Gerry McGhee

Grab A Stack of Rock: Brighton Rock Collections with Len Labelle, on CD & Vinyl

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and Len Labelle

Special Edition Episode:  Our BRIGHTON ROCK Collections

Established in 1984 under the name Heart Attack, from Niagara Falls Ontario came the mighty BRIGHTON ROCK!  Powerhouse screamer Gerry McGhee, Greg “Shredder” Fraser, Stevie Skreebs, Martin Victor and Mark Cavarzan comprised the original lineup.  Johnny Rogers joined in the by the first album on keyboards, and the band began making their footprint in rock history through an EP, three studio albums, a live CD and a handful of standalone recordings.  We walk you through all of it from start to finish.

Joining me for this special episode is longtime friend Len Labelle, a local collector whose history with Brighton Rock goes back to the debut.  Len talks first impressions, a brief encounter with a band member, and favourite songs.  We played two vintage MuchMusic interview clips with the band and talk about a VHS tape that we believe never came out.  Towards the end, we detoured and took a great look at A World With Heroes, a Kiss tribute album featuring Brighton Rock.  We returned course and talked about the final Brighton Rock recordings, and the present day with Storm Force.

We hope you find this episode fun, informative, and full of love.  We lost Gerry McGhee to cancer in 2020, and fans continue to miss him.  I hope we did Gerry justice.

Please enjoy this special episode of Grab A Stack of Rock with Mike and Len.  If you know anything about that Brighton Rock home video, please leave a comment or drop us a line!

Discussed this episode:

  • Brighton Rock EP (1985)
  • Young, Wild and Free (1986)
  • Take A Deep Breath (1988)
  • “Hangin’ High & Dry” 12″ single (1988)
  • Unreleased home video? (1989)
  • Love Machine (1991)
  • Room For Five Live (2002)
  • “Creatures of the Night” (2013)
  • “End of Time” (2019)
  • and Storm Force Age of Fear (2020)

REVIEW: Brighton Rock – “Can’t Wait For the Night” (Remix) (1986 single)

BRIGHTON ROCK – “Can’t Wait for the Night” (Remix) / “We Came To Rock” (1986 WEA single)

Niagara Falls’ Brighton Rock had a knack for rockers and ballads in equal measure.  Though “ballad” was often whispered as if it were a dirty word, Brighton Rock released a couple as singles over their career.  “Can’t Wait For the Night” was the first.  With a soft keyboard backing, the guitar melody by Greg Fraser sketches out the hook of the song.  Gerry McGhee shows a tender side to his voice, while unleashing the scream on the chorus.  His voice takes on a third texture as the chorus goes out, a grittier version.

On the 7″ vinyl format, the song was given a remix and an edit.  It was taken down from 4:25 to 3:56, and labelled as the “single mix with guitar solo”.  Presumably all that means is that the guitar solo wasn’t chopped for the edit, since the album version seems to have the same solo.  The edited music is mostly outro, and it’s hard to discern exactly what the remix adds.  Keyboards and guitars seem to be the same.  Vocal is the same.  But here it is; the “single remix with guitar solo”!

On the B-side is the rocker “We Came to Rock”, which to me was always the “first single” because of the great music video they used to play on Much.  This dramatic little number mesmerized us as kid.  It began soft and ballady, with keyboards and the sound of violins seemingly being plucked on the verses.  Then, Gerry McGhee released the beast that was his scream on the captivating chorus.  McGhee’s voice had tremendous diversity within single songs, and this is a prime example.  Finally you get to Greg Fraser’s solo, which as always was a composition unto itself.  This is the standard album version.  Simply awesome as-is!  It is one of those rare songs that is a treat to play on repeat.

This awesome little picture sleeve single isn’t hard to find nor expensive to buy.  Highly recommended.

4.5/5 stars

Tomorrow on a Grab A Stack Special Edition, new co-host Len Labelle and I go through our entire Brighton Rock collections. Don’t miss this!

R.I.P. Gerry McGhee

When I was 15, I saw a band on TV called Brighton Rock.  The song was called “We Came to Rock” and it was cool.  Pop rock, not quite metal, but slick.  Then I heard the outro!  The singer was screaming like nobody I ever heard in my life!  Who were these guys?  I made sure I taped the video next time I saw it.

Brighton Rock were perhaps one of the best Canadian shoulda-been bands, with a singer who had serious ability, backed by musicians to match.  Today, that incredible voice has been silenced.

Rest in Peace, Gerry McGhee, the voice that could have shattered mountains.

I’ll tell you, Motley Crue should have snagged this guy when they had the chance.  What a sound that could have been.  Brighton Rock made three studio albums, an EP, a live CD and a number of singles and other miscellaneous tracks.  They covered “Creatures of the Night” on Mitch Lafon’s A World With Heroes Kiss tribute, and did it justice by going completely different from the original.  In 2019, Brighton Rock released what turned out to be their final song “End of Time”, a heavy rocker that now serves as an excellent capstone.

Gerry later went on to found Precision Records, the plant that pressed up my sister’s album Masked.  Its reputation in the industry is excellent.  Before that, his distributor Isotope Records supplied me at the Record Store with new product to sell.  I never had the chance to meet him personally, but I’ve heard only good things.  We occasionally spoke on social media, and he was happy to answer one of my vinyl-related questions for an article I was working on.

Rest in peace, Gerry.  This one is hitting me very hard.  Playing Young, Wild and Free now, I will remember you as “The Rock and Roll Kid”.  Scream on Gerry.

VHS Archives #96: Brighton Rock play ball with Erica Ehm and Duane Ward (1991)

Up to bat:  Erica Ehm (MuchMusic)
Pitcher:  Duane Ward (Toronto Blue Jays)
Catcher:  Gerald McGhee (Brighton Rock)
Umpire:  Greg Fraser (Brighton Rock)

In 1991 Brighton Rock released their third album Love Machine, featuring backing vocals by Duane Ward of the Toronto Blue Jays! Erica Ehm got to play ball and ask questions of all of them. Questions about:

  • Duane’s “theme song” by Billy Joel
  • How Brighton Rock hooked up with Ward
  • What they do when they hang out
  • The first video “Hollywood Shuffle”
  • Life after the Jays

Let’s play ball!

REVIEW: Brighton Rock – Brighton Rock (EP)

BRIGHTON ROCK – Brighton Rock (1985 Flying Fist EP)

I first turned onto this band in the 10th grade.  MuchMusic kept playing the video for “We Came to Rock”.  It had a pop rock vibe to it, but the singer erased any accusations of being pop.  The screams!  The unholy screams!  Yeah!  That was definitely hard rock territory!

The singer’s name is Gerald McGhee and the band is Brighton Rock.  There’s a connection to the Record Store Tales, which is that later on McGhee started a music distribution company called Isotope Records and we used them as a supplier once in a while.  My boss told me that Gerry still had the hair.  (According to M.E.A.T Magazine he was also one of two Canadian singers to audition for Motley Crue in 1992, the other being Sebastian Bach.)

The selling feature of this band for me was the incredible voice of McGhee.  I’d never heard screaming like this before!  I remember my highschool classmates couldn’t handle it, the screams were too much for them.  But it’s not gratuitous; McGhee throws in screams strategically at key points to blow you to the wall.

Not that McGhee is the only talent in Brighton Rock.  Also notable is guitarist Greg Fraser, who ended up in Helix in 1993, and today fronts the Frase Gang with Brighton Rock bassist Stevie Skreebs.

BRIGHTON 5Before they released their excellent debut album Young, Wild and Free, Brighton Rock completed a four song EP, which is what we’re talking about today.  It’s no Young, Wild and Free, but we’ll be talking about that album (and Take A Deep Breath) in the weeks to come.   The EP Brighton Rock is a less-honed taster, but something I’d sought to own for a long time.  It’s never been released on CD, and contains one song (“The Fools Waltz”) that isn’t on any Brighton Rock album.  Bob had this on cassette when we were kids, but I finally recently picked up a sealed vinyl on eBay for dirt cheap.

Brighton Rock and their debut album contain the same opening song:  “Young, Wild and Free”.  This early version is musically identical but lacks the oomph.  Michael Wagener produced the album, and no doubt helped by his incredible work with Accept, got way more intense screams out of McGhee.  The EP however is produced by somebody named Steve Vaughan (with one track by Jack Richardson).

The second track is “Assault Attack”, which as the title implies is a combat zone of hooky guitars and thunderous toms.  Miles away from the ballady stuff like “One More Try” that the band would later become known for.  Song three is “Barricade”, which has a really cool and tricky sounding guitar solo by Greg Fraser.  It’s a heavy rocker., but the closing song “The Fools Waltz” eases up on the pace a tad.  It would be a stretch to call it a ballad.  It’s more like a Canadian radio rock song.

Of note:  the Brighton Rock EP is the only release with original keyboardist Martin Victor.

3/5 stars