Contraband

Contraband was a short-lived supergroup/side project that included members of several famous rock bands from the 1980s, such as Shark Island, Michael Schenker Group, Ratt, L.A. Guns, and Vixen. A name was quickly found with “CONTRABAND” and Kevin Beamish worked as producer. Impact America secured the record deal and a new super group has been announced. Contraband came to be after a Vixen and Ratt unplugged session on MTV. The band released only one self-titled album in the summer of 1991 which received lukewarm reviews. The album was a commercial failure and the band disbanded shortly after, whilst touring with Ratt. The song “Loud Guitars, Fast Cars, and Wild, Wild Livin'” was included in the movie If Looks Could Kill soundtrack. In the US, the album charted at number 187. Their only chart entry in the UK was with their coversingle, “All the Way from Memphis” in July 1991.

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Asphalt Ballet

An awesome hard rocking blues influenced band, named after a term used to describe a motorcyclist crashing and skidding along the road at high speed. Their debut was an outstanding album that should have made them household names, but it failed to do so. 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. Jeffries left for personal reasons during the tour for the debut, and Tommy Dean was recruited as the band tried to update their sound in an attempt to fit in with the changing music scene of the early 90’s. But Pigs, and its debut single “Angry Youth,” was a commercial failure, and the group parted ways. Jeffries would resurface with southern rockers The Regulators before forming Alligator Stew. Ulrich and Kiner are currently working together in the hardcore metal band 13a. There is a possibility of the original line-up returning in the future.

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Bad English

Bad English was an American arena rock band formed by three ex-members of the power pop band The Babys, Jonathan Cain, John Waite and Ricky Phillips (now in Styx), along with Journey’s rock guitarist Neal Schon. The group is perhaps best known today for the career-defining power ballad “When I See You Smile”. Although their late 80s and early 90s success proved short-lived, they’re also still famous as one of the most popular supergroups in U.S. music history alongside Cream, Asia, and others. The band’s first, self-titled album was released in 1988, and it met with a great fan response as well as gave the band two hit singles in the United States: “When I See You Smile” and “Price Of Love”. Positive reviews followed by massive tours built up immense expectations about the songwriting talent of the band in their future endeavors. However, on their second album, entitled ‘Backlash’, the one and only single failed to enter the U.S. Top 40, peaking instead at only number 42. Critical views were also mixed on the release. Soon after the band recorded their second album ‘Backlash’, in 1991, the group disbanded. Members went their separate ways even before the album could be mixed. In a later interview, frontman John Waite said that, while he enjoyed playing to stadium-sized audiences again, he wasn’t happy with the somewhat ‘corporate rock’ image that the Bad English had been tagged as having. He has since had a solo career focused more on mellower singer-songwriter music.

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Brass Kitten

 

Brass Kitten was formed at their Location of GREEN BAY, Wisconsin, USA
Genre: Glam / Metal / Rock

Members Original line-up 1989
Ed Lamberg - Vocals
Kiar Olson - Bass & Vocals (1988 to1990)
John Jeremy - Guitars & Background Vocals
Sid - Drums

Members line-up 1990
Steven Philbrook - Vocals
Kellie Roulette - Bass & Vocals (1990-92)
John Jeremy - Guitars & Background Vocals
Sid - Drums

Record Label Metal Heart
Type of Label - Major

Brass Kitten was knew for great talents in the early 80’s coming up to the 90’s where they would be knew for talents that would land them possible jobs in the music era.

The newest lead vocals of Brass Kitten Steven was taught vocals by the singing teacher who also has taught artist such as lead vocals Miljenko Matijevic of Steel Dragon AKA Steelheart and lead front man Jani Lane of Warrant.

The Brass Kitten Front Man Steven would shock the crowd at shows with the Cover song “I’ll Never let you go -aka Angel Eyes” by Steelheart and top the notes as Miljenko Matijevic of steelheart would in the song.

Kiar Olson: used to tour the country in a long-hair rock band called Brass Kitten. Lots of fun, but now he is pretty calm (mostly). currently he is a Director at an advertising agency and gets to be all creative most of the time.

He can still party like a rockstar when needed and can be found near the good tequila… game on! I hate fake people and those that don’t know how to have a good time. Remember, you can always sleep when you are dead.

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Brighton Rock

This is a band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I followed them through the Okanagan Valley one summer! Excellent guys!

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Hurricane

Hurricane is a 1980s heavy metal band originally featuring current Foreigner lead vocalist Kelly Hansen (vocals/rhythm guitar), Robert Sarzo (guitar), Tony Cavazo (bass), and Jay Schellen (drums). Cavazo and Sarzo are the younger brothers of Quiet Riot's Carlos Cavazo and Rudy Sarzo. Hurricane released four albums: Take What You Want (1985), Over the Edge (1988), Slave to the Thrill (1990), and Liquifury (2001). Over the Edge was their most successful album featuring their only top 40 hit (at 33).

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Trixter

Trixter was formed in 1983 by Paramus, New Jersey natives Steve Brown, and Pete Loran. By 1986 Trixter was a constant fixture on the concert scene, quickly growing a tremendous fan base. By 1987 Trixter was playing with acts like Kix and Skid Row and found themselves being courted by several major record labels. In 1988, Trixter began recording at legendary Bear Tracks Studios in New York with engineer Nelson Ayers, most notable for recording Guns N' Roses "Appetite For Destruction", on what was intended to become their first studio album. But in November 1988, a controversial move replaced bassist Dougie C (for being too tall for the band's look) with local bassist PJ Farley. 

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Casanova

 Casanova is a eurobeat vocalist. His real name is Maurizio De Jorio, and most of his work has been for the Delta eurobeat label. Other aliases of De Jorio include D.Essex and Niko.Casanova, a chilean indie-rock band. A band rich in chemistry and imagination, is the final product of a string of influential bands including Los Santos Dumont, Angel Parra Trío, and Sintra. With these rewarding endeavors now in the past, Julián Peña, José Luis Saavedra, Rodrigo Otero, and Felipe Quiroz have begun to experiment and refresh their harbored talents in a new dynamic light.

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Danger Danger

Danger Danger was formed in 1987 by former Hotshot members lead vocalist Mike Pont, bassist Bruno Ravel, and drummer Steve West. This line-up also featured then future Hotshot guitarist Al Pitrelli and former Get With It keyboardist Kasey Smith. Mike Pont later left the band and was replaced by Ted Poley, who previously played in the band Prophet as drummer, and sometimes lead vocalist. Somewhere during this time, they made an attempt at recording a demo, but failed. They made another attempt at recording a demo, and this time it landed them a recording contract with Epic Records. In 1988, Pitrelli left Danger Danger. Shortly after, Pont and Pitrelli reunited to form a new line-up of Hotshot. Since then, Pitrelli has played in various other bands. Pitrelli played on most of the Danger Danger compilation album Rare Cuts.

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Harem Scarem

 

 Harem Scarem is a Rock band hailing from Ontario, Canada, formed in 1987. They renamed themselves Rubber in 1999 and released two albums under that name. In 2001, they went back to the Harem Scarem name. In the Summer of 2007 they announced they “will officially break-up after one more studio album.”

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Roxy Blue

 

 A short lived outfit whose straight-ahead hook heavy pop metal came too late in the glam movement to make any sort of splash. Their only album was an unoriginal affair, but rocked from start to finish with the same flair as early Van Halen.

Formed in Memphis, Tennessee, by Todd Poole (vocals), former Atlanta Guitar Institute members Sid Fletcher (guitar) and Josh Weil (bass), and Scotty T (drums, who was touring the country with a Memphis blues band at the young age of fourteen).

Even an album produced by Mike Clink, sporting an outrageous cover and the debut single “Rob The Cradle” claiming “the one-take track, recorded live to tape with no edits, no dubs, no breaks, no shit,” couldn’t make the group stars. The group broke up shortly after, never to be heard from again.

Singer Todd Poole went on to play drums for Josie Wales and Saliva for a time. Guitarist Sid Fletcher is now a successful general dentist in Georgia with two practices. He is married and has two kids. Truman who will be three in August and Grace who was born this past September 30th.

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Cry Wolf

 

Originally named Heroes, Cry Wolf was formed in the San Francisco East Bay Area with Tim Hall (vocals), Steve McKnight (guitar), Phil Deckard (bass), John Freixas (drums) and JC Crampton (Keyboards) in the mid-1980s.
In 1986, the band moved to Los Angeles and started working the Hollywood club circuit, soon thereafter recruiting Hall's friend Paul Cancilla on drums. Soon after, keyboardist JC Crampton left the band, and they were forced to change the band’s name. A contest was held in the local BAM Magazine, with the person(s) coming up with the winning name winning Mötley Crüe/Whitesnake concert tickets. The name "Cry Wolf" was chosen out of hundreds of entries.
Looking to set themselves apart from the thousands of other bands flooding into Los Angeles in the late ‘80s, the band gave away their four-song demo to anyone willing to sign their mailing list. Soon, however, the demo was garnering international attention. Kelv Hellrazer (“Metal Forces” magazine) described the four song demo the best he’d ever heard, and further stated “I know it’s all been said before but I kid you not. Cry Wolf almost defy description. The legend begins here!”. Billboard magazine even recognized Cry Wolf as “One of the top five unsigned bands in the world” (The only other American band being the then unknown Pantera).

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Britny Fox

 

 Britny Fox is a glam metal group that formed in 1985 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The band was originally fronted by lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist “Dizzy” Dean Davidson. They’re best known for their eponymous debut album, which reached the #31 slot on the Billboard 200 top albums chart and included headbanging classics “Girlschool” and “Long Way To Love”.

The band released a demo titled ‘In America’ in 1986, which journeyman drummer Tony Destra reportedly played on. Labeled sometimes as a sort of ‘younger sister’ of band Cinderella (“whence they got their image, guitar player, and record contract” as recounted by one critic), the quartet managed to break through in a big way. The band’s self-titled debut album, released in 1988, was one of the most successful premieres of the 1988-89 season, selling more than one million copies and bringing more than 625,000 fans to their 130+ shows. They also won Metal Edge Magazine’s 1988 Reader’s Choice Award for Best New Band. Highlights of their early work include the top 40 rock hit “Long Way To Love” and the fan favorite “Girlschool”.

Sadly, the band appeared saddled with the reputation of having peaked too early. After the release of the band’s second album in 1989, titled ‘Boys In Heat’ and bringing in notable producer Neil Kernon, Davidson departed, and he formed the band Blackeyed Susan. Though appearing at first to be a fatal wound to the group, he was replaced by Las Vegas native Tommy Paris, who had a very similar vocal style.

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Testament

Formed from the ashes of Bay Area thrash band Legacy, Testament would become an underground favorite amongst metal fans. Their debut album The Legacy is considered a classic thrash album, and the band has gained a loyal following over the years. Testament has endured it all, from lineup changes to health issues, to come back stronger as a result.

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Annihilator

 

Jeff Waters founded Annihilator in Canada back in 1984. Their 1989 debut Alice In Hell put them on the thrash metal map. Beginning in 1993 the band focused exclusively on Europe and did not tour in North America at all. Their 2007 CD Metal did get a North American release, and Waters was hopeful they would finally get to play here. Annihilator's lineup has had tons of changes over the years, with Waters being the constant.
Current Band Members:
Dave Padden - Vocals, Rhythm Guitar (Silent Strain)
Jeff Waters - Guitar, Bass & Vocals
Brian Daemon - Bass (Sanctity, Aggressor)
Alex Landenburg - Drums (At Vance)

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