Oh...Ok, it's not a woman, it's a canadian guy.
Sarnia in the 1960's saw a young, ambitious guitar toting Kim Mitchell join Zooom, who wound up in Toronto where cover-tunes ruled and original material went unnoticed. Mitchell left them, starving, getting work doing studio sessions, beer commercials, and the airport lounge circuit. He set off to the Greek island of Rhodes backing up a Greek Tom Jones with the Canadian Flag. Six months later Mitchell invited poet and childhood buddy Pye Dubois to Greece to co-write some songs; they decided to make it a band project with some Sarnia friends and set off to launch Max Webster (a name they picked from a phonebook).
The 1972 line-up consisted of Mitchell, Kersey, Tilka, and Watkinson. By 1974 their live act was getting bites from record companies and in 1975 they signed with SRO Productions who were the management arm of Anthem Records. Their first two albums, 'Max Webster' and 'High Class In Borrowed Shoes', were produced by Terry Brown (Rush, Klaatu, Eye Eye). However, during the recording of 'Mutiny Up My Sleeve' (1978) he left over a dispute concerning the album's musical direction. By this point McCracken had assumed the drum chores (Kersey had quit to form The Hunt after a falling out with Kim Mitchell) and Myles had taken over bass duties for Tilka, who turned to business aspects at SRO/Anthem.
Yet, even with the changes, the band maintained its stance as a strong live draw, so much so that Rush asked them to open their 1977 tour. Slowly, Webster began to establish a massive cult following and acceptance, a fact that didn't go unnoticed by 'A Million Vacations' producer John de Nottebeck. With that album he made the band more radio friendly and they finally cracked the charts with the single "Let Go The Line" in 1979. 'Live Magnetic Air' was also released that year but Watkinson left anyway to pursue a solo career. He eventually formed the band Antlers with Tilka in the early 1990's.
Despite a fabled team-up of Max Webster and Rush on the song "Battlescar", 1980's 'Universal Juveniles' had a noticeable absence of that trademark Watkinson keyboard sound and the band was falling apart from constant touring in towns where feverish fans were unable to purchase the band's records. The lack of promotion and poor management organization is sited as the cause for Kim Mitchell's resignation during a tour with Rush in April 1981. With this the band split up but they had actually been close to hitting the big time, so Anthem capitalized with a posthumous greatest hits package called 'Diamonds, Diamonds'.
Mitchell was quiet after leaving Webster mid-tour in the spring of 1981 becoming almost reclusive apart from getting involved in some production work like GOWAN's self-titled debut LP. He was also becoming increasingly respected as a studio session player (usually playing for anyone that would ask). He suddenly surfaced in 1982 with a five song EP - his last work on the SRO/ANTHEM label. Backing up Mitchell were Robert Sinclair Wilson (bass), Paul Delong (drums) and Bernie LaBarge & Peter Fredette on backing vocals. "Kids In Action" & "Miss Demeanour" were released successfully as singles thus rekindling interest in Mitchell's party-rock.
In 1984, Anthem's managing director, Tom Berry, left that company to set up his own Alert Records to which Mitchell became the first signing. That same year Mitchell's 'Akimbo Alogo' was released featuring the same band line-up heard on his 1982 EP. In addition, Todd Booth was added on keyboards to augment the guitar-rock sound. With this record Mitchell, and songwriting partner Pye Dubois, decided to get back to what brought them to music in the first place: instinct. Fans heard this on the new album with its straight ahead solid rock and some slower material to diversify. "Lager & Ale" became a strong FM constant and "Go For Soda", in total ironic contrast, became the theme song for the American lobbyist group MOTHERS AGAINST DRUNK DRIVING (which Mitchell hesitantly disassociated himself from on the US TV show 'Good Morning America').
'Shakin' Like A Human Being' (1986) was Mitchell's most commercial and best selling album to date. It sold triple platinum, won two JUNO Awards ("Best Album" and "Male Vocalist Of The Year"). Songs like "Patio Lanterns", "Alana Loves Me" & "Easy To Tame" were beginning to put Mitchell on the Top-40 in AM radio. Music Express even called him the year's favourite "Working Class Hero".
Mitchell continued his annual summertime outdoor gigs throughout southern Ontario and exhibitions across Canada. Kingswood Music Theatre, at Canada's Wonderland, bestowed its first-ever Platinum Ticket Award for 100,000 tickets sold over a 5 year period. The same year he set another attendance record for selling-out 3 consecutive shows (a record as yet unchallenged).
After taking time out to rethink his next strategy and spend time with his family, Mitchell risked all by recording his next album 'Rockland' (1989) in L.A. with YES producer Paul Devilliers. He also changed his live band to include Lou Molino (drums), Greg Wells (keyboards), and Peter Fredette (bass). Rik Emmett helped out on "Expedition Sailor" as well as opening shows on Mitchell's tour. This marked the departure of lyricist Pye Dubois who didn't want to work in LA. Again Mitchell won a JUNO for "Male Vocalist Of The Year".
As a career pause, Mitchell released 'I Am A Wild Party' (1990) - a live greatest hits featuring two previously unreleased live favourites "Deep Dive" & "I Am A Wild Party" (from which the line "...shakin' like a human being" was extracted).
Mitchell recruited help from outside writers Andy Curran, Moe Berg and Jim Chevalier. Kim's touring bassist for 'Aural' and the subsequent tour was Rob Laidlaw because Peter Fredette (who had been with Mitchell since 1982) was touring with Tom Cochrane. However, by mid_1993, Fredette had returned.
1994's 'Itch' featured the stellar back_up help of Spider Sinnaeve (bass), Greg Morrow (drums), and Lou Pomanti (keyboards).With the public less than enthusiastic about Mitchell's two previous albums, Alert president Tom Berry suggested cashing in on the southern Ontario cottage partiers by releasing a 'Greatest Hits' to coincide with Mitchell's annual summer tours. Mitchell's red alert went off as this type of career retrospective almost always indicates a brush off from the label. Mitchell's fears were well founded as he hasn't put out an album since.
In March 1998, Mitchell added keyboardist Gary Breit to his touring band.
The continued cult status of Max Webster, particularly in Ontario, prompted Mitchell, Watkinson, McCracken, and Tilka to reunite in 1990. Their first performance was a short set at the Toronto Music Awards that year to 3000 hysterical fans who refused to pay attention to the awards given out after their set, continuing to chant "Max! Max! Max!" for the rest of the night. Anthem capitalized on the new-found Max fervour by releasing another best of package that year. Delighted with this response, the four musicians continued to do one-off dates around Ontario as Max Webster well into the late 1990's with Kim Mitchell Band bassist Peter Fredette filling in for Tilka.
Mitchell returned in November of 1999 with a new solo album, "Kimosabe", written largely with Andy Curran, and featuring Lisa Dalbello on several tracks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ Biography | DISCOGRAPHY | Links | Photos ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Singles
1982 Kids In Action (Alert)
1982 Miss Demeanour (Alert)
1984 Go For Soda/Caroline (Alert)
1984 Feel It Burn/Diary For Rock 'n' Roll Men (Alert)
1984 All We Are (Alert)
1986 Easy To Tame/City Girl (Alert)
1986 Alana Loves Me/That's The Hold (Alert)
1986 Patio Lanterns/Get Lucky (Boys & Girls) (Alert)
1987 In Your Arms (Alert)
1989 Rocklandwonderland/O Mercy Louise (Alert)
1989 Rock And Roll Duty (Alert)
1990 I Am A Wild Party (Alert)
1990 Lost Lovers Found (Alert)
1992 Find The Will (Alert)
1992 America (Alert)
1992 Pure As Gold (Alert)
1993 Some Folks (Alert)
1994 Acrimony (Alert)
1994 Wonder Where And Why (Alert)
1994 Lick Yer Finger (Alert)
1995 Expedition Sailor (Alert)
1995 All We Are (live) (Alert)
1995 Patio Lanterns (acoustic) (Alert)
Albums/CDs
1982 Kim Mitchell (Anthem)
1984 Akimbo Alogo (Alert)
1986 Akimbo Alogo [re-packaged] (Alert/Bronze)
1986 Shakin' Like A Human Being (Alert/Polygram)
1989 Rockland (Alert)
1990 I Am A Wild Party (Alert)
1992 Aural Fixations (Alert)
1994 Itch (Alert)
1995 Kim Mitchell Greatest Hits (Alert)
1999 Kimosabe (Chinook/Oasis)
One of my fellow riders was equally upset.
