Helix frontman Brian Vollmer looks back on videos for “Good To The Last Drop” and “The Storm”
Helix frontman Brian Vollmer looks back on videos for “Good To The Last Drop” and “The Storm”
Canadian veteran hard rockers Helix will be premiering their new video for the title track of their new album Eat Sleep Rock via Studio 73 on Facebook today at 9:00 pm EST. Leading up to the world premiere of the video for “Eat Sleep Rock”, Helix frontman Brian Vollmer has been looking back at some of the band’s past videos.
“Good To The Last Drop” video:
In regard to the video for “Good To The Last Drop” from the album Back For Another Taste (released in 1990), Helix‘s Facebook page indicates in part (with slight edits)
“This was a song I had written with Mark Ribler in New York. The song had come together quickly; I believe we wrote and demoed it in about an hour.
When the Back For Another Taste album came out I had had about enough of the music business. I told my manager William Seip that I was hanging up microphone for good. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), we had a European tour with Ian Gillan booked. Seip pointed out that a lot of people had spent time and money to make it happen and that I was obliged to make it happen. So off we went to Europe. Little did I know it at the time, but going there would radically change my life. That was because it was the tour where Lynda and I solidified our relationship and we decided she would come to Canada for a visit.
And so I was all ready to leave the band after 26 years… The Gillan tour took us from Hungary (which was still Communist) to Austria, Italy, Luxembourg, and many more before ending in East Berlin. We had some English dates-one being in Redding for the Hell’s Angels – and then we were supposed to return home and that was to be the end of it. I was staying at Lynda’s flat in Shepherd’s Bush in London when Seipy phoned me to say that Good To The Last Drop was becoming a huge radio hit. The record company wanted to do a video and our booking agency had a tour all lined up across Western Canada. Seipy said, “Why quit now when you can do this tour and make lots of $?
Well, he did have a point. I was almost broke, had no car, and was living on $200/wk. I ended up doing the tour, from which I made enough money to buy a used car, an Oldsmobile with a big V8. I also ended up marrying Lynda, which changed my life. This week we celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary. I’m still friends with William Seip and he frequently reminds me that if he hadn’t talked me into doing that tour I would have never ended up with the wife I have. Good point. And I forgot to quit the band! LOL.”
Helix‘s “Good To The Last Drop” video:
“The Storm” video:
With respect to the video for “The Storm” (from the album Back For Another Taste released in 1990), Helix‘s Facebook page indicates in part (with slight edits):
“This was a song from the Back For Another Taste album.
The video was shot at The Toronto brick yards, the same place we filmed Rock You, only inside the building not outside.
Rob Quarterly and Champagne Productions were once again behind the filming. I don’t exactly know what the video was meant to project-was the woman in the video waiting for Caspar the Ghost to come have sex with her or what? LOL.
She did seem to be going through some sort of sexual metamorphosis and there were tons of shots of her climbing up a ladder in her underwear.
Whatever…It was the first video without Brent “The Doctor” Doerner (who had quit the band in 1998) and felt a little strange for that reason, but the video did well on Much Music, although the song never garnered any traction on radio.
Music was changing to grunge by this time, and we were being labelled as a “hair band”. Many people were also predicting our demise at this time, saying our “best before date” had passed us by. But opinions are like assholes; everyone has one.
Here we are, almost 20 years later, still playing and putting out videos.
Brian Vollmer“
Helix‘s “The Storm” video: