Four young guys with a dream came to Los Angeles From the san Francisco bay area in the late ‘80’s. I was lucky enough to be one of those guys. The other three were Steve McKnight (guitar), Phil Deckard (bass) and Paul Cancilla (drums). We had some things in common; the desire to become more than just dreamers, a sick sense of humor, and some damn big hair (all prerequisites for 80’s rockstardom). People look back at that era now and laugh, but in the day there was some serious talent. And unbeknownst to most of the world, we were a part of it. We quickly built a reputation for being an “Over the top” live band, similar in fashion to early Van Halen. But we had other musical influences, stemming from the beatles to Rush, and lots of other points in between.
After playing the Strip for a while, we got the chance to go to Japan, unsigned. This was unprecedented, and we were the adventurous sort, so off we went. At our first soundcheck, two guys from Sony Music were there. By the time we returned home, our manager had been faxed a proposal from Epic/Sony Japan. The record was released in September of 1989, and we returned to Japan for a second tour. We did lots of T.V.
and press, and got to see the Japanese countryside. One moment that stands out for me was as we were traveling in a small bus through the country, it was almost dawn. We stopped, and watched the sun come up over Mt. Fuji and the Sea of Japan. We were on this T.V. show called “Funky Tomato”, hosted by this cute Japanese girl who always wore a different funky kind of hat. As we hung in the “Green Room” waiting to go on, I was watching the live broadcast on the monitor. They seemed to be showing highlights of the show, as I was seeing the same stage that we were about to perform on, but on it were the likes of Def Leppard, Ratt, Kiss, etc. Then somebody explained to me that tonight was the final broadcast of the show. AND WE WERE THE MUSICAL GUESTS? Holy Cow. Apparently, over a million people saw it. We were at the Hard Rock Café in Roppongi the next night, and we got mobbed.
The Japanese loved us, and so did the English rock press. Two journalists, Dave Reynolds (Kerrang) and Kelv Hellrazor (Metal Forces) were convinced that we were the next big American rock band, and they proceeded to spread the gospel in their respective magazines. But back on American soil, we were still unknown. We returned to L.A. and to our usual hometown fans, and the occasional trip to the Omni in Oakland produced some out of hand shows, which were good for our moral. But the labels in L.A. weren’t biting, we just weren’t “Guns N Roses” enough, I guess. If we could just get that elusive American deal…..
Intermission..... time for a
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%20Magazine%20Cover-Dec'89%20smaller%20opt.jpg "my first (and only) magazine cover viva rock japan dec ' 89")
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live in tokyo, sept '89
Part II
We finally did get an American deal, and it was the beginning of the end of our career. After being turned down by every label in town (twice), we finally agreed to sign with this guy who had been chasing our manager around for a while, who had his own independent label. We were always skeptical about indie labels, but he had acquired major distribution, so we told ourselves it would be the best of both worlds, major muscle distribution, and a label president you call on the phone at home. rrrrriiiighttttt…….
The record came out. Barely anybody played it. We went on tour, without a video or airplay. It was the “Shakin’ Hands and Kissin’ Babies” tour. We went to radio in every town we stopped in, and invited them down to the show. We went out there and did our thing in front of 18 people, and a lot of the radio guys who came down left as believers. We started to get a little airplay, and then the video we shot for our second single which was called “Pretender” made it onto MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. Totally out of place for the kind of song it was, but we weren’t complaining. We were actually on MTV! Our “Indie” label was parented by the now defunct I.R.S. records, and distributed by Capitol/EMI. This put us fourth down the food chain, we were hardly a priority. I’m sure our manager put much more money into us than any label. If I learned one lesson in all of this it’s this; RADIO IS EVERYTHING. There were a few markets that played us; Boston, St. Louis, Tampa, Salt Lake City, among others. The shows there were nuts. Everywhere else, crickets. People who think “Spinal Tap” is funny are the people who didn’t live it. We actually walked into an “in-store” at a record store in D.C. where the only other people there were the two guys working, and the “live remote” unit the radio station sent over. Time and time again, at some poorly attended show, 4 or 5 kids who knew about us waited to get a C.D. signed, and then those four words would come out; “They never play you”.
So we went out a third time, back through the “Shakin/Kissin” territory. We were in the first hour of Headbanger’s now, and some of those radio guys really came through for us. We had Top 5 phones in Boston and Denver. Z-Rock had us in their weekly top 40 thing, we had a little American press, and were slated to go on the back cover of Album Network (Bad Company’s Holy Water album dropped a notch the next week, and that went out the window). Things were looking up. Until……
It was my birthday, March 22, 1991. We had just come from Dallas, and I was nursing an aching throat. We were in Houston. One of I.R.S.’ field marketing guys took us all out to Benihana. We went back to the hotel. Paul and I were watching “The Hunt for Red October”. It was about 3:00 a.m. I decided to go out to our “bus” thing for some tea for my aching throat. That was the last time any of us saw our equipment truck, or any of its contents. The next day, about noon, one of our tech guys informed us that the truck had been stolen. We hung around Houston for a few days, filing police reports and stuff, but no leads. We went home.
The “Parent” label said something to the effect of “Gee guys, tough break”, and promptly pursued other interests. Our manager bailed. Paul decided he was ready to move on. We had to replace him. The momentum stopped. our continuing japanese momentum, which was contingent on American momentum, stopped. And you know that part about calling the label pres on the phone? Guess whose highly coveted job that was? Mine.
Funny how I went from being this guy’s “buddy” to a pain in his backside in no time. As much as I knew he had no intention of working this band another day, he just wouldn’t say it. He said a lot of other things, but not that. He was “shelving” us; that is to say, he would not drop us, but wouldn’t do anything with us either. He told us if we wanted to leave, okay. We said we did. Then he made it difficult. It cost us a lot of money that we didn’t have to get out.
By the time we were free, new drummer recruited and ready to go out and basically start over, something came along that made every band of our genre extinct: NIRVANA.
Our second drummer left after the L.A. riots, returning with his wife and child to the greener pastures of the Bay Area, as he was also a native of that locale. It was at this time that the rest of us decided that it was time for a facelift, and we put the name to rest. What followed was a new band, same 3 guys with a different name, drummer, musical style, and a whole new episode of rock and roll B.S. that will have to wait till another day. I still am in touch with Steve, Paul and Phil. Phil has played on many of the songs I’ve demo'd over the past few years, and Steve and Paul both still play.
Goodnight,
Tokyo