Max Webster

[Pekka]

Pye Dubois was the name of Max Webster's lyricist. He also co-wrote "Tom Sawyer" with Peart. His real name is Paul Phillip Woods.

[Nocturnal]

Clearly I don't know a lot about the band  They were quite fun to watch that night tho.

[gearHed289]

I saw them in the spring of '81 opening for Rush on the MP tour in Chicago. Bass player had an Alembic that may have been a 6 string.

[Pekka]

Just received the first three remasters from Rock Candy and they are very recommended! Very insightful interviews with Mitchell on the booklets.


We got a couple of shows with Rush, who were starting to do really well locally, there was quite a buzz about them. I didn't see it, I thought they were trying to do Led Zeppelin and not doing it very well; that being said I did like Alex's playing, he had a really cool rock sound, and he did things a little differently.

Anyway, John Rutsey was leaving - and they asked Paul (Kersey, Max Webster drummer) to join them. He came to me, told me he'd been invited to join , and I was like 'do you really want to play that stuff? Do what you have to do, but I don't want to see you go', and he turned them down. Given how things turned out I'm surprised he didn't come gunning for me later and kick me in the onions!

[Pekka]

Interview from 1980:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dm9xYkLxW0Y#!

This is one of my favs from them. Laconic and quite melancholy.Great synth playing from Terry Watkinson, very pedal steel -like and Mitchell's guitar playing is again astonishing:

[Pekka]

Another interview from 1980 with some great rehearsal footage from the final 5 piece lineup:


Spot Mike Gingrich' 5-string Alembic. Pretty early for 1980.

[Pekka]

Max Webster playing "Battlescar" during the final gigs of their career with Richard Nixon on backing vocals.



That 5-string Alembic, was it a Jimmy Johnson model?

[Highlander]

Not sure about the bass but keep up the trawling for clips... 

[Pekka]

A Max Webster box. Never imagined it would happen but I'm happy to be wrong. My favourite Canadian band.
http://ventsmagazine.com/2017/08/10/ole-label-groups-imprint-anthem-legacy-release-definitive-max-webster-vinyl-cd-box-sets/

The cd version was quite cheap and I already have them all on vinyl (who wouldn't? ).

[Granny Gremlin]

I just saw this thread for the first time and it's hilarious to me that MW have any non-Cannuk fans in this day and age.  Around here they've been relegated to bush radio - like you'll only hear them outa some local's truck when you stop off to get gas on the way camping.

Kim Mitchell solo is much more poppy and dumbed down as Uwe says, but just as nerdy (I appreciate the message of Might as well go for a Soda, but it ain't very rock n roll; Patio Lanterns is a slice of teen Canadiana; I am a Wild Party is a lie and merely a display of Kim's poor judgement as regards wardrobe, though not surprising considering the cover of Universal Juveniles).  He's now a DJ on our local formerly-classic-rock (recent billboards rebranding the station said something to the effect of "we now acknowledge that there's classic rock from the 80s and 90s" and then they put Rock the Casbah and Smells Like Teen Spirit into rotation) and has gone complete bal'ead (looks better than he did during his solo heydey).  Incidentally, Randy Bachman has a show on the same station.

Just don't please no April Wine threads. 

[gearHed289]

I just got a call yesterday from one of our vendors in Buffalo, NY. He started with a "stump Heslin with a song quote". I don't recall the line, but it was April Wine. 

[Pekka]

I just saw this thread for the first time and it's hilarious to me that MW have any non-Cannuk fans in this day and age.

Well, Finland and Canada have much in common. I know quite a lot Webster fans but of course a lot more Rush fans who know nothing about the mighty Max. A kid brother Rush? More like their weird uncle.

[Granny Gremlin]

A kid brother Rush? More like their weird uncle.

ROFL

[Highlander]

Is he still on the radio station...? Thought he'd lost the gig post his heart attack...?
I know he sporadically gigs now... following on FB...
Saw about the box set but rather loathe to spend the readies as I still have most of the original vinyl and CD's...

[uwe]

Max Webster was hard to heavy rock for people who liked a little, but not too much Zappa with their denim dandruff headbang diet. 

A bit of a muso band (but so was/is Rush), they were held in high regard in Germany though cultish. Not as long faced serious as Rush who in the 80ies could be grating with their "please take us serious and don't make jokes about our music, we work so hard for it" po-facedness. Geddy Lee would write letters to rock journals that he did not wish to be compared to David Lee Roth after one journal had written something jokey about a fictitious rock star called "Geddy Lee Roth".  Sometime in the 90ies and onwards, Rush discovered self-depracating humor and their gigs became much better for it.

I have always had an avid interest in the Canadian rock scene, hey, I own albums by Moxy and (nearly) all David Clayton-Thomas solo albums!!! Only recently, I bought a 5 CD set of the Guess Who (I already have everything from BTO). Plus a boxed set from Pat Travers, the man who intrepidly wished to duel the Sex Pistols in a joint live gig offering to play with just three strings on his guitar (and two strings on his bassist's bass). Herr Rotten and his mates didn't take the bait, but I think they appreciated the PR aspect of Travers' invitation, long-haired Canadians playing a bluesy guitar had a hard time getting headlines in the NME in 1977 so you had to be creative. 

And yes, I'll buy that Max Webster Boxed Set in a heartbeat. 

And if you're serious about Rush, you must have heard of Max Webster!