![]() An unpredictable character with a substantial appetite for drink and drugs, he was a de-stabilising but indispensable presence - a spectacular frontman and a raucous yet expressive vocalist. Their major problem was also their biggest asset: Gary Holton. Unfortunately, it also passed, but this album stands as a fine memorial to a band that had, somehow or other, reached greatness. From the exuberant opening moments of the barrelling 'Hard At The Top', it was clear that their moment had arrived. Their audience loved them devotedly, and would surely expand. Their first, self-titled album, in 1974, sold disappointingly, but with the release of 'Anvil Chorus', they looked set for a breakthrough. They were a rock'n'roll band par excellence, good-time boys who had more to do with the bar-room effervescence of the Faces than with the fire and brimstone of heavy metal.ĭiscovered by 60s popstar Dave Dee and quickly signed to Atlantic, the Heavy Metal Kids were a hot ticket in the clubs and colleges, packing them solid as punters strained their necks to watch singer Gary Holton larking about in top hat and silver umbrella. They'd taken it from author William Burroughs, never imagining it would also suggest a sound with which they had absolutely no connection. ![]() There is poignancy in Anvil's members still pinning their hopes on a major-label contract, because for major labels even more than heavy metal bands, the landscape truly has changed.By the time the Heavy Metal Kids came to release this, their second album, they'd started to suspect that their name might be causing problems. ![]() Of course, Anvil! was filmed four years ago, and those years have been tumultuous for big record companies thanks to the Internet. The executive listens to a few seconds of a track and says he'll be in touch, but he notes euphemistically that for old-time metal acts like Anvil, "the landscape has changed." (It's worth noting that the film has given Anvil's career a big boost.) It's hard to watch Kudlow pound the pavement in Hollywood with his newly recorded CD, and it's even harder to watch him meet with a record executive at EMI Canada. Even so, Anvil faces an entertainment business that is, by its nature, brutal. Reiner quits the band.Īnvil! is skillfully crafted, especially in the way it conveys Kudlow and Reiner's delight at the fact that, all these years and difficulties later, they're still having fun playing music and traveling the world. The guys hook up with their old record producer Chris Tsangarides, who has produced many famous metal acts, in hopes that the 13th - 13th - Anvil record will be the breakthrough. A five-week European tour begins in triumph and ends in disaster, as the musicians huddle under sleeping bags on a road trip that would be grueling for musicians 30 years younger. (Yes, Reiner's name differs by one letter from Spinal Tap director Rob Reiner's.)Īnvil's members struggle with money, to say nothing of their families' skepticism. A dreamer given to outbursts of sadness and rage, Kudlow is still planning Anvil's success, but his longtime friend and bandmate, drummer Robb Reiner, is more practical and stoic. His siblings, educated professionals, worry about him. He has just turned "fucking 50," as the inscription on his birthday cake reads. By day Steve "Lips" Kudlow, the singer and guitarist, drives a van for a catering company. The famous musicians are at a loss to explain why Anvil never made it big.Īll these years later, Anvil is still gigging, but rather than stadiums in Japan, they're playing small clubs in Canada. In interviews, notables like Motorhead's Lemmy and Metallica's Lars Ulrich talk admiringly about Anvil in its heyday, when the band joined the Scorpions and others on a 1984 tour of Japan. Anvil was respected among metal musicians, a fact that's established right away. The Canadian band Anvil joined the pop-metal surge of a generation ago, when acts like Whitesnake, Metallica and Bon Jovi attained superstardom. You've never seen so many tears in a metal documentary. Anvil! also is intermittently funny, though it's more mournful than comic. Anvil! even has Stonehenge - the real Stonehenge, though, not Spinal Tap's scale model. Anvil! is strongly reminiscent of Spinal Tap, between the absurd stage theatrics, the heavy-metal hair, the bickering. Which brings me to Anvil! The Story of Anvil, the remarkably good documentary about a promising 1980s metal band that didn't find real success. The 1984 spoof is uproariously funny but also uncomfortable, especially for musicians, because it captures many painful truths about the music business. ![]() The standard for rock documentaries was set by This Is Spinal Tap, and it isn't even a real documentary.
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