Rockbrat Wonder: About the relevance of Glenn A Baker

Glenn A busily sorting his albums: "Alphabetically in order please."

I ask you, is there any figure in the Australian music industry more nauseating then Glen A Baker ? His relevance nowadays is negligible. Whenever ANY Australian musician of note passes away, without fail, you will hear Baker’s effervescent tones enthusiastically singing the praises of the recently deceased and exalting the musical claims of that person as only he can do. What, you mean there’s no other knowledgeable rock person in this country?  Sheesh. I’d hate to see him when he’s coming down off his Prozac. It wouldn’t be a pretty picture. With the recent passing of Men At Work’s Greg Ham, sure enough, there he was on the radio with his annoyingly chirpy tone telling all the youngun’s just how relevant Men At Work were back in the early 80’s. Being a fan of straight-a-head Oz rock of the Angels/Tatts variety, at that time I endured the somewhat quirky pop sounds of Men At Work with a grain of salt. Flutes and rock n roll? No thanks. It may have worked in Nimbin in 1970 as you baked your own bread and dyed your own clothes, but by 1983, it wasn’t for me. The yanks bought it though. Faster than you can say ‘kookaburra sits in the old gum tree’, it shot straight to the top of the US charts. It was the perfect soundtrack to Australia’s winning of the Americas Cup in 83. And didn’t we celebrate. The people from the colony usurping the yanks on their own stage. Anyone would have thought that we’d become a global leader in the space race, but no, we’d beaten someone other than NZ in a yacht race. The irony being that in the US, the result probably hardly rated a mention. But here? Boy, the country went crazy. Looking back, it all kind of seemed a little ridiculous, but in 83, the world was still a pretty big place and Australia was a long way from anywhere. I digress. On the radio station I was listening to, one in the Aunty local radio category,  Glenn A made the point that Men At Work’s efforts to break America were pioneering, and with the exception of INXS and LRB, Men At Work were pioneers. What about Helen Reddy? Or Rick Springfield? Didn’t they have US chart success prior to Men At Work? Or how about ONJ whose ‘Have You Ever Been Mellow’ and ‘I Honestly Love You’ both went top 5 in the US. Baker conveniently omitted these artists. I remember going to a record fair in Auburn (mate) in Sydney in 1990 and Glenn A turned up. He had a little band of followers who pathetically followed him pied piper style as he flicked through the vinyl, hanging on to his every word as if he was Mick Jagger. Bizarre. Yes I dug Raven Records and yes I used to shop in Time Warp, but that’s a lifetime ago. Baker has been an opportunist. According to Wikipedia, he is a “journalist, commentator, and broadcaster well known in Australia for his vast knowledge of Rock music. He has written books and magazine articles on rock music and travel, interviewed celebrities, managed bands such as Ol’ 55” I don’t recall OL55 breaking into the States (or Punkz or Cheek for that matter). ONJ ALSO went top 5 in both Australia AND the US in 1983, the same year as Men At Work, with a tune that I still think is one of her best, yet gets looked over when people think of her signature tunes. I’m talking about ‘Twist Of Fate’ , the main tune from the ‘Two of a Kind’ theme which she starred in with Tom Cruise’s mate Travolta. Here it is for you to enjoy. As for you giggling Glenn A? Take a rest pal.

Classic Image From The Rockbrat Photo Collection: Mendips – 251 Menlove Avenue

"here Mr Rockbrat, you look skint, come on in for a bacon butty and cup of tea La"

Now here is a classic image taken by Mr Rockbrat, during the english summer of 1991. Known world over as the childhood home of John Lennon, 251 Menlove Avenue is still high on the list of Beatle-droids visiting Liverpool.  The National Trust, who had previously acquired Macca’s childhood home did not purchase this property, and I believe it was Yoko Ono who bought it, then handed it over to them. What a gal. I believe the public are available to visit the property nowadays, which underwent some renovation work in recent years (I would’ve restored it to its’ original design and given the ugly ‘blue plaque’ look a wide berth). Three years after Mr Rockbrat took this shot, the boys from Manchester decided to use an image of Mendips on the cover for their Live Forever single. Always said Oasis had good taste…..

Lifting The Lid On The Rockbrat Treasure Chest: Ace Frehley Signed 1995 Tour Poster

Back in 1994/5 when KI$$ where heading around the world on their convention tour, Space Ace Frehley was hitting the club circuit around the US and Canada, including a leg called the ‘Kick Ass Tour’.  Many of these dates included his buddy Peter Criss on drums. Ace and Peter in a club ? or Kiss in a stadium or really were not sure what genre of rock they should be playing….grunge, heavy rock, classic metal. Gimme the bay boys of Kiss anyday ! I just unearthed this signed print which looks very cool. Before I go hang this on the Rockbrat wall, I thought I would share it with all you jaded awol Kissers out there !

Lifting The Lid On The Rockbrat Treasure Chest: Frehley’s Comet Fan Club 1986-88

Ace was back and he told you so !

Back in 1986 I joined the Frehley’s Comet Fan Club. From memory it ran for a couple of years and was ran by a guy called Erik Cram from Modesto, CA. It was always a highlight when a new issue of ‘Comet Watch’ landed in Mr Rockbrat’s letterbox ! Remember that back then, info in Ace was scarce so to be a member of his first fan club after his KISS exit was indeed something special. Easy now to join his mailing list online, but make no mistake, memories like these are irreplaceable.

Classic Rock Pic From The Past: Ace Frehley signing to Megaforce Records 1986

Ace signs to Megaforce - photo: Ron Akiyama

This photograph originally appeared in issue #8 of the Frehley’s Comet Fan Club newsletter ‘Comet Watch’. John and Marsha Z from Megaforce are in attendance at the signing as is Eddie Trunk, now well known as a DJ, author and host of That Metal Show.

Photo: Ron Akiyama

Lifting The Lid On The Rockbrat Treasure Chest: Vinnie Vincent 1986 Guitar Picks

Signing up to join the Vinnie Vincent Invasion International Fan Club – now there’s a tongue-twister – was a no-brainer for this here Kiss nut. Of course, back in the mid-80′s, fan clubs etc worked a little differently to nowadays. Vinnie’s been in the news in recent times for all the wrong reasons, but back then – he was taking heavy metal in a new direction. The first VVI album with Robert Fleischman was amazing. Here are a couple of Vinnie plectrums which arrived in my mailbox back in 86/87

Lifting The Lid On The Rockbrat Treasure Chest: Rock Soldiers – Ace Frehley Fan Club

It was back in the summer of 83….err actually 93, when Ace Frehley launched his official fan club ‘Rock Soldiers’. As a long time Kisser, my address was no doubt on many Kiss Fan Club mailing lists. I was a member of the Frehley’s Comet fan club, some years before this, which I will write about later. The Space Ace has his name out in the public eye recently, via his great ‘No Regrets’ book. Two decades ago, things were slightly different – as this letter indicates. Ace was looking for fan club members….’A Message From Ace Frehley’ on the front of an envelope ?! Very cool ! A different time, before the internet had taken over and Kiss had put on the paint once more.

Rockbrat Remembers: Tokyo’s Kosei-Nenkin Kaikan Hall

street map of the area

‘All you boys way over there, and all you boys way down the back……I wanna be where the boys are !’. These very words were uttered by a tough-rock n roll teenager named Joan Jett – on the Runaways 1977 album ‘Live In Japan’. I have worshipped the Runaways for nearly three decades and I knew that record like a faithful old friend.
Joanie’s rallying cry was in fact the intro to the track ‘I Wanna Be Where The Boys Are’, and on this surprisingly warm Spring day in Tokyo, this boy just wants to be where The Runaways played !
As a resident of Japan, seeking out this particular concert venue was always on my list of things to do. Alas, I was too late. Yet another icons concert venue bites the dust. But some background first.
The album was recorded at two separate locations in Tokyo: the Koesi-Nenkin Hall here in Shinjuku (also known as Welcity), and at the nearby Shibuya Kōkaidō (Shibuya Public Hall). As a kid, I used to gaze over my gatefold, vinyl copy of ‘Live In Japan’ in true wonder.

 

the venue before demolition - image courtesy wikipedia

The screaming and excitement of those Tokyo teens was amazing, recorded on a tour which would turn out to be the high point of the band’s brief career. In my opinion, the album is a lasting document to the world’s greatest ever all-girl band, and captures that brief moment in time when Currie, Jett, Ford, Fox and West – held Japan under their rock n roll spell. Amazingly, this venue in Shinjuku stood for nearly fifty years, before closing on March 31, 2010. Besides the Runaways, many – in fact ‘most’ of the biggest names in the rock world walked onto that Shinjuku stage at some point: such as U2 back in 1983, Ian Gillan, Miles Davis, Judas Priest, Tangerine Dream, Bob Marley, Jethro Tull, Van Halen in 78, Ratt, Elton John, New Order, Nazereth and Queensryche to name but a few. I wonder if Cherie knew that

Bowie brought Ziggy to this same venue in 1973 – four year prior to her gracing that very same stage. Japan’s favourite HM sons – Loudness, recorded live product here as well. Japan has a rich rock n roll history. Venues such as the Budokan are known all around the world; but there are many others. The Sun Plaza in Nagano, Nagoya’s Rainbow Hall, and Sapporo’s Makomanai Ice Arena to name a couple.

 

2012 - only the rock n roll ghosts remain

 

So I recently made an effort to re-visit this rather unattractive buidling which held so many rock n roll memories, only to find it had been demolished. As I walked around the adjoining streets, I tried to imagine it was 1977 and the Runaways were in town…..the queues were long and teenage kids wore denim jeams, band buttons and tee-shirts. No such words as ‘iPads’ or ‘wi-fi’ were in the vocabularies of these kids. The only two words they cared about on those warm, June summer days back in 1977, were ‘rock n roll’ and the ‘Runaways’ -  a pinch of rock and a dose of roll: you bet !

As I climbed a bridge to take a photograph, a lady looked at me curiously and in my best japanese I said ‘The Queens of Noise’ played here !    and indeed, they did !

 

 

Tokyo's Kosei nenkin kaikan - another iconic concert venue bites the dust.

Rockbrat Remembers: Impact Records (Canberra)

In 2012, the site of the original Impact Records is now home to a physio business.... Photo (c) Cowboy Col

One of life’s great ironies is that many clichés are actually true. Familiarity breeds contempt. This does not just apply to people, but also to retail shops. Let me explain. You remember how you when you were growing up, there were certain store that you used to go in all the time – a milk bar, a record store, a second hand store – whatever it was. Years went by and the store was still there. You got older, but it was comforting to know that your favourite store was still there. Then years later, the store is gone. You had ample opportunity to take just one photo of your favourite store – but never did. You thought it would always be there right, so you never did.  Many people lament that the competitive squeeze in retail over the years has gradually pushed these unique stores out of business with the consumer funnelled to multinational conglomerates, shopping malls and mega malls and the like. Let’s take music retailers for example. No longer does the little independent retailer exist. Nope, it’s a chain store, and it’s probably owned by some multinational retailer who also owns a glut of tyre, liquor and chemist stores. Ever get the feeling you’ve been conned ? If you are a youngun’ reading this, I hate to tell you, but the glory days of music retail (and rock ‘n’ roll for that matter) are locked away in the memory bank. As a record buyer in the late 70’s, 80s and 90s – I lived in record stores, which sadly, no longer exist.

Today I want to reflect on the ONE and ONLY music retailer in Canberra that dominated the retail landscape for over 20 years. Of course I’m talking about Impact Records. In the mid 80’s, Canberra had a reputation as the death metal capital of Australia, and with world class bands like Armoured Angel at the forefront, the metal scene burgeoned well into the late 80s with Alchemist and the like. Impact Records stocked a huge range of import metal albums, even stuff that was not seen in Sydney’s Utopia. Yet it was not just metal, there range was diverse and massive. It was a gathering place in Canberra for rock folk, people seriously into rock n roll (like me), pick up the gig guide, buy the latest import fanzines and always – tone and tons of LP records.  I remember travelling down to Canberra many times from 1985 onwards – just to go to Impact Records. That’s how good it was. They used to occasionally have great sales too, with much of the stock dragged outside on tables.  From memory, the original store used to be located upstairs on level 1 at the Boulevard Building in Akuna Street, Canberra. Another stalwart of the Canberra landscape, Electric Shadows cinema, used to be downstairs. I have strong memories of heading in here on cold winter days to pick up the latest issue of Kerrang! Or to check out the latest import metal LPs. I remember buying a Dio 12” and some other stuff in 1986. From then on, Mr Rockbrat and I made regular trips to the nation’s capital to head to Impact, to go “impacting”. There was Lucy from Armoured Angel behind the counter – and metal playing over the stores PA. Some years later, and Impact moved to bigger premises at the lower level of the Saraton Building, Cnr East Row & City Wlk, next to Kim’s Asian grocery. As the music landscape changed, and metal suffered a decline in popularity (thanks Kurt), music retailers like Impact went through a change too, as the shift from vinyl to CD was now well and truly in motion. Mr Rockbrat was forever in there buying the latest Kiss Fanzines, like Strike or Canberra’s ‘Sacrifice!’ Some time later though, as the new millennium crept in, Impact was bought out by a multinational, JB-Hi Fi. The store still stocked a full range, but the musical landscape had changed. By the mid 2000’s, I think around 2007, the doors were closed. JB Hi Fi still operates in different locations, but they are a soulless conglomerate that sells everything from computers to electronics, as well as CDs etc.

You never know what’s around the corner. In 1989, with metal being the dominant music, there was no reason to think that Impact would not last. Yet the star burnt out, and then you had the death of the LP, and then a few years on, digital downloads killed the CD star too – Music retail was not once it was – and for stores like Impact, the writing was on the wall. I often walk past the site of the original store, and think back to the mid 80’s when I was buying albums in there by bands like Znowhite and Armoured Saint. Good memories. Shall I end with a cliché ? Time moves on, but I still have the memory locked away. Maybe you have a memory of a favourite record store you’d like to share. If you do have a favourite store nowadays, go take a photo of it. 20 years later, like Impact, it may also just be a memory for you too.

Rockbrat Wonders: “NEW” KISS news from 2012

KI$$ in 2012(Gene and Paul sporting the new line of KI$$ cat wigs, specifically for men in their early 60s).Photo by Steve Marcus

In the “who really cares” department, KI$$ have some news. According to the latest news reports, “About to celebrate 40 years in rock and roll, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS are legendary veterans of the music business, and they’re “Hotter Than Hell.”  (zzzzz – Ed). Actually, hotter than ever since forming in 1973 and in no way slowing down. (nope, gotta keep that ol jewish piano a turning). They rattled off just a few of the highlights of what’s ahead at the grand opening of KISS by Monster Mini Golf on Thursday afternoon: Here is their upcoming schedule. On April 1, in full makeup, they will be back in Las Vegas arriving on the red carpet in a Monster truck to present Best Vocal Group at the 47th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena. (Gene and Paul and the imposters arriving in a Monster truck. Better hold on those wigs boys. AND presenting a ‘country music’ award. Let the circus continue!!! At the end of March, they’ll perform in New Orleans. On April 9, they’ll perform two songs on the new season of “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC. In one month, they start filming a KISS movie with Mark Johnson of the “Narnia” films producing (wonder if they will  re write Ace and Peter’s roles in the Kiss story – of course they will!) In May, Season 9 of Gene’s “Family Jewels”  (yawn) begins and a 10th renewal looks definite for filming this fall for 2013. Their nearly three-month dual headline tour with Motley Crue starts in July. (Talk about dullsville. The crud and KISS. Hope that band rider is well stocked.) This fall, they’ll host yet another of their weeklong KISS-abean cruises in the Bahamas over Halloween with thousands of fans already booked. For a band whose relevancy has long since past, $immoins and Stanley are again content to drag a once great band’s name through the mud . Again and again and again. Go buy Ace’s book and read what he has to say about this very situation. When will the catmans book be out? Time gentlemen – TIME!  (Photo by Steve Marcus).