#743: A Shout-Out to Sean Kelly

GETTING MORE TALE #743: A Shout-Out to Sean Kelly

When it’s warranted, I like to use the Getting More Tale banner to include tributes to helpful individuals.  This goes as far back as Record Store Tales.  These chapters are mini-stories wrapped in a thank-you…or vice-versa.

So let’s go back to the beginning for a moment.  Ever since I first launched this site in 2012, I’ve been talking about my insanely cool VHS library and how badly I wanted to show it to you.  Now I’m doing that (as you’re all painfully aware by the lack of review content), and it has been enjoyable, rewarding work!  Long hours, but well spent.  Reliving old memories, hearing forgotten songs, and seeing those MuchMusic VJ faces from ages past…watching these old tapes is something I try to do a little bit every day.

But I’m not doing this just for me.  If I was just looking for “hits” or “views” I would just make endless lists of things.  That seems to be the kind of content people click these days.  I’m doing this for history, both personal and general.  I think these old rock star interviews and clips are historically interesting.  For you, and for posterity, I think it’s important to get the details as right as possible.  I can usually nail down a rough date of recording, and the names of all the people involved.

Usually.  This is where Sean Kelly comes in.

Sean Kelly is the Canadian axeman behind Metal On Ice (the book and album).  He’s currently playing with Lee Aaron, Trapper, and I can’t keep track of them all!  I have his #1 Classical Guitar Album.  He has been a regular on Helix CDs over the past decade.  He’s played with Nelly Furtado, and of course his own band Crash Kelly!  There’s no question:  the guy knows his rock!  (Sean and I have something in common:  the first rock album we bought was Metal Health by Quiet Riot.)

As I’ve been going through my tapes, I’ve been taking screen shots (like these below) to tease social media.  Sometimes I’ll post a challenge:  “Name all the people in the picture”.  Sean Kelly has a 100% score!

Yeah that’s right.  Sean Kelly has yet to get any wrong, and I’ve posted some challenging ones.  Only Uncle Meat has come close to Mr. Kelly.  (Meat is at about a 99% or so.)

But where Mr. Kelly has helped me out was identifying some of the MuchMusic personalities.  As I said, I want to get the details of these videos right for historical purposes.  Any time I needed help figuring out who the interviewer was, Sean knew it, and usually got it within five minutes!  And it’s funny too.  The names “Ziggy Lorenc” and “Lance Chilton” were on the tip of my tongue, but he just knew them right away.

I guess that’s why he’s the professional!

The guy is a virtual encyclopedia of rock.  He identified some of the artists just by the instruments they were wielding.  He’s also a super talented player and writer, and a helpful friendly chap too!

I really appreciate Sean’s assistance getting the details for the VHS Archives right.  Check out the track I currently cannot get enough of: Trapper’s cover of “Illégal” by Corbeau. Trapper is a supergroup consisting of Emm Gryner, Frank Gryner and Tim Timleck. This song rocks! Enjoy.

 

VHS Archives #56: Ace Frehley on the “Just 4 Fun” tour (1993)

“You read interviews, and Gene’s giving me digs, and I’m giving him digs, and stuff like that…one day it’ll just be Kiss in makeup again.” — Ace Frehley

I don’t know about you, but I remember being disappointed to hear that Ace Frehley was touring, but without any new music behind him.  The quote about a Kiss reunion proved to be rather prophetic.  No wonder Ace was laughing!  Check out this Ace interview with Teresa Roncon on MuchMusic. The news anchor was Lance Chilton.

VHS Archives #55: One of the best interviews with Bret Michaels of Poison that you’ll find (1993)

“Richie takes a little getting used to.  He’s a strange cat.” — Bret Michaels

In 1991, a new cable access show catering to metalheads hit the local airwaves:  The Metal Mike show, with host Mike Coughlin.  Since MuchMusic’s Power 30 was declining in quality, there was a vacuum for another good metal show.

Check out this terrific interview with Poison frontman Bret Michaels in 1993.  The band had parted with C.C. Deville and were re-emerging the middle of the grunge era with Native Tongue. Today it’s considered to be their best album, but nobody cared in ’93.

Metal Mike eases Bret in comfortably but then hits him up with a tough question:  what really happened with C.C. Deville?  And Bret doesn’t hold back.  Fist fights, drugs and alcohol all came into play, and the trainwreck MTV Awards appearance all contributed.

They move on to finding Richie Kotzen.  Pay attention and notice that the fit seems awkward.  The clues were there.  “He sometimes can be kinda weird,” says Bret of his new bandmate.  There was no question of the man’s chops, however, nor his stage presence.  Check it out.

 

#742: Returning the Rock

GETTING MORE TALE #742: Returning the Rock

There’s a recurring theme in fiction that I like a lot. It’s the idea that you have to return an object back to its origin point.  The One Ring had to be returned to the fires of Mordor where it was made.  Or the recovery of Luke’s lightsaber and its journey back to Skywalker.  Roger’s golden turd returning to his anus in order to destroy it.

Countless years ago, Iron Tom Sharpe gave me a tremendous gift.  You’ve seen it here before; the giant Iron Maiden “Holy Smoke” poster signed by all five members.  It was mounted and hung here in LeBrain HQ for over a decade.  Tom just didn’t have room for it anymore.  He gave me a bunch of his posters, but that was the crown jewel.

Now the times have changed and I’m the one who doesn’t have room.  This week, I removed at least 20 full bags of possessions from my place and we’re still going strong with lots to go.  Tom sent me a message.  “What’s with losing your possessions, are you going Buddhist?”  Hah!  No man, it’s just physics.  You can only store so much stuff in a condo.  “Do you still have that old Maiden poster?” he asked.  I thought about it, and then it hit me.  I knew what I had to do.

I had to return the Maiden poster to its originator.  Tom picked it up, and it is back where it should be.  I like to think of it as I was storing it for him the last 15 years.  I like the poetry of that.

Well, I’d better get back at it.  This place isn’t going to clean itself!

VHS Archives #54: Slik Toxik win Best Canadian Metal Video, tribute to Helix’s Paul Hackman (1992 MMVAs)

“You know what time it is?  It’s thrash time!” – Nick Walsh

1992 was all about a resurgence of Canadian Rock.  Slik Toxik, Sven Gali, and Big House were all making waves.  Lee Aaron and Killer Dwarfs had new music.  But it was Slik Toxik who won Best Metal Video for “Helluvatime” (directed by Don Allan).

The award was presented by Brian Vollmer (Helix), Phil X (Triumph, now Bon Jovi) and Mike Levine (Triumph).  Slik Toxik then performed…but my tape ran out!  This is what I captured.  Neal Busby is one helluva of a drummer!

I also have this cool CBC recording about Slik Toxik, featuring a fan from Thunder Bay, talking about Slik’s rise to fame.  Broadcast March 15 2019.

 

VHS Archives #53: Motley Crue interviews from Much Spotlight (1984-90)

You wanted the Dirt? We got the Dirt. The real Dirt, right from the horse’s mouth, not some actor who used to play Ramsay Bolton on Game of Thrones.

Image result for ramsay bolton gif

These clips were recorded from the Motley Crue Spotlight on MuchMusic in late 1990 and has three parts:

1. 1984 interview with Nikki Sixx and Vince Neil
2. 1985 interview with Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee
3. 1990 interview with Vince Neil

Subjects discussed include Motley Crue as the “good guys”, touring and drinking with Y&T, and Vancouver.

VHS Archives #52: Deadline – “Donna (Do You Wanna)” music video (1992)

I am pleased to present the best quality copy of this video available.  It’s complete and in stereo!

You can read a review of the first Deadline mini-album (from which “Donna (Do You Wanna)” was the single) right here.  From Sarnia Ontario, this quartet was primed for the big time but failed to launch.  You can tell from this video that they spared no expense in looking and sounding like pros.

This video was recorded from MuchMusic’s Start Me Up program, in early 1993.

From M.E.A.T Magazine

VHS Archives #51: Tom Green and Organized Rhyme – Loeb pizza ad (1992)

The things I’m finding that I never knew I had!

This tape, from November of 1992, contains a Guns N’ Roses concert called Live in Paris. You remember that one? With Soundgarden, Lenny Kravitz, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry?  I set the VCR to record it in the middle of the night, so I captured all the commercials as well.  First one:  Tom Green and his old rap group, Organized Rhyme, selling pizza on late night TV!

The only other copy of this on Youtube is in black and white.  Not sure why that would be, so here you go, Tom Green fans!

#741: Homework

GETTING MORE TALE #741: Homework

Teachers and counsellors used to tell us it was OK to listen to music when you’re studying, but don’t play things you like so much that you find it distracting.  Nothing you love too much, nor anything you hate.

That was always a problem for me as a kid.  I loved music!  Then and now.

There were always a few albums that hadn’t clicked with me.  In 1992 I was studying for exams, and I chose Mr. Bungle’s debut to do it.  I was also working with the belief that listening to more complex music got your brain juices flowing even better.  I had my method for studying, and I really don’t think music had much impact.  I just remember choosing Mr. Bundgle for the reason that it was complex, and I didn’t get it.

When I was younger, in highschool, I remember listening to a lot of different things while studying.  I had a vinyl phase in early 1988.  I was 30 years ahead of the hipsters.  My sister and I had discovered B-sides in the singles rack at the local Zellers store.  Def Leppard’s “Ride Into the Sun” was playing in store, and my ears perked up.  I knew it was Leppard, but I never heard that song before!  Another single I purchased at that time was Triumph’s “Let The Light (Shine On Me)”.  Rik Emmett played it a few weeks earlier live and acoustic on the Power Hour.  The single got quite a few spins while I was doing my homework that winter.

For some reason, Iron Maiden’s Piece of Mind was also on the turntable a lot while studying that year.  I may have purchased the record off Bob, because I am sure I got it from him.  There were a couple songs I played repeatedly.  One was “Still Life” and the other was “Sun and Steel”.  At that age, Bob and I thought we could really sing like Bruce Dickinson if we worked hard enough at it.  Those were two songs I was practising at the time!

Listening to music while studying seemed to work for me, but I will admit to one distraction.

Do you remember when Wayne’s World came out on home video?  The first releases came with a free pair of Wayne’s World drum sticks.  My sister bought the video and got the sticks.  However, I would frequently steal them and claim that I needed them to study.  It wasn’t untrue.  A lot of the time, I would pound out a beat on the bed while I was memorising names, dates and events.  However, other times I was just playing a solo.  Probably most of the time!

One could argue that drumming on the bed eventually led to my degree.

Hey, the teachers and counsellors also told us to take breaks from studying.  Sometimes mine were the length of a song…or several!