Foreigner was a band I liked before I started buying albums! Those first 4 albums were huge, and all over the radio. But when Agent Provocateur came out after the massive success of Foreigner 4 I lost interest, the singles were a turn off for me.
Foreigner peaked commercially at 4, but those first 3 albums were an amazing set, with lots of great rock songs, 4 was a pop album, albeit a very good and incredibly successful one. A shame it lead to more pop albums, much less memorable.
According to Lou Gramm’s book “Juke Box Hero” [2013], things were no longer equal and as they were years in the beginning between Mick Jones and himself, with Mick taking charge of the band’s direction. Gramm needed to get out and doing something on his own. Gramm teamed up with former Black Sheep bandmate Bruce Turgon [then of Warrior], who would co-write as well as play bass, rhythm guitar, and keyboards. Also brought in was Nils Lofgren on lead guitar, and British producer Pat Moran as co-producer and engineer. The album Ready Or Not, released in early ’87 was a big success, boasting 2 hits, most notably the Top 10 “Midnight Blue”, which along with the title track got lots of radio play. Overall it was a solid album with other upbeat tracks like ” Heartache”, “Arrow Thru Your Heart”, and “Time”.
Foreigner would release one more album late in ’87, and I thought Inside Information was a slight improvement over it’s predecessor but the band had clearly become more pop-hit driven with Gramm seeing little reason to contribute to the creative process, and the band content to coast along, as Jones had also become a producer of other bands in the ’80s; this allowed plenty of time for Gramm to start on a 2nd album.
Ready Or Not was followed up in 1989 with Long Hard Look. The title was likely what Gramm was thinking about his future at that point!? Austrian born producer Peter Wolf [also known for playing on a few Frank Zappa albums] handled production, as well as co-wrote some tracks and played keyboards on a few. This album featured more players, such as guitarists Vivian Campbell, Dann Huff, Peter Maunu, and Nils Lofgren. Bruce Turgon returned to co-write some songs, and play bass on most of the album, and [brother] Ben Gramm played the drums. Long Hard Look featured the top 10 hit “Just Between You And Me” [co-written with Holly Knight, who co-wrote a pile of hits in the ’80s for the likes of Pat Benatar, Tina Turner, Heart, and Kiss, among others]. It also featured the top 40 hit “True Blue Love”, punchy opener “Angel With A Dirty Face”, as well as a cover of Small Faces’ “Tin Soldier”. Though not as big as Ready Or Not, Long Hard Look still charted and was a fine follow up. Following this Gramm would team up with Vivian Campbell to form Shadow King.
Gramm’s ’80s solo albums, along with a 3rd disc of single edits, remixes, an interview, and the track “Lost In The Shadows” [from The Lost Boys soundtrack], are all compiled in a box due out next month. These are a must-have for any Foreigner fan. Interesting to note that without Lou, Foreigner struggled on with one more album, and Mick Jones’ 1989 solo album bombed, so the band really needed him more than he needed them; after all – Gramm was one of the most recognizable and premier rock singers of that late ’70s-early ’80s hard-rock / AOR era [along with Steve Perry and perhaps the late Brad Delp]. Following major health issues Lou Gramm would return to recording and performing , including another stint in Foreigner, as well as his excellent 2009 album The Lou Gramm Band. The package come with a 16 page books with quotes and liner notes from Malcolm Dome.
Lace and Whiskey would be Alice’s third solo album, following the highly successful Welcome To My Nightmare and it’s sequel Goes To Hell. The latter being a weaker follow up of the Coop doing few rock tunes, along with ballads, disco tunes, and show tunes. Lace and Whiskey took a new direction, away from the whole Nightmare theme, and introduced a new character in Inspector Maurice Escargot. The album’s cover and stage show being based loosely around a 1940’s type detective, with cover portraying a book, with made-up reviews of the fictional book.
Song-wise, Lace and Whiskey is stronger than it’s predecessor with Side 1 boasting more rockers such as the lead off track [with a simple, yet classic riff] – “It’s Hot Tonight” [which was brought back in to Alice’s live show as the opener in 2008], the title track [which featured in the live show with big dancing chickens carrying machine guns!], “Road Rats” [also featured in the movie Roadie] and the slightly country-styled comedic “Damned If I Do” [featuring the legendary Al Kooper on piano] . Lace & Whiskey also featured 2 ballads, most notably “You And Me” – which would be Alice’s highest charting ballad single at #9 [he had a string of 4 of them from ’75 to ‘78] and an ode to his past hit ballads – “I Never Wrote Those Songs”.
Side 2 of the album would feature more of the ‘show’ type tunes, yet still with a bit of rock to them in “King Of The Silver Screen” [which the tour was named after at the time], a cover of Chas Underwood’s 1956 hit “Ubangi Stomp” and the closing epic “My God”. The other track being the somewhat cheesy ‘70s pop of “(No More) Love At Your Convenience” [also a single]. *Interesting to note that Cooper also shot promotional videos [films] for the singles [You And Me, (No More) Love At Your Convenience] – again, well ahead of the MTV era.
Lace & Whiskey still featured the same guitar duo as it’s 2 predecessor’s – Dick Wagner [also co-writer of the material] and Steve Hunter, as well as keyboardist Jozef Chirowski, and a long list of other musicians, backing singers and choir. It would also be the last Cooper album produced [and co-wrote] by Canadian Bob Ezrin for a number of years [1978’s From The Inside would see Canadian David Foster produce].
* Sidenote: There’s also video footage of this era titled “Alice Cooper And Friends” [from Anaheim, California, June ‘77]. An interesting piece to watch, as Alice dressed as Inspector Maurice Escargot dances around stage with giant chickens. It also clearly shows Alice at the height of his drinking problems, as he would admit himself to hospital soon after this tour. The end of the year would also see the release of Alice’s first live album “The Alice Cooper Show”. 1977 also saw Alice on numerous TV shows, his first stint in re-hab, as well as the one and only release from Billion Dollar Babies – the band featuring his former band-mates Neal Smith, Dennis Dunaway and Michael Bruce.
Alice Cooper began the ’80s with a new look and new sound, trying to catch up and with new wave of bands like The Cars, who used synths and had a fresh modern sound. He would release 4 albums during this period until 1983 when he finally, out of a record contract and album sales and exposure at an all-time low, took leave from the music business for a few years. He had gotten back in to substance abuse over this period (see the documentary Super Duper Alice Cooper), and would later recall that he had no recollections of making the latter 3 albums he did during this era – dubbed his “Blackout” era. He’d cease touring after the 2nd album, and there’d be little promo for the last 2 albums. He did however produce 1 top 40 single, and a number of other fan favorites and underrated gems during this phase. When I became an Alice fan, around ’83-’84, Alice was no where to be found in the press – there was nothing in the old Circus and Hit Parader magazines I bought back then, as Alice had disappeared from the pubic eye. Strangely I purchased these LPs in the mid- ’80s at local convenience stores; in the times when the Avondale had a small rack of deleted albums for 99 cents or $1.99 – a good deal back then, considering what some of these go for now. Of the 4 I immediately loved Dada – my favorite from this era, but never really got into Special Forces, never liked the sound of the album, tho’ it had it’s moments. That was the last album Alice toured on back then, and I can recall seeing a few of these shirts in High School.
With 1980’s Flush The Fashion, Alice’s band consisted of Davey Johnstone [Elton John, who’d joined Alice for the previous tour] on guitar, and Canadian keyboard player Fred Mandel [who joined Alice’s band in ’77 and was also on the the Alice Cooper Show album] . These 2 co-wrote most of the album’s original material with Alice, while the rhythm section included drummer Dennis Conway and bass player John LoPresti [who’s previous credits included a few Melissa Manchester albums, and the short-lived band ‘China’ with Davey Johnstone]. Producer Roy Thomas Baker was hired to help bring Alice’s sound in to the ‘new-wave’ age, as Baker had been known for his work with Queen and The Cars, and also produced Foreigner, Journey, and BeBop Deluxe. Alice would also change his image from the old scary ghoulish Alice to a modernized punk-like Alice with new make-up and his hair tied-up.
Flush The Fashion would include 3 outside tracks, 2 of which were singles – “Talk Talk”, a cover of the 1966 hit by The Music Machine [I’ve seen recently that the original AC band demoed this early on as well], “Clones” – penned by American David Carron [ex Gulliver], as well as “Leather Boots” [penned by American musician Geoff Westen]. “Clones” would be a top 40 hit, the only hit from this period, as he wouldn’t have another charting single til 1989. The song also drew comparisons to the Gary Numan hit “Cars”, which was on the charts at the same time. The album itself, clocked in at under 30 minutes [pretty damn short], with most of the songs being short punchy tunes dealing with modern issues and problems, featuring plenty of synths and a new attitude. “Pain” was used in the movie Roadie – which Alice starred in, along with Meat Loaf, with Alice and band performing it [still wearing his black eye make up]. Other favorites on Flush The Fashion included “Nuclear Infected” and “Model Citizen”, a short but energetic album. On the ensuing tour Alice was unable to perform at the CNE in Toronto [later citing an asthma attack], and a riot broke out when the news was delivered from the stage, resulting in injuries, arrests, and over 100 grand in damages.
For the next album, Alice kept up the new image, and with his health at the time, making it all seem scarier [indeed he looked bad on TV appearances at the time]. Special Forces featured a new band, and was produced by Richard Podolor who had produced bands such as Iron Butterfly, Blues Image, Three Dog Night, and Steppenwolf, and the new recording band featured Duane Hitching on keyboards and as co-writer of most of the songs [ex Steel, New Cactus Band, Thee Image] , Mike Pinera on guitar [ex Blues Image, Thee Image, New Cactus Band], Eric Scott on bass [ex Flo & Eddie, PM], drummer Craig Krampf [ex Flo & Eddie, and numerous album credits including Paul Stanley, Kim Carnes, Randy Meisner], and guitarist Danny Johnson [ex Derringer, Axis] . Although there was a few singles from this album, it flopped badly, and would be the last album that Alice promoted via tour til 1986. It does have a few good songs such as the opener “Who Do You Think We Are”, “You’re A Movie”, and “You Look Good In Rags”, but there’s a few odd choices such as the remake of AC’s “Generation Landslide”, and a cover of the 1966 hit by Los Angeles band Love [which was issued as a single from Special Forces]. The first single was the synth pop “You Want It You Got It”. The back cover also lists the track “Look At You Over There [Ripping The Sawdust From My TeddyBear” – which was left off of the album and later turned up [as a demo] on the box set The Life And Crimes Of… For me this record ranks at the bottom of Alice’s solo albums. One great thing from this era is the 2020 Record Store Day release of Live At The Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, recorded in February of ’82. Following this there was also the 12″ EP titled For Britain Only, which included the song “For Britain Only”, plus 3 live tracks from the Glasgow show, and….released in the UK only!
For 1982’s Zipper Catches Skin, Alice retained Hitchings, Scott, Pinera, and Krampf, and also playing on it were drummer Jan Uvena, guitarist John Nitzinger [Bloodrock, Nitzinger], guitarist Billy Steele [ex Jambalaya, w/ Erik Scott, and sessions]. Dick Wagner also returned to contribute to the songwriting on a few tracks, and play, but would leave before the album was done due to the sessions being a “drug induced nightmare”. Alice & Erik Scott would co-produce the album, with everyone [save for the drummers] contributing to the songwriting. Alice was even credited on keyboards as well! An odd album cover with the lyrics being printed continually across the front and a bloodstain highlighting the title amongst the words. Despite this being recorded at a dark time in Alice’s coke days, and it receiving almost 0 promotion [well there is that 1 commercial you can find on Youtube!] and not evening breaking the Billboard Top 200 Album chart, I thought this album was an improvement, and should’ve done better. Lots of humor here and some cool hooks and memorable songs – “Zorro’s Ascent”, “Make That Money [Scrooge’s Song]”, and the hilarious “I’m Alive [That Was The Day My Dead Pet Returned To Save My Life]”, as well as the play on ’80s slasher films “Tag, You’re It”. A different take] of “I Am The Future” [written by Gary Osborne and was included in the movie “Class Of 1984” and Lalo Schifrin, best known for his TV themes] was also issued as a single, as was “I Like Girls”, which featured guest Patty Donahue [vocals, from The Waitresses] – neither single did anything. But regardless, I like this album, a fun listen!
Returning to record in Toronto [nearby] for the Dada album, released in September of 1983, Alice was reunited with Bob Ezrin and Dick Wagner, and there’s a very short list of personnel with Ezrin, Wagner and Canadian musician Graham Shaw handling most of the playing [plus a few guests on a few tracks]. Produced with the use of modern technology – the Fairlight programming, along with lots of keyboards, synths, This album is another lost gem in Alice’s solo catalogue’; perhaps his most underrated!? It included the hilarious “I Love America”, which was issued as a single in the UK, as well as darker and heavier cuts like “Scarlet And Sheba” and “Pass The Gun Around” – which features one of Dick Wagner’s most outstanding guitar solos [an album and song song he would cite as favorites in a later interview]. Another fun album to get into, with a great flow from track to track. Other favorites include the comical tale of “No Man’s Land” and the creepy ballad “Former Lee Warmer” [this has also been referenced as a nod to Alice leaving his record company – ‘Formerly Warners]. I played the Hell out of this album when I got it, and though it’s not really heavy [musically], it still sounds great today. Again, being Alice’s last in his Warner Brother’s contract, it was totally forgotten as soon as it came out – with no singles in North American, and absolutely 0 promotion.
In bad health, Alice would take a few years off and sort out his personnel demons and his health before making a major comeback, retiring the early ’80s Alice & that persona. He’d rarely talked about the period [or remembered], and rarely played any songs from it. It’s a hit or miss period with many longtime Alice fans, who either love a lot of the forgotten gems in this era or who totally brush it off forgettable. For me, I think there’s plenty to dig into and appreciate from this period.
*These 4 albums were reissued by Rhino, on colored vinyl in 2018.
Well 1982 was a far busier year for Canadian rock albums, so it was a bit tougher cutting this down to… 11 [ok, my last pick was only an EP, so….]. A few follow-ups albums from bands that had their biggest sellers in ’81, as well as a number of great debut albums. ..*leave some feedback in the comments on albums you would’ve picked.
Rush – Signals
A big deal was made of Rush’s use of keyboards, with Signals being a change for the band, with keyboards taking a more prominent role in many tracks, released in September that year. It had been preceded by the single “New World Man”. The next single “Subdivisions” remains my favorite Rush track [fantastic video]. Also includes “The Analog Kid”, “Chemistry”, and “Countdown” [the 3rd single]
Aldo Nova – Aldo Nova
Aldo Nova’s debut album, released on April 1st, was loaded with classic hard rock and pop-rockers like the 2 hit singles – “Fantasy” and “Foolin’ Yourself”, the latter was a huge top 40 hit. A 3rd single was the ballad “Ball & Chain”, with the album making the top 10 in the US. Aldo released a new CD in 2018 featuring 6 new versions of tracks from this album.
Triumph – Never Surrender
The follow up to Allied Forces, released late in the year in Canada, but early ’83 elsewhere. This was pretty close to being just as great, with the classics “Never Surrender” & “A World Of Fantasy”, and rockers like “Too Much Thinking”, and “All The Way”.
Coney Hatch – Coney Hatch
The debut from Toronto’s Coney Hatch, released in May and produced by Kim Mitchell [ex Max Webster]. Another classic first album, with the the band’s 2 biggest hits, and best known songs – “Monkey Bars”, “Hey Operator”, plus “Devil’s Deck”, as well as a number of live favorites – “We Got The Night”, “No Sleep Tonight”, “Stand Up”….New live album is in the mail as I write.
Santers – Racing Time
Another Toronto 3-piece. The band’s 2nd album, recorded and released following the band’s cross Canada tour, opening for Ozzy Osbourne. This is the band’s best IMO, featuring a number of great rock tracks like “Mistreatin’ Heart”, “Road To Morocco”, “Mystical Eyes”, “Winter Freeze”….
Frank Marino – Juggernaut
Marino’s 2nd solo album, released in the summer, would be his biggest solo commercial success. Seems a bit more ‘radio friendly’ in places. Featured the radio hit “Strange Dreams” (complete with keyboards), the 8 minute epic “”Stories Of A Hero”, and cool rockers like “For Your Love” and “Maybe It’s Time”. Great LP cover, cool album!
Headpins – Turn It Loud
Headpins stormed out in ’82, a side project by guitarist/producer Brian “Too Loud” McLeod of Chilliwack. Fronted by the Darby Mills, the debut album received plenty of radio play and went platinum in Canada. Released in June (to coincide with a Canadian tour w/ Girlschool & Toronto); It featured the hit single “Don’t It Make Ya Feel”, as well as the classic title track, and “Breakin’ Down”. RIP Brian McLeod.
Harlequin – One False Move
The Winnipeg band’s 3rd album from June. It boasted the hits “Superstitious Feeling” and “I Did It For Love”. Very keyboard-y, but also some great tracks, notably the guitar heavy “Ready To Love Again”, plus catchy pop rockers like “Shame If You Leave Me” and “Fine Line”.
Anvil – Metal On Metal
Anvil’s 2nd album released in April, featuring the classic anthem title track, as well as favorites like “Heat Seek”, “Jackhammer”, and the instrumental “March Of The Crabs”. The first of a few produced by the legendary Chris Tsangarides [RIP].
Leggatt – Illuminations
Don’t think this LP [released on 2LPs] got much press at the time, but known for including Hughie Leggatt [bass/vocals] and Danny Taylor [drums] – both ex of A Foot In Coldwater & Nucleus. Leggatt [other brother Gordon] are also known for penning the track “White Flags” [included here], which was the single, and went on to be a hit for Blue Oyster Cult 4 years later. But lots of great music here, progressive, pop, rock… cool tracks like “Amerikan Lights”, “Rolling Hard”, and “Slipping Into Limbo”.
Kim Mitchell – Kim Mitchell
The 5 song debut from Kim Mitchell, fresh out of Max Webster in November. Great songs, and a few that got plenty of radio play in Ontario – “Miss Demeanor” and “Kids In Action”. Awesome guitar record!
Other Mentions: April Wine Powerplay, Toronto Get It On Credit, Queen City Kids Black Box , Lee Aaron The Lee Aaron Project , Streetheart Streetheart , Sheriff Sheriff, Chilliwack Opus X .
A classic pair of albums that go together as set for me are Alice Cooper’s first 2 solo albums from 1975 & ’76. Welcome To My Nightmare was a huge success, aided by a prime-time TV aired video for the album, as well as a massive tour. AC Goes To Hell would not be as successful, nor would there be a tour, but as far as themes, players, and sound go – these 2 are a pair. Both albums would be recorded at multiple studios, most notably Soundstage in Toronto. As with the earlier AC band successes, Alice solo was still working with (Toronto) Bob Ezrin, and use the former Lou Reed guitar team of Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, both of whom also guest on earlier AC albums, as well as bass player Tony Levin. There would be other players on each albums as well, a number of them from Canada. Vincent Price, however, would only guest on WTMN!
“Alice Cooper Goes To Hell is sort of a continuation of Welcome To My Nightmare. It’s fun. You don’t really know if Alice woke up from the nightmare or not. He actually goes down to Hell and meets the devil. They have a battle on who is really the coolest.” – AC, Circus magazine, 1976.
Though Goes To Hell would be the weaker of the pair, like Welcome to Me Nightmare it did feature some classics. Both albums would lead off with the title track, both of which are pretty different than the typical rock tune, and both have returned to the live show for many tours. Each had an acoustic based ballad ending side one, both of which became big hit singles – “Only Women Bleed” and “I Never Cry” both reached #12 on the Billboard charts, about 6 months apart, while the former would reach #1 in Canada and the latter #7 here. These created a whole new avenue for Cooper with ballads on AM radio, with more to follow. While Welcome To My Nightmare seems a bit creepier lyrically, both albums would boast a couple rebellious teen anthems, “Department Of Youth” (from WTMN, and issued as a single) and “Guilty” (from GTH, which would’ve made a fine single).
Welcome To My Nightmare is heavier overall with tracks like “Steven”, “Cold Ethyl” and “Devils Food” & “The Black Widow”, while Goes To Hell seemed to have a bit more funky numbers like “I’m The Coolest”, “Give The Kid A Break” and “You Gotta Dance” – a somewhat disco tune, because disco was what was being played in Hell (or Hell was a disco!?). The latter album also had a few more ballads in “Wake Me Gently”, the Judy Garland cover “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows”, and the closing piece “Going Home”. Each album also borrowed some outside material – “Escape” [from WTMN] was a song recorded by The Hollywood Stars in 1974 (and unreleased for decades), with Alice re-writing the lyrics to fit the Nightmare theme. “Wish You Were Here” was borrowed somewhat (riff & solo) from the track “Stage Door Queen” from the 1972 album by Ursa Major – which included Dick Wagner and was produced by Ezrin!
Welcome To My Nightmare featured an iconic album cover from Pacific Eye & Ear, while Goes To Hell was far less memorable, but it did include the ‘bedtime story’ in the liner notes to go along with the lyrics, so.. Welcome To My Nightmare would be made in to a TV special, which included all the songs being acted out to the story, and the ensuring tour was one of the biggest of the decade and of Alice’s career, but Goes To Hell would see no TV show (though Alice did talk in interviews about wanting to make it into a Broadway performance), nor would there be a tour for Goes To Hell, with health issues keeping Alice off the road until his next album.
A proposed tour called “Ol Black Eyes Is Back” was scheduled to start in Canada (with Max Webster as openers), but was cancelled. There was however his performance on The Rock Music Awards in September of ’76, performing a couple of songs from the album with plenty of dancers. The lack of a tour may have also been part of the reason for there not being a follow up single to “I Never Cry”, and part of why WTMN made the Top 10 in Canada & the US, while GTH was in the Top 30 for both countries. It seemed Alice’s post-original band era would be more in to theatrics, but more like Hollywood theatrics with more focus on dancers, less straight ahead rock tunes, and becoming part of the Hollywood community (he would appear on the Hollywood Squares, and even acted in the Mae West movie “Sextette” during this time). His 1977 album Lace & Whiskey was a different story (lyrically and musically) to his first 2 solo albums.
Although I think Welcome To My Nightmare is the better album overall, Goes To Hell is a classic as well, “Guilty” being one of the best Alice rockers during this latter ’70s period and the lyrics to tracks like “Wish You Were Here” and “Go To Hell” being among his most twisted and funniest. I remember getting these in the early ’80s (when I started buying Alice records), and thinking how strange these were next to the Greatest Hits songs I knew – the song “Welcome To My Nightmare” wasn’t really a hard-rocker, with all the horns and soft intro, not to mention tracks like “Some Folks”, “Years Ago”… all very strange to a supposed hard-rock album. And the other I found a bit odd as well with the ballads, and odd tracks like “You Gotta Dance” and “Didn’t We Meet”. But I enjoyed them both repeatedly, as I got in to the stories and Alice’s ability to add and change so much to the character from song to song and album to album. When I first saw him in 1986 (then not thinking I’d ever get to see him) he played both title tracks, and ‘metaled’ them up quite a bit for the times. A great back-to-back adventure in ’70s rock from Alice.
Canadian guitar player Brian Greenway jumped into April Wine in 1977, making the band a 5-piece at the time, and beginning a 7 year run of massive tours and 5 major release albums. They shared the stage with some of the world’s biggest bands, toured the US multiple times, as well as trips the UK and Europe. The classic 5 piece era came to an end in 1984 following the release of Animal Grace. Brian Greenway would go on to record a solo album a few years later, and return with a reformed April Wine in the early ’90s. The band recorded a few more albums, and Greenway remains still from those glory days, alongside the band’s founder – singer/songwriter/guitarist Myles Goodwyn. In this interview Brian talked album the April Wine albums he was on, as well as his solo album, and what he’s up to over the passed year, as the band’s touring has been postponed due to Co-Vid. *Check out the links below I’ve posted to other articles and sites of interest.
You auditioned for April Wine back in ’73? I did. Well, Not with a guitar, I just had a meeting with Myles. and at the time I just wasn’t the person, Gary Moffett was also a consideration, and in hindsight he was the right choice.
You were in the last incarnation of Mashmakan around the same time!?Yes. The 2nd edition of Mashmakan, after Jerry Mercer and Rayburn Blake and all those guys had left, Pierre Senecal was Mashmakan.
All you guys seemed to know each other, even before you were in April Wine. You knew the Henman brothers before you were in the band. Mashmakan had opened for and toured with AW in the Maritimes, quite a few times. and I remember seeing April Wine in their first show actually, in Quebec in 1970. Jimmy Clench I knew from other bands in Montreal, and Jerry Mercer I knew. so it was just the Henmans and Myles that I got to know, really. and Richie and David are still good friends.
You just did the one single with Mashmakan? Yes, “Dance A Little Step”, we did some other stuff… actually there was one called “Ride Johnny Ride” on Columbia, just after I joined. I’d forgotten about that.. but it didn’t do f**k-all. Pierre wrote the lyrics for it, and it was about my step-father, his name was John, and it didn’t go over so well in the house, because it wasn’t a positive song.
Interesting that he would write about your step-father. Yeah, I suppose. He was always writing about family.
You went on to do The Dudes album. Yeah. I got a call from Bob Segarini and he told me David and Richie Henman were going to join The Wackers [which became the Dudes], so I thought ‘oh I’ll join then’, and he told David and Richie that I was going to join – when neither of us had said Yes yet. haha
There was a lot of hype with that band!? There was a tremendous amount of hype. We had some incredible demos, and the record companies were sort of fighting over us, and we ended up choosing the wrong record company. And the album went from being recorded badly, very badly at Le Studio.. It almost wrecked the name of Le Studio, itself! Andre Perry wasn’t happy about it. He offered to re-mix the album for free, but Columbia wouldn’t let that happen. I guess they didn’t want the album to happen, so they did everything they could to not let it happen.
At the time you got the call to join April Wine had you kinda given up on the music thing? Well I’d got myself a day job because i needed to work. There was just nothing going on. So I was working in a warehouse, driving a forklift truck, and then eventually up to the head office, and in charge of inventory control – which is really bizarre because I’m terrible with numbers, and it was all about numbers, and there was no computers then, it was just a calculator and paper and writing it down in this card index box. there was a lot of scratch-outs!
What were sort of your first impressions when you met up with Myles about joining the band? What was the plan or how was it put to you? Oh I thought I was joining the band, but in reality I was joining the band for the summer tour to see how it worked out, and if I’d fit in. and then I’d become a permanent member, so I was on trial for 3 months.
One thing I’ve been curious about with you guys during that era [I’m jumping ahead] – but what was the comradery like with you guys – was it all business or was there certain friendships, did you guys hang out much? It mostly was business. I mean, Myles was married and having kids, I hung out with Gary a bit, ..Jerry was married and had kids, so there were families. Gary had a daughter that was much older. We would go cycling, but we’d never really hang out that much. Sometimes I’d see Myles at a club somewhere, and that’d be about it, but there was no plans, I’d go to his house – stop in and say Hi, you know – trying to build a friendship, and we did.
But it wasn’t a social club much!? It wasn’t a social club, we weren’t best friends, but we liked each other and respected each other musically, and as people. But it wasn’t like ‘hey – what are you doing, let’s do this….let’s do that!’ … But, towards the end, as it is now, no one really hangs out, nobody drinks like we used to, there’s no social thing – now it’s all business. And it was also the ’70s – it was the party.
The first album you did was First Glance, and that was done in 2 studios… Yeah. the band had already started that record, I wasn’t aware of it. But when I was brought in as a full-time member in the fall of ’77 we went in to the studio and worked on stuff like “Roller”, and “Rock n Roll Is A Vicious Game” was cut there, with Jimmy Zeller playing harmonica. and then “Roller” was actually re-recorded up at Morin Heights, at Le Studio, when we moved up there. And Nick Blagona took over engineering from Terry [I forget his name, we called him the Bearded Clam], and Bill Szawlowski. It was an upgrade.
You had one song on that album, and you also sang another song – “Let Yourself Go”. I’m kinda curious what you brought in, I know Myles generally the writer, but were you guys sort of encouraged to bring stuff in, try new things..? In the beginning I was told that they were looking for a 3rd guitar player who could sing, write, contribute, and play additional instruments – like I can with harmonica and keyboards. So that was the attraction there, and I already had some songs, and “Right Down To It” got on the record. But Myles was the chief writer.
Did you guys regularly write more than enough for an album or was it you got 9 or 10 songs ‘let’s go with those’. !? Well, I never really knew because Myles always plays his cards close to his chest, and we’d always seemed to have just enough songs for the record. We would never record anything more than was necessary, looking back at it I can see that it would incur extra expense on the budget of that album. So maybe there was other songs that were there that I was never aware of. I just thought of that actually.
I’m curious how a song might’ve been presented, how Myles brought it in, maybe on acoustic guitar … He would play it or bring it in on cassette. and we would learn the arrangement and the chords for the verses and choruses, and then we would put it together as a band and create our own parts – like with “Roller”, he brought in the lick, and that worked in to the 3 part solo – that was created in rehearsal. Plus we had the extra bonus of being able to play that on the road, live for about 2 or 3 months before we recorded it. So we could see what was working in the song and what wasn’t, from the live reaction. and not every song is like that.
There was a couple of songs that went on First Glance that were in the setlist before, right? Yes, those first 3 albums we were playing a lot, we were on the road all the time, and we would try new songs. We would rehearse on the road, and try things.
From FG, what of those songs do you recall playing ahead of time? I read a set list with “Hot On the Wheels Of Love” Yep, I was going to say that. That was created partly in the studio too with ideas ‘hey let go try this and go try that’ – like the ‘sheriff’ part, that was my idea. And that worked in to a neat live part, we had a white bar at the side of the stage that would swing out and there’d be a hat and the glasses there, and I’d put them on and the spotlight would go on. It was a part of the song that added a bit of theater.
How would you guys develop a song in the studio – was most of it laid out, or did you have much input? On the first few albums, everything was rehearsed beforehand, ‘pre-production’ as we’d call it. So when we went in to the studio rarely was something torn apart and replaced and re-written. One instance was “Say Hello” from the Harder…Faster album. We’d recorded it, and Nick Blagona said ‘let me try some edits’. He was very good at editing – there was tape hanging everywhere in the bloody studio. And he cut out every 2nd or 3rd bass note, and created that bass part from edits. and then he said ‘let me try something with the guitars – -Gary go out there and record each guitar note 3 times’, triple it, and then the harmony on that, the 3rd and then the 5th, and that was the guitar part, he would mute it by gating it. that song was really structured technically and with technology in the studio. He was very talented at editing.
Back to First Glance…. You wrote “Right Down To It”. Yes. that was originally with The Dudes.
Do you recall anything about writing that one, where it came from? No, it’s just one of those songs that sort of jumped out. The same way with “Before The Dawn”, I just had an idea, and sat down in the hallway of my townhouse, and 20 minutes later it was written. I wish I could do more of those. We were touring a lot, so I had lot of ideas, lots of energy, you know.
How did you end up doing vocals on “Let Yourself Go”? I wasn’t intended on doing it. It was Myles’ song, and he said ‘go sing this’, and while I was singing it he was still writing the lyrics. and I finished the first verse he said ‘ok I’ve got the 2nd verse, go do it’. and Nick said ‘try to sound like John Lennon on there in places if you can, and sound softer in places’.. so I said ‘OK, I’m a good mimic’, so I did it. I had no idea it was going to be on the record, it was just ‘go try and sing this’.
“Rock N Roll Is A Vicious Game” came out well before the album, and the band were still signed to London Records in the US. So when did Capitol thing come about? Was that well after the album was done and out [on Aquarius] ? Well, “Roller” came out on Capitol …… Well we needed distribution in the States and London didn’t want to do it any more. We always had Aquarius [in Canada]. and then Capitol came in, and nothing was happening really – towards the end of 1978, and the band was seriously thinking about moving to Los Angeles. There was just nothing going on for us in the States – nothing. And we needed to reinvent ourselves. So everybody was actually making plans of moving to the States, and It was like ‘well I don’t know if I wanna do that’, it’s a long way to go. And then suddenly “Roller” became a hit, and that changed everything. At the very end of the year a station in Saginaw, Michigan, a big reporting rock station – reporting to the charts ya know; reported that it was #1 in Saginaw, Michigan. and other stations are going ‘What!? Who’s this?’ and then Capitol, Mike Dymond out of Detroit with Capitol Records, and Jeff the disc jockey up in Saginaw, and pretty soon everybody was loving it, and it became #1 in Michigan, and then it took off, and the rest of the stations started playing it across the country. And all of a sudden we had a good record going, and then Capitol became very interested, and the ball started rolling – ‘let’s get them out on the road.’
You guys did a lot of tours – with Rush and Styx… Yes, in ’78, ’79, and then in 1980 we started headlining ourselves, but we would do some larger tours with Nazareth, or like double-billing [or triple billing, whatever]. the market was changing, so shows with multiple acts were starting to happen.
When you guys went in and did Harder…Faster, you had “Before The Dawn” on there, and you guys also did “21st Century Schizoid Man”. Who’s idea was that? I can’t remember… Steve Lang, the bass player (God rest his soul, who died a few years back, a friend of mine for all my life), he was in a prog-rock band before April Wine called ‘Devotion’, and I don’t know if they were doing it or not, but I believe he suggested it. And we messed around with it…
I think they [Devotion] were, because a buddy of mine, Derek, was familiar with Devotion because he had a connection there And April Wine was by no means a prog-rock band. And once we did it, we did it well, and recorded it well, and oddly enough Nick Blagona who was engineering the album at Le Studio had been involved in the original recording with King Crimson, so he says ‘I know how they put the song together in the studio, so I’m going to do it the same way they did and see how it works for us’. And it came out pretty bloody well! And when I went to sing it, because it was different, I said ‘Nick – how do I sing this?’ And he said ‘I wanna hear teeth!’ , so I said ‘OK – teeth!’. and at the very end there was this high laugh that I did a mimic of a laugh I did by a fellow who used to own a club in Montreal, and whenever he laughed he’d laugh like that, so I did it, just as a mimic.
And that became a huge part of the live set.. It still is. And oddly enough Capitol records did Not want to release it on the album. They did not want to have it on the record at all; they thought it was just terrible! But it became a staple in the States, on FM. I only found out later that Capitol didn’t want us to do it. i had no idea.
On Nature of The Beast Nick Blagona was out and you had Mike Stone in for the next few albums. Yes. Myles wanted to change things up, so he called Mike Stone and the 2 of them hit it off, and he started to help produce it. They wanted a bigger name producing the band. Nick was great, but he wasn’t as well known as Mike.
Now, NOTB you didn’t have any songs on…
No I didn’t.
“Sign Of The Gypsy Queen” was the Lorence Hud song. Were you familiar with the original? Oh yeah, that was a hit in Canada, in the ’70s.
Who’s idea was that one? Myles came in and said we’re going to try to record this. but I don’t know what talk went on beforehand.
Did you ever meet Lorence Hud? No. Never have met him. He’s a bit of a recluse from what I hear. But I remember Myles used to say ‘he’s got so many royalty cheques waiting for him, if he’d just surface’.
What do recall of making NOTB. Were you guys aware it was going to be a big deal when you were making it? We had gone to England and recorded it at the Manor studios, outside of Oxford, which was owned by Richard Branson, and I absolutely hated it! Le Studio was close to home, it was first class, it had modern comforts… The Manor was a 400 or 500 or 1000 year old bloody building that had been added on to and added on to, and it was in the middle of nowhere. We couldn’t go anywhere, and it was too expensive, I mean the English pound was like 3 Canadian dollars for 1 pound at the time, so ya know – hire a car and go where!? I walked down the canal to the local pub every night which closed at 9pm, and then sit up and do bloody nothing.
Did you get out and see the country much or any shows? I went to Oxford and saw Billy Connolly, that was the biggest thing. Myles and Jerry would go out and play golf, but every day we’d be working.
What stood out for you on that album? Well, we did “Just Between You And Me” on that record, and that took a long time to record, just to get the feel right – to the point where I played rhythm guitar for hours and Gary played rhythm guitar for hours, and his was the track that stayed. So there was no need for me to play on it, so I’m not even on, except for a voice.
Did you guys ever have much input in to the album covers with Aquarius? Yes. In-house was one of the owners of Aquarius Records was Bob Lemm, and he was a graphic artist, and he was very good. He would design all the covers.
Would you guys ever get a say in it? Was it presented to you guys… It was presented to us and talk about it – ‘do you like this idea?’, and we would approve it eventually.
So did Bob do the lettering? Yes, he created the logo.
Did anything change between NOTB and Powerplay? Because on Powerplay you had some outside written songs, and it seemed a bit softer, and maybe that’s the whole difference between Mike Stone and Nick Blagona. Yes, and some input from the record company I imagine. And Myles became very controlling in that time. It started out – ‘everybody write’, and everybody did write; everybody brought in quite a few songs, and I think it probably shocked and surprised Myles because some of them were pretty good, and he said ‘No, I’m the only singer and I’m the only songwriter’. And that’s probably what the record company wanted too – because he was writing the hits, so that’s where they placed their bets. There was a lot of unproven songwriters and the record company might’ve said ‘no, we can’t afford to chance that, and we don’t want to spend the money recording it to find out.’
So there was nothing that might’ve been seriously considered – whether you had a song or Steve wrote a song… I’d written one, but I hadn’t completed the lyrics, and it got rejected, so I just dropped it.
There are 3 outside written tracks here, which I find odd, with Myles being such a prolific writer and if you guys could contribute, why would you need outside songs. Particularly “If You See Kay” – where did that one come from? That was from a writer in the States, and IMyles, I guess, was taken with the fact that it was a clever way to say Fuck and get it on the album. And I remember Steve Lang not wanting to have anything to do with this song.
Because of the title?Yeah. He was ‘I don’t want to be known as the fuck song band’, you know. And he had a point. And it was catchy in the same way that Billy Ray Cyrus had that first song of his, I forget the title.
And then The Beatles’ song. And I guess everyone wants to do a Beatles song at some point!? Myles was always a Beatles baby, as all of us, and he took great interest in trying to re-write a Beatles’ song that would be a hit. He gave “Tell Me Why” the sort of same treatment as “You Won’t Dance With Me”, and that was a big hit, so maybe the record company was hoping the same thing would happen, but it didn’t.
There was a lot of good songs on it, but I think those covers made a little inconsistent. “Anything You Want, You Got it” was a great opener, “Enough Is Enough”, “Waiting On A Miracle”… Yes, “Enough Is Enough” became a very popular song… “Waiting On A Miracle” – it was a good rock song at the time, but it was a bit dated.
And then you guys get to Animal Grace and the first thing I notice is the logo is changed. Yes, and I and have no idea why.
And obviously there was a lot of turmoil amongst you guys during that album. You had another outside writer – Tom Lange with “Hard Rock Kid”, and then Myles wrote everything else. I actually kind of like that album but I wasn’t crazy about that ’80s production, but for me I liked the songs more than I did on Powerplay – “Sons Of The Pioneers”, “This Could Be The Right One”… I thought it was a fairly consistent album. I guess It was, but there was a lot of internal strife, so the vibes weren’t all that good recording it.
Yeah, there was the article that came out around the time of the album, which Myles said some things that lead one to believe it would leading to the end of the band. Yeah – New Music Express.
And when I saw you guys in ’84 at the Kingswood Music Theatre, you only did one song from that album. You only did the single “This Could Be The Right One”. Yeah, the rest was garbage.
There was no discussion of playing any more of it!? There was no mention, I can’t remember. There were better songs to play in the amount of time we were allotted to play.
By the time you guys were done the album was it kind of a done deal that you guys would be breaking up? That was not known until the tour started in the spring – early summer of 1984. I was never an included business member in April Wine. I wasn’t included in April Wine Limited, the company. So at the beginning of that tour, it’s documented in books – Myles wrote and Keith Brown wrote that he demanded that everybody give him their rights or he wasn’t going to tour and it was going to cost a lot of money to the band. It was a capitulation. And he got what he wanted, and that was the end of the band there, so he was saying ‘that’s it – the band’s breaking up, I’m going on my own.’
But you came back for Walking Through Fire, which I assume was really of a solo album. It was, but it was a contractual album for him, because he was April Wine – he owned the name, and he got some really good musicians, Jean Pelleran, Martin Simon, and Daniel Barbe – who played keyboards on “This Could Be The Right One”. and we did that at the studio at the Bahamas, in Nassau. In the history of April Wine…. Forever For Now was originally going to be a Myles Goodwyn solo project, but it ended up being an album for April Wine. So he kept on wanting to do a solo project, and finally he moved to the Bahamas, but contractually he owed Aquarius another record, so Walking Through Fire was sort of made quickly.
How did you wind up on it? I was never a partner, therefor I could never lose anything, other than a job. So when I was asked ‘Do you want to go down to the Bahamas? Here’s what we’ll pay you.’ I said Sure. I liked to the people, and it lead ultimately to my signing with Bud Prager and my solo record.
Now, I saw the One More For The Road show, and that was quite a lengthy show, around 2 hours, but then the album came out and it’s a single album. Yeah. Again, it’s on vinyl right, so it was just ‘put the hits on it.’ Now, the Live From London video – that was the full show.
How did you guys like touring over there? I loved it. I loved touring there. Especially Germany.
And you guys got kinda lumped in with all those heavy metal bands over there, seeing from some of the bands you were touring with there. Yeah, they featured us as a heavy metal band, and maybe we were in Canada, but in England and Germany ‘heavy metal’ had a whole different meaning.
Who do you recall touring with that you particularly liked, or any friendships or guys you’ve kept up with? Uriah Heep we played with a fare amount. We did a couple of shows with Motorhead… Wishbone Ash, there’s another band…. Yeah, Uriah Heep and Wishbone Ash, we had a good time together; we were all around the same age, and like the same things.
I want to talk a bit about your solo album. Were you happy with how it came out? Oh I loved the outcome. Money was spent, we had great players, really great players. But unfortunately once again, there was politics involved, beyond my knowledge at the time. It wasn’t much about music at the time, it was about Bud Prager who was my manager, who was also Foreigner’s manager and also Ben E King’s manager in New York, and who was looking to become head of Atlantic Records, there was rumors’ of Doug Morris replacing Ahmet Ertegun, but that didn’t happen. So of course, all the projects that Bud had going, like me , were dropped. and although Atlantic records released it everywhere – they didn’t spend a dime on promotion. They turned to WEA in Canada, who I was not signed with, I was signed to Atlantic US. And it was ‘OK, we’ll release it Canada and see how it goes.’ And Bob Roper, who I knew well, in fact who I knew from his London Records days, he was the head of WEA at that point, and he rather unfriendly welcomed me to the office and said ‘Just because Atlantic calls us to promote you, what makes you think we have the budget?’, and I’m like ‘I don’t know, I’m just the artist’. But anyway, maybe I caught him on a bad day. But Kim Cooke, the head of WEA tried to make it work, but it just didn’t.
You had the video for “Danger Zone”… Oh yeah, they tried. But it was expensive, but they also waited 6 months to release it after it was done. And in that 6 month window music had changed radically. and all the hits were like female and softer, like Tracy Chapman and My Name was Luka…. And I was all of a sudden very old fashioned overnight.
It’s a shame that it did, because obviously you guys had a great string of albums there. Yeah, but we became old fashioned and out of style really quickley, all the bands did with the invention of the synthesizer and the Roland and the Yamaha. Bands like the Cars became the new wave, Elvis Costello, things changed – guitars became very unimportant, it wasn’t the sound. And the mega guitar solos like Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd had became famous for, it became old-hat, and nobody wanted to hear those any more. And the guitar became really unpopular.
Well, it eventually came back. When you’re dealing with digital technology you can create a song without really having to play. And the guitar became something you had to sit down and learn, and spend time with, but nobody wanted to do that any more. And that lasted for a long time . The guitar slinger was unpopular. Now it’s coming back. But nobody wanted to take the time to learn. There was no guitar heros in the last 20 years… maybe 30 or 40.
Regarding Serious Business, do you have any control over that album still? No. Atlantic owns it, and when I called them they never heard of me. A friend of mine has a label called Pace Maker Records and wants to put it out on that. He’s out of Toronto, but he also doesn’t want to get sued by them. But eventually if they don’t want to listen to us, we’ll just go ahead and do it, because sometimes it’s easier to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.
Now, you had a few years off. What was the difference when you rejoined with Myles and the new line-up in ’91-92?
Well, originally when we started rehearsing, it was the original 5 piece. And we were told that perhaps we could get maybe 3 weeks of shows. And just before we said Yes to the tour, Gary and Steve said No – they didn’t want to be apart of it. Steve, at that point had gone in to the financial world and he had a very well paying high position job that he didn’t want to give up, and Gary just didn’t want to do because of what had happened in the old days with April Wine breaking up. He never really said, I don’t know what was on his mind. He never really said unless he wanted you to know. But he said ‘No, I don’t want to do it’. And that is when we got Jim Clench and Steve Segal. And Myles had been working with Steve Segal. who I knew and we had 3 guitars again, but I was the bottom guitar guy, Steve was getting the solos, so I wasn’t a very happy player. and it’d changed quite a bit. and people were saying ‘oh this isn’t April Wine’ and I mentioned that to Myles, and oddly his friends said the same thing, so eventually we went back down to a 4 piece. And that’s when the band started sounding like April Wine again.
Were you happy with Attitude? Not really.
It did pretty well, it brought you guys back a lot of attention. Yeah, but I didn’t really like any of the songs. There wasn’t any I could really get my teeth into. I mean if you listen to the songs I had on Back To The Mansion they’re so different.
For you guys – going from playing the arenas in the ’80s and being that headlining band, then going back to playing the clubs…. We were doing anything we could. What had happened was we would go in to these smaller places thinking they were still arenas and blast the hell out of them, and not just us, but the sound technician, and people would complain and we wouldn’t get invited back. We were just too loud, and nobody wouldn’t change. People were saying we were the loudest band they ever saw, and it’s not a badge of honor. Even on stage it was too loud. Jerry at one point, used to have 15 thousand watt monitor just for the drums. It was crazy. I used to hate it. But then again I was drinking a lot, and that was my way of getting through it – I used to have 5 or 6 beers before the show, and go out, shake my little butt, and smile and play guitar.
I saw a couple of shows at Front 54 in Thorold and can attest to that. Was it a kick to the ego playing the smaller venues as opposed to playing the arenas? I didn’t mind. I always gave the same show. As I said, I drank my way through the ’80s and mostly through the ’90s, and mostly the whole band did. And finally Myles stopped first, then I stopped 6 years ago. And then things became very clear – you just don’t go out and do that anymore. And we started working with a younger crew that would educate us on this. ‘No this is not how you do it anymore’. Plus, places we played now had decibel levels, limits that you couldn’t go over or they’d stop the show. People would complain, say ‘we’re not coming back’, and that would hurt the places we played rather than us, so people were voting with their dollars. And places were ‘there’s a 95 db limit – if you go over it you get fine heavily or we stop the show.’ It became politically correct, volume became a danger, and well so, I mean if we wanted to be that loud on stage that’s one thing, and lose our hearing, but don’t make everybody else do it.
The last think you did in the ’90s was the Frigate album. And that was kind of a mish mash … That was done in Myles’ house, and that was a mish-mash, yeah. Once again – contractual.
There was a couple of great heavy songs, then was a couple of odd things at the end of it, there was one that was all keyboards, and you had a couple of covers… There was one on there I called “Carrie” that I wrote, but it became something else and Myles sang it. It was a very grandiose type keyboard with a 12 string in it, it had a repeating chorus at the end. I forget what he called it. .. “Whatever It Takes” !? That’s the one. There wasn’t much on it. Back To The Mansion was sort of strange too. I had 2 songs on there that I was quite proud of actually.
Yeah, “Holiday” was a great song. Thank you. And I worked up a really neat acoustic version when I play it… well, when I used to play [haha]… when everybody used to play live shows. And the other one I wrote for my kids. It was about life experiences, but it was inspired by the George Harrison and the Beach Boys, the George Harrison song “Cheer Down” and the Beach Boys song “In My Room”.
With Back To The Mansion did you guys kind of do it like patchwork? Yeah, we did it in between shows. We did it at Myles’ house. I would come in and do a few song, and we’d rehearse, but the rehearsal was nothing, nobody was coming up with any ideas, so it was a waisted effort and I would leave.
You also did the cover of “I Am A Rock”… I thought that was very strange. At that point I thought you know, any song with the word ‘rock’ in it was a contender for an April Wine song. You guys were competing with AC/DC for using that word in titles? Yeah, or geologists – one of the two!
I thought it was a good album, but for me it lacked a real hard-rocker. It did. The single, we were on the TV show with it – “Won’t Go There”, but it wasn’t rock though, but then again, there was no rock at that time. We were trying to fit in where we couldn’t.
Then there was the Greatest Hits Live. It was at the Tournaments of Hearts, we recorded that live. That didn’t come out that well.
At that point you had Carl (Dixon) in the band for a couple of years, as well. How did you get along with him? All right. It’s a funny story, Myles thought he had called somebody else, so this guy came to the door, and it wasn’t the guy that Myles thought. You know, they set up a meeting and this guy arrived and Myles says ‘who are you?’ But he couldn’t play keys that great, and he couldn’t play guitar like us, so it was kinda weird. But he did make up for it by being the band’s opener for a year or 2, so it was all a self-contained show. But he was all right. He had a terrible accident and I was happy that he recovered from it. It was just strange times the band was going through; nothing against him personally, but it was like ‘what are you doing here?’, ya know.
And since then, there was one further album, and then you guys have just been touring since then. Yeah. And we were gaining some traction, in ’18, ’18, and ’19 we were doing bigger and bigger shows and then CoVid came along. I don’t know what will happen when we get back together; we still have shows booked, and they keep on getting postponed and put off. Ya know never in the history of music has it just closed overnight.
Brian & Myles Goodwyn on stage in Toronto, CNE. 2018. (Photo: Gordon Enright)
Myles has kind of talked over the years about doing another April Wine album. Oh yeah, we still talk about it, and just recently too. We’ve been sending songs back and forth and trying to figure out how we can get one done before the end of the year. And I’ve got a good little studio set up now, so I could do it properly; I can send my parts out, and everybody can. So it can be done.
If there’s a new album, is there potential you’ll have anything on it? I hope so. My whole style of writing has changed, I’ve been working on putting out a blues record. That’s my original roots, back in 1965 when i first heard John Mayall with Eric Clapton. Sort of British blues … I have a band called The Blues Bus, and I call it ‘British and American Blues served with a touch of Wine’. And I do my own April Wine stuff, but it comes off sounding so heavy, I’ve sort of brought down my intensity, I’m more like a JJ Cale.
So are you recording at home? Yes I am. Right now, I’m working on a bucket list thing me, which is an old instrumental that was on a John Mayall album, with Eric Clapton called the Bluesbreakers, but most people ended up calling it the ‘Beano’ album. And it’s an old Freddie King song, an instrumental called “Hideaway”. And I was always stunned by Clapton’s performance on it, and I said ‘one day I want to record that’. So i sat down in the beginning of February and learnt it note for note, and I’m just working on recording it. I’ve got bass and drums down, and keyboards, I’ve just got finish getting the guitar down.
Who else plays on it with you? A friend of mine, Lloyd, from The Blues Bus, Lloyd Dellaire is on it. He also filled in for Richard when Richard had some surgery, in 2019. Lloyd filled for a month with us. And right now it’s just a software program from Superior Drummer, but to me it sounds like a real drummer. Superior Drummer is a great program because what they did was they actually had a real drummer go in and do parts, in a very well known studio, so it sounds like real drums, it Is real drums.
Do you have a plan on when you want to get something out under your own name? No, if no label signed, we’ll just throw it at the world or get some small label to release it, maybe through the blues world. I really don’t care at this point, I’m going to be 70 this year and whatever happens, happens. It’s just like I did when I was 17 or 15 – ‘Gee, it’d be nice if this happens but I don’t know how to do it so let’s just see what happens. I’m sort of starting over again, just having fun for the enjoyment of playing music. And during CoVid, I said ‘I’m going to learn how to use my studio properly’, so I did. I’ve learned an awful lot in the past year, which I wouldn’t have done without CoVid, . and an awful lot about myself. A lot of time to reflect. .. Well my wife went back to work, and she’s working from home and we have a 2 year old Labrador and he follows me around everywhere, and he won’t go downstairs unless i go downstairs. So everyday I’m spending most of my time dog sitting to prevent him from barking because she spends most of her time on the phone. (Dog talk ensues).
Any road stories? Nazareth was always fun. They were so Scottish, right out of Glasgow. And we would be touring in the States, and Americans – the mid-west especially, just did not understand that thick Glaswegian accent. And I remember sitting with Danny McCafferty in a Holiday Inn once, by the swimming pool, because all Holiday Inns had swimming pools back then, in the ’80s. And the waitress came over with her little Farah Fawcett clip up hair-do and asked what we wanted, and I said ‘I’ll have a hamburger’, and Dan said – ‘[groans, grumbles..] with a sandwich’ – and she didn’t understand a word of it. So I translated for him [haha]. And i said ‘oh he’s from Glasgow, Scotland.’ And when she came back with his drink she said ‘If you’re from Scotland, why is everything on your t-shirt written in English?’ . And she walked away and he looked at me and said ‘so where are you from?’, and I said ‘well, I’m half Scottish myself’. And he said ‘you’ve lost your brogue, and I said ‘well I was born in Canada, and my mother was born in Canada, so I never had any other accent than the one I have now.’ And he says ‘I’ll tell you what, it’s real easy to get it back.’ and I said ‘how’s that Danny?’, and he says ‘it’s simple – just with everything you say – make it sound like a threat! – ‘Hey You! Git over here – Now!’ And I thought it was very funny, very Scottish. There was other times, the food fights and funny things that would happen on the road. that you really don’t want to say because they could embarrass someone, you know.
Lastly, after everything that’s gone on over the years with Myles, how do you guys get along now? We get along OK. He’s made me angry, he’s made me sad, we’ve had some happy time. And we call each other friends, and we are after all these years – 50 together. There’s things that have happened that make me angry -still, and there’s others, but you become older and you say ‘Hey, we’ve been together for so long, let’s finish this on a friendly term, now’. So, that’s my take.
When Ozzy Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath and replaced by Ronnie James Dio, it began a new promising era, a fresh start, and a pile of new ideas and up to date sound for the new decade. The band had been closing out the 70s on a bit of a downturn with the last few Ozzy era albums [though I admit I really like Technical Ecstasy] . My introduction to the Dio era of Black Sabbath was borrowing a friend’s copy of Live Evil (which I’ve yet to return 38 years later). I eventually picked up LPs of Heaven And Hell and Mob Rules (had them on a cassette for a while). Mob Rules being my favorite Sabbath album, with Heaven And Hell not far behind. Dio could contribute a lot more than Ozzy, with lyrics and melodies, where as Geezer Butler is generally known for writing many of the Ozzy era lyrics. The new Dio era sounded heavier with Dio’s distinctive voice that could deliver new and darker stories clear and more aggressively, all put together by legendary producer Martin Birch. I thought these 2 albums were/are timeless, and I can pull them out any time and they sound just as good as they did 40 years ago. With Live Evil mixing new and old Sabbath songs, I honestly was not so crazy about this one, having been a fan of the early Sabbath albums I just didn’t think Dio was as suited to those songs, perhaps because Ozzy had such a unique voice, but I did like his performance of “N.I.B.”. After Live Evil Dio, along with Vinny Appice would go off and form Dio. A shame then – done after 2 superb studio albums!? Well, the Mob Rules line-up reformed again in the early ’90s released Dehumanizer [1992]. It was a bit more Dio /Appice influenced in sound, IMO, with those slow heavy dark rock tunes. It took me a long time to get in to this one due to the overall production / sound of the album, but it featured some really good tracks, but overall not high on my Sabbath list. Again, the band split, and over the next decade plus, Sabbath would return to work Tony Martin on vocals [who did a fine job on the Dio era songs live], and then do some shows with Ozzy.
With the release of 2007’s CD compilation release The Dio Years, Iommi, Butler, Dio and Appice again reformed to add 3 new tracks to the album. The band went out on tour, playing only tracks from the Dio-era albums under the name Heaven & Hell, taking Scott Warren [of Dio’s band] in place of Geoff Nicholls – adding keyboards and some guitar. This tour lead to the release of Live At Radio City Music Hall. Rhino Records also released Live At The Hammersmith [from 81/82] in 2007. Continuing as Heaven & Hell, the band made one more studio album – The Devil You Know in 2009. This was a strong album, and I preferred this to Dehumanizer, very heavy, up to date, great clean sounding. Interestingly, The Devil You Know was the highest charting album of the 4 on Billboard USA. The band toured further that year, with Ronnie James Dio later diagnosed with stomach cancer. Shows for 2010 were cancelled, and Dio passed away May 16, 2010. A posthumous live album marking 30 years of Heaven & Hell had been recorded at the band’s performance at the Wacken Open Air Festival in the summer of 2009, and released in late 2010 as Neon Nights – Live In Europe. The 4 Dio era studio albums remain hugely popular amongst Black Sabbath fans, with many hailing the first 2 amongst the band’s best, usually flaring up the who was better – Ozzy or Dio debate. As I said earlier, I am one who easily puts Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules at the top of my BS favorites list. I recently got the 2021 2CD remasters of each, and though some of the ‘bonus’ material is already out there [like Live at Hammersmith] , the Live in Portland show from ’82 [added to Mob Rules] is a nice addition. Here’s hoping there’ll be more live stuff that surfaces [officially] in the future. Here’s a look at my top 10 picks of classics from the Dio era of Black Sabbath [and That includes The Devil You Know!]
APRIL WINE had debuted many years before this 1978 classic album, and achieved a good deal of success on the singles charts in Canada, as well as drawing regular crowds across the country. Along the way they had a couple of early hits in the US, but didn’t pursue the US market much in the way of touring, and despite a number of strong albums, the band needed a jolt. Forever For Now (1976) had originally began as a Myles Goodwyn solo album, and despite having a few hit singles, the album was softer, featuring a number of ballads, and lacking any memorable rockers, and it would not get released outside of Canada. And despite the press surrounding the El Macombo gigs sometime later (opening for the Rolling Stones) the Live At The El Macombo album wasn’t a breakthrough either. Looking to add something new & a spark to their sound, the band hired another guitarist – Brian Greeenway [ex Mashmakan, The Dudes] in time for a summer tour in ’77. He would stay with the band following the tour, as the band went on to record a new album. The impact of this change was immediate with their seventh studio album First Glance, released in March of ’78, produced by singer/guitarist/songwriter Myles Goodwyn at Studio Tempe and Le Studio in Quebec. The album had been preceded by the single “Rock n Roll Is A Vicious Game” in late ’77 (even getting a US release on London Records), a ballad about a rock star dealing with the rock n roll life ups and downs (harmonica courtesy of blues artist Jim Zeller) . It would be one of the hits from the album, and a live favorite for years to come.
Soon after the band was signed by Capitol in the US to distribute their albums (as well as the UK & Japan), and First Glance would be released there in September of that year. The Capitol Records’ edition featured a different cover, with the band photo on the front with a brand new logo over top (created by Aquarius’ Bob Lemm); the logo that would grace many album covers to come. the first two tracks in the running order were also altered. But the Canadian (Aquarius) LP, which came in a nice gatefold cover with plenty of color and individual band member pics on the inside would kick off properly [to me] with “Hot On The Wheels Of Love”, a lyric influenced by some of the trouble Goodwyn got in to in his younger years – in this example it’s about stealing a car to go meet up with a girlfriend. Steve Lang would get a rare co-writing credit on that one; a great rocker, featuring a bit of theatrics with Greenway voicing the cop involved in the chase.
The album’s biggest song (and the band’s most important to date) was “Roller”, which ended side one. It featured an unforgettable hook on 3 guitars, that was another story based song about a woman who liked to gamble. The song was picked up by an FM radio station in Flint, Michigan, and became a huge hit on US radio, and a top 40 hit on Billboard in the spring of 1979. The song would go on to become one of the band’s trademark tunes, and regular show closer with the “bye bye” ‘s put in as the song comes roaring to a halt. “Get Ready For Love” was the follow up single, which didn’t do much, but it’s another strong track that would feature in the band’s live set. April Wine – Get ready for Love 1979 – YouTube
Brian Greenway would contribute the track “Right Down To It”, another good rock track, which had been demo’d by The Dudes. He also took lead vocals on the track “Let Yourself Go”, which was issued as a single in Canada. Side 2 would start with another hit, in the powerful ballad “Comin’ Right Down On Top Of Me”, which began with piano and vocal before the band came in, giving this a good bit of bite; great guitars and vocal on this. Lyrically, during this period Myles Goodwyn was penning some of his most memorable songs, plenty of cool stories and thoughts put down, and less of songs about relationships and ‘rock’. The 2nd half also features 2 of the band’s most underrated classics in “I’m Alive”, an upbeat anthem which has that same kinda punchy feel and vocal to it as “Don’t Push Me Around”; the other being the album’s closer “Silver Dollar”, a slower scary tale, loads of awesome guitar throughout this one from Goodwyn, Greenway, and Gary Moffett; a mere 5 and a half minutes, but quite an epic; too bad it wasn’t stretched out longer (minor complaint in side 2 being a bit short). April Wine – Silver Dollar – YouTube
First Glance began the band’s most successful era; with the band receiving their first Gold record in the US. They would soon be on a few major US tours opening for Blue Oyster Cult and Styx, followed by a pair of highly successful albums and headlining tours in North America, and trips to the UK and Germany. Aquarius Records would also issue Greatest Hits in 1979, which included 14 of the band’s hits covering up to First Glance, as well it featured the same band photo that featured on the US version of that album. For me it is a toss up between First Glance and the follow up Harder…Faster as the band’s best; they definitely seemed to have more energy and edge on these 2 albums, despite the band’s 1981 Nature Of The Beast being their biggest seller.
This year [1981] was a big year for Canadian rock, Canada’s biggest 3 hard-rock acts at the time all had their biggest selling albums – April Wine’s Nature Of The Beast; Rush’s Moving Pictures and Triumph’s – Allied Forces. So 1981 may have been one of [or the] best years in Canadian rock [!?] But I’m already thinking of 1980 & ’82 – an amazing period for bands from this country. I’ve compiled a list of a 10 great Canadian albums released that year, and that was cutting it down from a list of about 20 [ok, most I have on vinyl].
Feel free to chime in with your own favorites from 1981 in the comments… anything at the top of your list you think I need to check out?
Rush – Moving Pictures
Released in February, and would feature such classics as “Tom Sawyer”, “Limelight”, “Red Barchetta”, “YYZ”, etc…. The band would follow this up with the double live Exit…Stage Left released later in ’81.
April Wine – Nature of The Beast
This came out in January, 11 great tracks on this album, with notable hits “Just Between You And Me”, and a remake of Lorence Hud’s “Sign Of The Gypsy Queen”; plus hard rockin’ favorites like “Big City Girls” and “Future Tense”.
Triumph – Allied Forces
Released in September, and featured the hit “Magic Power”, as well as other classics “Fight The Good Fight” and “Fool For Your Love”. 40th Anniversary box set coming this summer!
Loverboy – Get Lucky
Loverboy’s 1980 debut album was huge, included 3 hit singles, and the band won a few Juno’s (Canadian music awards) from it. This follow up was nearly as big, with another string of hit singles, most notably the anthem “Working For The Weekend”.
Santers – Shot Down In Flames
Toronto hard-rock trio’s debut LP, late in the year. Featured the title track (dedicated to Bon Scott), as well as rockers like “Caught In The Wind” and “Crazy Ladies”, as well as a cover of Donnie Iris’ “The Rapper”.
Frank Marino – The Power of Rock n Roll
Marino’s first album labelled as a solo album (minus Mahogany Rush, though he used the same rhythm section and engineer) from the summer of ’81. Marino, from Montreal, influenced by Hendrix, killer guitar playing here and some cool tunes like “Play My Music”, “Stay With Me”, “Crazy Miss Daisy”, and “Ain’t Dead Yet”. This album, wasn’t a huge commercial success, but it’s follow up would be.
Saga – World’s Apart
Saga’s 4th and biggest album as well, released in September. It featured the hits “On The Loose” and “Wind Him Up”, perhaps the band’s best known songs, as well as the ballad “No Regrets”. Hugely successful overseas, particularly in Germany.
Frank Soda – Saturday Night Getaway
Frank Soda & The Imps were backing band for Thor in the mid 70s, then went off on their own to make a few albums. This, released later in ’81 was the first just credited to Frank, as it sees him re-do a number of tracks from the band’s 1979 [live] debut. If you’re not familiar – check it out,
Anvil – Hard N Heavy
The first (and arguably) the best from this Toronto Heavy metal band. Originally released independently under the band name of ‘Lips’ before signing to Attic and changing the name. Released in May, and featured the classics “School Love”, “Bedroom Game”, “Ooh Baby”, as well as the band’s metalized pounding of the Stones “Paint It Black”. A very influential band on many thrash metal bands to come.
Red Rider – As Far As Siam
From June, this cleverly titled 2nd album featured the hit singles “What Have You Got To Do (To Get Off Tonight)”, as well as the band’s best known song “Lunatic Fringe”, which featured in the movie Vision Quest, as well as a few TV shows like Miami Vice and My Name Is Earl.
Other mentions: Toronto – Head On , The Kings – Amazon Beach , Goddo – Pretty Bad Boys, Pat Travers – RadioActive, Butler – Butler , Bryan Adams – You Want It You Got It, The Guess Who – Now And Not Then .
Esoteric Antenna label is pleased to announce the release of a new CD EP by the legendary PROCOL HARUM to be released 7 May 2021
Legendary British progressive rock band Procol Harum have a new 3 track EP coming. The band lead by founding member – and one of Britain’s recognizable voices – Gary Brooker, and also includes longtime guitarist Geoff Whitehorn (ex Crawler) . “Missing Persons” is a song that was in the band’s live set some years ago, but strangely never made it to the band’s 2017 album Novum; I say ‘strangely’ because it’s a fantastic song! The slow organ intro, before Brooker’s unmistakable voice comes in with piano, followed by the band. It’s a classic PH ballad, that leaves space for Brooker to deliver lyrics that many will relate to today, it’s a moving song about loss. It rocks a good bit in places, with Geoff Whitehorn delivering a couple of fine solos, especially as the song picks up pace as it comes to a close. The other new song here is “War Is Not Healthy”. It reminds me of a ’60s protest song, pretty funky, great chorus, and some cool slide guitar and organ throughout this one. The EP ends with a radio edit of “Missing Persons” (heck – I wish radio played stuff like this!) Here’s hoping there’s a full album in the not-so-distant future.
Missing Persons (Alive Forever) was completed during lockdown, after founder and lead singer Gary Brooker rediscovered a CD of rough mixes of two studio tracks the band had laid down during a previous session. “They weren’t written last week, neither are they old” says Gary, but the precise date of the original recordings remain a mystery. With the world locked down Gary and the band revisited these tracks and they now proudly sit alongside the band’s venerable catalogue.
The title track Missing Persons (Alive Forever) is a particularly poignant and emotive song, and a fine example of the musical tradition of Procol Harum. Gary adds: “Keith Reid’s lyrics sound incredibly apt for the time we’re living in, this is the sound of Procol Harum today.” The EP’s other new song War Is Not Healthy is also a touching observation of war and its impact on humanity.
This is Procol Harum at their timeless best.
Procol Harum is Gary Brooker (vocals, piano) Geoff Whitehorn (guitar) Josh Phillips (organ) Geoff Dunn (drums) Matt Pegg (bass)
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Outsider Rock 