October 1984

CONTENTS

PHONE CALLS OF THE GODS

The phone rang. "Lemme speak to the editors," said the voice. "This is an editor," someone said, picking up the phone because no one else would. "What do you want?" "WHO IS THIS?" demanded the voice. "Well," smirked the editor. "Who's this, buddy?"

SPOT CHECKING DEF LEPPARD

Dave DlMartlno

LONDON—Directly or indirectly, Eric Clapton is responsible for my being here.

MOTLEY CRUE CALLING

Sylvie Simmons

New cosmetic heavy metal show.

DAVID LEE ROTH & THE PHILOSOPHY OF DIVING DOWN

Sylvie Simmons

Those lips! Those eyes! That body!

RUSH: BUT WHY ARE THEY IN SUCH A HURRY?

J. Kordosh

Thursday: Kordosh has been roused from his afternoon nap by Sherry Ring, publicist for Mercury Records. Ring is calling from New York to firm up connections for next week’s Rush interviews. “No problems with Neil and Alex,” says Ms. Ring. “But Geddy still says he won’t talk to anyone from CREEM.”

CUM ON, TOP THE CHARTZ: A QUIET RIOT GOIN' ON

J. Kordosh

Room 237 at the Holiday Inn in Southfield. Michigan is pretty much like any room at any other Holiday Inn. Towels and occupants are changed. but not much else. On November 11. in the late afternoon, the occupants happened to be Kevin DuBrow and Carlos Cavazo (musicians), a couple of guys named Warren and John (managers) and myself (me).

Q & A WITH Y & T: It Only Figures

Sylvie Simmons

If happiness is a warm gun, Y&T must be on the point of gleeful delirium, straddled across a cannon in the hot California sun. It’s what we in the business call a photo session; it’s what a bunch of bums suckling on generic liquor on the grass call “hey waddafuck you doin’ up there man”; it’s what Y&T call meeting the press an hour before their show down the road at the Santa Monica Civic.

SWISS CONSPIRACY CONTINUES UNABATED! KROKUS AND THE CHOCOLATE DILEMMA

J. Kordosh

Good Friday at Cobo Arena: Mandy Meyr had ended Krokus’ 27-minute opening set by dragging his guitar across the stage, eliciting all sorts of nothing-but-noise. The hapless axe moaned and tweeked as Meyr roped it in like a wayward dogie. The rest of the band had left the stage a couple of minutes earlier—ain’t no way an opening act on a three-group bill’s gonna get an encore—but Meyr sure played the end for all it was worth.

JUDAS PRIEST: HELL-BENT FOR EAGLE SCOUT-HOOD?

J. Kordosh

I’m sitting in the bar of the Marriott Pavilion Hotel in downtown St. Louis. It’s—what?—about 2 a m. With me are Rob Halford and K.K. Downing of Judas Priest. I am not dreaming. We are having an amicable conversation. I am not dreaming. I thought their show was damned good. I am not dreaming.

Billy SQUIER IS ARTICULATE ROCK THE PERFECT FORMULA, AND WHAT ABOUT THE SUPERMARKET DISASTER ?

J. Kordosh

The sales of Emotion In Motion were in the neighborhood of 425,000 during the first 10 days it was available to the public. Someone told me that backstage after a Squier show; somebody else told me 450,000. Just for fun, I figured it out: if every record store in America was open round the clock, a copy of Emotions was being dealt about every two secords.

VAN HALEN

Clarabelle Talks Back: OZZY OSBOURNE’S No Bozo On This Bus

Toby Goldstein

They warn you about the madman. That he wraps himself in scales and chains, fangs and dripping saliva as he prowls arenas of the night. That his shrieks and curses are fearsome to hear, a peril to those who mistakenly perceive the outpourings as mere entertainment.

AC/DC: DEATH POOCHES LICK THE COSMIC MILK BONE

Sylvie Simmons

Sylvie Simmons uncovers vital info about those wacky Aussies and makes it home in time to watch TV, knit doilies and wonder about life 'n' stuff!

BLACK SABBATH: Then, Now, & Why

J. Kordosh

Black Sabbath were near the end of the first third of an unusual U S.-to Britain-to U.S. tour.

IRON MAIDEN: PUSSY-FOOTING IN THE HEART OF THE BEAST

John Neilson

"GNATNOOP TEEWS GAND GNAW!" "GNATNOOP TEEWS GNAD GNAW!" It was enough to drive me crazy. My job, that is... "GNATNOOP TEEWS GNAD GNAW!" Yanking the Ted Nugent LP off the specially-designed backwards-playing turntable, I hurled it on the corner with the others.

A Consumer's Guide To GUITAR HEROES

Rick Johnson

The guitar has always had its own special niche in the hierarchy of blammo.

ANGUS YOUNG OF AC/DC

MOTLEY CRUE