Videos

VHS Archives #87: Damn Yankees! Tommy Shaw & Jack Blades (1990)

“If you coulda gotten a camera up in a tree, you mighta been able to talk to Ted.” – Tommy Shaw

Who doesn’t love a bromance?  Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades formed a lasting one with Damn Yankees and it’s obvious in this summer 1990 interview.  They finish each others’ sentences and talk over each other like excited kids.   MuchMusic’s Michael Williams hosts this excellent interview as they discuss:

  • Getting signed to a label
  • Working with Ron Nevison
  • Terrible Ted and the “wimp police”
  • Tommy’s “critically acclaimed” solo career.  Haha!

You’ll even see Michael’s Ted impression.  Check out why live Much interviews were always best.

VHS Archives #86: Kim Mitchell asks fans for video footage of their “Wild Party” (1990)

In the summer of 1990, Kim Mitchell and video director Don Allan stopped to visit with MuchMusic’s Dan Gallagher to ask fans for help. Kim’s first solo live album, I Am A Wild Party, was burning up the charts and tape decks nation wide!  All he needed was a music video.

Mitchell is always a card and this segment is no exception.

Kim and Don Allan wanted footage of your “wild party” or your “air bands”; anything really to go with that “Rah! Rah! Olé!” chorus.  I also included a few snips of my own footage that I filmed specifically with a rented camera for the video!  Ultimately though, Mitchell and Allan abandoned the fan video concept, and made a straight live/studio clip for “I Am A Wild Party”.

This is historically interesting to Kim fans since the video as originally conceived never came to be.*

Enjoy some goofy Kim on Much!

*EDIT:  Mike from Facebook was the winner chosen for the “I Am A Wild Party” video and says this!

I was the one that won that contest, and in MM’s defence they made a “limited edition play version” with about 10 seconds from our submission video that was cut off in the final version. But thanks for finding this… Rah Rah Ole!

VHS Archives #85: Steve Vai’s passion for Whitesnake, Warfare & Wanking (1990)

MuchMusic’s Terry David Mulligan was always one of their best interviewers, and here he has a nice informal chat with (then) Whitesnake’s Steve Vai!  TDM asks a loaded question about leaving Whitesnake and going solo.

Vai is always forthcoming and in this entertaining interview you’ll hear about the Passion & Warfare concept, lucid dreaming, the tuba, David Lee Roth, and of course wanking.

 

Check out a second Much interview with Vai by Denise Donlon by clicking here.

VIDEO: “Here Comes LeBrain Again” 2020 – by Uncle Meat and Iron Tom

In 2014, Tom and Uncle Meat made a video for their “Here Comes LeBrain Again” parody which I gladly used as my theme song. In 2020 that video is a little out of date, so I decided to make an updated one. Check both versions out below and let me know.

Thanks to Meat and Tom for recording the song and making the original.


2020 VERSION


2014 VERSION

VHS Archives #84: Neil Peart on lyrics (1990)

I enjoy this interview with Neil Peart, because it touches on something that I love about music:  A good lyric is open to vast interpretation by the listener.  Inevitably, we are going to derive our own meaning from the lyrics regardless of what the writer intended.  Take this review by my buddy Aaron Lebold.  “Distant Early Warning” had a meaning completely unique to him.  Meanwhile, it had a very different meaning to me.

In this clip from the Presto tour, Neil Peart discusses crafting lyrics with MuchMusic. It’s a brilliant lesson from The Professor so pay attention!

VIDEO: The Outtakes

I’ve been making videos for over 30 years. It’s important, when possible, to keep your source material. It’s necessary if you ever feel like revisiting your work. Or, if you feel like presenting “previously unseen material” to your audience as new content.

Here are some outtakes representing the last 30 years of making videos. You’ve never seen ’em before and I hope you enjoy!

VIDEO: Kathryn Ladano album release – live performance of “Flow”

Enjoy music just a little different from the norm?  Here are Kathryn Ladano and opening act, combining members of Harp+ and Seagram Synth Ensemble at the TWH Social After Dark Space January 11 2020.  My Samsung couldn’t get a good image in the dark, but the audio is decent in full stereo.  Enjoy the track “Flow” from the new album Masked and clips from other tracks on the disc!

The synthscape of the opening act was quite awesome.  Now, I don’t normally drink, but I was with Max the Axe.  Before long I had a rum and Coke in me and I was taken on this wild synthesizer trip through the cosmos!  For roughly 30 minutes, a stream of music emanated through the room, like a slideshow of NASA photos from the 1960s.  Can’t wait to hear the Seagram Synth Ensemble’s album which was for sale and now in my collection.

Kathryn Ladano played interpretations of music from her album Masked.  “Interpretations” because the music is improvised and never the same twice, they just follow the same rough blueprints.  “It’s better live” whispered Max (you can hear this in the video), and Dr. Ladano agreed.

Great show, great venue, try and catch them live!

 

VHS Archives #83: David Lee Roth in Paradise (1988)

Due to popular vote here’s David Lee Roth in the first VHS Archive of 2020!  This interview — jeez louise! — goes back 32 years.  DLR was promoting Skyscraper and was lobbed a few softball questions by rookie Steve Anthony of MuchMusic (at least in comparison to his 1991 interview with Denise Donlon, link below).

Enjoy a little live footage from the Skyscraper tour and Roth’s thoughts on success and his history.

More DAVID LEE ROTH in the VHS Archives:

#23: David Lee Roth grilled by MuchMusic (1991)
#76: David Lee Roth discusses change and disses Ozzy (1994)