The SaltyRockz Blog – Trust HoJo

Mark Rumble has just sent me a great photo of himself from this year’s Download Festival wearing his Saltyrockz Trust line-up T-shirt, then followed it up with a fine e-mail outlining his love for the French rockers. Now I know that French hard rock from the late ’70s and early ’80s may be an acquired taste, but what the hell? The reason the T-shirt was on Saltyrockz in the first place is sort of self-indulgent, because it just so happens that Saltyrockz designer Hunnsy and myself are both pretty obsessive about Trust. So much so that we trekked down to Toulouse in France together to see them on their last French tour in October of last year.

My love of the band dates back to 1980, when I managed to get hold of their soon-to-be-classic second album ‘Répression’ – in Germany of all places. Now for a confirmed rocker like myself it was a weird old package. The photo on the back of the album featured the group mingling with a load of English punks, a shot presumably taken on a night off while recording the album in London. Lead singer Bernie looked right at home, his short hairdo and pink punk tee shirt blending in perfectly with the style of the hour. The rest of the band, though, especially guitarist Nono, looked well out of place, yer archetypal rock stars with long curly hair cascading down over leather jackets bedecked with AC/DC pin badges.

This wasn’t the norm, but the whole offbeat style of the thing appealed to me. And once I’d had a listen to what was in the grooves I was totally sold. Has there ever been a band that sounded so angry? Trust’s sound was the purest of hard rock riffing. Those AC/DC pins really stood for something. But the intensity and ire that came from Bernie’s throat – part singing, part political hectoring – gave this band a whole other dangerous dynamic. With my A-level French put to the test I was able to work out that Bernie was writing lyrics that railed against injustice and, yes, repression in all its forms. Sword and sorcery? Do me a favour! This was hard rock that lived in the streets, not on the silver mountain! Trust was rock stripped to its taught and sinewy best and I thought they were the absolute bollocks.

Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris had the good taste to offer them the support slot for the ‘Killers’ tour of the UK (and not just because he fancied knicking their drummer Nicko McBrain, though that might have helped!) and I could hardly contain my excitement. Even better when they announced a headlining date at a little-known venue in Manchester’s Belle Vue area. I was 15 and more than ready to rock.

The rest of Manchester didn’t agree with me. At a time when Trust were massive, massive, massive in their native country the band pulled (and I really did count them) nine people to the show! It was a shock to me, but not as seismic as the shock it must have been to the group. No matter, Trust performed like they were at Madison Square Garden, putting in a stint that is still for me one of the greatest rock concerts I’ve ever seen. To this day I remember Vivi playing bass while sipping on a pint at the bar. He had one of those new-fangled radio mics, you see. Bloody marvellous! The height of cool.

Clearly the band took such rejection to heart and the next Trust album, ‘Marche Ou Crève’ featured a song called ‘Angleterre’ on the French version lambasting jolly old England. I took it very much to heart at the time, but not enough to fall out of love with the band. They didn’t put it on the English version, mind!

Trust has always been something of an exclusive club, a place where real aficionados of the genre could get serious about their hard rock. Snobbery? Maybe. But what the hell, the music was awesome. I remember spending a night with Samson guitarist Paul Samson (God rest…) round at his house years and years ago and all we could talk about was how awesome Trust were. Paul had got hold of a ‘no vocals’ mix tape of the album simply titled ‘Trust’ and without Bernie’s voice you only got more of a sense of how dynamic, tight and loose, raw yet refined the band were. It was, without getting too dewy-eyed, a quasi-religious experience.

Now of course as they say, all things must pass, and sure enough so did Trust. The band kept going, but by the time the album titled ‘Rock ’n’ Roll’ came out the fire had gone out too. Instead of raw energy and taut riffs there was a wimping out and a commercialisation that had nothing to do with the band’s original credo. I was saddened, but not distraught. Your heroes always let you down, after all. But at least these guys had left one hell of a legacy.

The trip down memory lane that was Hunnsy’s and my trip to see the band live in Toulouse last October was even more disastrous. The band had lost all heart, all passion, all drive. They had a bloke on stage with turntables scratching along to the tunes, for God’s sake! The old songs sounded perfunctory and the new songs sounded desperately like old men trying to be relevant and totally missing the point. We left after about 45 minutes alongside a fair number of equally disenchanted punters saying it was nothing short of a scandal. Perhaps it was as good a reminder as any that sometimes memories are better left where they are.

As I write this I’m listening to an awesome live album of the band at their rockingest peak back in 1980. It’s a thing of absolute joy, which means I can forgive any of the rubbish that passes for Trust these days. Trust marked my youth like few others and it’s for that reason alone that I’ll always be a fan! So thanks Mark, for the reminder of a classic hard rock band. Maybe you’ll enjoy the ‘Répression Dans L’Hexagone’ Trust tee that we’ve just released on Saltyrockz. It’s the name of that infamous 1980 tour of France when the Trust juggernaut crushed all before it and marked hard rock history for ever…

Want to email me about this blog? Get in touch at hojo@saltyrockz.com

HoJo rocked as a top journalist on legendary UK metal magazine
Kerrang! and now runs a way-cool rock T-shirt site at www.saltyrockz.com.

The SaltyRockz Blog – Festival Frenzy

Now of course you’d expect me to be a bit of a fan of Saltyrockz tees, but I have to admit to a particular fondness for the ‘Festival Veteran’ design just now. That’s natural enough, of course. It sums up how I feel as a long-standing festival-goer, like I’ve been there in the trenches, have fought the rock wars and have been lucky to make it out alive!

My first ever festival was the 1981 Castle Donington Monsters of Rock event, where I somehow managed to wangle a backstage pass in the guise of Editor of Phoenix Heavy Metal Fanzine, the home-spun mag I put together and sold as a teenager in my home town of Manchester.

I had no idea how to turn up prepared for an English festival. A good idea to opt for a homemade satin tour jacket? Well, that was clearly an idiotic thing to do, not only sartorially, but practically as well. Donington, as I was to discover over the next God-knows how many years, is synonymous with pissing rain and raining piss. Remember that charming habit of filling up the plastic cider bottles that you were allowed to take on site with your own piss, then lobbing them across the sea of fellow festival-goers with the top only half-screwed on? Better to wear a plastic mac than a satin tour jacket, methinks…

Yet despite the weather and despite the urine, I always found myself back at Donington the following year, like some kind of hopeless festival junkie, addicted to the thrill of sharing a communal musical experience with other like-minded souls, most of whom were also capable of laughing in the face of weather-oriented festival misery. I remember particularly enjoying watching Skid Row in a fairly monumental downpour at the 1992 Donington next to legendary promoter Andy Copping. Without an umbrella to hand Coppo – now a big cheese at promoter Livenation and one of the nicest men you could ever wish to meet – had concocted some Arab-looking headgear by winding (I seem to remember) a long-sleeved T-shirt around his head. Looking quite the fool, Coppo was nonetheless pleased as punch and nicknamed himself ‘Madman Insane’ in a warped tribute to the deceased leader of Iraq.

Best festival memories besides? Sitting watching AC/DC from up in the lighting rig at the side of the stage in ’81. How the hell did I blag myself up there? I haven’t the faintest recollection. Enjoying the various fairground rides at the Phoenix Festival in 1993 having indulged in some stuff that I’d best not go into? Dancing for every single minute of every single song at Reading ’92 when my mates The Wonderstuff headlined – on my birthday! Seeing Judas Priest and Iron Maiden on the same bill back in ’83 at an indoor festival in Germany whose name escapes me. Has any stage ever groaned under the weight of so much leather?! Getting invited to drink at the Bon Jovi onstage bar at Wembley Stadium, which is possible not strictly a festival if the truth be told, but damn, it sure felt like one! And performing lived on stage with a French band called Les Vermines in front of 5,000 people at a festival in Rouen when I was doing my year abroad as a student. Cover versions? ‘Breaking The Law’ by Priest, ‘Brand New Cadillac’ by The Clash, ‘Warhead’ by The UK Subs. I wore a fake black and white leopard print jacket to ‘wow’ the crowd, for which I blame Hanoi Rocks!

But that’s the great thing about festivals. They allow you to behave like a total fool and yet still feel that it’s all completely normal and acceptable, thereby giving you tales you can dine out on for years to come. Who cares if the sound is always rank and the toilets look like something that would have been rejected as unhygienic in the middle ages. You’re a festival veteran – and you’re rightly proud of it!

Want to email me about this blog? Get in touch at hojo@saltyrockz.com

HoJo rocked as a top journalist on legendary UK metal magazine
Kerrang! and now runs a way-cool rock T-shirt site at www.saltyrockz.com.

M3 Festival Concert Review from our 2007 Rocklahoma Winner!

Huge high fives to listener Ronna Korotkin, who was one of the winners of our first Rocklahoma giveaway in 2007. (Well technically, her husband Dave won, but it was all in the name of heavy metal love!) Ronna recently entered a contest on her local station (and HOH affiliate) WIYY/Baltimore and scored stage seats for her entire family at the recent kick-ass M3 Festival. Ronna was also crowned Miss M3…we think her favorite House of Hair tank is bringing her good luck!

Ronna’s M3 Festival Review

Saturday, May 30 – M3 Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

The weather was just as promised on Saturday morning – 70s and sunny. Although there were 16 bands playing the M3 Festival, we knew we wouldn’t be able to catch them all because there were two stages and the set times overlapped. So, unfortunately, that meant sacrificing the Festival Stage performances so that we could see the Pavilion (Main) Stage performances. This meant that we didn’t get to see:

1pm Jetboy
2:00 XYZ
3:00 Bullet Boys
4:25 Steel Panther
5:50 L.A. Guns
7:00 Keel
8:40 SLAMM

We got to the venue around 1:00 so we missed Gilby Clark who opened the show on the main stage at noon.

As we walked up to Merriweather, we could hear Y&T playing on the main stage, including “Summertime Girls.” The crowd was flowing in and the lawn was filling up. The pavilion was sold out but there were still some empty seats this early in the day. The pit was shoulder to shoulder – SRO.

Slaughter came on next and had the crowd singing along to favorites like “Fly to the Angels” and “Up All Night.” They still could put on quite a show even in the middle of the afternoon. We could tell that this was going to be one rockin’ festival!

What was most impressive about the show was that there was very little downtime between sets. This is good and bad. On the positive side, you didn’t have to wait long for the next band to start. On the negative side, there wasn’t time to go to the second stage or the merch booths. We took a quick tour of the merch booths and, while there were plenty of band t-shirts, there was not M3 merch at all.

After the quick set change,Jani Lane ran onto the stage looking like a man on a mission. We had heard an interview with him from about a week and a half ago and he said he was ready to rock and had put together an all-star band – Keri Kelli (Alice Cooper) on guitar, Kevin Baldes (Lit) on bass, James Kottak (Scorpions) on drums and former Warrant keyboardist Shawn Zavodney. Jani definitely got the crowd going, at one point coming out from stage right into the crowd, working his way across the crowd singing the whole time, and then back to the left side of the stage. He played all of the Warrant hits and a new song called “Changes.” Jani was in serious need of a smoke part way into the set. He found one, had someone from the crowd throw him a lighter just as the county smoking ordinance flashed up on the screen. Great timing! He closed with “Cherry Pie” after pretending that he was finished and starting to walk off stage.

Dokken was on next and he did not disappoint. We have now seen him three times in three years – Rocklahoma ‘07, Rocklahoma ‘08 and M3 and he has delivered every time. With Mick Brown on drums, Jon Levin on guitar and Barry Sparks on bass, he kicked off with “Breakin’ The Chains” and delivered hits like “Kiss of Death,” “The Hunter,” “Into The Fire,” “Alone Again,” “Tooth And Nail” and “In My Dreams” in his signature style. It was hard to believe that it was only 4:40 or so when he finished and we still had four bands to go on the main stage.

Kix was on next and there had been a lot of press about Kix playing the 5:00 slot in what was basically a hometown show for them. A lot of people said that they felt sorry for anyone playing after Kix at M3 because the bar was going to be set so high. Well, Extreme certainly didn’t let up (more on that later) but Kix came out on fire. Literally, on fire. Steve Whiteman kicked into “Midnight Dynamite” with the fuse burning on his microphone. Backed by Jimmy “Chocolate” Chalfant on drums, Brian “Damage” Forsythe and Ronnie “10/10″ Younkins on guitars and Mark Schenker on bass, Steve ran through hits like “Cold Shower,” “Don’t Close Your Eyes” and “Girl Money.” The crowd absolutely ate it up. Kix probably could’ve played for another hour and the home crowd would’ve still wanted more. But it was time to kick the giant balloons out into the crowd, wrap up the Kix set and prep for Extreme.

Extreme kicked off the first of three headliner-length sets and Gary Cherone looked like he’d had a few too many Red Bulls. He came out like a man possessed, jumping onto the amps and riding them like a bull, climbing onto the stage speakers and sitting cross-legged, squatting mid-stage, leaping off of the raised drum platform. It was an unbelievable display of raw energy. And through it all he nailed every note. With Nuno Bettencourt on guitar (and showing off the shape he is in by losing his shirt partway through the set), Pat Badger on bass and Kevin Figueiredo on drums, Extreme put on a show that I guarantee nobody stopped to wonder why Extreme had a headline spot. They mixed up the setlist, playing hits from the earlier albums as well as songs from “Saudades de Rock.” The set list included “Decadence Dance,” “Comfortably Dumb,” “Rest In Peace,” “It(’s A Monster),” “Am I Ever Gonna Change,” “Play With Me,” “More Than Words,” “Cupid,” “Get The Funk Out” and “Hole Hearted.” It was an amazing show that many of the other musicians, including John Nymann from Y&T, came and listened to from the side of the stage.

Ratt came on around 8:00 and a lot of jaws dropped when John Corabi walked out to play guitar. Rumor has it that Carlos Cavazo had a scheduling conflict and Corabi agreed to fill in for just this show. I guess time will tell but it was nice to see him on stage with Robbie Crane, Bobby Blotzer, Warren DeMartini and Stephen Pearcy. The band came out to big cheers from the crowd as Robbie Crane fist-bumped the fans on the side of the stage (including us). They kicked off with “Tell The World” and followed with hits like “Slip of The Lip,” “Back for More,” “Lovin’ You’s A Dirty Job,” “Way Cool Jr.,” “Lay It Down,” “Body Talk” and “Round and Round.” The band members really looked like they were enjoying themselves. Stephen Pearcy and Bobby Blotzer were bantering back and forth all night and Robbie Crane seemed to be saying “hi” to friends everywhere he looked, including Marq Torien from BulletBoys on the side of the stage. At the end of the set, Robbie threw his bass about 20 feet in the air and, fortunately, his guitar tech was there to make the catch. As they walked off, the tech told Robbie to never, ever do that again.

Between Ratt & Twisted Sister, Shiprocked announced the winner of a free cruise. As all of you House of Hair fans know, HoH gave away a Shiprocked cruise earlier this year. With bands like Queensryche, Tesla, Skid Row and Lynam, and destinations like Jamaica and the Grand Caymans, the cruise is booking up quickly. You better head over to www.getshiprocked.com before it’s too late.

Twisted Sister headlined M3 and took the stage around 9:20. It took a little while to work through some guitar kinks but the show quickly kicked into gear. Celebrating the 25th anniversary of “Stay Hungry,” Dee Snider, Jay Jay French, Mark “The Animal” Mendoza, Eddie “Fingers” Ojeda and A.J. Pero came out in full make-up, pumped up the packed house and didn’t stop for over an hour. The set included all of the hits – “The Price,” “I Wanna Rock,” “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “S.M.F.” The audience was into it and Dee and Mark even came over to the side stage to sing and play to their family members. As the festival ended, Twisted’s pyrotechnics shot off from the floor and then from the rafters – directly over A.J. as he played. He sat tight for the first set of sparks, brushing debris out of his hair. But the second set of sparks sent him around the drum set and up with the rest of the band to say goodnight to the crowd.

It was an awesome festival! Let’s hope M3 – May Merriweather Metal – becomes an annual event.

-Ronna Korotkin
May, 2009

Dee Rocks KDKB’s Desert Invasion

Desert Invasion 5/9/09 – Arizona

Well, it’s the day after…and what a day it was…8 incredible bands lettin’ it fly in the wonderful 100+ degree May heat in Phoenix, AZ…we’ve needed an event here like this in a long time, and hopefully it will evolve into a yearly event. Dee was an incredible host, and despite the blazing temperatures, a great time was had by all. Bang Tango kick-started the festivities, and sounded great…they used some local boys to round out the band, but in no way did that deter from their brand of raunch ‘n roll…

Bulletboys followed, and I almost didn’t recognize Marq Torien – JET BLACK HAIR these days! I can honestly say this about all the bands on the bill, but it sounds like they never stopped recording and touring…great show, even tho they didn’t do ‘Shoot The Preacher Down’…maybe next time, guys…but ‘Smooth Up In Ya’ and ‘Hard As A Rock’ were definitely highlights – they even opened up with a killer version of AC/DC’s ‘Riff Raff’ – killer stuff.

At this time, I must mention the awesome staff at the venue; food, security, medical, law enforcement (I only saw one person being forceably ejected…the officers were personable and clearly not there to give anybody any crap…hats off guys…wait…don’t…the top of your head would be as badly burned as mine is today – but I digress)…and don’t forget the awesome stage hands. The time gap between bands was usually 25-30 minutes, and that’s all…it was a very tightly run event, and congrats to everyone involved. And then there was Trixter…talk about a fun live band. I always considered them to be one of those hair-bands that were more pop-ish, and catered more to girls than ‘real’ headbangers, but my opinion of them changed yesterday…some of the best guitar solos of the day, hands down…how can you not love L.A.Guns? Especially when Tracii Guns plays 2 sets during the day? (yep…he played with Bulletboys too…) – I can’t understand why this band didn’t get more props and success back in the day…great songs, great show…the ‘holy triumvirate’ of ‘One More Reason,’ ‘Ballad Of Jayne,’ and ‘Rip And Tear’ was obviously the crowning point, but their extended ‘Sex Action’ (the song, people…the SONG!) was intense…

I don’t know if the heat was killing the Phoenicians up until that point, but that was when I really saw more active crowd interaction with a band…and if you wanna talk about crowd interaction, then Kix is your band. Do yourselves a favor – if you’ve never seen Kix in concert, make sure you see them when they come to your area…absolutely, definitively, positively one of the best damn live bands I’ve ever seen (I last saw them open for Great White and Tesla when they toured for their ‘Blow My Fuse’ album…can ANYONE hook me up with that cd??? I can’t find it anywhere…I have it on vinyl only…dammit!) – this band just OWNS a stage when they get on it…period. Steve Whiteman is easily in my top 10 as one of the best frontmen in metal. He works a crowd like nobody’s business…even if he DID get beat out in the sing-a-long during ‘Cold Blood’ by no other than his good buddy, Dee Snider!! I’ll refrain from stating what Steve called Dee onstage at this time…! All the songs were there, and even stuff from their first couple of discs (I love their 1st album, and it was cool to hear ‘The Itch’) – the only one missing was ‘She Dropped Me The Bomb’ – and Steve was really the only one bitching about the heat…wimpy east coast rockers!!! (Just kidding, Steve…love you, man!) Just be thankful you weren’t playing in freaking June, when the heat REALLY levels you…Kix is awesome, and you need to check them out live. Now, this was supposed to be a ‘hair band’ weekend, but I noticed a lot of the guys are now sporting the ‘we’re reaching middle age, gotta cut the hair’ look…none more obvious than Firehouse vocalist C.J. Snare – did it make a difference? Hell NO! This guy has got a set of pipes that continue to blow me away…I never got the chance to see Firehouse back in the 80’s, so this was a real treat for me. They were frigging AWESOME. Most of the songs were from the 1st cd (’Helpless’ started off the set, followed by ‘Lover’s Lane’ – cool!!! 2 of the most underrated songs from their 1st..) but, of course, you have to have ‘All She Wrote,’ ‘Don’t Treat Me Bad’ – the set ender – and that ol’ tear jerker ‘Love Of A Lifetime’ – they were phenomenal. (Yeah, I probably spelled that wrong…)

Glad to see that Firehouse (as well as ALL of these bands) are still plowing along…little did I know that Skid Row (and no offense here at all) without Sebastian Bach at the vocal helm would be as ass-kicking as they were last night…oh…my…GOD!!! I’ve loved this band since I heard the first chord of ‘Youth Gone Wild.’ And they didn’t disapoint…they rocked so damn hard that I was getting cuts from the shrapnel flying from the stage…one song after another, the crowd was going absolutely nuts by this time (yeah…a bunch of 40-sometings going nuts…scaaaaary, but true!!! – maybe due in part that the sun was down had something to do with it as well!!!) – this band continues to kick ass, and I really hope something new from them will be recorded…

now, I’m gonna admit MY wimpy-ness here…I left after Skid Row. I love Night Ranger, but I was spent…8+ hours in that heat just got to me…

- Patrick Murphy

Anvil! The Story of Anvil

From the Sundance Film Festival program:
“At 14, Toronto school friends Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, went on to become the “demigods of Canadian metal,” releasing one of the heaviest albums in metal history, 1982’s Metal on Metal. The album influenced a musical generation, including Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, that went on to sell millions of records. But Anvil’s career took a different path – straight to obscurity.

Director Sacha Gervasi has concocted a wonderful and often hilarious account of Anvil’s last-ditch quest for elusive fame and fortune. His ingenious filmmaking may first lead you to think this a mockumentary, but it isn’t. Gervasi joined the legendary heavy-metal band as a roadie for a tour of Canadian hockey arenas, so he has intimate insight into the members’ eccentricities. It’s fascinating to see the reality of their day-to-day lives as they struggle to make ends meet, take a misguided European tour, and engage in antics on the road – which is not always lined with fans. Gervasi even finds a softer center to this raucous film, introducing us to band members’ ever-supportive, but long-suffering, families.

At its core, Anvil! The True Story of Anvil is a timeless tale of survival and the unadulterated passion it takes to follow your dream, year after year. Anvil rocks – it has no other choice.”

John Cooper
Director of Programming
Sundance Film Festival