FASTWAYS AND MEANS

FASTWAYS AND MEANS

Alison Aquino

When I think of Fastway, I immediately think of the Raspberries. It’s not because both Dave King of Fastway and Eric Carmen have red hair; it’s because of Fastway’s desire to get that “one hit record; wanna be an overnight sensation.” (Remember that historic Raspberries tune?) Fastway needs that one hit record. Their self-titled debut and All Fired Up sold respectably—but to Fastway, that’s not enough. They deserve more, too. Half of the band’s namesake (Pete Way left early on in the band’s career to join Ozzy, and later formed Waysted), Fast Eddie Clarke, was the guitarist in Motorhead, for crying out loud (exceedingly loud!). Fastway has been his project since splitting Motorhead a few years ago.

Fastway’s gone through some heavy changes within the last year. Dave King, their original lead singer, related the new aspects of the remodeled band. Bassist Charlie McCracken, formerly of Taste, and drummer Jerry Shirley of Humble Pie fame, were politely asked to leave. After the last tour, Fastway had a meeting in which sound and age were discussed. It seems that Charlie and Jerry were a little too old, physically and musically, for the audience that Fastway needed to attract. So they picked up their walking papers, and walked. If that sounds cold to you, it’s because Humble Pie lived and died before Fastway's audience was born. Not that Charlie and Jerry still don’t have a lot to contribute to rock ’n’ roll, but Eddie wanted a more “1980s sound, not an early 70s sound,” Dave explained. Don’t hold your breath for a Humble Pie reunion.

After their bandmates’ departure, Fastway had to find some young musicians to fill in. Dave and Eddie trekked over to Dublin and picked up Dave’s former bandmates:

Paul Reed on bass, Alan Conner on drums and Shane Carroll on rhythm guitar and keyboards. They’re all in their early 20s, hopefully photogenic, and newly arrived in the business. One would hope that they will remain young and pretty, because shelf-life in this band isn’t very long.

The new version of the band took off for Abbey Road

Studios and recorded Waiting For The Roar, their new LP. Bill Ham, ZZ Top’s producer, also produced this album, and under his guidance, Fastway recorded their tracks with a bit of orchestra and an even larger amount of synthesizers. Dave explains: “You can use technology and still keep that hard edge." Look at ZZ Top, for instance.

The album took eight months to write and three months to record. For the new guys, it was an experience. They had what old-timer Dave calls, “a fresh approach.” The band writes, and Eddie arranges. Dave says the new album has “more depth, more body” and calls it “punchy.” There’s a small amount of rhythm guitar, but Eddie’s not enthralled by the idea.

When asked how the new single was doing, Dave said that about 90 stations were playing it, and that it was moving rather slowly, as is the new video. Hopefully it is just a matter of time before the band encounters those magic words: Heavy Rotation.

Speaking of which, Fastway is definitely going to be running around the tour circuit. “We have a good reputation

as a good support band,” said Dave. ‘We’re sincere and we have a good time.” They’ve opened for acts like AC/DC and Iron Maiden. “We don’t change styles for each different band we open for.” Dave reflected upon the past tour, opening for Rush. Seventies metal meets sci-fi. ‘‘Very strange,” Dave remembers.

Dave is optimistic about this tour, though. European audiences have been very receptive to the new lineup. Dave calls the response “fabulous.” He finds Americans more responsive and carefree than European audiences, and can’t wait to get back to the United States.

I asked Dave how he felt about record rating, which seems to be predominantly

affecting heavy metal LPs. “We’re non-offensive.” He laughed suddenly. “Except to nuns and priests.” He felt that “it could be very good for a band’s publicity. They like that rebel image.”

Here’s a tricky question. How does he feel about Fastway’s success so far?

You can almost hear that deep breath as Dave launches into this one carefully. “I

wish a lot of things were different. We want major success. We’ve had medium success. You regret things when you’ve done them. Hopefully, this time we’ll do things right.”

And the future, Dave?

“We’ll be touring until June, do a few open-air gigs in Europe, then back to America. Hopefully, this album will be successful.”

It looks like Fastway’s strategy is to work hard on the road to achieve the fame that they want so much. There’s no fast way to superstardom, to be sure, no matter how plaintively the Raspberries sing about it. But hey, if they could snag that hit record, then there’s no better reason for Fastway to be a sensation.