From the official Antix Facebook page!
Oh, 1988! A new band starring Lenny Wolf from Stone Fury had started his new band Kingdom Come, and the “Led Clones” accusations were rampant! MuchMusic VJ Laurie Brown refers to them as “Kingdom Clone” here.
Antix were an independent hard rock band out of Ottawa, Ontario. They released several records and are possibly best known for “Kick It Up” from the Raw M.E.A.T CD compilation. Check out their Pepsi Power Hour bumper!
August 1991: MuchMusic rarely did phone interviews, but when Lars Ulrich is on a big promotional binge, you take what you can get! Michael Williams, proudly sporting his Fishbone shirt, got to quiz Lars with questions on the new album, and new video “Enter Sandman”, for roughly 10 minutes.
We all knew the next Metallica album was going to be huge. The hype had been building for a year. It was just a matter of the release date.
It’s “the record people say Metallica were always trying to make,” said Lars. Too much of a big deal was being made about Bob Rock, he claims.
“We had Canadian flags all over the studio,” says Lars of the studio vibe with Bob Rock, in answer to Lars’ Danish flag and James’ Star Spangled Banners.
Lars characterizes Rock as someone to bounce ideas off of. He doesn’t really know what a producer does, but had an idea of what he wanted Bob Rock to capture in the studio. The last two months was spent overdubbing and layering; stuff that Lars was not familiar with.
Lars also discusses a massive album release party with 18,000 people at Madison Square Gardens.
Is Metallica finally becoming more “video-friendly”? Watch this legendary interview with Ulrich to find out.
From fall 1988, right before Gene Simmons was set to do his big interview promoting the new Simmons Records label, Pepsi Power Hour host Laurie Brown had Rob Cavestany and Dennis Pepa of the young thrash band Death Angel come in for a quick chat!
Check it out!
This collection of Alice Cooper interviews and videos circa 1987-88 was recorded from MuchMusic’s Pepsi Power Hour.
Topics include:
You’ll also see clips of videos for “The Man Behind the Mask”, “Freedom” and “I’m 18”.
NOTE: If you have a VPN, set to USA and you can definitely watch this video!
This incredible Iron Maiden special aired on MuchMusic’s Pepsi Power Hour in early 1991. Unfortunately, by this time MuchMusic were mixing music videos in with their interviews, making uploading to YouTube very difficult. This video is unavailable in Canada, Australia, and 23% of the world.
Should I attempt to re-edit it to exclude the flagged content? Tricky to do, since these segments are mixed with interviews and factual blurbs.
At this point Iron Maiden were tired of the big stage productions, and stripped both the stage show and music back to basics. This is included in the interview footage, with Bruce Dickinson and Nicko McBrain handling most of it. Dave Murray, Steve Harris and new kid Janick Gers also offer their own perspectives.
Also included: Lots of live footage, including 1980 in Toronto, and accompanying interviews with Paul Di’Anno and a segment with Clive Burr.
Check it out if you can. If there is enough interest, I may attempt to edit it.
This is a monumental interview from my VHS collection. I wore this tape out, as you can tell! Judas Priest’s Rob Halford provides a lot of detail on the goings-on in 1988, that you don’t often hear. That was the year of Ram It Down, Stock Aitken & Waterman, “Johnny B. Goode” and much more! Hear about all that, English tax collectors, Lita Ford and more. Watch as Michael Williams presents Rob with a gold record for Ram It Down, and Priest…Live!
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Please enjoy this classic Rob Halford interview that I almost wore right out as a kid. Lots of info here that is interesting to this day!
On April 26 1991, AC/DC brought The Razors Edge to Dublin, Ireland. MuchMusic were there!
Two lucky contest winners (Jerry and Kulwinder) got to co-host the Pepsi Power Hour backstage with Dan Gallagher, Angus Young, and Brian Johnson. Not only that, but they got to do it from Dublin! Brian is jovial, and Angus often lets him answer. The time is brief, but this interview covers the following subjects. The answers are almost always comical, so be sure to watch this excellent tape!
Watch Brian get the MuchMusic name wrong, twice! This interview is light, comedy gold. Enjoy!
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:
Alice Cooper was back in Toronto in 1991, promoting his new album Hey Stoopid in a big way: by playing on top of the iconic HMV building at 333 Yonge St! Shades of Let It Be, but with long hair and mascara, Alice’s band rocked the streets below.
Cooper also spoke to MuchMusic’s Michael Williams about the new album, and collaborating with L.A. friends such as Axl Rose. He dropped a tidbit about their new album and a certain song called “The Garden”.
There’s also a segment here of Alice meeting fans from Operation Rock N’ Roll that same year. Check it out1
Contest winners Keith Kramer and Les Eckert were the names of the two chaps who got to sit in and interview Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson, while out supporting his first solo album, Tattooed Millionaire. Dan Gallagher was hosting the Pepsi Power Hour, and his sense of humour is apparent here. Dan always made interviews fun.
Bruce was pretty wiped out after a long night! The guests picked the videos and asked the questions, but it is clear throughout that all three had a wild one the night before, seeing a band called Kings of the Sun. Les was, to paraphrase Bruce, flammable.
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Enjoy this video from my personal archives.
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