RichRock
The 80’s. When men looked like women and women tried to keep up. One of my favorite band names, VIXEN originally formed in 1980 in Los Angeles and played the club scene for seven long years before breaking out with the release of their self-titled debut.
Did you know the first single and VIXEN’S biggest hit “Edge of a Broken Heart” was written by Richard Marx? (He makes a cameo appearance in the video).
That debut album sold millions, but like a lot of hair bands at the end of the decade, their follow up ‘Rev It Up’ (1990) didn’t fare as well. VIXEN broke up the following year.
There is always a little bit of controversy when talking about the biggest names in thrash metal. I know I have been taken to task on a few occasions by my references to the so-called “Big Four.” I freely admit that as much as I love metal, I am not the most knowledgeable about its history. So what? I know what I like and I recognize the bands who have influenced my love of the genre for so many years. Read More
When Guns N’ Roses performed at the Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg this summer, Swedish national TV station SVT was there and they recently posted a video of Axl Rose’s dressing room and backstage area.
From their concert last month in Belgrade, Serbia, it was revealed that GUNS N’ ROSES’ tour rider requested that Axl’s dressing room be all black and decorated with fresh roses, and that champagne, vodka, tequila, red wine and beer be available in the room.
In addition, Axl also wanted fresh roses, 18 each of red and white, in the band’s dressing room, along with “black napkins, a blender, a juice maker, a tea kettle, paper tissues, 18 glasses for wine and champagne, 15 glasses for stiff drinks, 40 paper glasses, six cutlery sets, two bottle openers and corkscrews, and one large and two smaller bread knives.”
Check out the video here from SVT.
Some great hair band photos from back in the day were posted at accesshollywood.com.
Ratt in their full 80’s regalia, strike a pose, Chicago, Jan. 1, 1990
Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi poses for a pic with fellow hair metal god Joe Elliot of Def Leppard, Jan. 12, 1989
A young Sebastian Bach rocks out with his band, Skid Row, at The Forum, Los Angeles, Jan. 3, 1990
Hair metal kings Motley Crue — Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars pose for a shot, Jan. 1984
Brett Michaels attends a taping of the television Show’ ABC in Concert’ at the Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles, April 30, 1991
It’s not as many as you might think.
More proof the fix was in when the record labels and traditional radio ruled the music business.
For example, the week of May 21, 1988, Def Leppard’s smash hit ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The #1 song that week? Gloria Estefan ‘Anything For You’. #1’s that followed that year… George Michael ‘One More Try’ and Rick Astley ‘Together Forever’.
Of the four songs just mentioned, which is the most memorable today? I guess you could equate this to the runner-up on American Idol going on to a more successful career.
Okay, I am kinda torn here. Half of my brain says this is kind of awesome… the other half says ‘WTF?!’
The double-disc set “Dio At Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987” will be released in November.
The first disc was recorded at the first-ever U.K. performance by Dio’s solo group, while on tour supporting their classic debut, “Holy Diver”. And the setlist does a superb job reflecting DIO’s debut (featuring such classics as “Rainbow in the Dark”, “Stand Up And Shout”, etc.), as well as classics from both RAINBOW and BLACK SABBATH (“Man on the Silver Mountain”, “Heaven and Hell”, etc.) — resulting in a thoroughretrospective of Dio’s career, from RAINBOW to BLACK SABBATH to solo hits.
The second disc of “Dio At Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987” features guitarist Craig Goldy’s debut — recorded in 1987, in support of the “Dream Evil” album, and contains highlights from Dio’s career.
The first disc represents “a new, young band coming out of the box,” Wendy Dio tells RollingStone.com, “and then the [second disc] is a more seasoned band.”
In 1982, disagreements over the mixing of Black Sabbath’s ‘Live Evil’ resulted in the departure of Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice from the band. Wanting to continue together, the two formed DIO later that year. R.J.D. said in an interview available on the special edition re-release of Holy Diver, that he never intended to begin a solo career. His intention was to form a new band with Appice. Naming the band Dio made sense from a commercial standpoint, as the name was already well-known at that time.
Did you know that ‘Dio’ in Italian means “God?”
“Words are the most powerful things we possess. They shape our very lives and determine who and what we are… I renounce, denounce and pronounce that I will never play that song [“Animal”] live again.” -Blackie Lawless (from Blackie Lawless Renounces His Past Sins by Brian Reesman) Read More
We love ‘Heavy Metal Parking Lot’ and word is the guys behind it (Jeff Krulik and John Heyn) have another mid-80s heavy metal home movie about to be released titled ‘Heavy Metal Picnic’.
This one is set in 1985 at the “Full Moon Jamboree” in Maryland, a weekend field party bacchanal that took place at The Farm, which was home to a cast of colorful characters who lived and partied alongside unamused neighbors in the McMansions of Potomac.
This party was so crazy, it made the evening news and much of it was recorded using a home video camera and a stolen CBS News microphone swiped from the Reagan inauguration earlier that year.