Tagged: Nasty Idols
So let me introduce to you…..! [Part 3]
So the time has come to present one more guy involved in “the recording project” – an aquaintance from way back!
STANLEY
Drums
I knew what I wanted to do with my life when I was 11 years old and saw Peter Criss‘ huge drum kit. That’s my first memory of wanting to take on drumming.
I was 16 when I joined my first band, Syrinx – named after the Rush song “Temple of Syrinx” from the album 2112. The band underwent a few changes and eventually developed into a slightly more familiar band around here – Wizzy Blaze.
One of the hightlights for the band was participating in the Swedish nationwide music competition “Rock SM”, a competition which was won by Europe in 1982, that landed them their first record deal. That competition was a huge deal for bands back in those days. We went to the semi finals in 1987 but that was the end of the road for us.
Wizzy Blaze split up and some of the members continued on to forming another band: Nasty Idols.
I decided to go in a different direction and joined a band called Lost Angels, but that only lasted a short period as I was about to get back in touch with some old friends again..
In 1992 Nasty Idols were hit by a tragedy, when their drummer George Swanson was diagnosed with cancer, and I was asked to join the band. I stayed with Nasty Idols up until the reunion in 2006 when Rikki Dahl took over the drumming duties.
There was another short side-track during the mid-90’s when Nasty Idols-frontman Andy Pierce and I, along with some guys from the hardcore band AntiCimex, formed Machinegun Kelly.
We only recorded one album but you can still find it in Europe and the US.
But after the years with Nasty Idols, I made a radical decision and left the band-scene. I was fed up with the whole “being-in-a-band“-deal, so I walked away from it and started to teach drums instead.
There have been some shorter projects here and there that I decided to join for the fun of it, but basically I’m my own boss nowadays, which suits me perfectly.
In 2010 I hooked up with the cover-band Excellent Dudes, a band that’s seen a bunch of really cool guest-stars/members – like drummer Johan Helgesson (who’s played with ex-Iron Maiden singer Paul DiAnno‘s band) and singer Pete Sandberg (former Alien) for instance.
I also did a cool “all-star” gig with guys from Crazy Lixx, Bonafide and Nasty Idols for the Swedish Rock Exhibition “RockMässan” afterparty last year, that was a fun evening.
Right now I’m kind of back in the mood again, putting together a sleaze band. We expect to be recording an album some time next year.
So let me introduce to you…..! [Part 1]
The recording-project that we’ve been working on for the past few weeks is coming together. Laying down the vocals on Sunday, hopefully we’ll be done with the mixing and mastering very soon as well.
While that is still in the making, I’d like to introduce you to the guys that I chose for this project. :)
First out is guitarist
PETER ESPINOZA
[Pic by D.Qwarfort]
My story…? Well, let’s see.
The whole thing started way back in 1984 when I started the band SAD WINGS. We released an album on Ebony Records. (see video below)
I then went on to playing with my own band ESPINOZA until 1988 when I ended up as one of the contestants of the Swedish Guitar Battle.
I went straight to the finals, and I still remember that night. All the other guitar geeks were warming up backstage and I thought they all sounded so good that I wouldn’t stand a chance in hell.
So, I thought “fuck it” and went to the bar and got totally shitfaced.
Then by some miracle I went onstage and managed to play everybody’s pants off – I won the whole thing!
That’s when the guys of NASTY IDOLS first noticed me. They had another guitarist at the time, but then we met again at an Alice Cooper concert in 1989 and they asked if I wanted the gig. I was with them for about five years, played on Cruel Intention, Vicious, Heroes for Sale and Boys Town.
I quit the band for a while and focused on other things, released another album with my own band Espinoza in 1995 before I founded the (neo classical) band MAJESTIC.
Me and the keyboardist used to sit in his basement and just play totally sick stuff – you know, we wanted to kick the asses of Stratovarius and all those types of bands. We were constantly trying to outdo eachother, it was a great time! I don’t have any of those recordings anymore, but you can imagine – it was impossible listening to and if anyone wanted to try copying us, they would most likely fail.
Eventually we managed to write songs that people would actually listen to, and we sent them to musicians that we wanted to work with. Jake Samuel (ex-Talisman, current frontman of the Poodles) didn’t cut it back then, haha!
[Comment: However, current frontman of FIREWIND – Apollo Papathanasio did get through to the second lineup of the band and sang on their second album “Trinity Overture” (listen below) ]
In 2001 I recorded two albums with REPTILIAN before returning to Nasty Idols….and well, the rest is history.
[Review of Reptilian here: http://www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?lid=1&sid=1&id=1882 ]
YNGWIE…
If I’ve got any cool stories? Let me see. Well, we were touring with Yngwie Malmsteen and Yngwie was having dinner while we were doing our sound check. So, just to fuck with him, I started playing “Yngwie style” as a joke. After his dinner, he walked up to me and said:
– You make a damn good impression of me. You know what that means? That means you’re a good guitar player!
That was just too fucking funny!
And now? Well, we just released our new album with Nasty Idols (see video below) but I still enjoy doing side projects if someone interesting calls, like you just did with this thing.
Who knows what the future holds, it’s sure ain’t over yet! :)
AMAZING PERFORMERS – the best of the best
The times they are certainly a changin’.
The record industry is struggling with poor record sales and illegal downloads, but there is one thing that they can still cash in on, something that will never go out of style: The magic of LIVE SHOWS.
There are people in less famous bands and in local bands that “have IT” : that spark, that natural ability to work a stage and a crowd, that makes you come back for more time and time again. It’s not a competition and you can’t really compare musicians because they are all so different – it’s not the Olympics of Rock – but these are some of my personal favorites. Note that this is 100% a list of people who I think are outstanding LIVE PERFORMERS (which is not necessarily the same as favorite musicians or bands)
When this man walks out on a stage – he OWNS every single person in the crowd.
He has a unique quality of making every individual feel noticed and a part of the show. Although he is a larger-than-life rock star who works best on the biggest stages of the world, he always makes it feel like he’s playing just for YOU.
He mixes a sense of humor and self-distance with sex, confidence, authority and pure professionalism. Not to mention the way he moves on a stage like a rock’n’roll-emperor, using the micstand as his #1 tool. There is only one David – Coverdale be thy name. :)
When he’s about to hit the stage, he’s like a missile! The man oozes of pure, raw energy and rock’n’roll, nothing and nobody comes even close…! I’m not the biggest Twisted Sister-fan in the world, I don’t even have all their records, but watching this man on stage is a kick beyond belief! He is genuine and a real punch in your face.
If you could take everything that rock’n’roll is all about, and transform it into human shape – Dee Snider would be IT!
The ULTIMATE frontman. The one and only King of the Stage. The energy and the raw frenzy is beyond what I’ve seen ANY other artist produce on a stage – ever! He is the only frontman I can think of that was truly BORN to do this. If you took it away from him, he would languish, stop breathing, cease to exist. In 23 years I’ve only seen him suck ONCE. Don’t even ask how many shows I’ve seen with either Skid Row or Baz solo, but it’s more than enough to state that this guy is very unlikely to let you down if you’re looking for an action-packed show.
Entertainment personified. It’s enough to just mention the name David Lee Roth and people will immediately start thinking of a rock’n’roll strutter with his body as his main tool. He was THE sex-symbol back in the day, moving in a way that would make the ladies blush.
He would impress us all with the martial-arts high kicks while at the same time looking like a kid in a candy store who LOVES what he does. His sense of humor is contageous, and even to this day he hasn’t lost much of all that. He’s never been the world’s greatest singer, but it’s safe to say that he’s most definitely one of the world’s greatest entertainers!
Yngwie Malmsteen
The one and only ULTIMATE guitar hero – and probably the only one who turns a prolonged guitargasm into a show unlike anyone else! He was (and still is) WILD on stage!
Like a super-model, he will strike 30 different poses in one minute, yet continue playing that guitar like nobody’s business. How can you do all that running and posing and headbanging and still play making it look like a piece of cake??? The man is a guitar god and a top notch live performer in every sense of the word!
Those are my Top 5 live performers, but the list goes on – and on…
Joe Elliot of Def Leppard had an amazing charisma on stage, he just caught your attention from the word go and kept it there for as long as it took. I was mesmerized the first time I saw Def Leppard. Fantastic frontman. I don’t know what happened though, because the last few times I’ve seen Def Leppard, the magic wasn’t there. I guess there’s a peak in every band’s career and a fall – sooner or later. After 30 years of kicking ass on stage, I guess they are entitled to lose the spark.Same goes for my #1 hero Rob Halford (Judas Priest). He was never a “run-around-the-stage-like-a-marathoner” type of singer, but he had “IT”. All he had to do was stop and LOOK at his crowd and they would go freaking CRAZY! He just had what most entertainers don’t, it’s within your personality and he would make me forget that there was even a world outside whichever arena Judas Priest would be playing….
However, just like Joe Elliot, Rob Halford has lost some of his magic. I can still see it when he’s with his own band Halford, but it’s like he’s a parody of himself when he’s with Priest nowadays.There is a reason why this man has been on the top for more than 4 decades! It’s not because he’s Pavarotti, but because he has this wonderful way of truly loving what he does, just being OZZY.
Watch this and try NOT to smile! :-))
Speaking of Ozzy automatically leads me to another, fairly new, aquaintance and favorite performer: Gus G (guitarist w. Ozzy & Firewind, in case you’ve managed to miss it)
I was stuck after the first time I saw him with Ozzy. He walks onstage and becomes a true old-school Rock Star!
He owns the stage in a very natural sort of way, with a charisma that few “new” musicians possess. This guitar wiz handles Madison Square Garden just as well as the smallest, tiniest little dark club in the middle of nowhere.
The posing, the hair-fan, the guitar-hero moves all that stuff makes Gus a true arena-entertainer.
Another kick-ass live-performer is Kevin Rothney (Circle II Circle, JOP) who played bass with Jon Oliva’s Pain on the 2006-2010 tours, when I saw the band countless times.
Jon Oliva might be the songwriting genious, but Kevin was the one who brought rock’n’roll to the live performances of JOP.
I’ve always been impressed with Kevin. When you see musicians like that, you realize that the music business is all about being in the right place at the right time, there are amazing showmen (and -women) out there that don’t get the recognition they deserve.
Moving on to a more local level, where singer Andy Pierce (Nasty Idols) without question, makes it to my list of favorite performers. It was his natural talent as a frontman that made me notice the band in the first place – 25 freaking years ago! He was a real rock star before people even knew it and he will be till they have to roll him out on stage in a wheel chair!
PART TWO – THE BEST LIVE BANDS!
They’re Nasty and they’re Back!
Tripped over a padded envelope in my hall when I came home the other day. It was the new NASTY IDOLS CD. :-)
I’ve followed this band for 25 years.
The first time I saw them was August 15, 1987 in a park here in Malmo. They headlined a music festival, and they were still unsigned. After that show, I did everything to get hold of a demo cassette or anything at all with this band, cause their live performance totally blew me away!
Back then, there was no internet (can you even REMEMBER that there ever WAS a time with no internet??). I had to go to the LIBRARY and ask a librarian to help me go through newspaper archives to get any info about Nasty Idols.
The first lead was to journalist Maria Francke who had reviewed one of their demos. I wrote to her – and she sent me that Nasty Idols demo-cassette as a gift. I was super happy about that.
(One of the very first songs by the unsigned Nasty Idols – they had a different guitarist back then, they upgraded the band with Peter Espinoza later)
Inside that cassette, there was an address and a phone number to “Andy Capone” that the singer called himself – who later became Andy Pierce. :) Well – this is all a very long story but I remember their days before they were signed. They did everything themselves, this band was a marketing-machine!
Bassist Dick Qwarfort was a graphic designer and would make professional looking logos, covers, press-kits…. When they released their single “Don’t Walk From Love“, it was also out of their own pockets from beginning to end, and they would personally go to the record stores in town and ask them to sell it. I remember seeing it at Åhléns in the center of Malmö for instance, right on the counter where you had to go to pay for your purchases. I’m sure that helped them quite a bit on their way.
I used to call the local radio station MCB requesting their songs or asking them to bring in Nasty Idols to be interviewed live on the air and shit like that. I was still in high school, and it’s funny when I think about it, because Nasty Idols’ career and mine took off around the same time, basically – in 1988.
I got my first job writing for Kvällsposten, they got their first record deal. We’ve walked on parallel paths ever since.
To make a very long story short – here we are, 25 years later. :-) And listening to the new album makes me remember once again WHY I’ve liked this band for so long. They kick ass – plain and simple.
They have a unique talent to write catchy songs that stick like glue already after the first listen. Andy’s vocals adds to the badboy attitude that they’re selling and they have basically always delivered the goods. Maybe I wasn’t a big fan of the “Vicious“-album but even that was a great album, just wasn’t my cup of tea at the time. Looking back you see things in a different perspective though.
The new album “Kalifornia” is rougher and tougher than it’s been in a while. Bands always say that, but it’s very clear from the very first riffs. Andy’s voice is different, he’s chosen to sing in a different style than usual, but I still can’t quite figure out what I think he sounds like now. Definitely cool but not the “usual Nasty”.
[My name was on the very first Nasty Idols CD “Gigolos on Parole” – and here it is again. Nice when bands don’t forget the people who have supported them for years, very much appreciated. :)]
Slightly darker, heavier, raunchier. But still American style sleaze. If you’re into that, you’ll love it. My favorite up to date was “Boys town“, their last album.
But I have a feeling that this will be a new favorite to add to the collection. :-) I’ll probably be sitting here till my hair goes gray, headbanging to Nasty Idols. Some bands just never go out of style!
Steel Panther, Van Halen, Priest and whatever else comes along
Finally got in touch with the Steel Panther-camp. Their US promo-guy and then their label in Copenhagen, Denmark. Better late than never. :-)
Both have been very courteous, so even if it should turn out that the interview for whatever reason doesn’t happen, it’s nice with easygoing people. I appreciate that.
I admit I was a bit doutful about Steel Panther a few months ago when we went to Manchester to see them with Motley Crue and Def Leppard. But it only took them a few minutes to win me over 100%.
And now – I love sitting on the train between Malmo and Copenhagen watching their interviews on Youtube, it’s just cracking me up! I love their exaggerated vulgar parody…thing. Once you get it, it will keep you giggling for hours! :)I so hope I can get an interview with these crazy mothertruckers, just for the sake of for once not having to ask the same type of questions, but just be totally on their level, asking about howspandex works in cold Danish weather and shit like that. ;)
I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
Other than that – after a very slow period of almost no travel or gigs, it’s coming together bit by bit.
Steel Panther playing in Denmark on Thursday, got my ticket to Tampa, Florida in mid-April to see VAN HALEN, can’t WAIT for that! A week after that – Judas Priest playing in Sweden.
Then two weeks of vacation on Croatia in May, hopefully meeting up with the singer I had the pleasure of talking music with an afternoon last year, and then when I get home – OZZY & FRIENDS in Stockholm and Malmo.
Much like last year, that’s where it all begins, because then it’s time for Sweden Rock Festivaland Graspop and even a Firewind-gig or two in August…. Maybe Billy Idol in the fall, that’s what Steve Stevens mentioned in NYC, so I’m hoping that happens.
Just tons of stuff happening in the near future, I doubt it’s going to be as hectic as last year, but you never know. It all depends wh goes on tour and who doesn’t. :-)
It’s been way too quiet lately, I’m bored out of my mind. Something needs to happen. Oh yeah,Nasty Idols new CD should be out soon. But trying to get singer Andy to remember to get back to me has always been a challenge. Sometimes you really need patience when you’re dealing with musicians! :) Luckily I know him pretty well, enough to know he’s not dissing me, he just forgets stuff as quickly as any bassplayer..! ;)
But for now…. just the thought of a party-evening with Steel Panther live in Copenhagen next week is enough to put a smile on my face!
IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR 