The Payola$’ Paul Hyde talks coproducer Mick Ronson and rock idols Ian Hunter and Alex Harvey

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON FEB. 17, 1984

By Steve Newton

On the strength of their third album, Hammer on a Drum, Vancouver’s Payola$ have been nominated in nine categories of 1984’s CARAS -sponsored Tribute to West Coast Music.

As well as Group of the Year and Album of the Year, the group has two tunes in the Song of the Year category, “Never Said I Loved You” and “Where Is This Love”. Guitarist Bob Rock has been nominated in the Producer, Engineer, and Guitarist categories, drummer Chris Taylor in the Percussionist section, and singer Paul Hyde, and Rock, are together in the running for Songwriter. Hyde has also been nominated in the Male Vocalist category.

I met with singer-songwriter Paul Hyde in the Vancouver offices of A&M Records recently, just prior to tomorrow’s (Saturday) concert with Darkroom at the P.N.E. Gardens. I asked the British-born artist about the Payola$’ development, their producer Mick Ronson, and idols Ian Hunter and Alex Harvey.

How are the Payola$ different now from what they were in the beginning?

Well, when we first started we were a bit ignorant of things like how to control volume and how to get melody into a song easily. So we were classed as a punk band by a lot of the radio stations because we just went out there and were so scared of performing in front of people. Absolutely terrified. We’d just put everything on 10 and scream and panic. And a lot of people went, ‘Awgh, these guys are an awful punk band, just terrible.”

Your second album, No Stranger to Danger, was dedicated to Alex Harvey. Is that the Sensational Alex Harvey?

Oh yeah, Bob and I are real big fans of his. He’s one of the best performers I’ve ever seen live in my life. I saw him about four or five times, and the first time was the only time I’ve ever gone absolutely out of my way to get backstage and meet somebody. I lied, and tried to fake a Scotch accent. I got right to the door of the dressing room and they asked me for ID, so I never actually did meet the guy.

He was backing up Slade at the time, around ’72. He just floored me, the guy was so magnetic and dynamic and completely in control. And it was a Slade audience–they were throwing stuff at Alex and booing–but he just stood there and delivered. I just thought it was fantastic.

About the new album, Hammer on a Drum. You recorded it in two stretches, with several months off in the middle.

Yeah, that’s just the way it happened. But as it happened, it was a good idea, because it’s easy to burn out if you take a month and a half and never see daylight. It becomes a bit hard on the system.

So breaking it up in two allowed us the leisure of listening to the first half for a while in the middle, and deciding if it needed changing. Also, when we went into the second half we had enough energy left to give it to the mix.

There was one song, “I’ll Find Another”, that you did a lot differently when you came back to it.

Yeah, it used to be called “Dancing With Another”. We did it for a year, and it just got so boring that the lyrics meant nothing to me anymore. I just couldn’t sing it with any sort of conviction. So when we found out that Ian Hunter was coming up we just changed it round completely, so that it was sort of a tribute to Mott the Hoople.

Hunter sang background on that song. You must have been excited about working with him.

Oh yeah, I’ve always wanted to meet the guy. And I’ve probably picked up more than I care to admit, vocally, from him. Because there was one period way back when I didn’t listen to anything else but Ian Hunter for a long, long time. His vocal style just went straight to my central nervous system, and I couldn’t help it. I probably wouldn’t do that with anybody else. It’s just that he sang the way that felt best to me, and I think my body said, “Take a little lesson from this guy”.

I see that on No Stranger to Danger you’ve got a song titled “Rose”. Ian has an old song called “Rose” as well.

He certainly does, and I think it’s one of the Top 10 rock and roll songs ever written. That’s why I called mine “Rose”, ’cause it’s about the same chick.

Mick Ronson produced the new Hammer on a Drum as well as No Stranger to Danger. Were his production techniques any different than on the previous album?

Mick tends to work through a sort of free-flow, grabbing-at-anything attitude–there’s no set plans for doing things. He goes by just whatever his heart feels is right.

Does that jibe well with the band?

Yeah. On the first album it was a bit of a problem because it’s hard to make a decision sometimes when you’ve got conflicting ideas. Like if Mick wanted to go one way, and Bob wanted to go the other way, and I didn’t know which way to go, then you’re stuck.

So we decided before the most recent album that the three of us have a voting system, and that the majority would rule. But we never actually disagreed to the point that we had to take a vote.

Do you intend on working with Mick on the next album as well?

No. We’re going to use somebody else. We’re in contact with about five people, but I can’t say who it’ll be yet.

How did you find Alex Boynton, alias A-Train, you’re new bassist?

When Barry Muir left the band we had auditions and tried out quite a few people, but nobody seemed to fit . And a friend fo mine suggested A-Train. As soon as he plugged in and started playing we thought, “This is the guy.”

Has he played in any other bands around town?

He’s done a lot of freelance stuff. And he plays with Downchld Blues Band when they come to town. He does a lot of jazz as well.

“Where Is This Love” on Hammer is concerned with child abuse. Were you at all hesitant about tackling that subject?

No. The only thing I won’t tackle in the lyrics is suicide. I’ll never write something about suicide because I wouldn’t want to be taken the wrong way by anybody.

As well as child abuse, there’s a couple of tunes about nuclear war on the album. It’s a pretty heavy record.

Well, we had to lighten it up a bit. That’s why the songs are interspersed–there’s a heavy one and then a light one. We tried to make it sweet and sour all the way across, and hopefully at the end you get a good cross-section.

How do you feel about the Payola$ being added to the roster of the Bruce Allen Talent Agency?

Feels fine to me.

Has that signing been a long time in the works?

No, I think it was a case of us needing Bruce, and he wanting to see what he could do with us. And we’re happy about it, because quite frankly it’s the only way to go if you’re going to break out of the stagnation that can set in in Canadian music.

To read my interviews with Vancouver rock musicians dating back to 1983 go here. And to hear the full audio of my interviews with former Payola$ member Bob Rock, producer Mick Ronson, and Hammer on a Drum engineer Mike Fraser subscribe to my Patreon page, where you can eavesdrop on over 350 of my uncut, one-on-one conversations with:

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