Tag: Helix

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Helix’s Brian Vollmer on the Time Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, and Rip Taylor Showed Up to the “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'” Video Shoot – Traci Lords

Brian Vollmer: 1984 was a good year for us. Helix had just released Walking the Razor’s Edge and were touring the U.S. with Whitesnake and Quiet Riot and living the life. Rock You had become a smash hit all over the world. The second single from the album was Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’, the old Crazy Elephant song, and the antithesis of metal. That’s why we picked the song to record. Anyway, E.M.I. picked a video company in L.A. to shoot the video at Francis Ford Coppola’s old film studio in Hollywood. The video concept was pretty simple: “Many women dancing around the band, naked from the waist up” (as the Much Music blacklist would say). It featured girls from Playboy, Oui, and Hustler magazines, and also the budding porn star Traci Lords (who, unbeknownst to us, as we didn’t handle the casting) was only 16 years old at the time. At the studio next door, “Prior’s Place” was being filmed. There were so many scantily clad women at our video shoot that Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, and Rip Taylor all came over to have a look.

Check out Brian’s autobiography, “Gimme an R!” at planethelix.com.

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Helix’s Brian Vollmer Talks ‘Long Way To Heaven’ Album

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Brian Vollmer: Long Way to Heaven was Helix’s 3rd album on Capitol/E.M.I./U.S. After the huge success of WALKING THE RAZOR’S EDGE we were catapulted to a new level-In Canada we ended up doing our own headline tour. Our first two E.M.I. albums had been huge in Scandinavia, especially in Sweden, so we decided to take the show there first to work out the bugs. Lenny Stoute came over from Metallion Magazine and wrote a long article on the tour. We played inside the Arctic Circle and sometimes only put the lights up to keep warm, seeing as we were playing “in the Land of the Midnight Sun.” The album went to Number 1 in Sweden.

Make sure to read one of our full in bloom interview with Helix vocalist Brian Vollmer. Conducted over 15 years ago, it was one of our very first interviews.

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Brent “The Doctor” Doerner Reunites w/ Helix Onstage @ Maxwell’s in Ontario, Canada 2019

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Helix (Official): Saturday night at Maxwell’s playing the Dirty Dog with former guitarist Brent Doerner.

What a special night!!! Thanks for everyone who came out!!!!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Doerner was a part of the classic lineup of Helix.  Watch the clip below.

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Helix’s Brian Vollmer, “I Just Heard Rip Taylor Passed Away” – Gimme Good Lovin’ VIDEO – Robin Williams

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Brian Vollmer: Not too often I post Helix videos, let alone two in one morning, but I just heard Rip Taylor passed away at age 85. Rip appeared in our 1984 video for Gimme Good Lovin’, filmed at Francis Ford Coppola’s film studio Zoetrope in Hollywood. Next door to our set Richard Pryor was filming “Pryor’s Place” (a kid’s show) and Pryor, Robin Williams, and Rip Taylor came over to watch us film. Both Williams and Taylor agreed to let me film them with my sound Super 8 camera. An afternoon I’ll never forget…Rip agreed to appear at the end of the video.

The Making of Gimme Good Lovin’
In 1984 Helix recorded Gimme Good Lovin’, the old Crazy Elephant hit for the WALKING THE RAZORS EDGE album. This was the second video from that album, shot in Hollywood, California. Traci Lords appeared in the video, as did other girls from Penthouse, Oui, and Playboy Magazines, plus some of the Solid Gold Dancers.

Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’ OFFICIAL VIDEO

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Brian Vollmer: “SCUM 41” – When Sum 41 Covered “Rock You” by Helix

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Brian Vollmer: When SCUM 41 were on the top of their game they re-recorded Rock You for the movie Fu Bar. Keith Brown of Aquarius suggested that I go to Toronto and get up and do Rock You for their encore when they played there. I told him I would, as long as this was a 100% sure thing, to which he assured me it was. So…I took the day off from teaching and Lynda, myself, and Archie drove to Toronto, eager to meet the band and sing the song onstage.

When we got there the band was just crawling out of their tour bus. I went over to say hello and they blew us off, acting like they really didn’t want to meet us. I thought that was weird, but I kinda put it in the back of my mind ‘cos I was excited to be there and was looking forward to getting on a big stage in front of a big crowd. We went inside the arena and a lot of people who worked for Helix in the past were on their road crew-John Sheffield, John Erickson, etc. Everyone was saying hello and yelling out “How’s it going Brian?” Lots of good vibes….But when I went to the road manager’s office he dismissed us with, “Oh, the band didn’t get time to learn the song-they aren’t doing it. I can give you tickets for the show-it starts in about 6 hours.” The weasel couldn’t even look up from his desk and tell me eye to eye. I told him to shove the tickets up his ass and added that we were leaving. On the way out the back door the band was up on stage, f**king around. They all saw us leaving and didn’t even have the balls to apologize for dragging our asses all the way to Toronto for nothing. When I got home I contacted Keith Brown at Aquarius to tell him what a bunch of jerks his band was-HE AGREED.

Anyway, since then they’ve been knocked down a peg. Looks good on them-what goes ’round comes ’round. Interestingly enough, here’s their set list: LOL. Gimme an R? I wouldn’t give them the piss off my boots if they were dying of thirst in the Sahara Desert.

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Killer Dwarfs, Helix and Kick Axe On Stage Footage 2019

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Killer Dwarfs: “So this is what happens when it’s the last night of a great tour and you get members of Killer Dwarfs, Helix and Kick Axe on stage together.  3 of Canada’s Greatest Hard Rock Bands !!”

Play the clip below.

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Original Helix Guitarist Ron Watson Dies @ 62

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Mitch Lafon: “Original Helix guitarist, Ron Watson, has passed away. My sincerest condolences. May he R.I.P.” – (Ron is on the far left)

On January 17, 2019, after 21 years of Sisyphean battles with Multiple Myeloma, Ron Watson passed away without pain. He was 62 years old.

A true Renaissance man, Ron loved and celebrated the arts. His Gibson SG gave him great joy and had been a companion to him since the 1970s. He was a founding member of the band Helix, and played guitar in Verticle and Room of Fools in the 80s. In the last decade of his life he reunited with some former band members to form The Heinz Peper Band and the Rockervilles.

Helix was formed in 1974 in Kitchener, Ontario. The original members were: Bruce Arnold (drums & band leader), Brian Vollmer (vocals), Ron Watson & Rick Trembley (guitars), Keith Zurbrigg (bass), and Don Simmons (keyboards).

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Helix ‘Best Of’ Vinyl / LP / CD Coming “In a couple of weeks” – Greatest

Brian Vollmer: “Yesterday the test pressing of the brand new Helix “best of” album on Universal showed up at my door. It has all the Capitol/E.M.I hits plus Even Jesus (wasn’t loved in his home town) and Gene Simmons says (Rock is Dead). Sounds f@@kin’ awesome! In a couple of weeks I’ll be selling CDs & vinyl thro website.”

Make sure to read our old school interview with Helix vocalist Brian Vollmer at this location.

 

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Concert Captures Listen Music Top Stories Tour Dates

Helix Vocalist Remembers 1985 Tour w/ W.A.S.P. & Krokus

Brian Vollmer’s flashback from 1985 : “Here are some shots (located below) from a tour we did back in the day with Krokus and W.A.S.P. –  These two bands HATED each other with a passion. The clip starts off with Marc Storace of Krokus and guitar player Fernando von Arb talking about how they are going to f**k over W.A.S.P. (they were the headliner on this tour through California) The clip ends with W.A.S.P. coming offstage to their dressing rooms, with Chris Holmes eating his snot and flashing his ass at the camera.

“It’s too bad they didn’t get along ‘cos both bands were great. This was the ORIGINAL W.A.S.P. we were playing with on this particular tour. Blackie had an amazing voice and I loved that first W.A.S.P. album. Ditto for Krokus: Storace used to do “Screaming in the Night” at soundcheck. That was a song up there where only dogs could hear…LOL.

“It was on this tour that Chewey (Chris Holmes’ nickname cos he looked like Chewbacca from Star Wars) asked if he could come in our dressing room and have a smoke. (Blackie didn’t allow smoking in their dressing room) Chris started talking about his cat, who only had one eye. He told us they got really f**ked up at parties and put different colored M&Ms in the empty eye socket.

“You can’t make this stuff up!”

Read all about this and more in Brian’s autobiography “Gimme an R!” at planethelix.com.  Also, make sure to read our old school interview with Helix vocalist Brian Vollmer @ this location.

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Concert Captures Listen Music Top Stories Tour Dates

Motörhead, Helix, Mercyful Fate, Girlschool, Talon European Tour 1984

Brian Vollmer:  “This is the tour pass from our 1984 tour of Europe.  On the last date Lemmy & the Motörhead boys hid King Diamond’s sacred bones and pasted porno shots of the guitar player’s girlfriend to the stage floor by his foot pedals. Aw…memories!”

In 1984, Mercyful Fate went into the studio to record their legendary album ‘Don’t Break the Oath,’ released on September 7, 1984. Soon after, the group started a two-month US Tour, which took them across the US several times, including sharing the stage with Motorhead and Exciter for the last part of the tour. The shows had created a brush fire within the metal community, and Mercyful Fate was now getting a lot of recognition. The year of 1984 ended with a 5-day tour of Germany with Motorhead, Girlschool, Helix and Talon.

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Helix’s Brian Vollmer “If You Need Me” Official Video NEW Song/Album

A brand new official video for the song, “If You Need Me,” can be viewed below. The track, originally written and performed by Wilson Pickett, is taken from Helix vocalist Brian Vollmer’s latest solo release – featuring 7 covers and 2 originals – called Get Yer Hands Dirty.  The video was filmed, edited, and produced by former Helix lead guitarist Brent Doerner.  Watch the video below.

PURCHASE

Tracklisting:
Buff’s Bar Blues (Alex Harvey)
Rock n Roll Outlaw (Rose Tattoo)
If You Need Me (Wilson Pickett)
When the Bitter’s Got the Better of You (original: Kelly/Vollmer)]
Rock n’ Roll /Don’t Try to Lay No Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll: Velvet Underground/Long John Baldry
Gudbye t’ Jane (Slade)
Oh Well (Fleetwood Mac & Peter Greene)
Get Yer Hands Dirty (original: Brown/Kelly/Vollmer)

On Get Yer Hands Dirty, Vollmer worked with producer / engineer Gavin Brown (Three Days Grace, Skillet, the Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies) who also handled drum duties on the record.  About the album, Vollmer said: “This album was a joy to make. Although I spent the whole winter of 2016/17 learning the cover songs (some of them, like “If You Need Me” were very difficult to sing) we only spent a little over four days recording the tracks, so as to get a very “live” feel.”

Vollmer continued: “Most of the cover songs on this disc I have a personal connection to; hence the reason I picked them. I also picked songs that were a little under the radar, ie. “Superlungs.” “Superlungs” was a huge hit in England back in the day. Terry Reid, who sang and played the original version, was at one time considered for the Led Zepplin front man job.”

The two original songs on the album, “When the Bitter’s Got the Better of You” and the title track were written by Vollmer and guitarist Sean Kelly.

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Music New Releases

VIDEO: Helix Vocalist Brian Vollmer Prepares for New Solo Album

Helix vocalist Brian Vollmer recently began pre-production on his forthcoming solo effort “GET YER HANDS DIRTY”. Vollmer is working with producer / engineer Gavin Brown (Three Days Grace, Skillet, the Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies) who will also handle drum duties on the record. The rest of the core band is rounded out by Sean Kelly (Crash Kelly) on guitars and Helix bassist Daryl Gray.

“On Monday I began pre-production for my solo CD “GET YER HANDS DIRTY”, Vollmer states. “The first single will be the title track, on which I’ll be alternating lines with DANKO JONES. Cheryl Lescom will also be singing some back-up vocals and Matt Weidinger is playing keyboards. There also might be some horns on one of the tracks. The disc will be 9 cover songs & two original tracks. The cover songs are lesser known tunes that I’ve listened to over the years, and which I’ve always thought were great tracks regardless of whether or not they were big hits at the time.”

Make sure to read our old school full in bloom music interview with Helix vocalist Brian Vollmer. I believe our interview with Vollmer was one of our very first, conducted over a decade ago.

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Helix Vocalist Brian Vollmer – The full in bloom Interview – Walkin’ the Razor’s Edge, Long Way to Heaven

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Interview with HELIX Vocalist
Brian Vollmer

full in bloom: What’s new, what have you been up to lately and what’s in the future?

Brian Vollmer: Last year we released 3 CDs and 2 DVDS. One of the CDs (30 Years of Helix) was on E.M.I. as was the “30th Helix Anniversary Concert” DVD. We also released our own anniversary CD entitled “NEVER TRUST ANYONE OVER 30” and our first full studio CD in 10 years: “Rockin’ In My Outer Space.” In December I also put together a Christmas CD to help raise money for my church. That CD was called “Raisin’ the Roof on Mary Immaculate” and sold out in a few weeks, raising over $8,000. It’s now out of print. This fall I’m going to be recording a cover album of Canadian songs called “Many are Cold but few are Frozen” and another classical CD under my own name. As well as that I’m looking forward to releasing my autobiography “Gimme an R!” and starting to write the next studio CD.

full in bloom: You guys recently played the Sweden Rock Festival. Who else was on the bill and what are some of the highlights?

Brian: What a great festival! Over 26,000 people a day. Some of the bands included Motley Crue, Accept, Motorhead, Status Quo, Sammy Hagar, Motorhead, Sebastian Bach, Kansas, Styx, etc. etc. etc. I think there were 30 bands in all. The highlight of the weekend was of course our show. Other than that I would say riding back from Ronneby, Sweden to Copenhagen, Denmark at 5A.M. with Sebastian Bach sitting beside me was an experience I’ll never forget. Especially seeing as he hadn’t gone to bed the night before.

full in bloom: What kind of reaction did you receive from the crowd? Did you have an encore? What was the set list?

Brian: Swedish fans have been waiting a long time for us to come back. We had a number one album there in 1985 with “Long Way to Heaven,” but we really established ourselves there right from our first E.M.I. album No Rest, when we toured in support of Kiss on the Lick it Up Tour. The set was a combination of our hits plus a few songs we haven’t played in awhile with a couple of new tunes thrown in for good measure. For our encore we played “Bend Over Kiss Your Ass Goodbye.”

full in bloom: On your way to the festival, you traveled by way of London. How soon after you guys left, did the bombings occur? Did you use the Aldgate Station, or the King’s Cross Station, where the bombs went off?

Brian: We stayed in England before and after Sweden Rock Festival. We used both King’s Cross and Aldgate. We actually stayed with friends who live very close (a couple of blocks) from Aldgate Station. I think we had only been home for two weeks when the bombings occurred.

full in bloom: How close are you to having your autobiography published? What is the current news behind that?

Brian: My autobiography is now done. (at least my part is). I’ll be taking it to a publisher sometime in the near future.

full in bloom: Did you write it yourself, or did you have some assistance?

Brian: Myself

full in bloom: What are some memories of the recording sessions for Walkin’ the Razor’s Edge?

Brian: One of the many memories I have from that session is driving overnight to Atlanta, Georgia to do the mixes with Rodney Mills. He made a big difference in the overall sound of that CD.

full in bloom: How many copies of that were sold worldwide?

Brian: I dunno. The album is certified platinum in Canada but worldwide I have no clue.

full in bloom: Who were some of the bands you toured with on that album?

Brian: We toured Europe with Motorhead, Girlschool, and Mercyful Fate. In the States we played on the Whitesnake / Quiet Riot tour, and in Canada with Triumph.

full in bloom: How excited was the label about the song “Rock You?” I still have a memory of seeing the video and buying the album the next day. That was quite an infectious song.

Brian: The Canadian part of the company was very excited. It’s hard to know what the American part thought because they fired most of the guys at the top of the company just as the song was getting airplay.

full in bloom: Why did it take so long to get No Rest for the Wicked re-released? How does the licensing process work? Tell us about your deal with Rock Candy Records.

Brian: Licensing is a process whereby anyone can “rent” or “license” the masters from the owners of the masters (in our case E.M.I.) and print and sell them. I don’t know what Rock Candy’s deal with E.M.I. is. We get paid through publishing money which is paid by Rock Candy on the # of units pressed.

full in bloom: What is the benefit of signing with a record label, or having another label license your product? Since Helix has name recognition, wouldn’t it be more beneficial to have licensed your earlier releases yourself?

Brian: The benefit of signing to a label is money. Big record labels have the thousands of dollars needed for studio time, top producers & engineers, etc. Most bands do not own their own masters in the beginning.

full in bloom: How do bands like Motley Crue and W.A.S.P. obtain all the rights to their music?

Brian: You’ll have to ask them.

full in bloom: Is your royalty rate better now than it was with EMI? What was the rate when you were signed with EMI?

Brian: I don’t disclose personal business info ie. what my royalty rate was with E.M.I. I will tell you what I make nowadays though. My normal budget on my CDs is around $10,000. It takes about 1,000 units to break even. After that I make about $18.00/unit.

full in bloom: I still remember reading an interview long ago and you saying that you listened to Bon Jovi albums over and over while writing your album. What release were you working on and why Bon Jovi?

Brian: I don’t remember ever saying that.

full in bloom: What are some memories from the Long Way to Heaven recording session? What was your reaction, after hearing the final mix of “Deep Cuts the Knife?”

Brian: Can’t remember, but we all thought the song was a hit.

full in bloom: How many copies of Long Way to Heaven were sold?

Brian: Dunno once again. It was certified platinum in Canada however and went to number one in Sweden.

full in bloom: Did you guys ever receive payments for royalties, or were you always recouping?

Brian: Recouping.

full in bloom: I have heard that bands don’t make money from touring, only hoping to break even. If bands never make money on sales, then how is it that they make anything at all?

Brian: Easy-most bands don’t make money. Nowadays I do, because I run things myself. I know where every penny goes.

full in bloom: Was anything left over after the Long Way from Heaven tour?

Brian: Any money we made at that stage of our career went straight back into the band. We each took a very moderate wage of $200/week. Re-investing in ourselves helped us survive the lean years which were to follow.

full in bloom: Collectively, how many Helix albums have been sold?

Brian: We’ve probably sold around 2 million albums total.

full in bloom: What year did you part ways with EMI?

Brian: Our relationship with E.M.I./Capitol ended in 1993. It was a low point for the band and one of the hardest periods in my life.

full in bloom: What year did Helix tour with Ian Gillan?

Brian: 1990

full in bloom: Did he play any songs from the Black Sabbath, Born Again album? Or did he only play songs from Gillan?

Brian: Gillan & Purple

full in bloom: What was he like to tour with?

Brian: He was the greatest. Very accessible and friendly. I watched him almost every night front the side of the stage. Our show together at the Moulin Rouge in Paris and also our show in Luxembourg stick out in my mind.

full in bloom: In retrospect, is there anything you would have done differently?

Brian: I would have learned to play an instrument earlier in life.

THE FAST 5

full in bloom:What is your most disgusting habit?

Brian: Talking too much.

full in bloom:What is the most feminine thing you do?

Brian: Sometimes put on make-up

full in bloom:If there is a God, what is the first question you would ask God when you arrive?

Brian: Why he loves me so much

full in bloom:Greatest Rock band of all time?

Brian: AC/DC

full in bloom:What were you doing 40 minutes before you sat down to do this interview?

Brian: Practicing on my new piano