ALCATRAZZ VAI NOT?

ALCATRAZZ VAI NOT?

FEATURES

Sharon Liveten

Any group that calls themselves the “thinking man’s heavy metal band" deserves to be descended upon by a horde of nosy journalists asking stupid questions. After all, thinking is an alien concept to a lot of hard rock groups. On top of that, the band in question, Alcatrazz, has the nerve to cop its moniker from the most notorious prison in America, the one that had no escapes. A curious image forms, one that bears checking out.

When we got together, most of the thinking man’s band was involved in a subtle form of torture unique to the record industry. They were locked up in a small, airless room in their publicist’s ritzy L.A. offices, surrounded by stacks of cartons containing their latest vinyl venture, Disturbing The Peace.

“We’re signing records,” glumly explains the band’s only Limey, vocalist Graham Bonnet. “You know, Thanks to the guys at Joe’s record shop.’” He looks around the piles on unopened boxes and grimaces. But misery loves company, and he is joined on the chain gang by fellow inmates, bassist Gary Shea and keyboardist Jimmy Waldo, who are also taking snazzy silver ink to the album’s black cover and scribbling endearing messages.

Tucked away in the corner is the resident philosopher, drummer Jan Uvena, who is occupying himself at a typewriter engaging in more cerebral pursuits. “I’m writing my theory of relativity, like Einstein,” he says, while stroking his beard in a scholarly manner. There is a difference. Uvena’s dissertation has nothing to do with the behavior of objects moving at near-light velocities, and all to do with sex. The thinking man’s band, eh? Well, they never did specify what they were thinking about.

There is more to Alcatrazz than meets the eye. The five-man band (new guitarist Steve Vai has been granted temporary parole to do a few solo acoustic gigs, and is unable to make today’s signing party) is at once different from the latest crop of sun-drenched metalists. These guys are not kids. Alcatrazz was also formed with a plan.

“Everybody in this band is experienced,” stresses Bonnet. “Because we’re not 20 years old. We’ve all experienced different kinds of music through our years, and many different bands.”

He knows from whence he speaks. The man was the pipes behind Rainbow, and more recently, MSG. When that fell apart, Bonnet did some thinking.

“I had just left monosodium glutamate,” he grins, “and I didn’t know what to do. But I decided to leave England. One of the reasons that I left was because most of the music was dross. Very boring. There was no rock ’n’ roll. It was all like Boy George and Adam Ant. Now it’s all happening here. But my manager knew about Gary and Jimmy and suggested getting in touch with them. We all needed to get back into the music industry.”

He’s got a point. Waldo and Shea had fronted the popular east coast band New England, but it had fizzled. In the meantime they were doing a variety of unpleasant things to keep alive including driving taxis and keeping house.

When Bonnet called, they jumped at the chance. Shea recalls, “We figured even if we were broke in California, we wouldn’t freeze.”

They all got together over a few brews and decided to go for it. After recruiting Uvena, a veteran of Alice Cooper’s band, they retired to suburban Calabasas, and Graham’s garage to rehearse, much to the disgust of Bonnet’s neighbors.

“It was like being back in high school,” Shea laughed. “Except we’re all 35 years old. The neighbors were calling up that we were making too much noise in the garage. One guy was freaking out. He kept asking if we had a permit.”

A lot of bands would be more than a tad frustrated to have made hit records and played before enormous crowds, only to find themselves back in a car park. Not Alcatrazz. Somewhere in the fine print of their contracts seems to be a rule—no egos allowed. They’ve had it with star trips.

“There’s no room in rock ’n’ roll for attitudes,” Shea states flatly. “We’re not doctors who can save lives. There’s a fine line between having confidence in what you do and having an attitude. I don’t think any of the five guys who are in our band have any of that cocky attitude. That’s why we formed this group.”

“Thanks to the guys at Joe’s Record Shop. ” -Graham Bonnet

That’s this year. Since the last Alcatrazz album, Live Sentence, there has been one personnel change. Steve Vai is the band’s second guitarist. Originally, the band featured Swedish guitar prodigy Yngwie Malmsteen. Everyone in Alcatrazz is painfully polite when they refer to Yngwie, but only a complete idiot would miss their drift. Yngwie was not the easiest guy in the world to work with.

“We wanted someone who was more part of the unit,” admits Jimmy. “Yngwie was a unit unto himself.”

Shea adds, “We wanted someone who could create, not emulate. With Yngwie we had a Ritchie Blackmore clone thing going on. It just wasn’t what we wanted—it was close when we started, and it could have worked if it progressed. It didn’t progress.”

Alcatrazz, on the other hand, certainly has. Their first two albums, No Parole From Rock ’N’ Roll and Live Sentence, were standard headbangers. They were good, but not terribly creative. This time out, the band decided to expand beyond the usual format of heavy metal.

“Once you label a band heavy metal,” muses Bonnet,” you might as well be calling it limited. We have lots of different kinds of influences and musical tastes, and it all sort of melded together. If we want to kick out all of the stops and be a heavy metal band, we can. But if we want to be a sweet band, we can do that also. We’re all pretty experienced.”

They are diverse as well, and that’s clear on Disturbing The Peace. The disc has a bunch of headbangers. The best of those is “Wire And Wood.” Vai soars through the entire song. The new guy is also responsible for all of the tune’s arrangements, but most importantly, he brings a lighter side to the band.

The album’s first single, “God Blessed Video,” is also Alcatrazz’s first stab at humor on vinyl. Unfortunately, some people missed the joke.

“It’s supposed to be a joke,” moans Bonnet. “Just as sort of an observation of what goes on. A lot of people make great videos for lousy songs. That’s what happens—the video sells the song, which is generally pretty weak. ‘God Blessed Video’ is just a look at the way things are. What’s funny is that we’re a part of it. Because we have to make videos too.”

The pitfalls of writing satires, as Alcatrazz is finding, is that some people take life literally. That includes a number of radio programmers.

Never one to hide his feelings, Jan Uvena practically spits as he says, “There are radio stations that will not play the record, because it’s called ‘God Blessed Video.’ One guy said, ‘You guys are crazy if you expect me to play a song with that name on the radio.’” Uvena looks disgusted and adds, “It’s a joke.”

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But Alcatrazz tunes aren’t all giggles and metal. The ballad-like, orchestrated “Will You Be Home Tonight” is one of the group’s proudest moments. The theme is drunk driving, and the inspiration James Dean. “Because,” Bonnet says, “some drunk probably pushed him off the road.” The tune was recently picked by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to highlight a series of TV ads.

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Although drinking isn’t a macho thing for Alcatrazz, they’ve been known to knock back more than a few. Still, they are concerned.

“I remember getting on the bus after a show,” Bonnet remembers quietly. “And we passed an overturned car. The two kids had just come from our show. The last thing they saw was an Alcatrazz show. “ He shudders slightly. “Of course I drink. I even get drunk. But I don’t drive. I have somebody who drives me. And I don’t drink before a show. After four beers I’m afraid I wouldn’t be very good. But afterwards, on the bus, that’s different.”

He and the other inmates will have a chance to perfect their drinking songs. As of this writing, it looks like Alcatrazz may spend all of the summer, and then some, on the road. It’s not exactly a thought that makes any of the bandmembers’ day.

“I really like to play live, but a 12-hour bus ride takes three days,” complains Jimmy Waldo. “There are times when you are travelling that everything becomes the same flat place. After eight hours, and everybody has had a few beers, and you’ve listened to music, and you’ve had a few laughs it’s about three in the morning. You crawl back into your bunk, and wake up in the morning, only to find the thing still rolling. It’s like, ‘What’s wrong with this picture.’”

They have found a few ways to fight boredom. A favorite used to be to moon the other cars. Until they did it to the wrong guy.

Gary recalls, “We were on the Illinois tollway last year, in the middle of a tour with Ted Nugent. We saw Ted coming up in back of us. So we figured, when he got up beside us, we’d throw our asses against the window. So nine of us did. Nugent pulled out a .45 and aimed it as us.”

Rock is wonderful. When Shea was a Boston cabbie, the only people who pointed guns at him were strangers.