WILD IN THE STREETS/1987/CAPITOL E.M.I.
Recorded at: Phase 1 Studios in Toronto/The Manor in England
Mixed at : Townhouse Studios/London, England
Produced by: Mike Stone
Players on this album:
Lead vocals: Brian Vollmer
Guitars: Brent “The Doctor” Doerner/Paul Hackman
Bass: Daryl Gray
Drums: Greg “Fritz” Hinz/Micky Curry/Brian Doerner
This was our fourth and last album on Capitol/E.M.I. Music was changing to grunge, our “in” at the record company (Bill Bartlett) had been fired, and without knowing it we’d been pretty much written off by the record company. However, this was not to say that they didn’t put the money into this project, as Dean Cameron, the president of Capitol Canada went to bat for us and pulled out all the stops. They flew Mike Stone, one of the Top 10 rock producers in the world at the time, to Canada. Here Stone produced 3 tracks but wanted to record the rest back in England, so Capitol flew the band over to record at Richard Branson’s studio The Manor. This studio was located in a 16th Century castle in Kidlington, just outside of Oxford. The first album recorded here was Tubular Bells, the theme song from The Exorcist. Never Mind the Bollocks was also recorded here. The band stayed for a month at $2,000/day and then moved into London to mix at The Townhouse Studios. The band’s apartment was located above the studios. Here the band stayed for another month. It was while they were here that Brian would meet his future wife Lynda, who lived just down the street in Shepherd’s Bush.
The album spawned the singles Wild in the Streets and Dream On. Both songs did so-so at radio, although the album did achieve gold status in Canada. By this time the band had dropped from concert status in the U.S. and was touring primarily through showcase bars. The future did not look bright. In Canada the band was still a headliner, but their popularity was starting to wane.