Nicko McBrain on VVI in 1986

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

"Have you heard the record these guys are doing?" asked Iron maiden drummer, Nicko McBrain, referring to the Chrysalis recording act, Vinnie Vincent Invasion. "It's unfuckin' believable! It's some serious shit! These guys have been playing with 9,000 amps -- left, right, backwards, forwards -- I can't believe it! We've been out in the hallway trying to steal scraps of tape!"

That was the start of some interview/article on Kiss Online about VVI that was from 1986. I thought it was kinda cool to see Nicko praising the album heheh. And we know Adrian was obviously a fan as well, from the 12 Wasted Years cover. Those Maiden boys had good taste

 

[Icarus]

Hehe they sure do But then what metal fan wouldnt think the first VVI album is amazing. Silly ones thats who

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

Exactly! It was cool reading the interview, Vinnie was so excited about the album! After that I read an interview with Bobby Rock where he talked about the VVI breakup.

He said there was conflict already just making the All Systems Go album, because some of the mainstream press had slagged Vinnie's self indulgent guitar playing and the rest of the band was concerned about that... and apparently on the tour there were untrue rumours going around that Bobby, Mark and Dana were gonna ditch Vinnie and do a mutiny and run off on their own, so Vinnie started to isolate himself from them and then big fights started.

Then Bobby Rock just decided he didn't wanna get involved in all the fights so he stayed impartial, and then Dana and Mark went off and started making their own plans (for what would become the first Slaughter album) and ended up pitching it to the record company.

Then the record company decided to scrap their contract with VVI (which was 8 albums at the time) and cancelled their 3rd album, and then gave a contract to Mark and Dana for their project, which obviously became Slaughter.

Kinda sad really because although I'm a Slaughter fan, they've never released anything anywhere near as consistent or near the quality of Invasion. And the worse part is that while Slaughter were making it big with Stick It To Ya and touring around the world and enjoying these hit singles, Vinnie was recording MUCH better stuff that couldn't even get a release.

 

[Icarus]

Tis a damn waste of some great talent.

 

[Sydo]

 

[mattt]

Completely unrelated: Gary Cherone rocks, i love the man, very under-rated musician, get tribe of judah you fuckers! awesome industrial rock/hard rock sort of stuff, its killer!!!!!!

 

[Wrathchild]

I liked Gary's work with VH and really looked forward to the follow-up they were working on before he left. What happened there, Haupy? There's at least three sides to every story after all .

Despite that terrible joke, I've never heard an entire Extreme album (though I always liked their singles). Tribe of Judah and The Mourning Widows are a mystery to me as well...

Back to the topic, Vinnie Vincent is a classic case of personality defeating talent. He's a first-rate writer and musician who could have achieved great things if not for the constant clash of egos with his bandmates.

I firmly believe that if he'd stayed with KISS and things had worked out differently, people would have forgotten all about the makeup era.

W

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

I firmly believe that if he'd stayed with KISS and things had worked out differently, people would have forgotten all about the makeup era.

I agree.

 

[spawn]

Damn right, Kiss would have stayed a heavy METAL band, not hard rock! If indeed they were metal in the first place, which I think you can make a good case for personally. Anyway, they should have carried on with the Creatures sound, I dont think its a coincidence that most of the best (and heaviest) 80s songs had Vinnie helping to write them!
! ! UNHOLY! ! !

They wrote some good 80s stuff without him of course, but it would have been interesting to hear the follow up Creatures with another album in the same vein.

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

There was Spawny, Lick It Up Although the production is toned down alot compared to Creatures Of The Night, the vibe, riffs, songwriting etc is still in the same vein. Vinnie did more writing on that album than Paul or Gene did too! Gene contributed to 5 songs, Paul contributed to 5, and Vinnie contributed to 8. And I think generally Paul and Gene's contributions are often alot less than you'd expect as well. I know for example that although I Love It Loud is written by Simmons/Vincent... all Gene wrote was the "Woah" chant!

I still love the glam stuff after Vinnie left the band too, but listening to Lick It Up and then Animalize, there is just no contest when you compare the songwriting.

Although Crazy Nights has brilliant songwriting from start to finish

 

[spawn]

Yeah but Creatures was a darker album lyrics and music wise, I liked that

 

[Wrathchild]

Let's pretend for a moment that KISS Killers (great compilation though it is) never existed and the tracklisting for Creatures was this:

PAUL:

Creatures of The Night
Keep Me Comin'
I Still Love You
Nowhere to Run
Partners In Crime

GENE:

Rock n' Roll Hell
I Love it Loud
Killer
War Machine
Legends Never Die

If they'd taken off the makeup a year earlier and re-established themselves with an album like that, just imagine the impact it would have made .

Lick It Up would then have consolidated that success, especially if they'd stuck to the heavy sound of Creatures, ditched Exciter and Gimme More and replaced them with I'm A Legend Tonight and Down On Your Knees .

Reunion? We don't need no steenkin' reunion!

W

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

Yeah it is Spawny I probably *just* prefer Lick It Up though now.

Wrathy, I'm glad you ditched Saint & Sinner, AWFUL song!! Shouldn't have got rid of Danger though!

Ditch Exciter?!?!? That's the best song on Lick It Up!!! That's one of my favourite Kiss songs ever! Gimme More is the only weak song on Lick It Up in my opinion, oh and maybe On The 8th Day... but that's still pretty cool. Lick It Up has to be the only Kiss album with no bad Gene songs

 

[Wrathchild]

And on the 8th Day rules all! Plus if you speed it up a bit and change the words, you get Boyz Are Gonna Rock. Win-win situation .

Exciter is okay, but has always seemed a bit filler to me. Much like Danger really .

W

 

[Spiff]

Vinnie wrote I Just Wanna, yeah? He rules just for that song - so much that I don't feel the need to check out any Invasion stuff.

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

Yep Vinnie wrote I Just Wanna. And Unholy. And Heart Of Chrome. And I Still Love You, I Love It Loud, Lick It Up, A Million To One, etc etc etc you get the jist

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

I can't see how Exciter is filler It's the most energetic song on the album and one of the catchiest! It's Lick It Up's equivalent of Creatures Of The Night (title track) imo.