Dave: I want to talk a bit about the Hanover tour. The album was finished and it was time to go out. Fill us in on the preparations for the tour.
Frank: The original road line up comprised of Chris Brockway on bass, Kim Hunt on drums, Dave Aplin and George Bernhardt on guitars. They were all into it and we went directly into live rehearsal to get things coordinated for the tour. It only took a couple of days to get tight, and we found ourselves bored playing to "no one", so we started writing and recording songs in a demo studio. It was during this time that we worked up some cover song versions to enhance the live show and possibly record for the next album. Among the songs that we arranged and demoed was Fits Ya Good, which we decided should be on the first album, and we recorded and mixed that song at Metalworks in just around one week. In the archives is a great semi-mixed version of Love Potion #9 which really rocks, but we ran out of running time on the album and couldn't cut it in, so it went into the holding bin.
Winter was coming and we still hadn't secured a tour, and the guys in the band couldn't hack sitting around for what seemed to be forever (in fact about 5 months), so we called a sabbatical. Everyone took a break hoping to return to 'gig ready' status when word came. By the time the tour dates were announced Kim and Chris got a gig to tour in Europe with Lee Aaron, and Dave Aplin got a gig touring with Kid Wicked. George and I were again left to find a drummer and bass player for the band and we immediately went into auditions.
Dave: I understand that some very interesting people auditioned for the tour. Give us an idea of who they were and how you eventually went out as a band.
Frank: Andy Curran from Coney Hatch entertained the possibility of going out with us for the tour, but his solo album deal had just come to fruition before he was slated to join us for rehearsal.
We selected a bass player that we saw perform with a local band some months before. Warren Toll preferred to be known only as "Wiggy" and he had an amazing way of picking up an audience. Wiggy was a WWF fan and incorporated all of their audience interaction techniques into his show. He was awesome to watch during his solo, not only because he was a good player, but also because he could hypnotize you with his rap. Every night Wiggy would do his solo bit, find something local to rap about that really bugged him and at the end he would moon the audience in defiance. It was all in fun and he gained quite a following.
The drummer Mike Terrana was from Rochester, NY. He was an awesome blur of huge curly red hair and baseball bats for sticks. His drums were outfitted with Kevlar heads which were advertised as 'bullet proof' and which he went through every second gig.
George had no trouble playing all the guitar parts on the album and wanted to go out as a 4 piece, and he proved in rehearsal that we would never miss the second guitar, so we never even auditioned for one.
Dave: When and how long did you tour??
Frank: We toured from February thru May of 1986.
Dave: Who did you get the gig with??
Frank: February is a very cold month in Canada, sometimes the subzero weather is enough to freeze skin, and justifiably it is the least desirable season for bands to tour. Our tour therefore would begin in February. We had all the confirmations in, and at least one month worth of tour dates confirmed opening for SAXON, "heavy metal royalty from Manchester. England". For Saxon it was about their umpteenth album and large club tour of the US and most venues ranged from 3 to 5 thousand people.
Dave: You were now oout on tour with one of the biggest bands from the NWOBHM. How did things go??
Frank: We kicked off in hometown Toronto, at the Concert Hall. The building is the original Masonic Temple and in the sixties it was known as The Rock Pile. When I was a sapling learning to play guitar, I went there to see Led Zeppelin on their first American Tour, the Who perform their Tommy Album before Woodstock made it famous, Deep Purple, Spirit, Arthur Brown as well as famous local acts like Lighthouse, Nucleus, and the Ugly Ducklings. For me stepping on that stage was electric. I felt like a million bucks, till the band got beer cans and spit tossed at us so bad we had to cut the set short. This gig was both the first and the worst for Hanover.
When the gig was over, our road manager told us to get our packed bags from the dressing room and walked us out to "the Bus". The tour bus looked like something out of a forties movie on the outside. Maybe the kind of vehicle that once carried amateur ball teams cross-country and we were less than impressed. The inside of the bus was less of a let down. It had been newly refurbished with a rear state room/lounge and center bunks and a front kitchen. Each area had ample space, (but not with everyone on board).
Dave: Things could only get better, eh?? Where did you go from there??
Frank: We pushed on to Ottawa, and during the drive, we worked on our presentation to win over the very faithful Saxon audiences. Having 24 hours to get the bugs out of our show, we ran out on stage ready for the onslaught and the power blew out on us. Someone came out with flashlights and guided us back out of the building and onto our very cold bus. The power never did come back that night and Saxon ended up fulfilling their contract to the 'theater' room by doing an acoustic set for an extremely quiet set of punters. It went well for them and their experience in this sort of crisis was an inspiration for us to keep thinking about our presentation.
The Next gig was in Quebec City and now we had a full forty-eight hours to review and rehearse our show. This time we pushed ourselves and it resulted in an encore. It was the first of many encores the audience screamed for in our performances with Saxon, but it was the only one that they allowed us to take for the remainder of the tour (in fact gradually and faithfully, as we got better and better responses, Saxon gave us less and less courtesies). This kind of abuse used to be standard amongst British acts, and maybe still is.
We kept ourselves above it and when we hit Le Spectrum in Montreal, we delivered such a spectacular show that the promoter met with us backstage to organize a Hanover headline date.
Dave: I guess that sometimes the headliner may have felt that they had earned their status and the things that came with it. With Hanover being young and hungry, I guess maybe they felt that you had to earn the respect. Did it get better??
Frank: As I mentioned earlier, the better Hanover did with audiences, the more Saxon tried to limit our abilities to perform. In Buffalo, New York they limited our stage area so severely that I actually fell off the stage when I tried to rock across it. I nearly broke my ankle, and at this point I would have welcomed an end to this kind of tour.
When we saw the stage set up at the Metro in Chicago I had had enough. They set us up so that our drums were at one far corner of the stage and the guitar and bass were at the other. At best, we were going to have to watch each other very closely during the show for any visual cues, and this really put me off. By some quirk of fate, the Rock and Roll gods had given me a gift, and as I searched my wardrobe I realized that I had packed an old Chicago Black Hawks hockey jersey. I kept a bathrobe on backstage so no one (not even my band) knew my "secret weapon". Saxon would usually take a place at the back of the hall, where unnoticed they could giggle about the hardships they were imposing on us and take some perverted pleasure in watching us struggle to overcome. I could see their jaws drop when the lights came on at the Metro and the crowd went nuts before we even played our first note. I had won the punters over with ease and this show turned from our potential worst, to our very best. The fellows in Saxon finally paid us our dues and from there on in we were not restricted.
Dave: That's great that they finally accepted the caliber of band that Hanover was. How did the rest of the tour go??
Frank: After some more weeks of successful touring in the mid-west, we wrapped up the tour with Saxon in Kansas City, Kansas. Our spies (the Hanover guitar roadie had made very close friends with the Saxon crew) gave us advance warning that Saxon was going to perform the ritual "end of tour" prank on us and to expect something disruptive during our show. We brainstormed ideas and forced the bus to stop at a novelty store so we too could return the favor. During the last song of our set, Saxon came out unexpectedly and faithfully smeared cream pies into each of our faces. We finished off the set with Saxon and Hanover playing Metal of the Night together and looking like long time friends. When it came Saxon's turn to play, we put our plan in motion during their finale. We each took a disgusting blow up sex doll and gaffer taped it to each of the guys in the band in a way that it couldn't be removed. The crowd again went nuts as Saxon performed with these quivering naked toys on their backs, and we joined them on their finale singing Denim and Leather together.
In all it was healthy competition and the tasks set on us by Saxon made us better performers by virtue of not taking anything for granted on a stage. When we broke off the tour with Saxon, we all agreed that there was no hard feelings and earnestly wished each other the very best.
Dave: I hear you have a pretty cool memory from this tour.
Frank: Hanover continued their tour into the Deep South and ended the tour with a 10,000-person show in Harrison, Arkansas. It was fantastic to see the sea of faces singing along with the band to every lyric of every song. If there was ever a good "swan song" to end a tour and a band, this was it. It was at this show that I learned the most gratifying thing that came with being a "star" when the promoter asked me if I would sign some special autographs before the show. He took me to a sidestage booth and introduced me to six handicapped children (one terminally ill) whose faces lit up like beacons when I entered the room. I spent twenty minutes speaking with each of them and my heart was filled to tears by the time I left that room. I dedicated that night to each of them and to this day, they are the most memorable part of the entire Hanover touring experience.
