Helix singer Brian Vollmer points out how his home has served as a publicity tool
Helix singer Brian Vollmer points out how his home has served as a publicity tool
Helix frontman Brian Vollmer took to Facebook today to discuss how his home in London, Ontario, Canada has become an important part of Helix and a publicity tool. Vollmer posted the following message on his Facebook account earlier today:
“Today I’ve dedicated to putting together the next Helix newsletter. I’ve been kinda delaying it for a week in hopes of better weather as I wanted to include a little piece about Planet Helix. After all, this is command central for all things Helix, and then it moves to North Fort Myers when we head south for winter.
The house has always been very important to the Helix “theme”. It was my intention to make the house unique with architectural antiques and use it as kind of a fairy tale place from which the band is run. I’ve joked on many occasions that i consider Planet Helix “Disneyland on Acid.”
The house has changed considerably since we bought it in 1993 for $94,000. What started out as a shoe box type of structure with no attic and mostly unusable basement now is a fairly large abode. We’ve added an addition to the back with a vaulted ceiling, a front entrance way, finished the basement, and opened up the attic into a master bedroom. We blew a hole in the roof and put in a large dormer with 3 windows. While we expanded the house we incorporated architectural finds from the area into the design-a cherry railing leading to the “love cave” (Lynda‘s words-not mine-LOL), pine baseboard, chair rail, door & window moldings, gingerbread, widow’s walk, etc. In all, it took 15 years to complete from start to finish, and most of Lynda’s patience.
The eclectic nature of the house has worked as a publicity tool for the band. MTV came to the house with a 5 man crew a couple of years ago for the TV how “CRIBS”. When the show’s producer told us that we were to be on the same show as Rod Stewart and Tommy Chong, Lynda and I were worried we would look like paupers among kings. Surprisingly the house came off looking fantastic. It just goes to show you how you can take an old home and bring it back to life. Much Music has filmed here, along with many other print media, including the London Free Press. Celebrities have come to visit: The Mudmen, Brent Fitz, Emerson Drive, Tim Hicks, and many more. In fact, the first person to use the guest room downstairs was none other than Russ Graham of the KILLER DWARFS.
When Lynda and I were first married we didn’t have two dimes to rub together. We had to borrow money from our parents for the down payment. This was after I had gold and platinum albums, which goes to show you how lucrative the music business is. We both worked hard and saved our money over the past 25 years, not only paying off our place but buying two rental properties in the area-all in the dirty old east end of London, Ontario. But we love the neighborhood and we’ve never thought of moving to the “nice part of town”. Perhaps it’s because of the blue collar background I come from.”