Alana Myles, a Toronto, uh, rock vocalist.

John Watt

John Watt

Member
Modern rock is too much about classic rock, if rock can ever be classic.
That's good for the live scene, baby boomers getting the kids out and having money,
and baby boomers wanting to hear live bands like they used to.
So I'm going to be local here, for Toronto Ontario, where I lived three times,
playing professionally, and pump up Alana Myles, one of my favorite lead singers.
I met her a few times when she was fronting lounge acts at Holiday Inns,
doing that until she turned thirty, and being the hard rocker she was,
she was overdue from getting away from it all and getting back her sanity, and health.
Deciding it was time to get her own thing together, she did it big time,
putting together an album where "Black Velvet" became an international hit,
getting her a Grammy and multiplatinum success.
Her next cassette was better even if the singles weren't as big.
This success helped her to not only resumer previous bad habits, but exceed them,
and appearances on local talk shows were as much about showing her up to herself,
as they were about promoting her.
I haven't heard from her for years, but I wish I was.
Love is, what you want it to be. Yeah, maybe for her but not for me.
Excuse me, while I log out and look for a Youtube link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekLHvB6XOQg

Despite the online ministrations of many good people, I still can't embed a youtube video.
The onstage scenes are just Alana and her road hardened band,
getting into it like their lives depended on it, and they did.
She was criticized for using session pros on her first cassette,
so she went with her hand on the second, having one of the best intros I've ever heard,
an instrumental where she just lets a note loose, getting higher with it and then higher.
After that, live onstage, no-one else in the room thought they should be singing instead of her.
I can't imagine going through a life as a woman where every man is desperate for your love.
 
Last edited:
John Watt

John Watt

Member
Yeah, I still catch a rush listening to "Love Is", and "Black Velvet" gets me going.
Thanks for doing that, EddieRuKiddingVare, it's nice to have a fast one and slow one together.

Kate Ceberano was nice, even if you only saw parts of her face without anything below the neck.
I'd take her word for showing "when I swing my hips whole monasteries tremble",
but she'd have to use herself in a bikini and uh, play with a snorkel off the Great Reef for my belief.

It was strange for me in the rock band scene, a non-smoker, non-drinker vegetarian,
dressing up, getting tones like Jimi Hendrix and dancing around onstage,
everyone seeing me as passing through.
And pass through I did.
"Men at Work" are still my favorite Australian band.
I used to sing and jam out "Ghosts Appear and Fade Away" in one group.
 
Last edited:
EddieRUKiddingVare

EddieRUKiddingVare

New member
Very cool - Saw Men at Work live in 83 supported by Redgum- another big aussie band of the time. I should start a fav Aussie band thread.

Now Kate - she is a honey refer below:

 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
This is better for me, being more of a dance floor player myself.
Something tells me Kate hasn't been introduced to Lenny Kravitz yet.
Please see Eddie's "favorite Australian band" for more trivia pursuit.
This reminds me of Kylie Minogue during her early days.
Sooner or later, liking the sweet becomes sweat.
 
EddieRUKiddingVare

EddieRUKiddingVare

New member
Lenny Kravitz hey yea think Kylie went there - note Kate is very grown up these days - the video was from 1989- think she would be a match for Lenny...........
 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
After all this me going on about Alana Myles, what her name was for a band back then,
an ad for her was above this thread yesterday, for a new comeback gig in Hamilton.
And her rock star name is Alannah, now www.alannahmyles.com/
I recommend reading her interview with "Rockulus Maximus", what I've been saying.
I found her second cassette at a Salvation Army, and it reactivated me in a classic rock,
bar band kind of way.
When she played at the Hideaway in St. Catharines as the reborn Alannah,
friends phoned to tell me to get over, but that was long distance.
Alannah would be my favorite female hard rock singer-songwriter,
but she never teased me like those two Heart sisters.
When they fired their original lead guitarist and were holding open auditions in Vancouver,
I really, really wanted to go.
 
Last edited:
teddy

teddy

Duckmeister
John
When I was young we would call that a hot chick, and certainly a hot band. They don't make them like that any more

teddy
 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
It's taken a while to let your comment percolate, teddy, letting lots of time slip away too,
and despite a might effort to add more wit, I can only agree.
 
teddy

teddy

Duckmeister
It took me awile ti find your thread John. For some reason when I hit New Posts it does not always bring them all up

teddy
 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
I just watched and listened to "Love Is", again. I feel better now.
At least I know it's still out there, somewhere.
 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
I gots problems with any x factor, being from the time before any x ratings.
It's difficult enough just being PG13 with parental warnings about medical descriptions of violence,
without doing the x rated thing, and if you saw me, you'd know that could get *** right away.
Just holding my guitar, just holding it, oh, oh, no, no, it crawled into my hand, honest.
Who asked me to take my pick?
 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
End of the day, I'm listening again.
Too bad I can't make it to her comeback concert in Hamilton.
I just got my Marshall stereo pre-amp and AudioPro stereo power amp back,
after a cleaning and check-up, I'm working on my guitar,
so I'm not just coming back, I'm hitting it anew as a symphonic-electric guitarist,
and I want to redefine the rock band stage gig.
 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
Yep, yep yep yep yep... I'm just moseyin'along with Alannah, looking at her equestrian photos.
Oh no... oh no... seeing her, uh, riding her cello... uh, I gotta look again.
I didn't notice if she was using a bow or a riding crop on the strings.
 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
When I began this thread I used my favorite song, "Love Is".
That's kind of a funky hard rock tune, a medium energy Alannah.
This is a live performance at the Mason's Building in Toronto,
and shows what she was like live onstage more than the other videos.
She had to be talked into wearing the red dress in the first video by the video director,
and something tells me she was talked into wearing this mini-tutu you see once in a while.
Don't ask me why a woman dancing onstage while singing fully dressed gets edited as sexual content,
when in the classical world ballet dancers don't leave much to the imagination.
I'd like to point out how much the band is also movin'n'groovin' with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sACH-cVdsJE

Yeah! Hanging out with the backup singers or horn section onstage!
This brings back memories of my own.
 
Last edited:
John Watt

John Watt

Member
Looking over this thread again, and watching many videos,
I'd like to clarify my Lenny Kravitz comments.

What do Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia and Nicole Simpson,
all have in common?
They all say that Lenny Kravitz sexed them up and made them adult artists.
And that's just Australia.
I'd like to remind Lenny fans that "American Woman" was written by a Canadian band.
 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
I was just listening and reading again, oh yeah, so used to waiting...

but I have to tell you that Alanna Myles domain has changed,
even if it has the same address.
It was bigger, with more pages, and offered articles for sale.
She was advertising her jewellery and clothing as concert souvenirs,
and stuff she owned and liked.
It really did show her as she was, the criticisms of interviewers and the mess she is.
Now, it's more about old sexy photos of her, and a link to buy her songs from iTunes.
That's the first time I've seen iTunes, so even from the shadow of her grave,
she still can light the way, a little.
 
John Watt

John Watt

Member
Oh! After all this time, after all these listenings, I finally had an idea.
I should sing this song.
This is a hard rock band, and Alannah won best rock vocalist of the year,
at the Grammys, so that has to be enough proof of that.
But listen to the song, about "love is", and "what you want it to be".

Now, it could be done mellow, even jazzy, jamming it out, when that's not happening here.
It is a song about wanting love and being lonely, and it's not just a womans' song.
This might be a nice song to do with "Maneater", raggae to begin with.
yeah, take away the vocal hysteria, turn down the overall volume, and it's there.
Show me, what you want me to do, because love is, what you want it to be.
Same with this song.
And if you're an upright bassist who is dance curious, and want to try an electric in a club,
don't tell me no jazz secrets, or give me symphonic alibis, let your fingers do your talking,
while we both lay down some heavy lines, and it's the drums that start hitting it,
as we sing the songs of our lives.
Love is.... one love.
Alannah Myles came from a horse farm in Hamilton.
Bob Marley spent two years working in a steel mill in Hamilton.
"Love Is" and "One Love", yeah, now it's feeling together.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top