Last week on Rock Daydream Nation, Peter Kerr and Martin Popoff broke down the history of Australian producer team Harry Vanda and George Young. You may recognize those names from the AC/DC albums in your collection. As I recently discovered, Vanda & Young were also responsible for the early Rose Tattoo records. What else have Vanda & Young brought to the music world? Watch this episode of Rock Daydream Nation and hear about their best works.
No Contrarians Live tonight, as host Grant Arthur is on an 80’s themed rock cruise…
…Which has been tragic.
A few days ago, Grant posted that somebody went overboard, but he didn’t know anything more. It turns out the person who went over, died tragically. It was Kimberly Burch, fiance of Faster Pussycat frontman Taime Downe.
We send our prayers to Taime and Kimberly’s families in these dark times.
My Contrarians appearances to date:
RECORD STORE TALES #1178: Kitchener Blotto
There’s an old saying; I think it goes back to Aristotle. It goes, “Never meet your heroes.”
I think we can prove that wrong, right here.
Quick recap: I first heard Blotto’s song “Metal Head” as a young kid. Not sure what to make of these guys, I filed it away as “interesting” but never had the opportunity to hear more through my younger life. I even worked at a used CD store from 1994-2006. You know how many used CDs by Blotto came in during that 12 year span? Zero! Not a one! I started to wonder if they were a real band. Fortunately, along came the internet, confirming that my memory wasn’t playing tricks on me. Some of the core Blotto members first assembled in the early 1970s, as the Star Spangled Washboard Band. They had albums and singles. Yet, up here in Kitchener Ontario Canada, nobody I knew had the record, heard the record, or knew where to buy the record. It was frustrating as hell, but I never forget the name “Blotto” nor the song “Metal Head”. The music video was indelible. The singer had charisma! The band looked unique. One guy was bald (a rarity in 80s rock bands) and one guy had glasses and wore a tie!? What was with that? In the 80s, we had Revenge of the Nerds and I couldn’t help but wonder what this band was about, because visually, that was what I was seeing! A nerd with a guitar? It made no sense to 13 year old me.
But I never forget.
Fast forward to 2018. My pal Aaron and I had this summer ritual of hitting Toronto to go record shopping. This trip almost never happened because Jen’s mom was dying of cancer and we only had so many weekends together left. However, she ordered me: “Mike, go with your friend.” And so, first thing in the morning, we embarked. The first store we hit was BMV and there it was: Combo Akimbo by Blotto, featuring the song “Metal Head”. Flip the record over. There was the bald guy, and the guy with the glasses! I snapped it up immediately. It went under my arm and stayed there until checkout. There was no question I was getting it. The whole trip was documented on video, including this find. In the video, I was delighted to find the guys all had “Blotto” names: Sarge Blotto, Bowtie Blotto, Broadway Blotto, Cheese Blotto, and Lee Harvey Blotto too. I got the gag, and all my hopes were confirmed when I dropped the needle on that record later that night.
Fast forward again. We lost Jen’s mom, and I started writing again. My Blotto reviews were spotted by drummer F. Lee Harvey Blotto himself, who contacted me in gratitude. He even sent me a shirt, while defending their cover of “Stop! In the Name of Love” which I wrote slightly negatively about. “What a cool guy,” I thought to myself.
I wore that Blotto shirt with pride until it pretty much wore out. I also emailed F. Lee in 2019 when Sarge passed away from cancer. What shitty disease it is.
I continued to listen to and love my Blotto albums over the years. I purchased the Collected Works CD which has most of their studio material. The rest of their discography eluded me, at least at prices that Jen won’t smite for me. And finding Blotto, in the wild, in Ontario? Not frequent, or I would have had an album sooner than 2018!
I’ve lost a lot of weight since then!
Fast forward again! It is now 2025, and to my delight, I discovered that a Blotto documentary film was coming! Hello! My Name Is Blotto – The Movie, directed by Rob “Bert Blotto” Lichter will premier April 12 at the Cohoes Music Hall. I asked for any band member to come on my show Grab A Stack of Rock to talk about it.
A day or two later, F. Lee emailed. “Why not!” he said, and offered the whole band and director Bert too.
And so we did the interview, and it was a lot of fun and hopefully gained the band a few new fans. I know that among many of my regulars, particularly in Australia, it was their first time hearing and seeing Blotto.
What was really cool was the pre and post-show chat when we weren’t recording. Bert was first to arrive in the virtual studio, and his passion for Blotto was only exceeded by his feelings of camaraderie with them. We chatted a bit, and then Bowtie arrived. He was curious about me, so I told him I was from about an hour west of Toronto in a place called Kitchener/Waterloo.
Without pause, Bowtie said “We played there as the Star Spangled Washboard Band in the early 1970s. 1975 or so. We also played Guelph and Richmond Hill.”
My jaw must have dropped at that moment. Guelph is pretty obscure even among Canadians. And Bowtie pronounced it right, which most people don’t do on their first try. He said that Broadway Blotto would remember. I speculated that they might have played at the Coronet Club, not far down the street from me. They were known for their regular-hours lunch menu, and strippers and rock bands at night. That was the kind of place that Blotto would have played up here, as Bowtie and Broadway confirmed.
Also confirmed by F. Lee: There are lots of Blotto live collections up on Spotify waiting to be streamed. Lots more music for me to hear, right at my fingertips.
At the end of the show, the Blotto guys thanked me for my support over the years and said some very kind things about my writing. I’ll tell you, there is nothing better than when someone whose art you admire, tells you that they also like what you do.
Broadway called us “kindred spirits” which I find very flattering, but this is where it gets really cool.
He asked me to choose my own “Blotto name”.
I thought about it, and I played with Hoser Blotto for a little bit. I ultimately decided on “Kitchener Blotto”, because that really identifies me. Maybe there are lots of fellow hosers who are Blotto fans, but I hope when Blotto hears the word Kitchener, they think of me. And the strip club.
Thank you guys.
Don’t meet your heroes? Pfft. Choose your heroes wisely, I say.
Kitchener Blotto
ROSE TATTOO – Rose Tattoo (1978 Albert Productions/1990 Repetoire Records “Limited Edition” CD reissue)
It is amazing how in North America, you can spend half a lifetime listening to music without ever running into an album by Rose Tattoo, Australia’s “Angry” exports. Legendary back home, but over here most of us just know them from “Nice Boys” by Guns N’ Roses. Some may also remember “Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw” by Keel. Both covers of Rose Tattoo tracks from their eponymous 1978 debut.
Led by the diminutive Angry Anderson, Rose Tattoo were produced by Harry Vanda and George Young, the same duo that helmed those early AC/DC classics among others. AC/DC comparisons are easy, but Rose Tattoo had two things going for them that other bands did not: 1) dominant slide guitar on every track, and 2) Angry Anderson himself. Don’t underestimate what you see. This guy has gritty power that elevates each song, and blows away the most famous cover version you’ve heard. Furthermore, the lyrics should be mentioned as different from what many bands were doing at the time: Gritty social observational lyrics, featuring real life stories of the streets (too wild to be true), with colourful characters such a drug dealers and tough guys.
Opening with the slide guitars of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw”, we can accuse another band who clearly ripped off Rose Tattoo in their early days, that being the Four Horsemen. If their “Tired Wings” didn’t take inspiration from this song, then I’ll be damned. The steady beat of Rose Tattoo is the perfect backing for drive this tough boastful rocker. Besides that beat and slide guitar, Angry Anderson’s voice is the magical ingredient. It sounds perpetually pushed to the edge, with a delightful squeak highlighting the emphatic parts. The powerhouse voice of Anderson automatically blows away Keel’s cover. Sorry Ron.
Guns N’ Roses came close to capturing the frenetic energy of “Nice Boys”, but not even Axl can bottle the energy of Angry Anderson. Now playing at a punk-like tempo, but with frantic slide guitar punctuation, “Nice Boys” easily kills the famed GN’R cover version. Hearing it, one gets the sense of “ah, this is what they were trying to do.”
One of the most menacing songs is “The Butcher and Fast Eddy”, slowing things down to that nocturnal crawl that AC/DC mastered with Bon Scott. Much as Scott filled his lyrics with true stories and colourful characters, Anderson tells a tale here like a novelist. “Across the river lived Fast Eddy, he was known to be treacherous, very mean. Even Eddy’s sweet young sister out on the streets, just a girl, barely fifteen.” Is Anderson the Bob Dylan of the dirty streets? He keeps the story going for six and a half spellbinding minutes, with the band mostly just playing the backing music, with a few picks scraped for noisy blasts. Angry Anderson’s voice and delivery carries it.
A stomping beat slams through one of the catchiest songs, “One of the Boys”. It’s an unsubtle ode to being a tough guy with a bunch of tough guys to back you up. Yet Angry’s words offer more than just boasting. OK sure, there’s boasting. “What you need is mates, staunch and true, hold out your back they’re gonna see you through. I don’t look for trouble but I won’t hide, I’ll jump on you if you don’t step aside.” There are also hints of deeper themes, such a loyalty.
Now at top speed, “Remedy” brings the punk rock tempos with a single heavy riff and killer hooks. The message here is simple: gimme rock and roll. It’s good for you. It’s healthy. Turn it up and blast it, and at this tempo you’ll probably be headbanging too. Top notch party rock on the edge of punk.
“Bad Boy for Love” uses the slide to bring a sleezy vibe to a slower groove. In this song, the main character got drunk, ripped up the town, and is now just being released from prison. Then, he went to go see his girl, whom he finds with another man. He kills them both and ends up back in the slammer. This is followed by a jailbreak and “a thousand guns” pursuing him. Not original, but delivered with bona fide sounding cred.
Keepings things to a breakneck pace, “T.V.” might get you pulled over for a speeding ticket. Angry’s voice is pushed to the limit again, and the slide guitar is as relentless as the tempo.
The one surprising song is the acoustic “Stuck On You”, featuring the line “like a rose tattoo”. The slide is now applied to various acoustic stringed instruments, and though it’s clearly the same band, the approach is very different. A more traditional blues direction does not temper Angry’s voice, still pushing it on the choruses and verses alike. Sometimes the lyrics verge on the absurd. “I had a fish named Sam, he lived in bowl. I heated up the water, so he wouldn’t get cold.” The lead character seems like a possible stage five loser, but it’s all open to interpretation. Either way, a great song with memorable words and a delivery impossible to duplicate.
Back to the punk-like rock, “Tramp” tells a more familiar story. It’s over and done real fast, and then we’re onto the epic closer “Astra Wally”. Rose Tattoo do best when they tell these kinds of stories. Astra Wally was a real cool cat, but he sounds like trouble to me. A drug dealer who samples his own wares, perhaps. “He don’t get shot, he go by O.D.” The slide guitar is once again in the spotlight, always fast and always tasty. That’s founding member Peter Wells on slide. Then we have Mick Cocks on lead and rhythm, Geordie Leach on bass and Dallas Royale on drums. When they get down and just lay down grooves like this, you can listen to them all day. “Astra Wally” is indeed a “super fun thing” as the lyrics state.
That’s a 5/5 star album right there. But we’re not through yet, because in 1990 this album was reissued with eight bonus tracks.
Up first are a batch of studio tracks. A B-side called “Never Too Loud” backed the “No Secrets” single in 1984. Regardless of the time difference, it does sound like it roughly fits in. It’s less frantic and tighter, with a slightly cleaner sound. Slightly. It’s still not anywhere near the polished rock starting to come out of North America at the time, and it maintains the slide and steady beat.
“I Had You First” is from 1981’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll King”. The punk vibe is first and foremost here, but the chorus is still a blast.
From 1982, “Fightin’ Sons” comes from the “It’s Gonna Work Itself Out” single, and it’s another vibe altogether. It has a bit of an early 70s vibe with a blues base. This is about going to war to fight for your country, but it’s more than that. It offers its own perspective; its own angle on the experience, gleaned from friends. The lyrics are more interesting than the music, perhaps.
The final studio track is “Snow Queen”. This one lies somewhere in the middle, a reliable rocker with an undeniable AC/DC beat. It’s the voice and slide that differentiate it. It’s low on hooks, but it bangs pretty hard.
The final four tracks are all live ones from an unspecified source. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw” and “Bad Boy for Love” feature Angry pushing it even further than on album. What a singer and what a pair of lungs. “Bad Boy for Love” is considerably longer than the album version, with loads more solos. “Rock ‘n’ Roll is King” and “Suicide City” are later tracks. An obvious single, “Rock ‘n’ Roll is King” is catchy through and through, with Angry still singing at top volume. Yet it’s all hooks. Finally, “Suicide City” is probably the most over the top song of them all, total punk rock frenzy.
In short: If you like rock and roll, get the album, and in particular this reissue.
5/5 stars
As Blotto themselves know, from the making of their new documentary film Hello! My Name Is Blotto – The Movie, sometimes great stuff happens when the tape stops rolling! That happened to me on Tuesday February 25, after finishing up my interview with the band.
During the pre-show chat, Bowtie Blotto told me that they had played my home town of Kitchener, as well as my dad’s city of Guelph. And he asked Broadway Blotto what he remembered of those gigs.
Check out the funny story in the YouTube short below, and check out the full interview if you haven’t already!
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and Blotto Episode 92: Hello! My Name Is Blotto! The Interview
Blotto hit the sand on MTV with “I Wanna Be A Lifeguard”, being among the first 40 videos played on their first morning as a station. Then came “Metal Head”, Metal For Breakfast, and a heck of a lot of gigs. The core members were all named Blotto: Sarge, Cheese, F Lee, Broadway and Bow Tie. Sadly we lost Cheese and Sarge, but for this special interview, F Lee, Broadway and Bow Tie reunited with director Bert Blotto on Grab A Stack of Rock. It’s a Blotto reunion, and a good time was had by all.
The subject is a new movie about to premier on April 12 at Cohoes Music Hall: Hello! My Name Is Blotto! The Movie. Director Rob “Bert Blotto” Lichter has carved this film from many hours of archives, like a sculptor cuts wood. Join the Blotto guys and I, as we check out the movie trailer and hear firsthand stories from the band. There are laughs a-plenty, some serious moments, and some fan geekery. You’ll always hear about the one (hilarious) unreleased track that was never recorded.
It is clear that for Rob, this is a work of passion and pride, as well as hope. Indeed, Blotto deserve a larger audience, for their music still rings true and makes us laugh.
Plus, Bow Tie does the “Dr. Bow” laugh from “Goodbye Mr. Bond” and if that isn’t worth the price of admission, I don’t know what is.
Video premieres at 7:00 PM Eastern.
Thursday February 27 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube.
Episode 6 of 50 Years of Iron Maiden (and episode 93 of Grab A Stack of Rock) was a learning experience as Harrison schooled us on the Beast On the Road Tour.
A fabulous live album recorded in 1982 but not released until 2002, Beast Over Hammersmith rivals Live After Death in metal mastery. The lively comments section anticipated all of our praise for this album, which you can get on vinyl, but probably not on CD without buying the Eddie’s Archive box set.
Harrison Kopp was the master of ceremonies, and this episode was all his. Hear about the unusual opener, the instrumental, the guitar solo, the B-side, and much more. Several things came up multiple times in this episode: 1) Bruce Dickinson’s voice at this point in 1982. 2) Clive Burr’s masterful performances of these songs. 3) The band’s fresh take on the songs that would later be played hundreds of times.
This is episode is certain to go down as a favourite. Join us next week with Melissa Nee, for Piece of Mind!
Past episodes:
Show notes:
Recorded 20 March 1982 – 2 days before album was out, released 2 November 2002.
Never released in full on video as the band were unhappy with the quality, but you can see part on the 2004 Early Days DVD.
Opener: Murders in the Rue Morgue! Starts slow, showcasing Steve’s bass harmonics. Then goes breakneck! What a strange opener!
Wrathchild is another great Steve bass opener. This one is more along the lines of the album version, but with Bruce singing.
New song Run to the Hills is 3rd in the set! Not as breakneck speed as some versions.
Another new song, Children of the Damned. Bruce announces the album will be out March 22. Tour de force vocals and some nice guitar harmonics added in.
Crowd is very quiet except for a few pockets of cheers to open Number of the Beast. Bruce mentions the “problems” they had in the studio.
Great version of “Another Life”, with Clive absolutely on fire on the snares and cymbols. Bruce’s vocals make the lyrics more clear: “As I lay here lying on my bed.” Amazing Davey soloing here.
Screaming version of Killers next. Bruce at peak voice tackling this song. Otherwise pretty faithful to album cut, especially the guitars and guitar tone. We also learn Adrian had some bruised up ribs that night.
22 Acacia is introduced as an Adrian co-write. Another perfect performance. Bruce’s vocals are biting and growly during the intro.
Bruce says Total Eclipse isn’t really a B-side, but it is. “Didn’t have enough room on the album.” This song and Run to the Hills were on a vinyl single already. The vocals are a little haggard toward the challenging ending high notes.
Leads into instrumental Transylvania, played as it should be by Clive.
Crowd is silent during the Prisoner opening. Great hearing it like with Clive on drums. The drums are fast, frenetic and flawless. Tempo seems a bit faster in the latter part than the album.
Hallowed comes in with no intro from Bruce. Better live version than Live After Death, as Bruce sings the opening a little more true to album. Passionate singing from Bruce.
Phantom – Top performance from Bruce, expressive and soaring! Tempo feels a little faster than album.
Iron Maiden – Breakneck version!
Sanctuary – Same with Sanctuary!
Drifter – Songs tend to flow one into another. I don’t like when Bruce refers to some in the audience as a “fucking women,” but that was the 80s. I doubt he’d say this today.
Running Free – A top Bruce version, with impassioned and wild vocals.
Prowler – Crazy to hear this album opener as a closer.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #93
Good evening Hammersmith…or wherever you are! Tonight on 50 Years of Iron Maiden, Harrison and I are appropriately tackling this live album with a live episode!
Beast Over Hammersmith is a double live album recorded just before The Number of the Beast was released. The band played a rare mix of Di’Anno classics and deep cuts, along with new material, and one B-side! Bruce explains to the crowd that it’s not “really” a B-side, which it was, but we’ll get into that, as well as “all the lazy bastards from EMI in the back.”
This episode is our sendoff to Clive Burr, and we’ll be talking about him, though not for the last time in this series.
Beast Over Hammersmith was first issued as a 2 CD set within the Eddie’s Archive box set, which we have taken brief looks at in the past. Today you can get Beast Over Hammersmith on vinyl, so it is a significant enough release to warrant its own episode.
So give us a yo, yo yo yo! and see us tonight, live!
Past episodes:
LIVE on Friday February 28 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and Blotto
Episode 92: Hello! My Name Is Blotto! The Interview
Blotto hit the sand on MTV with “I Wanna Be A Lifeguard”, being among the first 40 videos played on their first morning as a station. Then came “Metal Head”, Metal For Breakfast, and a heck of a lot of gigs. The core members were all named Blotto: Sarge, Cheese, F Lee, Broadway and Bow Tie. Sadly we lost Cheese and Sarge, but for this special interview, F Lee, Broadway and Bow Tie reunited with director Bert Blotto on Grab A Stack of Rock. It’s a Blotto reunion, and a good time was had by all.
The subject is a new movie about to premier on April 12 at Cohoes Music Hall: Hello! My Name Is Blotto! The Movie. Director Rob “Bert Blotto” Lichter has carved this film from many hours of archives, like a sculptor cuts wood. Join the Blotto guys and I, as we check out the movie trailer and hear firsthand stories from the band. There are laughs a-plenty, some serious moments, and some fan geekery. You’ll always hear about the one (hilarious) unreleased track that was never recorded.
It is clear that for Rob, this is a work of passion and pride, as well as hope. Indeed, Blotto deserve a larger audience, for their music still rings true and makes us laugh.
Plus, Bow Tie does the “Dr. Bow” laugh from “Goodbye Mr. Bond” and if that isn’t worth the price of admission, I don’t know what is.
Video premieres at 7:00 PM Eastern.
Thursday February 27 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T. / 8:00 P.M. Atlantic. Enjoy on YouTube.
Show notes
Rob Lichter’s Hello! My Name Is Blotto – The Movie! Is set to premiere at Cohoes Music Hall on Saturday, April 12. The film spans the origins of the band members starting as The Star-Spangled Washboard Band in the 1970’s, their evolution to Blotto and heyday in the 1980’s, and their long afterlife up to the present.
This film is the brainchild of Rob Lichter, aka Bert Blotto, a multimedia expert and longtime friend of Blotto. 25 years of footage and interviews plus archives going back to 1972! Why a documentary, and why now in 2025? Whose idea was it to create a film? How did this evolve?
Is the film done, edited, finished, ready to roll?
Obviously MTV was important to the success of the band, having been one of the first 40 videos played on the station. MuchMusic in Canada also played a lot of Blotto and I’m wondering what your career was like in Canada.
What were you guys thinking, making music videos before there even was an MTV?
What was that feeling like, seeing your music video on national TV?
Did the Metal For Breakfast compilation album bring “Metal Head” to another level?
When prepping this interview, a friend asked me if Buck Dharma from BOC was on Metalhead and I confirmed. How did you get that to happen?
“Video 45” on VHS from Sony with three videos of Blotto songs that also received wide exposure from airplay on MTV, including “Metalhead,” with Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser from Blue Öyster Cult on lead guitar.” How did this happen?
I was struck by the one quote in the trailer about how some people thought Blotto was making fun of the music they liked. I felt the same way! I didn’t know how to take this band. There was a bald guy and a guy with a tie and glasses! They did look like they were “taking the piss” as the English say.
Each guy in the band had a different look. How did you approach Blotto as a visual band?
Were there any musical genres off limits to you guys?
What about musicianship? Obviously you guys could play. Were there any ideas you had that were beyond your abilities?
I’ve always wondered who is singing lead on HSH? Bowtie?
Any plays for DVD or Blu? Or even a soundtrack album?
This fun subject is courtesy of Martin. Amps, microphones, tape decks…whatever goes into making music, if it’s on the album cover, it counts! I will be bringing out some big heavyweight albums for this special episode tonight.
What are some of your favourite albums with amps and recording equipment on the cover? Or perhaps in some cases, the entire packaging? Stay tuned!
Watch live and comment! Martin always tries to address the comment section.
THE CONTRARIANS – Amped Up! – February 26 7:00 PM EST
My Contrarians appearances to date:
GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man
Special Edition Episode: “Hey, You Like Records!” – Grab A Stack of Free Records
One day, Jen came home from bowling with a stack of records from a near-stranger! “Hey, you like records don’t you?” said the person as he dumped all this ancient vinyl in her hands. She knew I’d be able to make a video of them, if nothing else. So that is what we did.
Join Harrison and I for a look at some musty records with a couple surprises. Apparently, if you like Led Zeppelin, the Who and the Beatles, then we discovered the Canadian equivalent of those bands for the “over 25” crowd. Please welcome…the Moms and the Dads!
Gospel, Hans Albers, Wurlitzer, Bill Haley & the Coments, songs about cats and dogs…we got it all on this weird bonus episode of Grab A Stack of Rock!
This episode is live on YouTube now! Hit up the channel, like and subscribe!
mikeladano.com 