It seems it's the story of every heavy metal band coming up through the brutal ranks of rock and roll - play in seedy clubs, sweat over getting a fair wage, pack your equipment up and get to the next gig which is a hit record's wait down the road.
Canada's Kick Axe have gone through the pay-your-dues trip and are now embarking on a plan to fill the bigger halls in North America.
The flag-waving group born out of Regina in 1977 is touching down in Grande Prairie to strum out their melodic riff-rock at the Johnny Macdonald Arena Friday, January 3. Opening for the headliners is Edmonton's Whitewolf - another heavy metal group who is well-known in rock climates throughout the country.
Lee Aaron, the sultry Toronto-based Canadian heavy metal queen was scheduled to co-bill with Kick Axe, but is comfortably stuck in Europe right now because of the high demand for her to do more concerts overseas in January.
So, that leaves the local audience to check out Kick Axe who are in their own right boasting some good figures in record sales.
They sold 118,000 copies of their first album Vices in the U.S.; over 60,000 in Canada; 27,000 in Germany and 30,000 in Japan.
The figures were given quite freely by Axe bassist Victor Langen who says the new album Welcome to the Club released last week is an opus that will hopefully land them a solid following from coast to coast and abroad.
Radio airplay is of vital importance, Langen says, adding that the AM release for Canada is the Beatles classic With a Little Help from My Friends.
"That was an amazing session," langen says. "We recorded it with a 20-voice choir and it sounds really good. We had Rick Emmet from Triumph, Lee Aaron, Sheron Alton formerly of Toronto and several others singing on the choir part."
The band had been previously adamant about recording a cover song and then putting it out as a single in fear of being branded as a band that made it big on someone else's material.
"Yeah, that was true, but we decided the time was right to do it now. We used to play With a Little Help when we were all kids in our basements, so the song was quite familiar and easy to do for us. We decided that if our company (CBS) was going to get us to do a cover that we would be ready and pick a cover that we really liked."
Tickets for the show are now on sale at Kelly's Stereo Mart in the Prairie Mall for $14. At the door they will be $15.
Veteran Regina-born rock band Kick Axe plays Grande Prairie Friday, April 18.
Originally booked into the Johnny Macdonald Arena in January but cancelled because of poor ticket sales, Kick Axe will now take a stab at filling the Grande Prairie Inn's Cedar Ballrooom.
The group was most recently heard on radio with their spirited, raucous rendition of the Beatles' classic With a Little Help from My Friends.
The song is from their new album Welcome to the Club.
Tickets for the concert, available at the hotel's front desk, are $13 and include a meal. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; seating is limited and minors will not be admitted.
excerpt from the interview with Victor Langen published in The Georgia Straight on January 3, 1986
Excerpts from the Sean Kelly - Metal On Ice book
