Tag Archives: andy curran

CONEY HATCH – an interview with Dave Ketchum

2 Comments

Canada’s CONEY HATCH has a brand new 2LP (2 disc) anniversary edition of their classic debut album. The second LP in the set contains the band’s 1982 show at the famous Cleveland Agora, which, along with the added artwork, liner notes, and remastered sound, make this a great package for any 80s hard-rock fans. Dave Ketchum is a founding member of the band, and was a huge part of that debut album, driving classics like “Monkey Bars”, Devil’s Deck”, and the hit “Hey Operator”. The band is performing an acoustic show Friday, November 14 at the Redwood Theater, in Toronto. In this interview Dave talks about the band’s early days, working with Kim Mitchell, thoughts on the other ‘Hatch albums, what he did after he left the band and is up to these days, as well as the band’s upcoming show, and some of his influences and favorite drummers! This was a lot of fun. thanks Dave.

First, I want to talk about this release here (hold up new Coney Hatch anniversary LP), before we go back and talk about the album and the early days. This collects everything from that era that’s known to be out there, with the outtakes and the Cleveland show.

Right. It was Anthem Records idea to do an anniversary edition. It’s got lots of cool stuff in it. You know, they remastered the first album to today’s standards. And then someone found a copy of a show we did at the Agora in Cleveland, Ohio in 82.  The cool thing about the Agora was that, because I don’t know whether you know this, but we did the show at noon. And the reason for that is it’s all mic’d up and everything else, and it went out on a radio station to over a million people. So it was kind of cool, because Rush was playing in town that night. So we did the show at noon, and then well, I don’t know about everybody else, I went back to bed for a couple hours. Then we went out and saw the Rush show in Cleveland that night, and went backstage. That’s the first time I got to meet the guys in Rush. It was pretty cool.  And we joked that they played to 20-25,000 people at the arena, but we played to a million!

A lot went into the packaging, obviously. I’ve got the CD and the vinyl here. So, the colored vinyl, the gatefold and the inserts and that was all pretty cool. Did you guys have much say in all that, like, where you guys all kind of chipped in on that, or what?

Well, the pictures are mostly from Andy and Carl. They’re obviously all pictures I’ve seen before. Andy works very closely with Anthem, so he kind of had a lot to do with pushing the product through, having it made, and all that. I’ve known about it from the beginning, but I don’t think I personally did a whole lot for it, just kind of check-marked off things when ideas came up and stuff like that.

Did you save much over the years? Like from those days, did you save any like flyers or tapes or stuff like that?

I had a bunch of stuff from way back and it got lost in a house and it got filled with water in the basement, and I lost almost everything from the early days. So, it’s funny because through the years, Andy sent me some stuff, and fans have sent me things. A few years ago, I got a package in the mail and it had a bunch of the little singles. (walks over to collection to grab things) They sent me copies of the first few albums and then sent me a bunch of these little 45s, from the old days.

(*At this point Dave shows me some Coney Hatch promo singles from his collection)

I have a really cool Max Webster one. I don’t know how that got in my, in my collection (laughs).Well, actually, I do know how that got in my collection. Back in the early 80s, when we were with Anthem Records originally, when we were signed to them, and I lived in Toronto,  at the time, I’d go down to Anthem Records; they had this closet in their downstairs, and they’d have copies of everything that they produced, all their bands. They’d keep them in there as extras for giveaways or whatever. And I’d go down there. So I have most of the Max Webster collection; I have a pretty good selection of the Rush catalog, and of course, some of the Coney stuff. But yeah.

I’ve got a couple of 12-inch singles. (I show Dave a few 12 inch singles and LPs, including a few he signed backstage at LuLu’s in 1994, and my Japanese edition of the first LP)

I want to go back to the earliest days of the band, you and Andy formed the band in 79 !?

Yep.

I have seen some gig listings that go all the way back to then. So, wondering what kind of shows were you guys started out playing, what you recall of those days as far as what you played, and the other guys in the band?

 I had been playing in a band with a guy named Mark VanRemortel, guitar player-singer, that band broke up. And he had told me, “Oh, I got a guy I went to school with named Andy Curran. So, we got together and then they had another friend of theirs, whose name escapes me at the moment; and he also played guitar. We got together in… I want to say September of 79, and rehearsed a bit, and did some 8 x 10s – shots of the band, because that’s how you used to get gigs. Back in that day, you’d send out 8 x 10s. And then  just before the first gig, the original guitar player, he decided that he didn’t want to go on the road; so he quit. I had played back in 75, with a band. Now I was still in high school then, but I played in this band, And the guitar player from that band, a guy named Eddie Godlewski; he was lead guitarist in that band. It was called ‘Back Alley’, I think.

Anyway, so I gave him a call and he came along, and technically, he would probably be the very first guitar player for Coney Hatch, for maybe the first, )I don’t know..) six months or something like that. And then he, he decided he was going to go. So we put an ad in the paper, in the Toronto Star, because again, they used to have a category for musicians and stuff like that back in those days. And that’s when we got Steve Shelski, who, of course, is on all the albums. We carried on like that for almost a year. Then Paul VanRemortel was going to go back to college or school or something, and that’s when we put another ad in, and that’s when we got Carl Dixon.

What sort of stuff did you play in those earliest days? And what of the original songs from the first album were the kind of the earliest ones that you remember?

Well, we were young, and we weren’t sure what direction the band was really going to go in. We played a lot of like ACDC, Bon Scott, ACDC stuff. But then we’d go and play like The Police. We used to do this great song called “Drugs In My Pocket” (The Monks).  And we’d play some Cars. So  I mean, we were all over the road, when it came to what we were doing musically.

But as things started to kind of carry on….and I should say that back in those days, you played six nights a week. We had a manager, and he would get us gigs. We played every week. I think in 1980, we probably played 50 weeks of that year. And every week in a different place. Well, we’d repeat places, but it was mostly in northern Quebec and northern Ontario and not this far north, but Timmins, Sudbury, that kind of stuff. And yeah, we played six nights a week. So, you’d start to play on Monday, Monday to Saturday. Sometimes you had to do a matinee on Saturday. So, something, at noon kind of thing. And, then Sunday was your travel date to your next destination.

The cool part about that was, again, you played every day, and you played every day with a band, and in front of people, and you could get real feedback for what was working and what wasn’t working. And it was, obviously, a great way to learn our craft; it was a great way to learn your instrument. You just played so much. And it was great! In the 80s we were in our early 20s. We had an amazing time.

Really early ‘Hatch stuff… I want to say that “Monkey Bars” was a very early song. And, I think “Devil’s Deck”, I think those were the two very first songs that we did. And then we added things in afterwards, The funny part is, there were some songs that started off differently, very differently, and then eventually became what they were. There was one of the songs that we did that was called “I’m Lazy”. And I believe that became, “I’ll Do The Talking”, maybe. Anyway, we were starting to play these songs a few years before we actually recorded them, and things changed as they went along. I think “Stand Up” started off faster than it ended up being.  When we actually got into the studio with Kim Mitchell, he did a lot of stuff with that; changing tempo and stuff like that.

There’s obviously some outtakes from that album. Do you remember a song called “Car Stares”?

Yes.

I’ve seen that listed before. I’m sure I’ve seen it on a bootleg or something. But I don’t recall hearing it.

It was from our era where we were still hadn’t decided whether we were going to be like a rock band or, or, because it’s almost punky in sound. It’s really fast. That was an Andy song. He was the guy, mostly that was just in love with kind of the tail end of new wave – kind of punky stuff; and so some of his writing was like that at first. And, they’re songs that we either just never did, or songs that got rearranged later on and stuff like that.

I always found, especially on the first album, that dynamic of having the two singers and they’re being from two different influences, like two very different.

Yeah, absolutely. Carl’s more like, mainstream, I guess, maybe would be the…whereas Andy’s got a very different voice; I think, a little bit less mainstream and a little bit more unique. And he went for kind of the rockier, more melodic stuff, if that makes sense.

On that first album, you guys all had credits on that. What were a couple of the songs that you had the most hand in?  

Well, again, I’d say the two that I get credit for is “We Got The Night”, and then “Stand Up”, I believe those are the two that I have credit on.  Again, it had a lot to do with Kim, to be honest. He’d sit with me and we’d go through a few things. The drum intro to “We Got The Night” was something that I’d been messing around with, and Kim really liked it, and wanted to add it to the beginning of the song, basically. Originally, the song didn’t have that drum intro. And like I said, Kim really liked it, he was like,” No, no, this is great! Let’s put this at the beginning”. And with “Stand Up”, again, tempo-wise, feel-wise, that’s kind of what I brought to those songs. 

And the other songs that I really liked that were around… There was “Dreamland” and “Where I Draw The Line”, which was the one that got dropped for “Hey Operator”.

Yeah, it’s funny, “Hey Operator” came in right at the tail end. When you record an album, you put the bed-tracks, down for 15 songs, if you know, to have nine released, or whatever it is!?  So, there’s always stuff in the can, so to speak, that can be used, or don’t ever get used or whatever. And, some of the fourth album that we did was stuff that hung around. That was done in 2013, but some of those things were ideas from the 80s.

I got to be honest, I really like “Dreamland”. I thought it was a great song, and I thought it fit in really well with the album.  Of course, it was not on the original release, it’s on the anniversary release.  But again, a lot of those decisions were between not just the band, but the band and Kim and the band, Kim and the record label. So, you’re looking at that time, and I guess they fit. And obviously, adding “Hey Operator” was a good idea. I just thought it was kind of a shame that that we didn’t somehow add in “Dreamland”.

And we just, only a couple of years ago, actually, we did a show where we played the first album from beginning to end, and that included “Dreamland”  and “Where I Draw The Line” We have not played “Sin After Sin” since the since the early 80s.  And we’re going to do something kind of similar to that on November 14th in Toronto, at the Redwood Theatre.

We’re once again, going to get to play some of these songs that were never released for the first 40 years of our career. And, then now have been again. So, I think that’s kind of cool.

You guys went on to the second album, you had Max Norman brought in, and it kind of changed things a lot. Obviously, the first album had that flow of energy and the bit of rawness and all, that kind of went from song to song. And the second album seemed to be a little more of an attempt at more radio mainstream, with the production?

Yeah. You know, by that time, the record label was making a lot of decisions for us. Max Norman had had had a name in the business. The band wanted Kim to do to do the second album, and the record label talked us out of it. And, they wanted to use Max, Max had a history with doing the Ozzy Osbourne stuff. So Max was brought in. You know, if I’m being honest, it wasn’t as much fun for me. I loved working with Kim. Kim understood the band, Kim was almost the fifth member of the band. At least that’s how it felt. Whereas Max was much more of a engineer than he was a producer. Kim got into the songs with us better, Max just kind of barked out orders (haha). And don’t get me wrong, I listen to the second album now, and it’s definitely different than the first one. I agree with you on that. I’ve grown to like it more, like now than I did then. I think it’s got some pretty quirky things on there, and some very interesting things that we did. But yeah, it definitely was a very different experience than making the first album.

The second album, I always found it odd; there’s nine songs, and with the five on the first side…it took me a long time to get into the second side as much until I saw you guys last year when you did the whole album. It kind of made a little more sense for me, especially the last track, that everything kind of went together a little better, I think, hearing the whole album in its entirety live.

And that’s what I’m talking about. It took me a really long time to kind of get into the feel of it as well, to kind of really enjoy it. It’s funny when back in those days, because when you recorded everything live, like live on to track to make an album, it’s not like now with click tracks and all this other stuff.  I can listen to those albums now and really enjoy them. At the time all I could hear were the really, really minor mistakes and it used to drive me crazy. But yeah, when we rehearsed it, was it last year…to do the second album, and play it live from beginning to end, it was really refreshing. It was like, “Oh, okay”.  And playing it all together,  just like you said, playing it all together – it made it a lot more sense. I got a new appreciation for the second album that I never really had before. And actually, I really quite enjoy it now.

Do you have any favorites from that album as far as playing live?

I love the last song, “Music Of The Night”. The feel of it…

It has a very late-night radio…something you want to hear after hours.

It’s funny because “Music Of The Night” started off as just a jam. We were just horsing around, and we got into this really cool groove. All the music was done, and then Carl came up with the lyrics for it later. It wasn’t one of those songs that either Carl or Andy just brought in half done; it was literally made from scratch. That was fun.

You weren’t around for Friction, and I don’t need to go into what happened…

My wife and I had children.  So, for a brief time there I didn’t want to do the travelling. And I could see that our American record label had started to lose some interest in the band. So, I just thought ‘maybe I’ll get off this ride now’ , and let them carry on. That’s the biggest reason for it. And of course, Barry Connors came in and did the third album. I think they toured for about 6 months after that (I’m kind of throwing out numbers), and then the band broke up. And once we put it back together again a few years later, I was ready to start playing again and have fun with the boys. So really, I was really only absent from the band for less than a year, total.

You guys recently played the Friction album in it’s entirety, overseas. Did any of those songs have a beginning with you? Were you around for any of the ideas of what became songs on the album?

None. Again, once we decided to put the band back together in the later 80s… It was supposed to be a ‘one off’ show at Rock N Roll Heaven.  A friend of the band’s had died of meningitis, and he was English, and the family didn’t have the money to get him home. So we were going to do this one show to make up the funds to have the body sent back to his family in England. The response from the show was amazing, and that’s when we thought ‘OK, maybe we can do this a bit more’.  And the late 80s into the very early 90s we played lots! Lots of festivals in the area and playing weekends in the local bars and stuff like that.

And that’s eventually that turned into doing the fourth album, in 2013. We had an Italian record label (Frontiers) contact us and convince us to do another Coney Hatch album.

What did you think of Four? Were you happy with that?

Oh, I think it’s the best Coney Hatch album there is! It’s my favorite. That was done by us. Andy takes the producing credit on that album, but that was an album that was literally the four of us. And obviously, many years after the original albums, and time to grow as people, and grow instrumentally. I wish the fourth album had gotten more distribution…because it’s my favorite Coney Hatch album.

For me it’s the closest to the first one; it has that energy and raw edge to it…

Exactly. I couldn’t agree with you more. It is a modern version of the first album. I can only imagine, if it had been the second album, I think Coney Hatch would’ve been a much bigger band. There’s some really good radio friendly songs on there, and there’s some great groove stuff that the four of us get into. Great album! Again, absolutely my favorite album!

So, are you retired now?

Well, I am retired from my day job. I have a degree in child and youth work. And for 22 years, I worked at a secure custody young offenders’ facility in Thunder Bay.  So basically, kids under the age of 19. But, you know, everything from murderers to gang kids to whatever.  I retired from that in 2021, I believe. So, I think it’s been about four years that I retired from that job. And then, of course, immediately went out and joined a bunch of local bands around the Thunder Bay area, to keep myself amused. So, between Coney and three bands up here. I play in a 50s band, with an 81-year-old saxophone player. It’s just an amazing band; it’s so much fun. They’re very well known up here in northern Ontario. And then I play in sometimes three piece, sometimes four-piece rock band that does 70s, 80s, 90s, rock, and with about a 70% Canadian content – including a Coney Hatch song, we do “Monkey Bars”. And then my wife is also a musician, a phenomenal singer. And she has a country band that I was sequestered into probably about five, six years ago.  She’s an amazing singer, and she plays guitar, and then she plays bass as well. She is the basically the full-time bass player in this country band. Yeah, fun stuff. It keeps me amused.

You sound busy!  

Yeah, busy enough – rehearsals and shows, and trying to keep down the repertoires for four different bands. Yeah, it’s a bit of a thing, but…I am retired, so, yeah, it’s fun. And then throw in, I don’t know, the two and a half to three weeks of summer here in Northern Ontario (I’m, of course joking), but I also like to get out and play golf a couple times a week. So yeah, it keeps me busy.

Well, the corrections thing, is that something you got into after when you left Coney?

No, that was something after I had moved up here to the north.  We actually left Toronto, my wife and myself and our two kids. We left Toronto in 91 and came up here because my wife Bonnie is from Thunder Bay, and had a lot of family up here; whereas, at that time, my parents were living in Tennessee, so I only had a brother there. And he took over the house that we were all living in, and we came up here to be around a whole whack of family. It was great for the kids, because, you know, lots of lots of camping….If you’ve ever been to Northern Ontario,  as someone who’s been around a lot of this planet, for the four months, especially, of good weather, I will put Northern Ontario up against just about any place on the planet as far as being just beautiful. It just has so much going for it, hundreds, if maybe thousands of inland, beautiful lakes, and just great camping and fishing. And of course, for those who partake, I do not, but there’s great hunting up here.

Yeah, it’s a beautiful place to live. It was great for the kids to grow up, up here. It’s, especially, going back 30 years, it was a very safe place to live. Not that it’s not now. But It was a great move for our family.

And, just from then on, I just log in a lot of air miles, flying back and forth whenever I need to. It’s a quick…. between an hour and a half – two hour flight. And, I have family down there in Toronto. My brother is there, and his whole family, who also look after our mom, they live in the East End. My oldest son was in Vancouver for many years, and then he came back, …maybe almost two years ago, and is working in Toronto. So as an example, when I come down to do the Coney Hatch show, I’ll stay with my oldest boy, and him and I have a great time.

In the years after Coney Hatch, did you do anything like as far as recording, session work, or do you have any offers to do joining bands or anything?  

I did. But I was so kind of, I guess, for lack of a better term, I was just burnt out, by the end of 84.  I got some kind of interesting offers and stuff; but you know, we had just had our first son….  And, just didn’t want to travel anymore for a while. I had done it for a bunch of years. I just wanted to give that a rest. And I believe it or not, I drove a cab in Toronto for a while; it didn’t go all that well, but I did it for a little bit and then and then just got into… I worked for Ford, in their glass division for a while, and then ended up getting a truck license. And then I drove a crane truck for about the remainder of my time in Toronto before we came up to Thunder Bay. And, then I got into logging up here for a while. Now, still doing Coney Hatch stuff, once we resumed near the end of the 80s. I think 87 is when I think we started back. So, I was still in Toronto for that. And then when I moved up, I just kind of carried on where we were. We became weekend warriors’ kind of kind of thing. I mean, there was a time period there when my second son was born in 88, there was a time period there where Coney was working almost every weekend, at least three out of the four weekends, and, honestly, I didn’t need a job, so I stayed home and played Mr. Mom and looked after our youngest when he was a baby and, and my wife continued working. And then, and then like I said, when we came up to came up to Thunder Bay, I did some log hauling for a while and ended up getting hurt doing that. And then that’s when I went to college. And that’s how I got my child and youth work diploma.

Did you see the band? Like, after Carl left the band, they had a couple other singers in for a bit for a year.

Never saw any of the other parts of Coney except when it was Andy, Steve and Carl, and then they used Barry Connors from Toronto. I saw that; I think one show, just wanted to come out and say Hi to the guys. And again, I was still in Toronto, and saw them once, it was kind of short lived before it started to go into all these other variations of Coney Hatch.

And, of course, both Carl and Andy at different points, going off to do solo stuff. So yeah, no, never saw any of the other versions. And then, like I said, it completely stopped. I don’t know exactly when because I wasn’t involved and then started back up in 87. And, and I’ve been involved ever since. 

(A discussion about the amount of shows the band did when it restarted in 87 ensues, with me not be able to read CD covers and Dave trying to recall the 5-city tour for the Best Of release. Dave estimates the band did about 100+ shows from 87 to 91. I show Dave the front page of the local Niagara entertainment rag with Coney Hatch on the front from 1992).

I was at the show in Toronto, where you did the first album. And I was at the show last year, where you guys did all of Outa Hand. I seem to recall you guys went into the studio while you were in town. (I think somebody posted that).

We went in and did the basically the bed tracks. We did two more songs. And they are, to my understanding, close to being done. We just kind of put them in the can and put them away for a little bit just till we kind of needed them. And I know that the boys started.

They did some studio work, the three of them, they didn’t need me because my part’s done. I want to say early fall. So just recently, they’ve gone in and did a lot of the stuff. I’m not sure if the vocals are done yet on them. But anyway, they’re really close. So two more songs. And we haven’t decided yet what to do with them. The last time we had a couple of extra songs, “It’s About a Girl” and an Andy song, “Heaven’s On The Other Side”, and they were put on with the live album. So, again, we have two more songs. Andy’s song is called “R…..”,. and Carl’s is still untitled because as of the last time that we spoke about it, anyway, it was I don’t know if he had settled on lyrics yet… But we haven’t decided yet what to do with those two, whether we’re going to do another eight, nine, 10 songs and actually put out a new album. We have been in discussions to do that, or whether we will put it out with something else.  Hard to say. I do know, I believe we are going to record this show, the Unplugged one. And so I guess the two songs could go out with that. Just so you know, just so we keep the fans happy and give them stuff that they want to hear and want to listen to and …just keep putting out some new stuff every once in a while, that so that it makes sense to continue to come out and see us. (haha)

Will the Unplugged show will be like just the specific album or will be a crossover of  everything?

It is in line with the anniversary edition of the first album. So, it’s going to be the full first album, and I believe two of the tracks that were like “Dreamland” and “Where I Draw The Line”.  I don’t think we’re going to do the third one because it was never actually completely done. So, I believe that’s what we’re going to be doing is mainly doing the first album.

And again, we’re doing it Unplugged. I was starting off where I was just going to use bongos and now I’m going to use a real drum kit. But I doubt I’ll be using like real drumsticks.  I’ll use variations. There’s a drumstick that you can get that have a bunch of bamboo rods in it. It makes it a lot quieter.  So that’s plan A for me. But we’ll see where it ends up going. But the guys…I believe Carl is going completely on an acoustic. Andy is going to play acoustic bass, but I think he’s also going to play a couple of songs on an electric bass. And Sean is, from the last time we talked, is going to play kind of a halfway in between, if you will, an acoustic and an electric guitar, which will, still make it, I think, again, in this drummer’s opinion, a little easier for him to do solos and stuff like that. But still, it kind of sounds like an acoustic. That’s my understanding of the instrument he’s looking to play.

Do you keep in touch with Steve at all?

I don’t; but I don’t live in Toronto anymore. You know what I mean? So, I don’t really get an opportunity to see Steve. I know Andy and Steve were always really good friends. And I do believe they kind of keep in touch to a point. Last time I saw him would have been whatever the last show was. What did what did Tony’s East and West, what did they turn into whatever they’re called now(?) We played those two after we recorded the fourth album. So probably around 2014 would have been probably the last time that I saw Steve.

I saw you guys in 2014 in the Falls and I think Sean was playing then.

OK. So maybe it was 2013 because, again, that was the release date of Four. Maybe that was the shows that we did. That’s also very likely.

What did you grow up on as far as favorite bands, drummers and albums?

Well, I would say for me, Zeppelin – find me a drummer that doesn’t say John Bonham, right!? Ian Paice, Deep Purple, they were big for me. As a matter of fact, my earlier style, I would say mirrored Ian Paice a lot more than it did John Bonham. And then for me, bands that I loved, Aerosmith, again before they got sober (haha). I liked all that stuff. I saw them, I think, two or three times. And matter of fact, my youngest son – his second name is Tyler. And it’s purposely after Steve Tyler. And then again, just from learning to play, we were playing so much AC/DC, that there are times when we are putting our own stuff together, and Andy will literally say to me “Start off doing a Rudd!”, which is Phil Rudd, the early drummer for AC/DC. And that is just a pure and heavy 2 and 4, between the snare and the kick. And there’s others… I remember going to see Missing Persons, Andy and I, in the late 80s. We went to see Missing Persons in Buffalo, at this bar that Coney would play every once in a while, one of our favorite places to play. Missing Persons, which was Terry Bozzio’s band, and he was originally Frank Zappa’s drummer, and his wife at the time was the singer, and then some side guys (I apologize to them, I don’t know who they are). I remember standing there in this bar, watching Terry Bozzio play drums, and I leaned over to Andy and said “I don’t think Terry Bozzio and I play the same instrument!”  He was doing stuff that completely, so far out of my league. A different style of music of course, but he was doing stuff that made my jaw drop. And of course, being on the same label as Rush, there was a couple of different times that we got to go see Rush. And I had gone and seen Rush as a fan back in the early days. I’d seen Rush a bunch of times. And again, what drummer isn’t going to say that Neil Peart wasn’t one of the best of all time, right!? My dad played drums, so when I took up the sport…the sport of drumming , I think was in grade 5.. Anyway, he took me to see Buddy Rich once, and then I went to see him another time. And this was a guy doing stuff with a pretty small kit but just doing stuff that was unworldly. It was just amazing to watch.  I would love to say Buddy Rich was an influence, but he was more of a hero than an influence. I just couldn’t do what he did. But as far as what I wanted to be as a drummer, yeah there’s some Bonham in there, and Ian Paice, and throw in a sprinkle of Phil Rudd, I think you’d come close to what I ended up with.

Did you ever go and see some of the early Canadian bands such as April Wine with Jerry Mercer, or Lighthouse with Skip Prokop?

You know what, Lighthouse played my High School! It would’ve been 74, 75, somewhere in there. I was a kid, and I remember it was really cool, great band. And I got to see Max Webster that way too; again – played my high school. Kim and I had a great laugh over that.  You probably know that Carl got to play in April Wine for a couple of years. And actually, my oldest son roadied for them for a summer, while he was in high school. Him and Jerry became best of buddies because both my boys play drums, and my oldest one, he’s an incredible drummer, they both are! But seeing Jerry, the guy was like a machine. He was a phenomenal drummer, and some of the stuff he did, some of the off-time stuff that April Wine would do … They were one of those bands that should’ve been SO much bigger than they are. As much as they are in Canada – they’re legendary, but as far as the world goes, I am always shocked that April Wine was not a bigger band than they were. And Jerry was a big part of that. He was just a powerhouse. And again, even in his later years… I think in ’06 Coney Hatch got to play the Sweden Rock Festival, and April Wine was there, and I got to talk to Myles, and he absolutely remembered my son. And the connection between many Canadian bands, I mean we’ve done many shows with Goddo, we did a bunch of shows with The Headpins, we’ve done shows with Lee Aaron. Yeah, the Canadian market, when you kind of get to that level, it’s all kind of one big happy family.  It’s always so fun to do festivals in Canada because it’s like Homecoming, you get to see all these guys and girls that you’ve known for years; all these bands that have done well in Canada, and beyond, of course.

One of the first shows I saw was April Wine in ’84, and Jerry’s solos were a highlight of their shows.

Yeah, absolutely. And he did them right up until… and I went and saw them, I think this is when my son got hired, and Carl was playing in the band at the time. I think it was Jerry’s 65th (?) birthday, and his solo was as good as it was 30 years earlier! The guy was doing drum solos right up until the day he retired from April Wine.  

He was something to see, with the whistle going and everything…

Like I said, the man was a machine. I don’t consider him underrated – he IS underrated. I think he should be talked about in the same way that Neil Peart is spoken about; I really believe that. He did great stuff and is a cool guy.

(We end things with me showing Dave a few more things from my collection ;-))

*Live photos of Dave and of Coney Hatch, courtesy of Donald Gadziola – https://www.instagram.com/rushguyyyz/

LINKS:

www,coneyhatch.com

https://www.instagram.com/ketchum_dave/

https://www.instagram.com/coneyhatchmusic/

https://www.facebook.com/ConeyHatch

https://www.instagram.com/seankellyguitar/

http://www.andycurranmusic.com

http://www.carldixon.com

Coney Hatch (Anniversary Edition) [Blue/Orange Vinyl 2LP]
Coney Hatch (Anniversary Edition) [2CD]

CONEY HATCH – Classic debut album issued as 2LP set, upcoming Toronto show announced.

Leave a comment

Fans of Canadian hard rock legends Coney Hatch will soon be able to experience their classic self-titled debut album with fully remastered audio by acclaimed engineer Harry Hess. On October 24, 2025, “Coney Hatch” will be reissued via Anthem Records, marking the anniversary of the band’s gold debut album some four decades after its original May 21, 1982 release.  To celebrate this iconic release, the band have announced their only appearance of 2025 with a special up close and unplugged performance on Friday, November 14 at The Redwood Theatre in Toronto. To order tickets, visit: https://www.theredwoodtheatre.com/event-details/coneyhatch   This beautiful 2LP reissue breathes new life into the classic album. Featuring the group’s classic line-up (singer/guitarist Carl Dixon, singer/bassist Andy Curran, lead guitarist Steve Shelski, and drummer Dave Ketchum, the debut spawned such classic rock gems as “Devil’s Deck,” bringing out every searing riff and soaring vocal with stunning clarity and power. “After over four decades of touring and recording, it’s truly special to see this anniversary release come to life,” Curran says. “The artwork, rare photos, and the discovery of the Cleveland Agora live audio from our very first show in the USA add a perfect finishing touch for  the band and our dedicated fans.” And collectors take note: the blue/orange 2-LP edition is a LIMITED EDITION first pressing of ONLY 500 UNITS available!  To order the album, visit:  https://lnk.to/ConeyHatchAnniversary Adding to the release are never-before-heard “Live in Cleveland” recordings, captured at the band’s first-ever U.S. show at the iconic Agora Ballroom in 1982. This raw, high-energy performance showcases the band at their hard-hitting best and marks a key moment in their rise in the music scene just prior to joining Judas Priest on a 30 date North American “Screaming for Vengeance” tour. Dixon adds, “Our show at the Redwood Theatre will be the first time presenting the mighty Hatch sound in an Unplugged & Acoustic format. Still intense, with the same tightness and power that all these years together have built, but with more nuance and emphasis on the songs and vocals. We have some surprises planned and we can’t wait to show off our skills in a new setting!”  Fans can dig deeper into the band’s history with ultra-rare photos unearthed from the personal archives of the band members, offering an intimate glimpse into Coney Hatch’s early years. This release includes rare 1982 vintage audio sound bites from Kim Mitchell, where he reflects on producing the band during their formative days. This is a must-have collector’s item for die-hard fans and music history buffs. Anthem’s first pressing for Canada on opaque blue vinyl and translucent orange vinyl, includes: · The fully remastered debut album “Coney Hatch” · Three bonus Tracks: “Dreamland”, “Where I Draw The Line” and “Sin After Sin (Demo)” previously only available on UK import version of the album. · Never-before-heard “Live at The Agora Cleveland, 1982” recordings  · Ultra-rare photos unearthed from the band’s personal archives · Rare 1982 vintage audio sound bites from Kim Mitchell  Come Friday, October 24th, get ready to experience this ’80s rock classic like you never have before! 

CONEY HATCH ANNIVERSARY TRACKLIST: 
 SIDE A:1. Devil’s Deck (4:26)2. You Ain’t Got Me (3:25)3. Stand Up (3:31)4. No Sleep Tonight (3:21)5. Love Poison (3:44)6. We Got The Night (3:08) SIDE
B:7. Hey Operator (3:16)8. I’ll Do The Talkin (3:07)9. Victim Of Rock (3:11)10. Monkey Bars (4:21)11. Dreamland (3:43)12. Where I Draw The Line (3:53) SIDE
C:13. Sin After Sin (Demo) (4:00)14. Devil’s Deck (Live at The Agora Cleveland, 1982) (5:09)15. We Got The Night (Live at The Agora Cleveland, 1982) (3:15)16. Stand Up (Live at The Agora Cleveland, 1982) (3:15)17. You Ain’t Got Me (Live at The Agora Cleveland, 1982) (3:30) SIDE
D:18. Victim Of Rock (Live at The Agora Cleveland, 1982) (3:15)19. Where I Draw The Line (Live at The Agora Cleveland, 1982) (4:02)20. I’ll Do The Talkin’ (Live at The Agora Cleveland, 1982) (3:04)21. Dreamland (Live at The Agora Cleveland, 1982) (3:50)22. Love Poison (Live at The Agora Cleveland, 1982) (3:39)23. No Sleep Tonight (Live at The Agora Cleveland, 1982) (3:23)
  
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT: coneyhatch.com

ANDY CURRAN – ‘Whiskey & The Devil, Interview

3 Comments
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

CONEY HATCH – Carl Dixon on new live album, upcoming show, and 1982’s debut album

2 Comments
Photo– DonaaldGadziolaPhotography

This weekend CONEY HATCH will be celebrating 40 years And the release of a new live album. Postcard From Germany will be released (and available at the show) in a 2CD set, coupled with the band’s classic 1982 debut album (remastered with bonus tracks!). In a recent exchange Carl Dixon answers questions on the band’s new release, as well as their first album, and (potential) future plans. Enjoy the read, and check out the links below. Tickets for this Saturday’s show At the El Mocambo in Toronto are available here – https://www.ticketweb.ca/event/postcard-from-germany-album-release-under-the-neon-palms-at-tickets/13483218

Q: ‘Postcard From Germany‘ has been out for a while via Cleopatra, what was the reasoning for this new release (rerelease?)? 

Carl: We wanted to make a Canadian territory release similar to our early days with Anthem Records, and it’s a great opportunity to pair the most recent with our remastered debut.

So….the 40th Anniversary of the first Coney Hatch album was celebrated at the end of last year, will this celebration on the 11th be different as far as the set-list goes? 

Yes, we’ll feature material from 5 different albums, including the song Andy sings on Postcard, Heaven’s on the Other Side which we did not perform last time!

Will there be some new merch special for this occasion? (a debut album shirt Perhaps)

There is a plan in motion to do just that. The Double -CD package will be available at the show also. 

Might we get (even down the road) a full performance of the Outa Hand album? 

Ah, clever lad, you’ve anticipated our next marketing ploy

Live From Germany turned out to be an excellent live recording; has it inspired (for lack of a better word) you guys to (want to) record any future shows? (Any chance you recorded last December’s El Mo show?) 

Ummm, we haven’t thought about going to the well for more live albums, now having two, but you never know what the future holds

Being your first time playing Germany, and knowing how big of rock fans/ supporters Germans are, what was your biggest memory and lasting impression of playing that HEAT Fest in 2018?

It was most memorable to feel the audience excitement and hear them singing along. We love playing Germany and all Europe.

Both of the new tracks came out very good,  and gave us 2 memorable Coney tunes.  Were you happy with the way they turned out, the feedback, and has this planted the seed for possible new Coney Hatch in the near future?

Very happy, yes. It’s About a Girl and Heaven’s On the Other Side have pointed the way to getting more music recorded together as a band with great new guy (ha, 10 years) Sean Kelly.

All photos courtesy of Donald Gadziola

Regarding the first album…. Looking back on writing, recording – the whole experience. What is the biggest memory for you from it? And what was the biggest thing you learned from it? (being your first album) 

The biggest thing we learned from recording the first Coney Hatch album was that it’s so important to pay attention to details on every level; the lyrics, the performance, the musical parts that each musician plays, the gear you select, the setting, the scheduling, , staying healthy, even what you do at meal times! 

Do you recall how you felt about the album when it was done and released and if you (guys) felt you had something really special or something you thought might be a big success at the time? (How did you perceive it at the time) 

Kim Mitchell (producer) was very confident that it would be a success when it was done, so we took our cue from him. We felt that we had achieved our goals and even surpassed them. There was no feeling that we’d missed out or been pushed around by the label or producer.

There were a few tracks left off of ‘Coney Hatch’ , which are included as bonus tracks n this new release. And I know ‘Where I Draw The Line’ was bumped in favor of ‘Hey Operator’, but what do you recall of writing and/or recording that one (lyrical ideas), as well as ‘Dreamland’, and even ‘Sin After Sin’? 

Where I Draw the Line started as a musical jam during one of the many rehearsal/writing sessions we did on the road in the early days. I wrote a lyric for it based on my experience of leaving Montreal after being in a band there for a couple of years. Dreamland came out of my blues-rock riffing, probably influenced by Bad Company and Humble Pie, and the lyrics were based on a mix of actual dreams and some dramatic waking experiences. Sin After Sin came from Andy’s love of Judas Priest and similar heavy rock, written about a girl who’d, umm, let him down shall we say. 

Any recollections on the photo taken that ended up on the back of the debut album? (where taken, etc..)

Ha, that photo! We had a couple of photo shoots to get an album cover image, and the label guys felt we showed no “attitude” in the shots we were getting. Tom Berry (Anthem VP) decided to bring a case of beer to the next attempt, and the results were considerably loosened up this time. What they chose from that day was a picture of four semi-pickled young musicians each about four beers in…

Any Coney plans for 2024 – as far as any reissues, archived releases (thinking Cleveland 1982), major festivals, ….? 

Wow, Kreskin, again with the anticipating! Yes, we are looking at Cleveland’82 as one option and some other products to release through Anthem, the record label name we are happily reunited with (even if it’s none of the same people). Some rumblings also of a new album if there is deemed to be sufficient interest from the public. Two European dates on the calendar for next October: Firefest in Manchester and Bully on Rock in France. hoping for more to come in over there!

LINKS:

http://www.coneyhatch.com

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063052548185

http://www.carldixon.ca

https://www.instagram.com/rushguyyyz/ (Donald Gadziola Photography)

CONEY HATCH to celebrate 40 Years, Issue special 2CD set

Leave a comment



CELEBRATE 40 YEARS WITH LIVE SHOW IN TORONTO ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH

 Coney Hatch, one of Canada’s iconic rock bands will release a live album titled Postcard From Germany via Anthem Records on Friday, November 10th.  In celebration of this release, Coney Hatch will perform their final live performance of 2023 at the famed El Mocambo in Toronto on Saturday, November 11th.

“We’ve been halfway around the world this summer with shows at Sweden Rock and Hamburg, Germany,” says singer/bassist Andy Curran. “So returning to the El Mocambo is a special homecoming for us. We love playing in Toronto, it’s where we began this ride, and it’s a perfect time to celebrate 40 years together.”


Recorded on December 12, 2018 at HEAT Festival in Ludwigsburg, Postcard from Germany is a live recording of Coney Hatch’s 1st-ever live show in Germany. Comprised of a double CD, in addition to Postcard from Germany, 2 new songs will be included, as well as a remastered version of Coney Hatch’s classic self-titled debut – which will include 3 ‘bonus’ tracks from that period (“Dreamland”, “Where I Draw The Line”, and “Sin After Sin” (demo).

The album can be purchased via the following link:  https://lnk.to/CH2CD

“It was our very first time in Germany and the show was electric,” recalls Curran. “It was full on combat rock!!! We flew many hours to get there and quickly settled in with German beers and Schnitzel. The final results were more raw and in your face compared to previous live recordings. We also included more songs from our ‘Friction’ record in that set list”.

Postcard from Germany features almost all of the expected Coney classics “Devil’s Deck”, “Monkey Bars” and “Stand Up” as well as two newly-recorded studio tunes ‘It’s About A Girl” and “Heaven’s on the Other Side”.

“This album has a different set list from the ‘Live at the El Mocambo’ record, plus two new studio tracks we recorded over Covid. I produced those two new songs and it marks the first time guitarist Sean Kelly has been involved with recording of new Hatch songs. Sean stepped in to the lead guitar role in 2014 and we’re proud to have him.” 

In addition to Curran and Kelly, the group also includes original members lead vocalist/guitarist Carl Dixon and drummer Dave Ketchum.

Regarding the two new tracks, the band was willing to give background info about each. Curran: “‘Heaven’s On the Other Side’ was written around the time we recorded ‘Coney Hatch Four,’ and we finally got around to finishing it during the lockdown. The message is simple…keep the faith and trudge on through the bad times because the good times are always just around the corner. I also felt I was long overdue to write another song about the devil!!”

Dixon: “I had an idea driving ‘It’s About a Girl’; women are wonderful, women got the power, women gave every one of us our life. We men will do anything to get their attention. It’s Always About A Girl.”

Along with the ripping live set recording, and 2 new unreleased tracks, ‘Postcard From Germany’ album will be bundled with a remastered edition of the band’s iconic debut record CONEY HATCH, produced by Canada’s favorite vocalist/guitarist Kim Mitchell. 

This special edition 2 disc CD will only be available for purchase at the band’s live show and at your favorite local record stores.

Tickets and VIP M&G’s to the Toronto show are on sale now and can be purchased here: https://www.ticketweb.ca/event/postcard-from-germany-album-release-under-the-neon-palms-at-tickets/13483218

LINKS:

http://www.coneyhatch.com

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063052548185

https://www.instagram.com/coneyhatchmusic/?hl=en

Coney Hatch

CONEY HATCH – Postcard from Germany (a review)

1 Comment

Recorded in 2018, Postcard From Germany was kept in the can for a few years, and is being released this week. It follows the recording & release of Live At The El Mocambo (2020/21). Postcard From Germany was recorded at the HEAT Festival, in Ludwigsburg, consisting of 13 songs. BUT, a few interesting things that make this a ‘must have’ for Coney fans. First, the set-list does differ from the El Mocambo show, with an emphasis on the band’s 3rd album Friction. That album was a big hit over there, so this set includes 5 cuts from it. The show sounds energetic, and the Friction tunes (with Dave Ketchum on drums, who wasn’t on that album), as well as with then-new guitarist Sean Kelly, and minus the keyboards(!) they rock a bit more (IMO). The band’s other albums are all represented, though there’s the glaring omission of “Hey Operator” – which was not performed that night (for whatever reason, really!?). The band gets a nice intro in German (their first time in Germany), and seem to have enjoyed themselves. But this album has the added bonus of including 2 new studio tracks, the first Coney Hatch tunes to feature Sean Kelly, and finished around the time of the El Mocambo show in 2020. “It’s About A Girl” has already been released as a (digital) single and video, a fun pop-rocker from Carl Dixon, with a catchy chorus; a song that could’ve been a major hit … in another time. The other new track features Andy Curran on vocals, “Heaven’s On The Other Side” is a heavier rock tune, the intro reminds me of “Boys Club” (from CH Four), lots of cool guitar throughout this; old school Coney fans will dig this one!

*Find this on Amazon or get the limited signed copies from Cleopatra > https://cleorecs.com/store/shop/coney-hatch-postcard-from-germany-cd/

*There is an Album Release bash/show for Postcard From Germany September 22 at the El Mocambo

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063052548185

CONEY HATCH Release Brand New Track from upcoming Live album!

1 Comment

It’s been a decade since veteran rockers Coney Hatch, a band renowned as one of Canada’s hardest rocking exports, have released a new studio recording. So the arrival of the band’s brilliant new single “It’s About A Girl” is genuine cause for celebration! Even more so since it comes on the eve of the band’s triumphant return to the stage at the Sweden Rock Festival as well as the announcement about a forthcoming live album, Postcard From Germany. Fans of the band have been anxiously awaiting an official concert recording of the group, after all it’s the band’s captivating live shows which earned them a place on tours with everyone from Judas Priest to Iron Maiden to Peter Frampton to Cheap Trick and many more back in their ’80s heyday!

Today, however, the band proudly introduces a new studio recording, and like all great rock songs, it’s about a girl. Women have been powerful figures throughout history; we idolize and woo them; we emulate and pursue them. That’s the story behind “It’s About A Girl,” the new single with a soaring melody, a punchy rock track, and an insanely catchy hook. This is what Coney Hatch sounds like in 2023!

Stream/download the single: https://orcd.co/coneyhatch_itsaboutagirl

While the new single premieres today on all digital platforms, it will also be featured on the band’s forthcoming Postcard From Germany, released under EX1 Records and Cleopatra Records under their new collaboration, which Andy Curran, Coney Hatch’s co-lead vocalist and bassist, is as excited about as the fans, saying “We’ve always taken a lot of pride in our live show, so finally releasing a live Coney Hatch record after many decades together is a bucket list check mark for us. We’re equally thrilled that the record includes 2 new studio tracks and to hit the road this summer!”

Postcard From Germany will be available everywhere August 11 on digital and on a special limited edition CD hand-signed by the band!

Order the CD: https://cleorecs.com/store/shop/coney-hatch-postcard-from-germany-cd/

TRACK LIST:
1. It’s About A Girl (Studio Recording)
2. Heaven’s On The Other Side (Studio Recording)
3. We Got The Night
4. Stand Up
5. Blown Away
6. Boys Club
7. She’s Gone
8. This Ain’t Love
9. Wrong Side Of Town
10. Girl From Last Night’s Dream
11. Fantasy
12. Fallen Angel
13. Don’t Say Make Me
14. Devil’s Deck
15. Monkey Bars

Links:

http://www.coneyhatch.com

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063052548185

ANDY CURRAN AND HAREM SCAREM ISSUE NEW LIMITED CLASSIC VINYL / DIGITAL HYBRID RELEASES

2 Comments

The debut solo album from Andy Curran (Coney Hatch, Envy Of None) in 1990 will see a super deluxe reissue bundle. Following 3 albums with Coney Hatch, a few line up changes, and a break up Curran put together his own band. Released simply as Andy Curran, it featured such radio hits as “License To Love”, “Let Go”, and “No Tattoos”. Now, retitled Whiskey & The Devil, the album will feature 2 previously unreleased tracks from the original sessions, as well as a live show from Vancouver. Andy Curran was nominated for 2 Juno Awards (Canada) in 1991 for Best Hard-rock album, and Most promising male vocalist; he won the latter. Whiskey & The Devil will also include various goodies from that era, with an 8 X 10 photo, a tour pass, tattoo kit and more, all with the 2 cherry red colored LPs in a new cover.

Curran posted to Facebook – “I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of my Juno Award-winning debut solo record than with a limited-edition reissue! Every song has been remixed and each bundle includes a physical and digital component. I’ve gone through the archives to create a unique, signed, double-vinyl record, and included rare photos from my personal collection, plus other unreleased studio tracks and memorabilia. As a bonus, every purchase gives you a chance to win an autographed Fender Precision bass guitar signed by me!”

Harem Scarem’s Mood Swings was the band’s 2nd album, released in June of 1993, and featured the hit “No Justice”, as well as further singles “If There Was A Time” and “Change Comes Around”. Harem Scarem’s line-up at the time included Harry Hess (lead vocals, keyboards), Pete Lesperance (guitar), Mike Gionet (bass), and Darren Smith (drums). Smith sang lead on the cut “Sentimental Blvd”. (Smith, in recent years, would front Jake E Lee’s Red Dragon Cartel). This release will be the first time Mood Swings is issued on vinyl! Aside from the purple vinyl LP , there’ll be bonus tracks, as well as CD, a tour poster, and drink coaster among other items included.

*For more info, check out the press release below…

Fans of vintage, Canadian melodic rock should make room in their record collections for two new reissues available today – Andy Curran’s 1990 debut solo effort Whiskey and the Devil 30th and Harem Scarem’s 1993 sophomore offering Mood Swings. Both projects are now being offered as exclusive, limited-edition releases only available on SING Market.
 
Each release includes a vinyl package and a matching digital package, which also contains digital-only extras – at a retail price for each package of USD $89.95, plus shipping.

“Working on my solo album decades later was a trip down memory lane,” recalls Curran (founder of Coney Hatch and Envy of None with Rush’s Alex Lifeson) about the new reissue entitled Whiskey and the Devil 30th.  “I completely forgot about two songs we recorded during those sessions but that weren’t included on the original release – so now, many years later, they will be part of this release. This was also the first time I produced a record… which was a white-knuckle ride! Winning a Juno Award that year was the icing on the cake. It was only ever released in Canada, so I’m excited to shine the spotlight back on this one.” 

Iron Maiden/British Lion bassist, Steve Harris, is a big fan of Curran’s solo record, adding: “I’ve been listening to this album for 30 years and it still sounds great!”
 
Harem Scarem lead singer Harry Hess recollects, “June 2023 will mark the 30-year anniversary of the release of our second album, Mood Swings. This record took us to another level internationally, being released in over 50 countries and voted Kerrang! Magazine’s rock album of the year. We are excited to revisit the songs, recording five new acoustic bonus tracks and releasing the original remastered recordings on vinyl for the first time ever.”

These new hybrid packages include serial-numbered digital collectibles, permanently capped at a preset quantity using blockchain technology – once they’re sold out, no more can ever be produced. SING guarantees fans own their music – just like a numbered print, fans have true ownership of each package and artist-authorized proof of its authenticity. No knowledge of crypto is ever needed to use SING – just a love of great music and a credit card, debit card or Apple Pay.

Both exclusive packages are available now for immediate purchase on SING Market at the following links:

Andy Curran – Whiskey and the Devil 30th – Click Here to Purchase

https://market.singidea.com/market/asset/f922d877-8734-402b-a046-e5e524717400

Check out the Andy Curran unboxing video here: https://vimeo.com/807505344

You’ll Receive:

  • Cherry red double 180-gram audiophile LPs (Original Album remixed with two previously unreleased tracks, plus Live in Vancouver performances)
  • Whiskey and the Devil Tattoo Kit
  • Andy Curran Vintage Tour Pass
  • Andy Curran Fantoons designed mini Cereal Box
  • An 8 x 10 High Gloss Photo
  • An Exclusive re-print of Andy’s infamous private Biker Gang Show ticket (VIP CARD)
  • A Whiskey and the Devil 30th Album Art Sticker
  • A golden ticket entry to win a Fender Precision Bass Guitar (Classic 60’s), autographed by Andy Curran

Available for immediate download: 

  • All the above vinyl tracks plus 2 additional “studio” out-takes, newly remixed by Juno Award-winning engineer Vic Florencia, delivered as MP3 files 
  • Original 1990 record re-mastered
  • Music videos for No Tattoos and License to Love singles
  • 5 Pre-recorded deal demos (these were the actual demos that got Andy his first record deal!)
  • Original Track Sheets from the Metalworks sessions

Harem Scarem – Mood Swings – Click Here to Purchase

https://market.singidea.com/market/asset/0a3c36ae-1d72-4e34-b99b-df84249e21bd

Check out the Harry Hess unboxing video here: https://vimeo.com/807604157

You’ll receive:

  • Purple 180-gram audiophile LP with Companion Compact Disc (includes bonus tracks)
  • 24” x 36” Mood Swings Tour Poster (Re-issue from Mood Swings tour)
  • Re-issued VIP All Access Pass
  • Mood Swings Custom Drink Coaster
  • VIP Metallic Membership Card – Meet and Greet the Artist at Harem Scarem Live Events
  • Metallic band logo sticker
  • A Golden ticket entry with every purchase to be entered to win a Seagull guitar made by Godin Guitars and signed by the band 

Available for immediate download:

  • Vinyl tracks in MP3 format 
  • 5 Acoustic Bonus Tracks
  • Harem Scarem VIP Fan Club Membership
  • Live Photos
  • Fan Art Banners
  • Studio Track Sheets
  • A Making-of Video – (mini documentary made for the 30th Anniversary edition)
  • Mood Swings Songbook (digital version)

Curran and Hess added fire power by teaming up with SING and arranging physical manufacturing and distribution. Curran added, “Harry and I have so many friends in the business who either had record deals, or are between deals, but they control their content. We have had lots of calls asking for help, so we set up a scenario whereby the artist owns everything, and we’re simply the vehicle to help them put it all in one place for their fans to access. We can’t name names just yet, but we have had lots of interest, so look for more SING limited-edition digital releases in the coming months.”
 
Founded in 2019, Seattle-based SING is an online record store that puts artists and fans first by offering curated digital and physical products that you won’t find anywhere else. “We’re thrilled to be working with Andy Curran and Harem Scarem on two of their most iconic albums,” says SING CEO, Geoff Osler. “These exclusive releases will give fans a unique opportunity to truly own these records in both vinyl and digital formats – with never before possible digital bonus material that fans can download and enjoy immediately.”
 
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT:
 
sing-inc.com
andycurranmusic.com
https://www.instagram.com/andycurranofficial/
facebook.com/harem.scarem.band
https://www.instagram.com/haremscaremofficial/ 

CONEY HATCH release track from forthcoming album Postcard From Germany

1 Comment

Canadian rockers Coney Hatch have released a track from their forthcoming live album Postcard From Germany. The album will be out early next year. (See previous post for further details.)

The live cut now available is the classic “Devil’s Deck”, which opened the band’s 1982 debut album. The song is one of the album’s best known tracks, along with “Monkey Bars” and “Hey Operator”, and is always a highlight of the band’s live show. The track is available to stream and the album can be pre-ordered digitally – https://found.ee/ConeyHatchPFG (and see Youtube below)

*As previously noted the band will be playing the entire debut album at the El Mocambo on December 29. May be tix still left, see the press release below…

CONEY HATCH CELEBRATE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF DEBUT ALBUM WITH UPCOMING SHOW AT EL MOCAMBO

The El Mocambo in Toronto is undoubtedly one of the most instantly recognizable names when it comes to music venues. After all, such iconic artists as the Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello, the Cars, and Stevie Ray Vaughan have all performed at the legendary hall over the years (and also issued recordings from their performances there). And on Thursday, December 29, 2022, Canadian hard rockers Coney Hatch will headline the venue – to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their gold-certified self-titled debut.

VIP tickets will include entry to the venue early to witness part of the soundcheck, plus a meet & greet with all four members and a photo with the band. The band will also autograph one item per person. Details TBA – limited to 50, so purchase quickly before they sell out! Tickets can be purchased via this link: https://www.ticketweb.ca/event/coney-hatch-40th-anniversary-under-the-neon-palms-at-tickets/12695535

The El Mocambo performance will be a homecoming of sorts for the band (lead vocalist/guitarist Carl Dixon, guitarist Sean Kelly, bass player/vocalist Andy Curran, and drummer Dave Ketchum), as they previously played the venue in 1983, and hail from Toronto. To mark this special occasion, the band will be performing the debut album in its entirety that evening (a recording that spawned such hard rock gems as “Monkey Bars,” “Devil’s Deck,” and “Hey Operator”). This is Hatch’s only Canadian show before they start a UK tour in January 2023 (opening a string of dates for Steve Harris’ British Lion). The show will also include additional songs from their extensive catalog.

“The El Mocambo is a venue that has been near and dear to our hearts,” says Curran. “All of the Coney’s loved performing there and we all saw so many amazing bands and artists perform there, as well. It’s so rich in history and the logical place for us to perform our debut record for the 40th anniversary for our hometown Toronto fans.”

Also, arriving soon from the Hatch will be a live album, ‘Postcard from Germany.’ “We’re very excited and grateful that after all these years, we’re still getting along and releasing new songs. We’re a brotherhood and this new live record totally captures the spirit of Coney Hatch live. In your face double guitar attack! Also two spankin’ new songs to boot! That’s a pretty cool thing for our fans.”

But first, Toronto fans will get the unique opportunity to close 2022 by witnessing Coney Hatch perform a classic album…at a classic venue!

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT:

https://www.coneyhatch.com

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063052548185
https://twitter.com/monkeybars3

CONEY HATCH – Live in Germany coming soon!

Leave a comment
(Photo: H. Dixon, 2018)

Following on from last year’s release Live At The El Mocambo, Canadian rockers Coney Hatch have another live album almost ready to go. Recorded Live at the H.E.A.T. Festival in Germany, in December of 2018, the recordings were put on hold for release at the time when the offer to record at the El Mocambo came up, as the El Mocambo show would give the band the opportunity to also capture live video, as well as include “Hey Operator”, one of the band’s signature songs – which they had oddly forgot to play that night in Germany.

The upcoming live album will also include 2 bonus studio cuts that were completed in 2021 – “About A Girl” and “Heaven’s On The Other Side”.

“We’re excited to bring you a new live album recorded at the HEAT Festival Germany and put together by fine engineers in Canada. Available on CD and vinyl, the album also has two new Coney originals & freaking fine tracks they are.”

Coney Hatch Live In Germany (if that is the title!?) will be released via Explorer1 Records on CD & Vinyl LP, with the band aiming for an early 2023 release date. Artwork and track-listing to follow, as well as pre-order announcement.

Links:

http://www.coneyhatch.com

http://www.andycurran.ca

http://www.carldixon.com

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063052548185

Coney Hatch