ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 5, 2001 By Steve Newton When I hear the name Jay Geils nowadays, I remember how I used to whip over to an old Chilliwack High School buddy’s house at lunch hour for a quick fix of tuna on toast and the latest ’70s rock sounds. Sometimes it was Foghat’s Energized … Continue reading Debbie Davies holds her own with the big boys of blues
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 25, 2000 By Steve Newton Last February, Edmonton guitar-rockers the smalls found a unique way to celebrate their 10 years together: they kicked off a month-long European tour with a few dates in that popular wintertime destination, Bosnia-Herzegovina. When bassist-songwriter Corby Lund calls from outside of Winnipeg with the claim that … Continue reading After scary times in Bosnia the smalls set their sights on Texas
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 28, 1992 By Steve Newton You don’t have to be a big fan of Metallica’s furiously thrashy—albeit recently refined—sound to give the band credit for blazing a formidable trail since its inception in ’81. The group has always gone against the grain and done things its own way, riding the precarious … Continue reading Metallica delivers on Lars Ulrich’s promise to “kick f***in’ ass” while touring behind The Black Album
By Steve Newton On December 19, 1989, Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson played the 86 Street Music Hall in Vancouver. For me, it didn’t get any better than that. I’d been a huge fan of Hunter ever since I first heard his old band, Mott the Hoople, and Ronson…well, if you liked David Bowie in … Continue reading Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson tour behind YUI Orta, so the Newt talks to Ronno
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 10, 1989 By Steve Newton In what was surely the biggest Vancouver concert event of the ’80s, the Rolling Stones hit Vancouver for two nights last week amid a flurry of hype and much groveling for tickets. Now that Jagger and the boys have gathered up their money-bags (they play the … Continue reading The Rolling Stones deliver like legends as the Steel Wheels Tour hits Vancouver
kevin statham photo ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 2, 2000 By Steve Newton Carlos Santana has been blowing folks away with his fiery, straight-from-the-soul fret work for more than 30 years now, but at GM Place on October 26, he never let his status as a guitar god override his main goal for the night. Santana … Continue reading Carlos Santana chides firecracker-blasting moron in Vancouver, says “This isn’t a heavy-metal concert!”
Stevens is the innovative guitarist who was largely responsible for the success of one blond British bombshell by the name of Billy Idol.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 2, 2000 By Steve Newton If, like me, you’re a Kim Mitchell fan from way back, you may have been wondering just where the hell he’s been lately. I mean, he hasn’t played Vancouver in nine years, whereas in the ’80s he’d show up regularly to be a wild party and … Continue reading Kim Mitchell on the re-rise and re-fall of Max Webster
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OCT. 12, 1984 By Steve Newton “It’s good fun coming up into Canada,” says Fixx vocalist Cy Curnin, who called from Ottawa last week. “You notice a difference moving from America to Canada, in that the audiences are really refreshing up here. They seem to listen a lot more, and at the … Continue reading The Fixx’s Cy Curnin talks Rupert Hine, Tina Turner, and fear-driven censorship in 1984
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 25, 1989 By Steve Newton In the last few years, little old Vancouver has become a real attraction for top-name recording acts, rivaling some of the more established music centres in the world. Bon Jovi started the ball rolling by recording the zillion-selling Slippery When Wet album here in 1986, followed … Continue reading Cult guitarist Billy Duffy says it all boils down to the Les Paul
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 3, 2000 By Steve Newton When North Mississippi Allstars guitarist-vocalist Luther Dickinson calls from the band’s tour bus in Chicago, he’s all apologetic about missing a scheduled phone interview the day before. Seems that Luther, his drummer brother Cody, and bassist Chris Chew had performed on Late Night With Conan O’Brien … Continue reading The North Mississippi Allstars debut with that crazy hill-country sound
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JULY 26, 1990 By Steve Newton As far as arena spectacles go, Sunday’s (July 22) Stevie Ray Vaughan/Joe Cocker double-bill was pretty lame. No huge banks of lights, fancy lasers, or explosions. But there didn’t need to be. Those who laid down bucks for the Coliseum show got their money back in … Continue reading Stevie Ray Vaughan says “it’s good to be alive with you” at his final Vancouver show, five weeks before the crash
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 6, 1990 By Steve Newton It was supposed to be a triple-bill of American recording acts, featuring Atlantic’s Savatage, Def American’s Trouble, and MCA’s Spread Eagle, and that combination could well have resulted in the year’s top metal triple-bill. But as bad luck would have it, Trouble and … Continue reading Rowdy metal fans bleed for Savatage in Vancouver on the Gutter Ballet Tour
