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By: Clyde Bradley
The year was 1979. A song called “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya”
broke the Top 40 and a band called New England joined the ever-growing list of
one-hit wonders. But to a small but dedicated army of loyal fans, New England
was – and still is – so much more than just that single blip on the Top 40 radar
screen.
New England emerged from the Boston club scene. The group
consisted of guitarist John Fannon, keyboardist Jimmy Waldo, Bassist Gary Shea
and drummer Hirsh Gardner. The foursome released their Paul Stanley/Mike Stone
produced, self-titled debut album and found almost instant success with “Don’t
Ever Wanna Lose Ya.” During their short-lived moment in the spotlight, New
England shared the stage with some of the biggest names in arena rock at the
time such as Kiss, Journey and AC/DC as well as headlining their own shows in
larger clubs.
Unfortunately, their follow-up efforts of 1980’s “Explorer
Suite,” produced by Mike Stone and 1981’s “Walking Wild,” produced by Todd
Rundgren failed to duplicate the success of their debut release and the foursome
parted ways.
Fannon stayed in Boston and turned to producing while
Gardner, Waldo and Shea headed to LA where they joined forces with Vinnie
Vincent in a band called Warrior. Before Warrior had a chance to break out,
however, Vincent got the call to join Kiss. From there, Waldo and Shea ended up
in Alcatrazz with Graham Bonnet and Yngwie Malmsteen while Gardner returned to
Boston and tried his hand at producing.
Gardner also released a solo album titled “Wasteland for
Broken Hearts” on GB Music, a label created by Gardner and his long-time friend,
Gary Borress. GB Music released two New England albums commemorating New
England’s short, yet prominent career. “1978” was released in 1998 as a tribute
to the 20th Anniversary of the formation of New England. This disc
consisted of seven original versions of early New England songs along with three
previously unreleased numbers. “1978” was followed by 2003’s “Greatest Hits
Live,” a compilation of live recordings from back in New England’s hey day.
And after nearly 25 years of silence, New England has
recently reunited for a couple of impromptu appearances and has tapped into the
power of the internet and myspace to reconnect with old New England fans.
Gardner recently took the time to chat with Classicrockrevisited.com about the
rebirth of the New England phenomenon. Here’s what Gardner had to say.
Clyde: How did the four of you come together to form New
England?
Hirsh: We were playing in club bands back then. Jimmy Waldo
found me and asked me to join his band. Then John eventually joined the band and
Gary and that’s what became New England. We had all been playing in club bands
around Boston for years and years and years. So we pretty much started out the
way most bands start out. But we eventually decided it was best to stop playing
night clubs and concentrate on songwriting and recording and getting our act
together. So we did that. We made a conscience effort not to play any gigs at
all and we said our very next gig we play is going to be Madison Square Garden.
And it pretty much happened that way. We stopped playing the clubs, and the very
next gig we played, we were on a national tour.
Clyde: Was that with Kiss? Is that when Paul Stanley
came in the New England picture?
Hirsh: As a matter of fact, yes. The first couple of gigs
we did, we played the Paradise Theater in Boston. Then we did a couple more
gigs, and shortly there after we were out on the road with Kiss. Which was
pretty amazing going from relative obscurity to playing 20,000 seat barns. So it
was a fun time.
Clyde: How did you guys get hooked up with Paul Stanley?
Hirsh: Bill Aucoin was our manager. And Bill was also
managing Kiss. We pretty much had the choice of just about any producer that we
wanted at that time and Bill said ‘Do you guys think you’d be interested in
working with Paul?’ So we said send him up to our rehearsal place in Boston for
a few days. So Paul came up and we started working on some songs and it worked
out pretty well actually. He was a good guy to have at the helm for a lot of
reasons. And some of them didn’t have that much to do with music. Just having
one of the greatest rock singers in the business being your producer was pretty
exciting and infused an incredible amount of excitement into that first album.
That’s not to say that he didn’t have musical talents that he could turn us on
to. He did a very, very good job producing that first album.
Clyde: What was your initial reaction when you found so
much early success with “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya”? Were you surprised to hit
the Top 40 or were you anticipating it?
Hirsh: You can’t really say you were anticipating success.
We were hoping- tremendously hoping- for success. But once we started hearing
“Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya” locally in Boston… I remember one night I was driving
around in my car and flipped on WEZN and “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya” was playing
and I thought this is so cool, hearing your own song on the radio. And just as a
fluke, I flipped over to the other rock station and “Don’t Even Wanna Lose Ya”
was playing on that station as well. Having that happen was very, very cool. But
the reality of it was, the same thing happened the very next week in Denver. We
had just gotten off the plane and we’re driving down the road and “Don’t Ever
Wanna Lose Ya” comes on the radio in Denver, Colorado. So “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose
Ya” definitely took off and was being played all around the country. So no
matter where we were on that first tour it was very positive.
Clyde: Was it very discouraging when you didn’t find
that same kind of success with your next two albums?
Hirsh: I think it was. Having a really long term
perspective now on the career, “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya” was a huge hit single.
And I think we released another couple singles off that album that did pretty
well. Then we had to go right back into the studio. We recorded our next album
which was “Explorer Suite” that was on Elektra Records. And quite frankly, I
think Elektra blew it. They really were not a very good label. I don’t think
they did a very good job with our album. And I think that the A&R people that
were involved were kind of lame, if you ask me. Well actually, maybe not the A&R
people, but the promotional people. The whole Elektra situation was weird. We
were playing in Birmingham, Alabama for 22,000 people and there were absolutely
no New England albums in town that day. We went to every record store looking
for our album and it wasn’t there. Having a few years of perspective on this,
you look back at it and it’s a little easier to say why it didn’t happen as big
as it could have. People are still coming up to me even today and saying, ‘man,
I can’t believe you guys weren’t bigger then you were and didn’t meet more
success.’ And honestly, I think that had very little to do with the music and a
lot more to do with just the business end of things. And that’s too bad.
Clyde: What finally made you guys decide to call it
quits? Was it primarily record sales issues?
Hirsh: Yeah, I think so. The band New England was not just
that three or four year period that we were putting out record albums. Jimmy,
Gary, John and I played together for close to 10 years. New England was the
ultimate goal of that 10-year education. To put out three albums, seeing the
failures of the record companies, obviously took its toll. And we just had it at
that point. The band broke up and Jimmy, Gary and I ended up hooking up with
Vinnie Vincent and put together the band Warrior which did some demos and made
quite a bit of noise in LA. Unfortunately, just before we were signed to a
record label, Vinnie decided to join Kiss. So once again the Kiss sisters having
an effect on our career. So that’s what happened after New England. Jimmy, Gary
and I tried to stick it out with Vinnie. Unfortunately, he decided to go on the
road with Kiss.
Clyde: So the first Kiss experience sounds like it was
good to you guys but the second one maybe not so much so.
Hirsh: Well, I always got along with them. And I couldn’t
blame Vinnie for choosing to do that. But knowing what was going on in the
industry at that time, I think that might have been a mistake for Vinnie to
decide to go with Kiss and not stay with the original line-up we had put
together. Don’t forget at that point in time, Ratt, Poison, Motley Crue, all
those LA bands- and we were one of them- were just starting to hit their stride.
I think had we stuck it out… It’s funny, someone just played me some of those
songs the other day and I tell you, that stuff we were playing was some of the
best rock music I heard in a long time. Vinnie was a great songwriter. Don’t
forget, this is the same guy that wrote “Lick It Up” and “I Love it Loud” for
Kiss. We had some amazing songs that were ready to take off. But it was a twist
of fate, and it just didn’t happen. That’s the way things go.
Clyde: You also went into producing after New England.
Hirsh: Sure did. I had a great run as a producer up here in
the Boston area. For years I was continuously nominated for the Producer of the
Year award by the Boston Phoenix best poll. And I was nominated several times
for the Boston Music Award. After the band broke up and the Vinnie Vincent
thing, I really wanted to put my talents to work doing some other things.
Having worked with Paul Stanley. Having worked with Mike Stone, who, of course,
produced Queen, Asia, Journey and all kinds of other bands. And having worked
with Todd Rundgren, that all taught me a lot. And I was fortunate enough to be
able to use all those educational tools I picked up from those producers and put
them to use in the recording studio.
Clyde: John went in to producing as well- correct?
Hirsh: Yes, John went into producing. Jimmy’s been
producing for years. If you’re a musician, and you’re well rounded and you’ve
got song writing abilities and good people skills, and if people respect you, it
seems to be the way to go. A lot of musicians gravitate into that.
Clyde: In 1998 you guys released 1978. How did that come
about? Whose brainchild was that?
Hirsh: If it was actually a brainchild… Gary Borress, who’s
my best friend, he and I had been buddies for probably 25 years, we started our
own record label called GB Music. Marky Ramone of the Ramones started a band
after the Ramones called the Ramainz and we produced and released them. We
released a lot of local bands. So we put together our record label and what we
decided to do was we contacted the major labels here that were handling New
England and said would you sell us the licensing to the second and third New
England albums because we think we’d like to release them. They agreed to do
that. Then we contacted Marquee/Avalon, a record label in Japan, and they were
also interested in putting out the New England stuff. So we licensed the second
and third New England albums to them and that went very well. I also had a lot
of tapes lying around from New England performances. So I mastered about eight
or 10 of these early New England songs that had never, ever been released. And
one of them happened to be the original version of “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya.”
There was also a version of a song called “Candy, and the original versions
of “Nothing to Fear,” and “Turn Out the Light.” In retrospective of those songs,
we thought the New England fans would find that pretty interesting stuff… To
hear the original version of “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya” before Paul Stanley got
a hold of it. But keep in mind, a lot of these were mastered right from a
cassette. So these weren’t even the original master tapes. So we contacted the
Japanese folks at Marquee/Avalon and asked if they would be interested in
putting that out. And they were thrilled to do that. So they released that album
and it was really successful.
Clyde: You guys also put out “Greatest Hits Live.” Was
that handled in the same manner?
Hirsh: Once again, the same thing. I’m pretty sure that was
mastered from cassettes we had of live gigs. And Marquee/Avalon was interested
in licensing that. So we put that out. And all of these albums that were
released on Marquee/Avalon were also released in the United States on GB music.
And they sold very well and were well received by the public.
Clyde: Do you think the majority of these albums are
being picked up by old, die-hard New England fans, new ones or some combination
of both?
Hirsh: I think it’s a combination of both. The band is sort
of like a cult band. It was never a multi-platinum band- unfortunately. But it’s
a cult band. I get a lot of comments from people that run across us on myspace
or the web that remember us from 1980. So we get a lot of people who have been
specifically looking for the band for years and finally found us, we get people
who just happen to bump into us on the web and remember our songs and of course
we get people who find us, listen to the music and leave comments like “You guys
are great. I can’t believe you weren’t bigger than you were.” And it’s great to
hear all that stuff. That’s pretty much what’s going on. Thank goodness for the
web.
Clyde: You guys have been doing some things together
again lately- right?
Hirsh: Yeah. A friend of mine in Boston has been putting on
a benefit concert for about five years. Steven Tyler from Aerosmith is very
involved in this benefit and a lot of very well known Boston groups, the group
Boston, the James Montgomery Band have all played. So my friend asked if New
England would be interested in playing. The first year I said not really because
Jimmy and Gary are on the West Coast and John and I are here. And we hadn’t
played together in 20 years. So I said we’ll pass but I’ll come to the show and
hang out with you guys. Then a couple years ago, the opportunity came up again.
I just happened to be talking to John and asked him if he would be interested in
playing live. And he said, ‘Yeah, sure. That would be great.’ So I contacted
Jimmy and Gary and their response was ‘when do we play?’ They were almost on the
plane that day. So we put this gig together and New England headlined. It was a
small theater just north of Boston in Bedford that had about 2200 seats. And we
just about sold-out. We got together and rehearsed for three or four days in
this tiny, tiny, little studio. The first day we rehearsed together, I think we
played “Alone Tonight” and “Shoot.” And those were the first two songs we played
together in 24 years. We just all looked at one another and said ‘Holy shit,
this sounds amazing.’ It really did sound good. We blew each other’s minds. Over
the years, we all improved simply because we were a lot more musically mature.
And when we started playing together that night, it was like magic. So we put a
set together, and I hate to toot my own horn, but we went on stage and people
who saw the band 25 years ago were coming up to me and saying ‘you guys sounded
better tonight than I ever heard you. You were amazing’ And that was after only
three nights of rehearsal. So it was a lot of fun and a great gig. A lot of our
old friends were there. And people who had never seen the band before were quite
frankly blown away by how good we were. That meant a lot to us. It was kind of
like an accommodation of all the things we tried to do with our career. It was
nice to hear after so much time had passed.
Clyde: So any possibility of a full-blown reunion tour?
Hirsh: Well, anything is possible. We’d have to look at a
lot of things, you know the economics of it are important. We played last year
again. We’re definitely not going to be putting anything together this year, at
least for the same organization. But if something comes up, and it’s a good gig
and something we could all have fun with we’d definitely be into it. I do know
that there’s a video and both performances were recorded. We actually have all
the files for both recordings. So we’re working on something now and we may
release a video performance with a really nice mix of all the tracks. One of the
ideas I have had for many years is to put together sort of a documentary or
movie about the band. Something that would run about an hour and 10-minutes and
give the story of a band that struggled to make it to the top. We didn’t make it
quite as far as we hoped, but we still accomplished a lot more than most. And
we’ve got a lot to be proud of. I just thought that would make a pretty darn
nice story for some people to see. So we might expand into something like that.
Clyde: What about the possibility of a new studio
album?
Hirsh: I don’t know. Everybody in the band is doing their
own thing. And we’re separated now by thousands of miles. To put together a New
England album you’re talking about probably at least six months of work and
writing. I don’t know if that’s going to happen. That would be asking a lot for
everyone to change their lives to go into the studio and devote that kind of
time to that effort.
Clyde: Well it would be nice if we could at least get
you guys back out there touring again every now and then.
Hirsh: Every now and then would be just fantastic.
Visit New England at
www.newenglandrocks.com
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