to Tony than those recordings.”

HiDue to the huge demand and to mark the first anniversary of Clarkin’s passing, ‘Live At KK’s Steel Mill’ will be available via Steamhammer/SPV  starting January 10, 2025, for the first time on double CD, triple LP, and for digital download.

Pre-Order ‘Live at KK’s Steel Mill’ HER
Pic- Rob Barrow

‘Live at KK’s Steel Mill‘ Track List:

CD1

1. Days Of No Trust 

2. Lost On The Road To Eternity 

3. The Monster Roars

4. The Archway Of Tears 

5. Dance Of The Black Tattoo 

6. Where Are You Eden? 

7. The Flood 

8. The Day after The Night Before

CD2

1. Wild Swan

2. Les Morts Dansant

3. Rocking Chair

4. All England’s Eyes

5. Vigilante

6. Kingdom Of Madness

7. On A Storyteller’s Night

8. Sacred Hour

To pay tribute to their late bandleader, MAGNUM are set to play an exclusive series of ‘Tribute to Tony’ shows in the UK in January 2025.
As a special gesture, Clarkin’s daughter Dionne will showcase two of her father’s favorite instruments to the concerts – his red Telecaster and his white custom guitar, hoping that Clarkin will be watching from heaven.
“My father was an extremely modest and humble man who would probably be surprised at how much the large MAGNUM community continues to love him to this day. He always believed that few people would really care if one day he would no longer be with us. As it turns out, the exact opposite is the case: We all miss him, his huge artistic achievement, and his great empathy as a father, friend and musician!” 
This is why ‘Live at KK’s Steel Mill’ is undoubtedly one of the most emotional albums in MAGNUM’s longstanding career!
Pre-Order Exclusive CD/LP Bundles
21.01. UK-London – O2 Kentish Town Forum, 22.01. UK-Manchester – Academy, 1 24.01. UK-Glasgow – The Garage, 25.01. UK-Wolverhampton – KK’s Steel Mill, 26.01. UK-Wolverhampton – KK’s Steel Mill

http://www.magnumonline.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/magnumbandpage/

ANDY CURRAN – ‘Whiskey & The Devil, Interview

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Photo courtesy of Donald Gadziola

Canada’s ANDY CURRAN may have been best known for his days and 3 album run in the early 80s CONEY HATCH, but following the breakup of the band, Andy would go on to record a few albums throughout the 90s. Albums released under such names as SOHO 69, CARAMEL, DRUG PLAN and LEISURE WORLD came later in the decade, but in 1990 his first ‘solo’ project was released simply as ‘Andy Curran’. A few songs received massive radio play across the country, and he was nominated for 2 Juno Awards in 1991, winning ‘Most Promising Male Vocalist’. That album was re-issued last year (in expanded box set form) for it’s 30th anniversary as ‘Whiskey & The Devil 30th’, as well as a 2LP colored issue. The extra LP included previously unreleased studio and live recordings. In this interview Andy recalls a lot from making that album, its success, and what came after, as well as detailing the bonus material. We also discuss SOHO 69, reissues, updates on ENVY OF NONE (w/Alex Lifeson) and CONEY HATCH, including the band’s plan to play the entire ‘Friction’ album (which they did) on a recent trip to the UK & France. And lastly, Andy gives us some great Canadian listening recommendations to check out.

I want to talk about the Whiskey and the Devil album. I know the box that came out last year, and I picked up the vinyl when I saw you guys in Oakville. So, a couple things right off the bat, obviously, is the title and the new artwork, because that wasn’t the original of either.

That’s correct. You know, I could be guilty of confusing people, but what I thought I’d like to do, Kevin, is all these years later, because it was a celebration or an anniversary issue, was to change it up a little bit. So I changed the artwork. That artwork was originally done by a very good buddy of mine named Bill Baker, and Bill is a tattoo artist. He has a tattoo shop in Toronto called Pearl Harbor Gift Shop, and he did that artwork for me back in the day, and it was on a t-shirt, and I just really loved it and thought, ‘man, I’m going to use it this time around’. And if I was to be really honest, when the record was released originally back in 91, I had a disagreement. It wasn’t anything hostile, but I never wanted to call the record Andy Curran. I wanted to call it ‘Soho 69’, and I had a title for the record called ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’, and they were adamant that it had to be called Andy Curran. And I was just like – I’ve always been part of the band; I always felt weird about calling the record after my name and everything, so I got a chance to finally get my way, and I changed everything.

The original seems to be a safe title and a safe cover, which is just the photo.

Yeah, I know. It’s weird because I literally had discussions with the label back then. I don’t want to use my photo. I don’t want to use my name. And they were like ‘Yes, guess what? We’re the record company, and this is the way it’s going to go.’ So, I wanted to change it afterwards, Kevin, and I got my way. Working with the guys at SING has been really great, and they were totally cool to just give me full artistic control on it, and so that’s the story behind the artwork.

On the original album, you have that emblem on the back there of that kind of eagle thing. Did you ever use that for anything?

Yes, the eagle logo we used quite a bit, and again, it was sort of a play on this whole ‘no tattoos’ thing. So going to my friend Bill Baker, he did the illustration for the eagle with the banner, and that was on our merch back then. I think we even had a backdrop with the eagle in the background. So, yeah, so we used that quite a bit back in the day.

You had quite a bit of success with this album. You had the Juno and everything, and you had like, the first three songs, I think, were all radio hits and singles!?

Yeah, that was a nice run for me. I mean, those songs, like “License To Love”, “No Tattoos”, and “Let Go” – they were all top ten songs at Rock Radio in Canada, and they were getting a load of airplay on MuchMusic with “No Tattoos” and “License To Love”. And I think that really propped up the visibility of the release of the project and helped me get a couple Juno nominations. The record was also nominated for, I think, Best Hard Rock Album of The Year, and I lost to some band called Rush or something. Yeah, that’s alright, I guess.

Did you tour a lot with this album?

We did. We were out on the road, Kev, for – when all things were said and done, we were out for approximately 18 months that year. The touring cycle was really, really quite long. Lots of solo dates, if I recall. Now you’re really stretching my memory here. We went out on the road with Glass Tiger and Haywire was one tour. We did a bunch of shows with my buddy Kim Mitchell. We did a bunch of shows with Rick Emmett after Rick had left Triumph and was out playing solo shows. And, I think probably the highlight for me was doing some dates with Rush, opening up for them on the Roll The Bones tour.

So, again, having the visibility of the Juno awards and all that airplay, it just fueled the touring cycle. So that might have been. It wasn’t a steady 18 months, but that’s how long we were out for on and off. Yeah.

You have live stuff on this new reissue. Do you have a full show of that or did you just kind of handpick some of the songs?

Well, there was a couple of live shows floating around that various people had recorded. And, with the live stuff that made the Whiskey And The Devil anniversary, I worked very closely with my buddy, and lead singer of Harem Scarem, Harry Hess. And Harry is a renowned mastering engineer and he and I were talking, and he said ‘man, your live band was so good back then. It’s too bad you don’t have any recordings’. And I said, I do, but they’re all on cassettes. And he said ‘well, I’ve done some pretty cool stuff with audio from cassettes. Why don’t you give it to me, and I’ll see if we can rescue it from the dead’. So, Harry’s got some really great technology, that works with basically upgrading audio from that format. So believe it or not, that was taken from a live recording that was handed to me on a cassette and Harry did some wonderful stuff with it. But, to answer your question, yeah, I cherry picked it because there were some songs that just didn’t really sound any good quality wise. So, we sort of focused on the ones that we thought sounded great.

I see you did a couple of covers. You didn’t just really stick to your own stuff there.

We had so much fun doing covers, man. Over the years, there was something about wanting to put my stamp on a few different songs that I really, really loved, you know? So, I’ve been a huge fan of the band WAR for a very, very long time. And I think I gravitate a lot to some of that old *funk just because of the baselines on it. But those two songs “Cisco Kid” and “Low Rider”, we always had a lot of fun with.

But we used to do a version of “Highway Star”. I wish I had a version of that Deep Purple one that we did. We did the Beatles “She’s So Heavy”. We used to do “Schools Out”. And I think we even did a version of Stan Ridgway’s “Mexican Radio”. I mean, these are songs that I grew up with and people are like ‘what are you doing? A hard rock version of “Mexican Radio”!?’ And I was ‘I love those songs’. But those two songs by WAR have just been old favorites of mine and I wanted to put them on there just to let people hear what we did, and best with those cover versions.

I like things that are different, and they sound different. They’re kind of out of their genre, you know!? And then you have the two songs that weren’t on the album that!?

As a lot of artists do, you go into the recording sessions with some extra material, just in case some of the songs don’t really pan out or, you never know how they’re going to go regardless of getting bed tracks done. You never know if they’re actually going to sound great or not sound great. So, “One Woman Man” and “Walk The Other Way” were recorded at the same time as I recorded all of the other songs, and I kind of had forgotten about them, to be honest with you. It was just such a distant memory that we had gone in and recorded those songs. And when Tom Berry from Alert Records gave me access to all of the original tapes, multi-track tapes, I was surprised to see two extra songs. I opened them up and I was like ‘Oh my God. I remember these two songs!’ The story behind them. If I recall is you’re always challenged with the amount of music that you can put on a side of vinyl and vinyl was still around. And so, we figured out that there was no way to get those two songs on vinyl. And if I recall, there was some business stuff going on about lawyers going back and forth about ‘Hey, you know, we’re, we’re only going to pay Andy up to 10 songs and we’re not going to put up 12 songs’. So, they just for no bad reason, just got shuffled off to the side. I just thought it would be cool to resurrect those ones. And I worked with my buddy, Vic Florencia, who is also a Juno award winner. And we thought ‘well why don’t we just those songs were finished. I was surprised that I had done everything on it. There was no extra overdubs required. They were finished and, but just never brought to life. So, it was a pretty easy thing just to get those tracks and remix them and kind of get them pulled out of the vault for people to hear. Because we used to play one of them live – “Walk The Other Way” – we played live for a long time.

There was no issue of what tracks you were going to put aside; was it was an easy choice, the first 10?

It was. I think when everybody sort of threw that through the list of titles into a hat and we picked them all, everybody was fine to leave those ones off and, full transparency with “One Woman Man”, that has a bit of a Southern rock-blues vibe to it. (And) we thought, we thought ‘does this even fit?’ And I’m a huge Lynyrd Skynyrd fan, and I just thought, ‘okay, well, guilty as charged’. That was me trying to add a little bit of Southern rock into the mix. Did it work? Did it fit? Maybe not. But all these years later, I really don’t care. I just was like, let’s put these in.

You also had a new single out “Looking For Love”, that came out a couple of months ago. And that’s a new recording!?

That is a brand-new recording. I’ll tell you how that came to fruition. *When I was talking to Geoff Osler, he is the CEO of SING. And he’s the guy that basically championed all of this and said ‘go ahead, Andy,.. I’m happy to work on this with you’. And he said, ‘but it’s really too bad you don’t have a new song’. And I said ‘that’s a stretch, man. I’d have to really put the band back together and go and write some stuff.’ I probably could get in touch with Glen and Simon, the original players. But I said, ‘what I do have is a demo of this song called “Looking For Love”. And we actually never got around to recording it’. And the premise of the song itself is based on a personal ad page in the back where people were. It’s almost like a version of a dating app. Now dating apps are so popular that the song topic might actually be relevant, even more so now with people on Tinder and all these different apps where they’re swiping to find mates. So, he said ‘well, we’ll go ahead and do it, pull it out and record it with the band’. So that song was originally written for my solo record. But I think one of the reasons we didn’t do it, it kind of starts off with bass, drums, guitar, almost a bit like “No Tattoos”. We thought ‘okay, we have these, but we can’t put both of them on the record. They are similar sounding’. So, we ended up shelving “Looking For Love”. And many years later, got back in the studio with Glen Milchem on drums and Simon Brierley, who both who played on the original record. And then I’ve obviously got a new friendship with Sean Kelly, who plays in Coney Hatch. I asked Sean Kelly to come in and do it. And all these years later, we resurrected “Looking For Love”.

Is ‘Whiskey And The Devil’ on CD as well?

We did not make this record available on CD. There’s been some discussion about doing that. I forgot if people still like to listen to CDs. I’ve got a huge collection. I’ve got a CD player in my studio. But a few people have been vocal about it. I don’t know. You’d have to tell me whether you think I should reissue it on CD as well.

I found over the last year, I’ve been buying more CDs, just because the way the price of vinyl has gone up. Plus, I play CDs in my car.

Yeah, well, it’s interesting that you mentioned it, because my friend Harry Hess, told me a lot of his fans still buy CDs. So maybe I got to put that on the to-do list and get a CD version of it.

With the success of that album when it came out, you then went with the band name SOHO 69 for the next album. Was there any pressure to follow up?

I don’t think there was any pressure, but it was a really, really odd chapter. Because you think about, I look back on it now, and it’s really just indicative of the music industry and life as a musician – just when you think things are going great, or you think you got the world by the short and curlies, the bottom drops out on it, right? So, when I was at the Juno Awards, and had won that Juno that night, I spoke to the record company, and they said, ‘By the way, we have to tell you congratulations, but we’re actually not going to be a full-fledged label anymore. So …you don’t have a record deal anymore.’ And I’m like ‘in what world does this happen?’ And you’re arguably celebrating something very successful, only to find out that you don’t have a record deal anymore.

I immediately had to scramble to just even find a home for the ‘Scatterbrain’ record, which I had already started working on. And there was all of this groundwork and all of this, great airplay that happens. So it did feel like there was momentum on this thing, and that I had to follow up on it really quickly. But because I didn’t have a record deal, it took some time. By the time ‘Kiss My Boots’ came out, off the SOHO 69 record, I had lost some *serious momentum on there, just trying to put everything together. And that deal with Hypnotic Records did not go well, like the honeymoon was over.

And when we released the record, we did very little touring on it. So, I look back on that chapter and thought, well, that was a tough punch in the chin, because everything went from super high to super low. And, after Scatterbrain, I sort of took this break to start working on the Caramel record.

*So, really a wheel fell off immediately after the Junos. And it really affected the lack of progress on it, to the point now where even if I was to go out and do some dates on this, and support this record, I wonder how many people would even remember ‘Licensed To Love’ or ‘No Tattoos’!? But it was a really tough chapter. It was mixed with highs and lows.

Yeah, I had Scatterbrain in the car this morning. The first like the lead off song starts and I was listening to this new Trapeze release the other day. It’s kind of got that same funky kind of heavy vibe to it. I thought the singles were great. So my next question is, would you ever like, between these albums and some of the other stuff you did in the 90s, would you ever contemplate taking a solo band or SOHO 69 on the road now and do a few shows?

Well, I have to tell you that my beautiful wife Monica is one of my best supporters. And she keeps saying to me ‘Andy how come you’re not going out and doing any shows with your No Tattoos band? And how come you’re not playing any Caramel or how come you’re not playing Drug Plan or Leisure World?’ So, I honestly have been talking to Sean and Glen Milchem about maybe doing some shows. Simon is a world-class pyro tech engineer that travels with all of these amazing bands and does pyro. So, his schedule probably wouldn’t permit Simon coming out, but I’ve entertained it.

But at the moment, I’ve been kind of focused on finishing off the year with Coney Hatch and the dates that we have in Europe and then also working on Envy of None. So there’s only enough time in the day. I gotta figure out how I can pull this off, you.

(talk of seeing Coney Hatch on Helloween 1994 at LuLus, which is now on YouTube)

I took my CDs with me that night and you signed mine. And so, I’ve got my Scatterbrain here and you wrote in it ‘if you’re not the lead dog, the view is always the same’.

Well, and listen, that’s a little bit of a play on the words. Like I had this artwork done for the record and it was ‘every dog has its day’. And there’s a really cool Toronto graphic artist by the name of Runt, and he did all the artwork at Lee’s Palace on the outside of the building. I got him to do this almost like an assembly line conveyor belt of dogs,. And they were all behind each other. And it just occurred to me that if you’re not the lead dog, you’re always looking up somebody’s ass, right!? So, you better get yourself in the first place. Yeah. I still want to use that artwork one day. And there is a song that I wrote called ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’ that was finished, and I might try to release that one too.

Who did the artwork for Solo69?

The Soho69, the Scatterbrain was done by my brother, Mike, and that was a bit of a play on an exploding brain and particles. We used to love Monty Python and some of their artwork was just like very, almost childlike where they would take things and cut it up. But the Scatterbrain record was also when the grunge thing started to happen. We thought we’d do a little joke and have everything in the tartan plaid grunge stuff. And by the time that record came out, when Nirvana came on the scene, anything remotely connected to hard rock or long hair was dead in the water. I remember hearing that track in Montreal going ‘this is amazing. My career might be over.’

It was really weird, because there’s lots of kinds of what I would call discrimination in the music industry. And there’s certainly age discrimination in North America that doesn’t exist in Europe. If you go to Europe, you could still see Status Quo playing or you could still see Rose Tattoo or Sweet or all these bands and nobody cares that these guys are in their 70s and they still go out. And then Coney Hatch falls into that category too. When we go over there, we have loyal fans that love us, and they still continue to see us. Not that we don’t in Canada, but in Canada, in North America, if you’re not young and if you’re not 20 years old or the next best thing, you easily get shuffled off into the side. And people forget about you. But in terms of styles changing, we can look over time, whether it was when our parents’ parents were listening to classical music and then Buddy Holly came on the scene and The Beatles that had just obliterated all of that kind of stuff. And then you think about disco and all of that stuff. It’s one of those things that changes all the time. And grunge really, really changed things. And it was a tough go for all of us at that point.

SOHO 69 got reissued back in 2004. Would you ever consider any kind of limited run reissue, including vinyl with it?

It’s interesting that you said that, because I’ve had a few people talking about trying to put that out on vinyl, because it was never out on vinyl before. But it’s always interesting when you get in touch with the old record company and ask them if they’re interested in doing it. But I remain friendly with them. But that would be fun; I’d like to see that on vinyl. I’d like to see the Caramel record on vinyl. I’d like to see the Leisure World record on vinyl. Those are things that, like the Leisure World and Caramel, I can control those. So I can get them out. And I’ve been thinking about doing that for quite some time now.

Now I’m assuming there wasn’t a lot of leftovers from that album?

There was a track that I had mentioned to you earlier on called ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’. I would probably add that to it and see what else is kicking around. I’ve got a lot of old demos that maybe I need to just get my buddy Harry Hess to resurrect them from the dead.

You’re playing the Friction album (with Coney Hatch) fully.

Yes, we are going to Manchester and to France, and our goal is on both of those nights to play ‘Friction’ in it’s entirety. We did, at the El Macombo, we played the first record for the 40th anniversary of that album. And then when we were in Oakville, we did the ‘Out of Hand’ record. We had a lot of fun doing that, just revisiting the old songs. So we haven’t played some of those, a few of them, we’ve never even played them. I don’t think we played ‘Burning’ Love’ – ever.! ‘Coming to Get You’ and ‘Champion’ haven’t been in our setlist in a long time, and ‘Stateline’. So, we’re going to dust them off, and do the entire record.

I did like the way they (Friction tracks) turned out on the Live in Germany album. I thought it was kind of minus the keyboards and it made it a little bit heavier than that.

Well, we’re thinking about recording one of those nights and maybe, you know, jokingly said, what about ‘Friction in France’? And we quietly went and recorded a couple of new tracks this year in Hamilton. At the beginning of the year, after we did the Oakville show. We kept Dave Ketchum in town and convinced Dave to go in the studio and hang out with us a little bit longer. So, our goal would be maybe to finish off those two songs, kind of like what we did with ‘Postcard’, where we had ‘It’s About a Girl’ and ‘Heaven’s on the Other Side’. Do the same thing and feed a couple of new tracks now that Sean Kelly is officially a Coney Hatch member. He’s been in our band for 10 years now, so we made it official with him the other day. We just thought it was time to let the new guy in on some stuff, so he’s been co-writing with me, and it’s been a lot of fun.

Do you foresee yourself doing just singles or do you foresee yourself ever doing a full album again?

I think the goal is to see what we come back from Europe with. If we’ve got some good recordings of those two shows, we might take a page out of the ‘Postcard from Germany’ and maybe do another live Friction record with some extra tracks on it. So, the goal would be to put out a full record.

I didn’t want to ask, but I wondered, because I was at those previous two shows, if anybody was actually recording them for future saving.

No, we didn’t record the Oakville show. It was a good night and I think the previous show at the El Macombo, we did record that. We just haven’t gotten around to listening to it just because we’re kind of focused on the Friction stuff, you know?

Did any of the songs that originated from you on that album (Friction) ever have a vocal put down by you?

That’s a well-documented difficult chapter for Coney Hatch with Friction, with the changing of drummers and me sort of stepping aside in the vocal department, but you know, ‘Coming To Get You’ and ‘Burning Love’, those two songs in particular were originally written by me and were supposed to be vocals by me. It’s funny you said that. I don’t know if we have old demo versions of those kicking around with me singing on them, but I think it would be so early that they might just be really bad rehearsal recordings of them. Carl’s a bit of a pack master, so next time you talk to Carl, ask him if he’s got a version of it shoved away in a closet somewhere, because he’s constantly surprising me with demos. He sent me some demos the other day, and there was a song that we had, I think it was called ‘Don’t I Know You’, and it was just dreadful. I said, ‘we’ve got to make sure that the world never hears this song’. He was laughing his head off! There were a couple others that didn’t make it to the A-list, so hopefully Carl doesn’t sneak them out and put them up online, because some of them I’d be pretty embarrassed for the general public to hear. it wasn’t our finest hour. (laughs)

Photos: Donald Gadziola

What else do you have on the go? Is there a second Envy of None album on the go?

Yes, We’ve been working really hard for the good part of this year on the second Envy of None record, and we had so much fun recording that first record that we just thought, why not? Let’s just continue. If all the stars align, there will be a new Envy of None record coming out sometime next year. But we’ve been chipping away at the stone on that one for quite some time and making some good progress.

Can you give me any underrated Canadian albums? Things that you would recommend to somebody that isn’t too familiar with Canadian rock.

I was a big fan of Queen City Kids back in the day from Winnipeg. They were a really cool band, and I don’t know if a lot of people know them. Obviously out West they know those guys. I thought Queen City Kids were a very, very cool band. There’s a very good friend of mine who’s a super talented graphic artist named Paulo Rizzo, and Paulo has a band called ‘Puddy’. Paulo has released some stuff recently that I think is absolutely crushing. That kid is super talented, so if you’re into really grungy mayhem rock, Puddy’s a good one. Obviously, my friends in Sven Gali, I really enjoyed working with them on their new record. There was this band that came out, and they kind of just came and went – ‘Priestess’! They were from Montreal, and they had some Queens of the Stone Age isms. Their first record (ed- ‘Hello Master’) was released back in 2005. What a great band! I would encourage anybody who hasn’t heard that record to really give it a listen.

And although they’re doing mostly covers, I really think my buddies in ‘Toque’ are doing a great job out there. They’re all super talented guys. I went to the induction of the Songwriters Hall of Fame on the weekend, and Sam Roberts got up. I just thought that guy’s so underrated. He’s got so many great songs. I think Sam Roberts is so great, the early Sam Roberts especially. There is a band on Arts & Crafts (Canadian label), I’m going to give you one more…This isn’t really a heavy rock band, but I’m going to tell you they’re definitely one of my favorites. I’m going to see if I can find this for you on there. I don’t think they’re together anymore, but that shouldn’t stop people from trying to go out and find it Arts and Crafts have a lot of pretty hipster bands. It’s a home of Feist. and Hayden is on that label too. I might have to text it to you because I played the crap out of this band. They’re called The Stills. There’s an incredible song called ‘I’m With You’ that I think is really good.

(And) Let’s not forget my buddy in Harem Scarem, Mr. Harry Hess. I’ve got to give him a shout out. My buds in Teenage Head are still kicking. I think that’s such a cool band. As far as I’m concerned, they’re the Ramones of Canada. If you want to go back and get an early kick in the teeth with some great Canadian punk rock, you’ve got to listen to Teenage Head!

So I gave you a couple of well-known ones and a couple of obscure ones, but yeah, especially like Priestess. The Stills did really well at Radio. Speaking of The Stills, there’s another band called The Standstills, which is a two-man band. One man, one woman. I’ve met them through the Tea Party guys. They’re another great band. I think they’re based out near St. Catharines.

Well, I know she’s unfortunately passed away, but Care Failure and Die Mannequin. I thought Care Failure was destined to be a huge star. Unfortunately, she passed away. But if anybody has a chance to check out Die Mannequin, it doesn’t get any more legit than that.

LINKS:

https://www.andycurranmusic.com

https://linktr.ee/andycurranofficial

*live photos of Andy courtesy of Donald Gadziola