A Shout Out to Two Bands and a Friend and Musician. . .

I just wanted to give a nod to two bands that I have been following over the years. Both recently had some success. I am talking bout KillCode and Jane Lee Hooker and their recent signings with a record label or agency.

I first  saw Jane Lee Hooker back in 2011. They are basically playing a lot of classic blues in a very loud fashion. they have been at it for four years now. They just released their first album back in September, which was very cool. The record is good but their shows throughout this time have just been amazing. They just have the musicianship of the band at large, the dual guitars of Hightop and T-Bone, and Dana Danger on vocals, who is simply one of the most expressive singers I have seen or heard. Plus all those blues classics to work with. . .




So it was very cool to hear that they have signed with Ruf Records and that they will record their first album for the label in 2016. Further Ruf will be working with them on additional tours both in and outside the US. All very cool!

Killcode has likewise has signed with Coallier Entertainment. Unlike Jane Lee Hooker though, Killcode is a serious metal / rock act with a dash of southern hospitality. I remember seeing them in like 2009, and playing their first EP for my son, a serious metal head. It must have been as the Haunt in Yonkers was winding down. Again they do know how to command a stage. And Killcode, like JLH, features some amazing guitar work coming from Chaz and DC Gonzales. And they too have a solid frontman and singer in Tom Morrisey.



A bit about Coallier Entertainment. I have run into them a few times over the years. My fav of these was when they brought Thin Lizzy to the US in like 2003 or 2004. This was back when John Sykes was still in the band along with Scott Gorham. I grabbed my son, Phil, and we checked out the boys up at the Chance Theater in Poughkeepsie. I still remember Scott Gorham smiling at the fact that there was a kid and his dad rocking out to Lizzy. At least that was my read of it. . . That was a cool night and Phil and I both enjoyed. And it was very sweet that Lizzy popped up again the next week in Yonkers in some venue I never heard of before or after. It was down in the Irish part of town. Both were very good nights.

Coalier of course has routinely worked with Dee Snider, Twisted Sister, and the related group. . . Bent Brother. They have even signed Guy McCoy Torme (GMT), though they have yet to get that act over to the US. They work with a lot of established acts, which makes this more interesting in that KillCode is a newer act or band for them. Further, we know Killcode here in NYC, but audiences elsewhere not really, not yet. So Coalier has some work to do, and I cannot think of a better act for Coalier to work with, considering their focus on rock and metal.

I went back and forth about posting this. I just rarely see acts get signed by any labels today. Before this I kind of knew that the Sex Slaves were signed with Radical Records, and of course there have been a handful of acts that have come from NYC who I did not know about until they were signed. It just seems very rare these days that bands sign with a label and it perhaps is not celebrated like it was. I recall venues and others posting full-page ads in the Aquarian when Twister Sister was signed way back in the day. It is an achievement to sign a contract relating to one's artistic achievements and future works. It should be recognized.

Lastly, I just wanted to wish Karen Curios a Happy Birthday. I believe it is today. Great singer and songwriter, who if you have the chance to see, you should check out. Interestingly, she posted yesterday that she has finally arrived at the conclusion that her latest album "doesn't suck at all. . ." To which I respond, it is about time. A bit poppy - perhaps, sucky - no. I do not believe she has signed with a label, but still I will happily go see her perform any day anytime. I do wish I could get an mp3 of her current band, the Glorious Revolution doing her tune, the Rising Sun.

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Five Years and a Look Back at How It Started!

It has been five years of the Wild West and more recently the Feast Of Noise. In those five years we have put together a range of shows in Westchester, developed a presence on the web and simply seen and heard some pretty cool rock and roll music and bands. It all started, however, with the intention of making one particular show or set of shows happen. The Wild West started with the idea of bringing from England one amazing guitarist that I had seen play 22 years before. The guitarist was Bernie Torme.

I had seen Bernie play with Ian Gillan of Deep Purple fame back in December of 1980. In February of 2003 I had found Bernie’s CD, White Trash Guitar over at Vintage Vinyl. I had not thought much about the man and his music in some time, but it was very cool to find a recent CD. and it was not long before I was checking the web to see if he was online. And he was!

Anyway, I found a very cool site, www.bernietorme.com , which he developed and still maintains. (He is redoing it right now but it is still there!) It is a site that is rich in stories, recollections, opinions, pictures and music. Not only had I found that he is still alive and well but that he had in the last twenty years a pretty amazing and productive career.

Now the CD I had found had a little postcard, which was mainly to join a mailing list. Somehow, in my mind, I had twisted it to the idea that I could offer my services to bring the man over to the US for a tour, which had never happened. Bernie had toured with Gillan, had become Ozzy’s guitarist on the Diary of a Madman Tour after Randy’s tragic accident, and worked with Dee Snider in Long Island for a year or so on what was to have been Desperado but he never did a proper solo tour of the US despite his two solo bands; the Electric Gypsies and Torme.

So long and short, with finding him online and having this silly idea in my head that I could help him do a tour that he should have done back in 1986; I wrote him an email. I figured, what the hell, I will send it and see what happens. Probably nothing, but one never knows.

Two or three days later, he wrote me back!. The man wrote me back! Wow! How cool is that! The wife says I was already star struck. If I was not before the note, I probably was after it. I now had an a very nice note from him. It touched on some of the history and in the end saying he would, if I was serious, take me up on my offer of putting a tour together. Well, for the next four years, up until early 2007 I did try to bring him over to the US. It never happened.

Today Bernie Torme has an amazing new band, GMT, which has a bit of success in the UK and is now signed with Coallier Entertainment, located in NY. So I hope that if anybody can bring him over here, it would be Danny Stanton and his mates. Meanwhile, I will continue to tinker with a show here and there in the wilds of Westchester.

Five years later and as you can see I still think that correspondence between myself and Bernie Torme is or was amazing, And the years and experiences that followed it have been some of the best! Looking back at what transpired I only hope to continue what we are doing! Perhaps no US Torme tour but along the way we have and will continue to explore a bunch of other stuff!

Regarding this note today; this note on how and where the Wild West and the Feast of Noise began; we end this note with Bernie Torme’s email response to me, and finally my original note to him. We end it, where it all began.


**************************************************

From: Retrowrek/ Bernie Torme
Subject: Re: Hello. . .
Date: March 24, 2003 6:56:16 AM EST
To: Bob Schaffer

Hi Bob,

man if you saw the Gillan US tour, you really are one of the few!

Post Ozzy i never made over to play in the US, though I lived on and off in Long Island and Woodstock for over a year when I was working with Dee, he just would not gig. No unannouced things or try outs or anything, other than one club in Birmingham in england, which was really good. Real shame. So when the record company hung us out to dry we had nothing at all to fall back on other than reputation, which does not really carry you too far..

The long and short of it is that i tried to sort out some gigs around New York two or three years ago, but it was just too logistically difficult from here: and frankly what i do was not too fashionable at that point. i do not at this stage have any connections worth anything on a practical gigging level, everyone I know is doing rarified stuff at quite a high up level or has left the business entirely.

I'd love to get to do some gigs over your way, i get a lot of requests from punter/people in the US, i suppose the only problem is some of them are in NY some in LA, some around Chicago, Ohio, Texas, you name it, thinly spread! So each gig might have about 5-10 very keen fans and bugger all else!

So i am quite open to your idea, but it might be very difficult to pull off realistically. But if you are up for having a go, please let me know if i can assist in any way at all. I'd love to do it.

bernie
--
http://www.retrowrek.com
http://www.barnroom.co.uk
http://www.vtshopping.co.uk
http://www.bernietorme.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bernie-torme

***************************************************

From: xxxxxxx@xxxx.com
Subject: Hello. . .
Date: March 22, 2003 3:42:27 AM EST
To: xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx

Bernie,

I remember you from a concert outside of Philadelphia way back in December of 1980. Was a cold and icy night. You were playing with Gillan back then. I was a youngster, and snuck in the club which I have to sadly say was pretty dead. No one really knew what Gillan was about. But I remember you, your Strat, and your tremolo noises and effects!, Also recall McCoy, and Colin Towns (?) I think - on the keyboard and of course Gillan singing. . .Anyway, now history.

When Randy tragically died on that plane, I knew you would be Ozzy's man. I was bummed when you left the tour. My buddy saw you, and i was pissed! I had tickets for a show the week after you left. All I remember is wondering who the fuck was Brad Gillis. .

Then I found Torme and the Electric Gypsies. . .at least the vinyl. But you never, as far as I know, ever made it over here for a tour - not even New York. I did not know that you were in Desperado. . . shame on me! Anyway, it is a new century, and now that I know you are still making music, any chance you will come over to New York?

What would it take? why not make a leisurely trip to the states? Be a nice trip down memory lane for me and just freshen things up around here period! I will even go so far as to make you an offer. . .I have no idea whether you have any connections here, I am sure you do. . . but if you want a fool to give a crack at finding a few venues for you. . .doing the legwork for a small tour. . . call it what you will - let me know.

Who am I? Today I am a middle class working stiff living outside New York city. Little working cash, but intrigued with the idea of putting together such an event. I was way back in the mid eighties doing lame covers of Thin Lizzy and UFO, I was the singer and manager. .did a few shows. . kind of.

Anyway, if you are curious, write me back. If nothing else, please put me on your mailing list and give me a reason to find my way back to L'Amours over in Brooklyn. Hope all is well!

Bob Schaffer
xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.com
914-xxx-xxxx

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