“I had to mark the singer from a band called Glass Tiger who was quite useful. Sadly for him the pitch was in poor condition and after I chased him round for 45 minutes, he twisted his ankle and was stretchered off. I never touched him ref — honest!’ Stretchered off with ‘undisclosed injuries to his testicles’ was I believe the newspaper quotation that tells you all you need to know about the match.” — Bruce Dickinson
This video clip of a football match between Iron Maiden FC and Toronto’s finest singers and media is surely a rarity. It’s a shame that more wasn’t broadcast. On a personal level, this match meant to lot to me. My heroes (Iron Maiden) were facing off against my sister’s (Glass Tiger). And of course Glass Tiger and Co. were pummelled. I loved holding that over her head!
Look for Frew and MuchMusic alumni including Master T (Tony Young) and Kim Clark Champniss in this fun clip.
It must have been cool to be at this game. I wonder what it was like? Wait it a minute — why don’t I just ask a guy who was there?
“I was at that game. Covered it for the newspaper at U of T [that] I wrote for. Keith Sharp (then of Music Express magazine, later my boss at ACCESS) was friendly with the band. As a kid he was a goalkeeper for the Manchester City youth squad, so he had some skills, and he’d organize a match with the Maidens, who were all soccer fiends, whenever they were in town. Alan Frew (Glass Tiger) went down with a knee injury during the match… Others on the Music Express squad that I can recall were Mark Holmes (Platinum Blonde) and Maria Del Mar (National Velvet). I even got some Maiden sideline quotes for my story… And it was the first time I met Keith.” — Jamie Morrison, friend and former journalist
“Outside of Toronto…that’s Kitchener anyway.” – Dan Gallagher
This is a real treasure! A legendary interview, it does not appear to be anywhere else online. It’s also the only video I know of to have one of my old customers in it — Snake the Tattoo Man. To be fair, Snake was T-Rev’s customer first. Trevor sent him to me, because he knew I was a huge Helix fan. Snake’s first claim to fame was appearing on the Phil Donahue show. Snake has over 90% of his body tattooed, and was kicked out of a mall in London Ontario simply because of the way he looked. His next bout with stardom was when he was cast in the Helix video for “Running Wild in the 21st Century”, one of their best songs!
MuchMusic’s Dan Gallagher talked to Brian Vollmer and Snake outside Speaker’s Corner in the spring of 1990. Of course Snake’s tattoos are discussed, and a new technology called “Surround Sound” is rolled out. Which of course you won’t hear, since Much was broadcast in stereo and I was recording in mono!
Great, classic interview that I proud to bring back to the world via Youtube.
Michael Olivieri recently left Leatherwolf leaving them with only one original member! Back in ’88, they were firing on all cylinders with Olivieri and original guitarist Geoff Gayer. The pair sat down with Erica Ehm on the Pepsi Power Hour to talk about their second album, Leatherwolf.
The guys discuss recording in the Bahamas, Robert Palmer, the Triple Axe Attack, live performances, “The Calling” video concept, and where that “edge” comes from.
Leatherwolf were a great band when these two guys were in it. Check out the live clips in this interview, and hear what they had to say back in the day!
“You can’t really call what we do ‘work’. How can you call your job ‘work’?” – Spike to Steve Anthony
1990 was a memorable year for rock and roll, but one of the great surprises of the year was the return of classic UK rock and roll, in the form of new bands The Black Crowes and The London Quireboys. Both owed obvious debts to the Stones and the Faces.
Guy Griffin and Spike joined Steve Anthony in the MuchMusic studios in late 1990 to talk about the Faces comparisons, their long rise to fame, radio and more. Check out the scarves and Steve Anthony’s ridiculous hightop shoes.
Are the band sedated or just laid back? You decide in this decent interview.
WTF SEARCH TERMS XLI: Another Guest Thussy edition
Thussy here again, with another instalment of WTF Search Terms. We’ve got a mixed bag of crap people type in and somehow wound up on Lebrain’s blog. So in no particular order, here is my top 10.
1. kiss ladano hotter
I wouldn’t want to kiss Lebrain. He does have a hot sister though.
2. english lebrain sex story
I don’t want to know any of Lebrain’s sex stories.
3. calf suck dick
I’ve bottle fed calves. They bite your fingers hard when you’re feeding them. I would suggest keeping your dick far away from them unless you want a cheap sex change.
4. 60 year olds men
Yes Lebrain looks like a 60 year old man.
5. i would like to hear a song on the cults weapon of choice album
Good for you if you want to read a review on the album you’re in the right place. If you want to hear it go to your local record store and purchase the album. That is the best way to listen to it.
6. snake game for 5.1version
How in the hell does this get them to Lebrain’s blog?
7. turn into pump
See above. On top of that what the hell are you looking for?
8. presinor in paradies song
Webster’s dictionary is available on the app store, download it… use it… love it… spell better.
GETTING MORE TALE #738: Mike and Bob’s Cross-Kitchener Adventure
September 29, 1990.
Mike and Bob rented a video camera at Steve’s TV. That afternoon, they began filming (full title) Mike and Bob’s Excellent Cross-Kitchener Adventure Part II. They recruited amateur film maker (and Mike’s sister) Kathryn (Cujo 3: Revenge of the Schnauzer) to tape their adventure. The result has, 29 years later, finally been edited down by Mike into a proper director’s cut.
It started with us and an idea. We wanted to show off our home town to our friends living elsewhere in Ontario. The best way to do that was with a video.
Bob and I spent the afternoon driving around Kitchener in his Dodge Daytona, with Kathryn on camera, tunes blasting. Bryan Adams, Northern Pikes, Barney Bentall, Grapes of Wrath and…Wilson Phillips…. Wilson Phillips? Driver picks the tunes. That’s always been the rule. For once, I’m proud to say I didn’t have my license yet. It means I can’t claim to have picked Wilson Phillips!
Downtown Kitchener is familiar, but completely transformed today. In our film, we captured both Sam the Record Man and Dr. Disc, just down the street from one another. Neither exist anymore. Dutch Boy, the old movie theatres, stores and restaurants disappeared years ago but at least we got them on tape.
We stopped by Grand River Collegiate Institute, so you can see what it looked like (on the outside) almost 30 years ago. Stanley Park Mall, before complete renovation, is another filming location. Back then, “JohnnyCash” machines were some of the first popular bank ATMs. Today, younger people often don’t believe me they were real. They were real, and here’s one in our movie! Off to Pioneer Sports World, which today is a nothing more than a shopping plaza with restaurants and outlet stores. In 1990, it had a water park, mini-golf, driving range, video arcade, and go-karts. All of this is gone now, but preserved in our little movie.
The old McDonalds on Victoria Street was torn down long ago, but we were recording when we stopped for fries. Our order came to $5.38 total. Kathryn couldn’t resist taking a break from the camera and heading into the McDonalds Play Place. It was always a sad time when you realized you were too big for the Play Place. Looks like for Kathryn, that day may have been September 29, 1990.*
For personal history, I’m glad to find my old bedroom still preserved on film. There it is, my old stereo. My tiny record collection! About 15 to 20 LPs in there? My old posters. A decent model tank diorama. My old Judas Priest shirt, the first rock shirt I ever owned. Another shirt discovered in this movie did not survive. Oh, and there’s the cutest (but grumpiest Schnauzer in history), Crystal Belle.
We also visited Kitchener’s most controversial landmark: “Aphoria”, a worm-shaped piece of art in front of the old courthouse. We certainly made our feelings about the monument known in our film. My position hasn’t changed much since.
Admittedly, we didn’t put much effort into making Mike and Bob’s Cross-Kitchener Adventure at the time. We only had the camera for a day. It’s what our old film teacher Mrs. Beckman would have called “just some kids goofing off.” True, but maybe with 30 years’ time, that has some value now. We didn’t script anything; we had no way of editing it, so there didn’t seem much point. We had to just film everything in sequence and what we had on tape was what we got. Before transferring it to digital, the movie was an hour long, and completely unwatchable to anyone but us. I’ve since sunk several hours into Mike and Bob’s Cross-Kitchener Adventure, and I think I may have salvaged it. At 32 minutes, this is more like what we would have done at the time if we had a way to edit tape.
If you’ve read this far, I’m not going to beg you to watch Mike and Bob’s Cross-Kitchener Adventure. Old friends that remember those days will not want to miss it. Most won’t care. Whichever category you fall in, I recorded an audio commentary track to go with it (which helps a lot). Choose which version to watch from the videos below. Or watch both!
* The date was determined thanks to the film. I had an old Hit Parader calendar and I mention that it was Alex Skolnick from Testament’s birthday. That made it September 29, 1990. This jives with the colour of the leaves and my own memory of the day.
Judging by my personal VHS Archives, there were few heavy metal artists that MuchMusic interviewed more frequently than Judas Priest’s Rob Halford.
So far in my VHS explorations, this is the fourth Rob Halford interview to turn up (two from Turbo, two from Painkiller), and there are still more coming (Ram It Down, Fight). Today’s video is interesting because it’s the second one I’ve found from 1986. The first was an illuminating chat with Terry David Mulligan, with Rob sporting a moustache! It seems that by August ’86, he had shaved it off.
VJ Christopher Ward asks Rob about the expenses of touring.
Mail call! I received a CD this week from (who else) AARON! Now playing: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Let’s Face It! Check out Aaron’s cool stationery and hilarious note.
mikeladano.com 