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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-01-05, Page 114 • a• • r••h..;,.•,,.- • • . •-•,01.••44.•••-1,•-i-4.•••-••••,•••.. • t • , • ., , .•"! Vf `!"'• , -••• • .. • •-•':.,.•"'`;;:,7•••••••:• •4• ••• Serving over 25,,O0C1, homt ihLiStcnAtel, Winghams, Mount Foret,. Mdvertori Elmira, Palyneralph, Harriaton, .BrusOla, Atiqo • L 14 ri• • "r•A-••• r;' "•:1 *•••:firrAtt‘ •. v400, clitford;Vallenatein, Drayton, Moorefield and Arthur. Thursday, January 5, 1984 t. / . . • "W.e left about seven weeks ago. We hit Portugal, Spain, France, England, Scotland, Germany, . Austria, Belgium, . Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and Fin- land." Got visions of Le Grand Tour? Forget it. The man rapping out the list of European. countries on the blower is Brian Vollmer, lead vocalist for Canada's Heavy Metal band, Helix. , It's December and the band has just returned to Canada after fronting for Kiss in a grueling European tour. of one-nighters. "Grueling" is the word Vollmer uses. "The way we've been doing it over the, r. past nine years, touring is 'a grueling business. We haven't taken any more than, a week off a year." Did they get to see much of Europe bet- ween the onenighters? "Only what you could see froin the high- way.. We saw a bit more in Vienna and the, drive through the •mountains was nice. In Paris there was The Louvre, but you've ,got to have 'more time than we did to see it. properly. We did gb to the Eiffel Tower." - In Europe the band and a couple of extra bodies crammed themselves into a Fiat vati. "There were nine of us and all our . equipment. And it was an English van so. everything was on the other side and of, course we drove en .the opposite side of the road to what we're used to. In Portugal there is no speed limit andpari, they drive like crazy there." For a member of a band like Helix -to say , the driving is Crazy isn't quite like Joe Blow saying. it's crazy. In the past 10 years. Heins. has travelled litetaily hundreds of thousands °Miles. The band members have , criss-crossed Canada and the United States. They're used to living out of a van and spending endless hours on the road between gigs. Besides Vollmer, Helix ,is comprised .of two lead guitarists, Paul Hackman of. St. ' . Thomas and Brent Doerner of Kitchener, bassist Mike r Uzelac of Grimsby and drummer Greg Hinz of Cambridge. . The band has had a devoted core of followers -throughout Southwestern Ontario ever since they got together about a detacle. ago., Back- in the beginning there was Volthrier of RR 3, ListoWel, another Listowel area musician Don Simmons who left after' a year to go back to school, and Bent Doerner's twin brother 13rian and Keith thpir way. ,•.,,,;,1to the by Marion 1..biike Zurbrigg. Bowie's "Golden )(eel -a" got a, measly' two Brian Vellmer got his start inmusic singing with the Listowel District Secondary School choruS, one of the best high school Choruses in the country. The LDSS singers have not only won a basketful of national awards, but international competiticins as well. The, band's very first gig was at the Twin Gables in Listowel. Prom there they played just about 'every bar in Canada.. Over and over dgam. "It is a good training ground,," says Vollnier; "but we'd liketo break away from that reputation. We're not, really a bar band." , • • Besides 'putting it together on the road, Helix with solid suppert, from family and friends, in the early years produced their own little newspaper and their own ' LP recording, 'Breaking Loose". Capitol Contract Since theft the band has tyve more LPs -to its credit, "White Lace and„Blick Leather" and the latest, "No Rest For The Wicked". The latter was recorded for Capitol and it's gotten Helix a lot of attention. SOUNDS, the British HM publication With a rep °for telling it like it is, in its Sept. 3 issue, gave "No Rest For The Wicked" foutstars. I3y cornparison in that same issue David 4 stars and "Rant and RaVe with the Stray Cats" got one and a halfdazziers. According to the record review in SOUNDS, "No Rest For The Wicked" is .'well worth lending an ear to". "It's good catchy, adrenalin -blessed rock:, n' roll . . . but with a rawness in the production.. . . to give it a live'. feel," said SOUNDS. "Yon don't visualize a bunch of musicians in the studio surrounded by x - g an ' worth of .hi -tech equipment, "casually perfecting the recording to the nth degree in between games of soft -ball." 'In their October 15 issue. SOUNDS .featured an interview with Helix on a hill- pagespread and carry-over. The article included 'a 'a kind of send-up picture of the band members sprouting little horns on their heads (no,doubt ,in honor of the "No Rest For The Wicked" image) and was very favorable. For all of their Heavy Metal trappings however, Helix is out to -give audiences a good time. The kind of violenee and weighty messages that some HM groups are now into simply isn't their bag. The title tune is a a good driving rock' n' roll number quiteliterallYdriving. It isn't difficult to picture. Helix in their van pounding out. the miles to the next gig when 4' this piece is on the turntable. ."DirtY' Dog" from the same LP is a top- notch dancetune, terrific beat, just raunchy enough to be fun. In a completely.different vein, "Never Want to Lose Yon" is a touch- ing ballad that allows Vollmer to show off „his vocals. One of the best things about Helix, as the SOUNDS review pointed out, is that what you get on the LP is what you also get from the stage. Nowadays tbat'S a rarity for this kind of music. It's gotten so fans can go to a live performance and wonder if it's the same group they've admired on that latent LP. , With the cost of tickets for most ap- • ward nces at least aS much as the cost of the recording, It can be -a big let -down when yo' r r favorite group doesn'tmeasure up. li s 'a' problem Helix fans • have never encountered. Every appearance by the band hi Kitchener, London and anywhere else they hit in Southwestern Ontario is cause for celebration. It's been thatlway almost from the beginning. It's the kind of faith that has - given the band the Pugh to continue. Along with the fans, the families of the musicians continue to provide.a home baSe for them. They get special mention on the cover notes of "No Rest For The Wicked". ' A few years ago, back in 1000 when their • BAND TOURS EUROPE— "really good" to get along with. . ,. Helix, a band that has "We've gotten to knoW the guys from pounded it out on the bar many of these bands — Iron Maiden:, circuit for nina.(years,. last Scorpions, Def Leppard — all sorts of people fall played an virKISS. tended and most of them are good helpful." European tour When it comes right down to it, Vollmer 'th The group's lates record- says, "The European tour cost use about $35,000 and we probably lost money But it ing, "No Rest For The Wicked" is popular In Bri- - was something we had to do and we figure it I will pay off eventually:' twin as well as .in America. I He's happy with the way the new album is Members of the band have moving: western Ontario. From left . "It's' our first on Capitol and it's on EMIM a solid following in South - Europe and I think the sales now are over they are: top -GregHinz 60,000." of the Cambridge area, . With the momentum mounting Helix drums; Brian Vollmer of RR,„ wad& to keep things rolling. 3, ListOwel, lead vocals; "We'd really like to do a video. It's a lot of. Mike Uzelac of Grimsby,. money ---, around $50,000 — but we think we bass;, in. front are lead could do a good one and it would be an in.... guitarists, Paul Hackman of vestment as far as we're Concerned:Videos St, Thomas and Brent vi)er of ,Kitchener, are big," Vollmer said. Helix would also like to open up new Ightp.1* Patrick Harbron) marketsfor their sound., namely Australia and Japan and would like: to swing an - European tour and an American tour once a first recording was released and Vollmer's year. parents, Lorne and Beverly., were selling "And we'd really like to do a tour of South copies of it from their home, Brian said he -America. 'We're looking at that right now figured if the band ever achieved success it but we don't have anything set yet." ' Would be about 10 years down the road. Nq matter how it turns out; Helix is The prospects didn't appear to phase his hanging in there\ After 10 years, as Vollmer - mother then and they don't tedayputs it, "What's another couple?" "They're traveling so much I can't keep Determination to make it hag eared this up with them," Mrs. Vollmer said. "They band the .reputation of being the hardest left Monday (after Christmas) for out west, working band in Canada. Besides the con- • ,,stant touring, Helix sells its albums from the concert stage, has its own neWsletter and . sells Helix buttons and T-shirts. r "We get letters from as far away as On the Road Alaska and Holland," says Vollmer, Last summer in an extensive swing They also take thetime to keep in touch „ through the United States with Mitch Ryder, with.the folks back home. On their European Molly Hatchet; The Divinyls and The tour Vollmer mailed a postcard to The Headpins, Helix hit 25 states performing in Listowel Banner, his hOtlietown paper, SO one-nighters, The audiences were -good, noting the tourinit the fact Helix is the first up [020,000. Canadian band to ever play in Portugal, Over the past few years Helix has played 1. 4' And no matter how it turns out thait/Solid with such other well-known HM and rock core of Helix fans, friends, and will bands as Mcitorhead and Meatloaf, ' arid of be there keeping,the faith. .7. course, t4 European tour With Kiss. And when this band Simla :hitting, the "Kiss is still a huge band," said VpIlmer, charta bn a regular basis; and some mart • "Their new album is number one in the PH type, or deejo theta an,overnight• states and they put on a real physical stew." - Succe.ss — a real Cinderella Story both the 'touring the European tour Xiss offered band and the fans will know otherwise. Helix the use of all of its 'PA and lighting No doubt the success will be all the equipment and Vollmer said the band was sweeter for the struggle. . I 'Is she proud of what the band has ac- complished'? "I'll say I am."