First of all, thank you very much Raci Starr for this interview which will help people to know more about Penny Lane and the secular 90’s “bubble glam metal” scene…Thank you Adrien, I would be happy to answer all of your questions.
Could you tell me about the creation of the band (when, who and where) as nothing can be found anywhere about the legendary Penny Lane?
The band was created by drummer Billy Gash in late 1990 with 3 other members, but that version of PL didn't seem to work out for Billy. In early 1991 he put out ads looking for new musicians to rebuild the band. Cristi Layne, who had been my friend and band mate for years, saw an ad in the New Jersey magazine the "East Coast Rocker". The EC Rocker was formerly called "The Aquarian" and then re-named "The Aquarian" a few years later.
Billy Gash was living in northern NJ in a town called Lyndhurst (close to NYC), and Cristi and I were living fairly local to each other in the central NJ town of Manalapan (close to Freehold, Sayreville, etc). I called Billy and answered his ad for a bass player and sorta stressed that Cristi should come down to rehearse as well. Gash was stoked, so we set up a rehearsal up north in Fairfield, NJ at Backstage Studios. We hit it off, and then the search was on for a lead singer. Britt Wilde was introduced to me through a mutual friend a few months later, and there you have it.
What were your main musical and visual influences and what about Penny Lanes’s conceptual differences with 80's MTV oriented classic hair metal?
I think we were all influenced by different stuff. I loved the great pop/rock stuff of The Cars, Cheap Trick and Rick Springfield. Britt and Cristi were more into the main strea
m hard rock of the time like Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Skid Row. Billy was all over the map. He liked pretty much everything, from soft pop to thrash metal. But at the end of the day we could all agree on the bands like Poison, Mötley Crüe, and Pretty boy Floyd to help base our sound as a band on.
We definitely went for the Poison, PBF image style as opposed to the darker glam styles mainly because our sound was very poppy. It wasn't dark at all. So we wanted our image to reflect our sound as best as possible.
Could you introduce ourselves to the infamous 90's "bubble glam scene" as we call it: clubs, public/press reception, tours with other bands… By the way, have you ever toured abroad back in the days?
There wasn't much of a glam music scene in NY/NJ in the 90's, if any at all, but we managed to headline every show we played and we were in every major rock magazine out there. Metal Edge, RIP, Live Wire, Kerrang!, Metal Forces to name a few....hahaha. We were also on Much Music which is a music video channel throughout North America. Unfortunately, we never made it overseas to play. I think once Nirvana hit in 1992, we didn't know what to do anymore. We didn't know where our place was in the scene and started to spend more time writing and rehearsing to try and figure that out.
On which labels did the different EP's of the Anthology came out and when? Have you ever consider to release a full length?
The ep's were never released on a label when they came out. They were sold only on cassette directly from the band by mail order.
The first was the 6 song ep. It was released in 1991.
The second was only a 2 song tape in late 1991, early 1992.
The third was a 3 song demo that Cristi (who now was
We definitely went for the Poison, PBF image style as opposed to the darker glam styles mainly because our sound was very poppy. It wasn't dark at all. So we wanted our image to reflect our sound as best as possible.
Could you introduce ourselves to the infamous 90's "bubble glam scene" as we call it: clubs, public/press reception, tours with other bands… By the way, have you ever toured abroad back in the days?
There wasn't much of a glam music scene in NY/NJ in the 90's, if any at all, but we managed to headline every show we played and we were in every major rock magazine out there. Metal Edge, RIP, Live Wire, Kerrang!, Metal Forces to name a few....hahaha. We were also on Much Music which is a music video channel throughout North America. Unfortunately, we never made it overseas to play. I think once Nirvana hit in 1992, we didn't know what to do anymore. We didn't know where our place was in the scene and started to spend more time writing and rehearsing to try and figure that out.
On which labels did the different EP's of the Anthology came out and when? Have you ever consider to release a full length?
The ep's were never released on a label when they came out. They were sold only on cassette directly from the band by mail order.
The first was the 6 song ep. It was released in 1991.
The second was only a 2 song tape in late 1991, early 1992.
The third was a 3 song demo that Cristi (who now was
using his real name Billy with Gash not in the picture), Britt, and I recorded in 1995 in my basement, after a complicated hiatus in PL. At that time Gash was out of the band and recording his own demos as Penny Lane. So as not to confuse the fans, we called our band "WILD...". We were in talks with Danger Danger's Ted Poley about releasing a full length record as WILD..., through the record label he was working with at the time, Now & Then Records. This is what sparked the reconnection of the 3 of us and led to this recording.
The fourth was a 3 song ep that marked a temporary rebirth of PL in 1998. Although Gash was still not a member of PL, the three of us WILD... guys reconnected in Los Angeles. We thought it might be cool to release some new PL stuff and it was. Shortly after that, Britt Wilde moved back to NJ, Cristi/Billy Layne went his own way, and I went back to what I set out to do all along in LA which was to be a singer/songwriter.
How did you choose the band name…the Beatles song I guess?
Of course.....hahaha.....Gash already had the band name when i joined....but I always loved it!!! =)
What about Penny Lane last activities?
Gash and I reconnected in 2009 to record the Penny Lane "Midnight Tales From The Funhouse: Part 1" cd. I brought in one of my best friends, Keri Kelli (Alice Cooper, Big Bang Babies) to play lead guitars and produce the cd, as well as, Pretty Boy Floyd's Steve Summers on lead vocals. If that wasn't enough, I brought in our great friend Keith Morgan (aka Keith Alan from Big Bang Babies) to also help track drums.
Thank you very much for all these information about Penny Lane Raci.
No problem, I hope you’ll enjoy the cd! Keep in touch and take care!
The fourth was a 3 song ep that marked a temporary rebirth of PL in 1998. Although Gash was still not a member of PL, the three of us WILD... guys reconnected in Los Angeles. We thought it might be cool to release some new PL stuff and it was. Shortly after that, Britt Wilde moved back to NJ, Cristi/Billy Layne went his own way, and I went back to what I set out to do all along in LA which was to be a singer/songwriter.
How did you choose the band name…the Beatles song I guess?
Of course.....hahaha.....Gash already had the band name when i joined....but I always loved it!!! =)
What about Penny Lane last activities?
Gash and I reconnected in 2009 to record the Penny Lane "Midnight Tales From The Funhouse: Part 1" cd. I brought in one of my best friends, Keri Kelli (Alice Cooper, Big Bang Babies) to play lead guitars and produce the cd, as well as, Pretty Boy Floyd's Steve Summers on lead vocals. If that wasn't enough, I brought in our great friend Keith Morgan (aka Keith Alan from Big Bang Babies) to also help track drums.
Thank you very much for all these information about Penny Lane Raci.
No problem, I hope you’ll enjoy the cd! Keep in touch and take care!
r>
Interview done by adrien86fr
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