Posted by Allister Fiend in 80's, Van Halen
Van Halen was paid a whopping $1,500,000 upfront to headline the Heavy Metal Day on Sunday, May 29th 1983.
Not the best quality but take into consideration the age of the video. Here is the Van Halen set from that famous weekend...25 years later.
tag: Van Halen, Heavy Metal, Live, Video, US Festival, Hard Rock, Music
Posted by Allister Fiend in 80's, Scorpions
"It was the day new wave died and rock n' roll took over" - Vince Neil, in a famous quote regarding the overwhelming attendance on Sunday, "Heavy Metal Day", at the '83 US Festival. It set the single day concert attendance record for the US with an estimated 375,000 people.
Posted by Allister Fiend in 80's, Judas Priest
"It was the day new wave died and rock n' roll took over" - Vince Neil, in a famous quote regarding the overwhelming attendance on Sunday, "Heavy Metal Day", at the '83 US Festival. It set the single day concert attendance record for the US with an estimated 375,000 people.
Posted by Allister Fiend in 80's, Ozzy
"It was the day new wave died and rock n' roll took over" - Vince Neil, in a famous quote regarding the overwhelming attendance on Sunday, "Heavy Metal Day", at the '83 US Festival. It set the single day concert attendance record for the US with an estimated 375,000 people.
Posted by Allister Fiend in 80's, Motley Crue
"It was the day new wave died and rock n' roll took over" - Vince Neil, in a famous quote regarding the overwhelming attendance on Sunday, "Heavy Metal Day", at the '83 US Festival. It set the single day concert attendance record for the US with an estimated 375,000 people.
Posted by Allister Fiend in 80's, Quiet Riot
"It was the day new wave died and rock n' roll took over" - Vince Neil, in a famous quote regarding the overwhelming attendance on Sunday, "Heavy Metal Day", at the '83 US Festival. It set the single day concert attendance record for the US with an estimated 375,000 people.
Posted by Allister Fiend in 80's, 90's, Asphalt Ballet
One of my favorite bands from the early 90's was Asphalt Ballet. It's unfourtunate that they arrived on the music seen when they had because there was about to be a major hit to hard rock.
From Sleeze Roxx:
Formed in San Diego, California by Gary Jeffries (ex-Broken Rule, vocals), and former Mistreated members Danny Clarke (guitar), Julius J. Ulrich (guitar), Terry Phillips (bass) and Mikki Kiner (drums). They were able to gain a loyal following in the Los Angeles bar circuit, which got the attention of Virgin records. The debut was a raunchy all out rocker that infused generous amounts of blues and melody, with Jeffries' gravely delivery bringing everything together. However minor airplay of singles such as "Soul Survive" and "Tuesday's Rain" failed to put the band over.
Posted by Allister Fiend in Black Sabbath, Hard Rock Evolution, Ozzy
Another band that has to be mentioned in the evolution of Hard Rock has to be Black Sabbath. Ironically, another band formed to play the American Blues that would influence millions from over in England.
As with all of the Hard rock bands coming out of the 70's (Yes in some cases they came out in the 60's but I didn't hear them until the 70's so that is all that matters)the influence came from my siblings as we resided in Southern California...whether I liked it or not, I was force fed.
It's a shame that Black Sabbath does not even seem to get full credit for many of their songs. Ozzy Osbourne's later popularity as a solo artist brought attention to many of the songs and some people don't know that they go back further. Anyway, we know, right?
You can certainly see the influence their live show had on thrash in the live Iron Man video below.
Paranoid 1970
Iron Man (Live in Paris 1970)
tag: Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Paranoid, Iron Man, Video, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal
Posted by Allister Fiend in 80's, Queensryche
For some reason when I first heard Queesnryche I thought they were a band from Europe. I don’t know if it was the uniqueness of Geoff Tate’s vocals or what. Then finding out they were from Washington it was about the same thing. We had not heard a whole lot out of the Pacific Northwest (ohhhh we will in about 10 years….).
My first exposure to them I believe was on a cheap compilation tape I had picked up. It had the song Lady Wore Black on it.
The break out deal…for the most part…was the concept album “Operation Mindcrime” in 1988. I was playing bass at the time and loved the bassline in I don’t Believe in Love. I remember they had an opening slot for Metallica (although they were no longer on the bill when I saw Metallica that year) which helped tremendously. A friend of mine got to catch that show in Peoria, Illinois and loved them.
Like with most bands, they didn’t get huge until the mandatory ballad. Silent Lucidity took them over the top for a while. Performing the song on the MTV Music Awards with a full string section was awesome.
Anyway, enough babble. Let’s watch some videos…
Eyes of a Stranger
I Don't Believe in Love
Empire
Silent Lucidity (Live MTV Music Awards)
tag: 80's, queensryche, Metal, Hard Rock, Hair Bands, Video, Live
Posted by Allister Fiend in 70's, Hard Rock Evolution, Led Zeppelin
After all these years the song remains the same doesn't it? I won't get into arguments of whether or not Led Zepp is responsible for Hard Rock. The certainly are significant and they were the introduction to me.
My first taste of Led Zeppelin came while lying on a couch in Rowland Heights, California in 1978. My brothers and sisters were having a party and the radio was blaring "Stairway to Heaven." I remember this being a scary thing as I looked at the steps going upstairs in the condo.
When it was decided that hard rock was going to be my thing in the early 80's I revisited the works of Led Zepp. What was awesome about discovering a new thing (in this case a music genre) is that you have all this material to go back and have a look at. Records that were 10 years-old were new to me. Sure I knew the hits but in most cases there were at least eight songs I had not heard.
I find it funny that they are looked at as such an inspiration for an introduction to a new wave of music when they saw themselves as a Blues band inspired by American Blues.
So now we have a look at some of the early work of Hard Rock...
Immigrant Song (Live 1972)
Stairway to Heaven (Live-The Song Remains the Same)
tag: 70's, Led Zeppelin, Music, Hard Rock, Rock, Video, Stairway to Heaven, Immigrant Song, Live
Led Zeppelin Official Site
Posted by Allister Fiend in 2000's, 70's, 80's, 90's, Hard Rock Evolution
The initial purpose of this blog was for me to babble about bands and experiences from my youth. I have decided to throw a little structure (just a little) in the whole thing every once in a while.
It's really not fair to jump right into the 80's without mention of some of the bands that the 80's rockers pointed to as their inspiration. Hard Rock Evolution will look at some of the important bands from the 70's to present day.
The title includes, "...According to me" because this isn't going to be a history lesson. I'm not going to talk about or spend time on anyone that I don't really care for. Years will be out of order, some bands that people think are important won't be there...it will basically be a mess. Despite all that we will give some recognition to some of Hard Rock's founding fathers and hear some good jams along the way.
tag: 80's, 90's, 2000's, Hard Rock, Music
Posted by Allister Fiend in 80's, Enuff Z'Nuff
My first request. How so soon you ask? They Rocked lived over at Wordpress for a while but just moved here.
I would LOVE more requests! For now, this one is for Dee at TSZ.
tag: 80's, video, hard rock, hair band, enuff z'nuff, fly high michelle, music
Posted by Allister Fiend in 70's, 80's, KISS, Motley Crue, Van Halen
80’s Hard Rock is often used as a punchline. To hear the words “Hair Band” brings a different response, depending on the age of the ears hearing it. It’s Mom and Dad’s music to the kids today. Some kids embrace it to be different as kids in the 80’s who cried the praise of The Doors led you to believe you were missing out or just were not cool enough to understand. For adults it brings back memories, good or bad. Even those that were not into it at the time inadvertently found themselves sucked in with the exposure on radio and MTV. If anyone between the ages of 30 and 40 tells you that they never sang along to ‘Wanted Dead of Alive” they are likely lying.
I dove into the 80’s Hard Rock head first…literally. In 8th grade I started letting my hair grow. I’ll be honest, the intentions were for a rat tail. Remember those? One strip of long hair hanging off the back as the rest was short? Yes, the rat tail was going to be my first rebellion tool against my mother. Then I realized it could be so much more. It was 1984.
My earliest exposure to hard rock came from a source that it did for many. Siblings. I was the youngest of five in the house and the closest one in age to me was six-years older. In the 70’s we lived in the L.A. area. Often you could find Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath, or Ted Nugent blaring somewhere in the house. My earliest memory comes from a party they had. I was lying on the couch and I remember “Stairway to Heaven” playing. Scared the shit out of me as before me was the stairs heading up. I was about 6-7 at the time. Then came a song from a new local band. “Running with the Devil” by Van Halen did not help my shivering on the couch cause. I just remember hearing the chorus over and over. No good can come from a 6-7 year-old hearing devil over and over.
In 1978 my mother transplanted me to small town Iowa. I had escaped the devil that was running up the stairway to heaven. In a few short years that hard rocking music, as Huey Lewis would put it, would return…and with a vengeance. It would become my mission to embrace it and force feed it to this community pf about 5000 surrounded by cornfields.
My brother, who was six years older than me, liked KISS. I hated everything my brother liked so KISS had to be included. This went on until a friend of mine would foce feed me the “Lick it up” tape on his big ass boombox we carried around. He was more enlightened as his brother had taken him to see two KISS shows already. My efforts of hating my brother’s band were futile. The foot started tapping and head nodding no matter how hard I tried to stop it. Then I thought of a way to like KISS and not give in to my brother. They had taken the make-up off! My brother liked KISS with the make-up! Make-up off KISS could be mine and I don’t have to acknowledge any influence from my brother!
Let’s go back to where I left off with 1984 above. Hard Rock was starting to get some TV love by shows like “Night Flight” (I think that was the name) on USA and MTV was starting to make the turn. Van Halen was getting a lot of air play with “Jump” and the video was taking off. In my small town Iowa community they had this event where all the downtown stores would have a sidewalk sale and slash prices called “Ridiculous Days”. Looking back on it this was likely a way just to dump their broken and over stocked merchandise. Anyway, the local record store cut a couple bucks off the prices and I talked my Mom into letting me get one. I had my eyes on the Van Halen 1984 album. Mom gave me the money to get it and went on her way shopping. Had she not done that things may have been different. I may not have been permitted to get the album I did. Everyone had “1984″ and could just record it off them onto a tape. Instead I took a different albmu to the counter. One with pictures on the back that would have scared that little kid in 1978 who was laying on the couch during a party. I was no longer afraid though. I was going to be different.
I rushed home and took the wrapper off the record. For the kids out there, a record was like a CD only you didn’t put it in anything, It played in open air on a thing called a record player. It’s ironic to think back now what the name of the first song on that record was. It wasn’t so much a song as it was a scary little story. I laid the dusty record needle down on the vinal and what started playing was “In the beginning…” from Motley Crue’s “Shout at the Devil” album. Things were about to change for this small town Iowa boy.
