Sky - Don't Hold back

In 1970 my sister won this record listening to a local radio station running a contest. She didn't like it and passed it on to me. I liked it right away and still like it. I had never heard of the band and never heard another thing about them or the band members until about a decade later when I bought "Get the Knack" by The Knack. I bought that album when it came out liking the single My Sharona and recognized the name of one of the band members.

Doug Feiger was the driving force behind Sky and also of The Knack. Sky is not a lot like a Knack album but you can see some similarities especially in the track "How's That Treatin' Your Mouth Babe"

"Don't go down on a burnin' ship, you can go down on me"

My original "Promotional Copy" is well worn but I found a new sealed copy recently on Ebay. I think this would be of interest to any fan of the Knack and anyone else who enjoys light Beatle-ish early 70's rock/pop music.

Sky released a second and final LP in 1971 called "Sailor's Delight"

Doug Fieger died earlier this year (2010) of cancer at the young age of 57.

Doug Fieger Official Home Page

Bongo Fury

Two of my favourite bands in the late 70's early 80's (and today for that matter) were two local Southern Ontario bands, Goddo and Moxy. I saw both several times live, had all their albums, and knew most of what there was two know about them. That is why I was so surprised when I came across this LP a few months ago on Ebay. I was doing a search for one or other of the two, when this Bongo Fury LP came up in the search results.

I read the item description and it said that it was made by members of the two bands. Billy Wade was the drummer for Moxy and Gino Scarpelli, the guitarist for Goddo. The vocals were attributed to Bongo Fury who it turns out is Billy Wade with the other members doing backing vocals.

The record was still factory sealed and cheap so it was an easy decision to buy it. What a great decision! The album rocks with a bunch of fun songs and it sounds like they were having a great time recording them.

I asked Gino Scarpelli about the LP via Facebook ...

Hi John,
Bongo Fury was me and Billy Wade recording for fun. We wrote those songs impromptu. I'm glad you like the album. Enjoy Peace,
Gino.

The rest of the band members were Buddy Caine (guitarist also from Moxy), Terry McKeown (guitar and bass) and Paul Lachapelle (bass)

The album was recorded at Paul Lachapelle's Quest Studio in Oshawa, Ontario and released on Pure Noise Records. The band also toured under the name Pure Noise before recording as Bongo Fury in 1979. The record contained the song "Young Legs" which was a cover of the Moxy song released two years earlier on their "Ridin' High" album.

Bill Wade had also played with Gino Scarpelli in the Canadian band "Brutus" (Ooh Mama Mama)under the alias Hally Hunter. Sadly, Billy died of Cancer in July of 2001

Vehicle

Hailing from Stoney Creek Ontario Canada, (the singer lived across the street from my grandmother's house) Vehicle sadly only released this one LP. I was under age the times I saw them play at the Collins Hotel in Dundas. The album is nothing unique but with it's hard edged Styx-ish sound it is certainly a lot of fun to listen to. My personal favourite track is the hard rockin' "Da-Nite Shuffle" written about the Da-Nite Tavern a couple blocks from my house (where I also drank regularly, under age and over, growing up in Stoney Creek). They also made the best HOT wings in town. Too bad it burned down a few years ago but it is immortalized in this great song.

Da-Nite Tavern burns (YouTube)

This LP is a real gem if you can find it!

Dan McCafferty

I have been a Nazereth fan since the early seventies and have 5 or 6 of their LPs including the classic Razamanaz, but never knew the vocalist, Dan McCafferty had done a solo record. I came accross this album while rummaging around the record shelves at one of my favourite places, Krazy Bob's Record Emporium in Langley BC.

McCafferty has one of those great razor-like rock voices and I figured I could not go wrong for the 10 bucks. The notes on the cover say it is a collection of Dan's favourite songs. It is an interesting mix of songs including stuff from Neil Young, the Stones and the Platters.

The album is likley not a "must have" to many but hard core Nazereth fans, but is probably worth a listen to most 70's rock enthusiasts.

Carolyne Mas - Mas Hysteria

This little known gem is from Carolyne Mas, A New York born singer/songwriter who gained popularity mostly in Canada and in Europe. She had three albums between 1979 and 1981 on Mercury Records. Mas Hysteria was a live radio broadcast on WLIR recorded at a club ("My Father's Place") on Long Island, New York. The rights to the recording were bought by Phonogram in Germany and a limited edition LP was released in 1980 in Germany only, as a promotional tool for an upcoming television concert. Due to it's popularity and sales the record was re-released several years in a row and eventually sold a quarter million copies, outselling her other "official" albums. I don't believe she ever saw any money from these sales.

Mas wrote and played some great rock songs and a few ballads. The band is excellent with awesome sax playing from Crispin Cioe. I saw her live twice, once in '79 and again in '81 and this 6 track album is a great (albeit short) account of what a Carolyne Mas show was really like.

I first saw this LP when I was traveling in Germany in 1981. I saw it in a record shop and assuming it was a regular release, I decided to wait til I got back home to Canada to buy it rather than trying to fit it in my backpack. I found this copy 29 years later.


Tracks:

1.Hold on (3:21)
2.Stay true (4:05)
3.Thomas Dunson's revenge (4:44)
4.Running from the high life (4:14)
5.Sittin' in the dark (12:51)
6.Quote goodbye quote (5:19)


Carolyne has retained a following over the years and released a few more CD's through her website.
http://www.carolynemas.com

She also founded "Our Animal Haus, Inc.", Mas' non-profit sanctuary for unwanted, abused, and special needs animals and birds.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Our-Animal-Haus-Inc/126926305096

Carolyne retired from making music in 2008 in order to care for her aunt and her mother as well as the animals in her sanctuary.

Rose - A Taste of Neptune

I recently picked up this LP again (whatever happened to the one I bought in the 70's is beyond me). I always thought this was a great album with a good mix of pop, pomp and prog rock. Rose had three albums in Canada and were largely unknown to even Canadians except to a small fan base in Southern Ontario and also strangely enough in South Korea. In fact, no Rose LP has ever been released on CD except for this album was released a few years ago in South Korea on Si-Wan Records and can usually be found on Ebay for around $15 bucks.

The title track is well known among prog rock aficionados and is a great song by any standard. Other stand outs are "Bangin' My Head Against the Wall" and "Ride Away". If you want to learn about this band there is very little on the net and most of the web pages that you will find are in Korean.

Rose had three albums but enjoyed only limited success until they reincarnated as "Toronto" in the early 80's with a female singer named Holly Woods. They had a few well received albums in Canada before splitting up in 1984.

I saw Rose a few times live but the most memorable was in the mid seventies where they opened for Triumph. Triumph had only one LP out at the time and were still a small southern Ontario Canadian act. The show was at the dilapidated Delta Theatre in Hamilton which showed dirty movies during the week and had a $2.99 Concert Series on Saturdays all summer long that year. After Triumph became famous, they were well known for their amazing light show and pyrotechnics. For this show they has a string of light bulbs across the front of the stage that flashed in different sequences and something that looked liked a glorified bunsen burner from science class belching out puffs of orange flame to the music. During the last song Triumph bassist Mike Levine burned his arm on the flame and they could not come back out for an encore.

Several years later I met Brian Allen (lead singer / song writer for Rose) and he recalled the show, laughing "Oh yeah, that was the night Levine burnt his arm".