Loverboy Turned Loose in America
Music Express Magazine (1981)
Buffalo, NY– Mike Rynoski, the fuzzy-haired Loverboy lead vocalist with the trade mark head band is bubbling with enthusiasm as he flops back into the dressing room, deep in the bowels of Buffalo’s War Memorial Coliseum.
“I hit my high note on Turn Me Loose tonight,” he grins, talking to no one in particular.
“No you didn’t,” snaps back Paul Dean, the wiry veteran lead guitarist of more bands than he’d care remember. “Matter of fact, you’ve missed it for the last four nights – you’re fired!”
The room erupts in a crescendo of laughter, cans of cold Budweiser are passed around and the five members of Canada’s latest donation to the international rock scene congratulate themselves on another successful concert.
Since the release of their self-titled debut album last Christmas, Loverboy has been tearing up the tarmac on North America’s highways. First in Canada as support act to Kiss, Bob Seger, Cheap Trick and Prism and more recently in the States with Kansas, Point Blank and ZZ Top. Add Journey to the fall itinerary and you have one of the most exhausting schedules attempted by any band this year.
It’s a schedule however, that has raised Loverboy into the US rock hierarchy. Their album is approaching platinum status in the States (1 million units) and is over triple platinum in Canada (300 000).
Despite the blistering pace there’s a refreshing naive attitude about the band which has made them a joy to work with. They smile a lot, are respectful of the headline acts, say the right things to the press and generally transmit this happy-go-lucky aura that could only come from a band that’s new to the game.
Opening for ZZ Top at the Buffalo Coliseum, Loverboy whipped through a slick 45 minute set without performing their big US hit single, Turn Me Loose. The highly partisan ZZ Top crowd, noted the omission and screamed for an encore. Loverboy happily obliged with a THREE-SONG encore, teasingly holding off playing Turn Me Loose to the very last song.
“It worked again,” grinned the toothy Rynoski when questioned about their encore tactics. “We figured that if the crowd wants to hear a song, they’ll scream for it. Kinda makes us look good, you know!” Egads, these guys have never heard of opening band protocol.
“It’s the fun aspect of this band that has made it all worthwhile,” reflected Dean during a quieter spell before their performance. “The difference between Loverboy and say, Streetheart is that this band has a more outgoing attitude which, I think reflects in our music.”
“When I was writing songs for Streetheart with lead singer Kenny Shields, we’d write all these real heavy tunes like Action and Look At Me, which seemed appropriate at the time. But Reno (Mike Rynoski) is such a happy spirit that my writing style with him is totally different. We write more positive material which seems to be more acceptable to current trends.”
Dean’s association with Streetheart is something neither he nor his manager, Bruce Allen, wish to dwell upon. Sufficient to say that after a long and weary trek through the bar band circuit lasting some ten years, Dean finally felt he had found his ticket to the big leagues through Streetheart. However, after the release of their debut album for Atlantic Records, Meanwhile Back in Paris, Dean was mysteriously dropped from the group without so much as an explanation.
“I was literally caught with my pants down, no explanations, no nothing. I have my theories (a clash of leadership with Shields) but I honestly don’t know for sure.”
Left in a daze by the turn of events, Dean returned to his native Calgary where he promptly suffered a bout of food poisoning: “which almost finished me off.”
Pulling himself together, Dean gigged around Calgary around Christmas of ‘78. He considered the idea of being the lead singer of his own band; “but I woke up one morning and said to myself...’let’s get serious and find myself a good singer’.”
A call to local booking agent, Greg Thomas turned up the name of Mike Rynoski who had recently returned home with Toronto-based Moxy (recording one album, Under the Lights). Rynoski just happened to be a friend of Blair who introduced him to Dean during a rehearsal.
“This real straight-looking guy with short hair and a tweed jacket walks into the room and starts playing drums,” reflected The Dean (as he’s know to the other group members). “I didn’t think he was much of a drummer but he turned out to be a good singer and I liked his personality.”
Dean and Rynoski also hit it off as a songwriting team and started to work together on a band project. Classically trained keyboardist Doug Johnson was recruited and the band started to round out when another Streetheart departee Matt Frenette was convinced to give it another go.
“Matt wanted nothing to do with the music business at the time, he just wanted to hang out at a beach in Vancouver,” noted Rynoski. “Paul wasn’t talking to him at the time (lingering sour grapes over the Streetheart incident) so he got me to call Matt.”
Frenette refused the first invitation but eventually showed up for practice and stayed. “We didn’t pressure Matt. We just said: ‘Hey, we’re going to gig around for $300 a week each, no strings attached, are you interested?’ The answer was yes and Loverboy had its drummer.
Loverboy completed its lineup when bassist Scott Smith was lured away from Lisa Dal Bello’s band replacing the group’s original choice, former April Wine member, Jim Clench.
“Scotty joined us a couple of days before our first major gig (opening for Kiss at the Vancouver coliseum).” recalled Reno. “He didn’t know any of our songs and we were literally teaching them to him in the dressing room before we went on. Scott looked at Turn Me Loose on the songlist and said: ‘How does that go? Which is a problem because he starts it. So just before the number, I cooly sauntered over to him on stage and went “Boom Da Boom Da – Boom Da Boom Da” and then he’d go ; “Oh yeah, I got it.”
The mere fact that Loverboy’s first major gig was an opening spot for Kiss is testimony to the skill and power of manager Bruce Allen. Presently the driving force behind Powder Blues and Prism, Red Ryder and Bryan Adams, Allen learned of the band through an acquaintance, Lou Blair who had been the group’s benefactor during their early days.
Blair and Allen had arranged to meet during a holiday in Palm Springs and the good-natured Blair offered to loan Allen his Mercedes Benz – which just happened to have a Loverboy cassette in the tapedeck. Allen took the hint, agreed to manage the band and convinced them to move from Calgary to Vancouver.
“Bruce’s big thing is his booking contracts. He just knows so many people in the industry,” marvelled Dean. “Every time we’ve needed a key tour it’s been there. When we got the Cheap Trick tour of Western Canada to coincide with the release of our album, I thought....wow! That’s what we needed. And then we nailed the Prism tour and it hasn’t stopped since. He made one call and got us the Bob Seger date in Toronto (before 28 000 people) and then came all the US dates.”
A strong ally of Allen has been New Orleans-based promoter, Don Fox. Initially responsible for helping break Bachman-Turner Overdrive in the States, Fox has promoted all 130 Loverboy concert dates in the US arranging tours with Kansas, Point Blank, ZZ Top and later this fall Journey.
“Everywhere we went in the States, we’d pick up radio support and then the sales would increase,” explained Reno. “It was like a big graph. We’d play an area, the sales would jump again, and then we’d go back to the same area on another tour and the sales would jump.”
The Bruce Allen seal of approval also came in handy in acquiring their record deal with CBS Records. After the material had been shaped to satisfaction, Allen let the word out and the offers came. CBS was selected as the best of the three serious offers because they fronted more money which, in Dean’s opinion, allowed the group to make a more polished album.
Recorded in record time in Vancouver’s Little Mountain Sound under the direction of co-producer, Bruce Fairbairn, the self-titled release proved to be particularly strong saleswise in Western Canada selling almost 100 000 units in Vancouver alone. “Someone told us that almost one in every four houses in Vancouver contains a Loverboy album,” marvelled Rynoski. Dean claims he knew they were onto something hot when CHUM radio in Toronto went on the album without ever having seen the band live.
CBS in the States, devoid of successful new bands for sometime, exhibited an initial reluctance to make the big push on Loverboy but finally relented when major radio response proved positive. “There’s four key factors in launching a successful group,” rationalized Dean, now sitting alone in the deserted Buffalo dressing room. “You have to have hit songs, no internal problems in the band, good management and a good record company....oh yeah and also a lot of luck. If we’d been putting this kind of music out when Foreigner, Cheap Trick and The Cars were at their peak, we might have been ignored.”
The Dean is well aware that shrewd concert scheduling has kept Loverboy off the bar circuit where their progress would almost definitely have been hampered.
“If we had been doing clubs every week, I’m sure it would have been a different story,” agreed Dean. “We would have been yelling our brains out, three sets a night for the same 400 people and probably feeling really depressed. But as it is now, we’re playing for between 10 000 to 20 000 people every night which gets us really inspired because it’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Although their spare time has been at a premium, Loverboy has crammed some work on the second album in between their touring schedule. Working again with Bruce Fairbairn (but this time at Vancouver’s Mushroom Studios), the group has laid down the tracks to seven songs which will be definitely featured on the album. The rest will be completed in late August just prior to their Journey tour.
“The new album will have a tougher undertone without going totally biker,” explained Dean. “It’ll be fairly positive but with just enough stabs to spice it up a little.”
Three tracks off the new album are already being featured in Loverboy’s current stage act; Piece of My Heart, a solid mid-tempo rocker that has definite hit single potential; Emotional, which sounds somewhat similar to the Rolling Stones’ Respectable (“Although I wrote my song first.”) and a tongue-in-cheek rap session called There Goes The Neighbourhood which is the highlight of the group’s live set, but according to Dean, is going to cause all kinds of trouble to record.”
Considering the sophomore jinx that hangs over all successful debut albums, Dean is taking the new project in stride, although he does display some concern that the album is being recorded on the run.
“I would like to take some time off the road to work on the album a little more but we just don’t have the time,” shrugged Dean. “We get some time off in August so we’re just going to have to buckle under and work a little harder then.”
With an Australian tour set for January, a major Canadian tour scheduled for February and more US gigs in March, Dean could feel excused for thumbing his nose at former failures and contemplating the rewards of present success.
“Yeah, I could do that, but I don’t think I could ever get used to this so called star business,”retorted Dean. “To me, nothing much has changed. We’re working hard and things are going well right now. But past experience has taught me never to take anything for granted. You never know when the bubble will burst. It’s happened before and it could happen again.”