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BrokenToyz 14th Anniversary

By Chris Simnett

As the spotlights pierced the swirling dry-ice fog, the four spandex-clad warriors emerged from the murky depths of the bathrooms behind the stage.

The rising swell of the opening to Van Halen’s 1984 mega-hit ‘Jump’ emanated from Dan Damage’s keyboard. Its lush timbre filled the bar. A roar of approval rose up from the assembled faithful as Blue Steel climbed behind his drum kit, flipping his catwalk-model hair over his shoulder as he settled onto his throne. Lead guitarist Tommy Guns strapped on his vintage Ibanez GEM, a pointy, angled metal machine, while bassist John Emaxx stepped up to the mic and began to sing.

The BrokenToyz were in full stride.

It’s been that way every Tuesday night at Morgan’s Pub on 17th Ave. since June 18, 2002. The Toyz celebrated their 14th anniversary this past Tuesday with a hit-fuelled mix of 80s hair band classics - Jump, You Give Love a Bad Name, The Final Countdown, Talk Dirty to Me, Lick it Up, Pour Some Sugar on Me.

The crowd, a few of whom were there on that first night 14 years ago, sang along with every word.

What started out as a novelty, put together by Guns and former Morgan's Pub owner Brad Pilling as a way to try and get more people into Morgan’s on Tuesday nights, has turned into an institution. The Toyz are the boys on Tuesday nights.

“We figured it would maybe last a couple of years,” said Guns with a laugh. “But every year we get new legions of fans.

“Our first show was brutal,” Guns added, “we played to about 10 guys who stood there with their arms crossed. But Brad (Pilling), gave us a year. It only took six months and we had people lined up down the block.”

The reason for the Toyz’ success?

“This is a great band,” said Guns.

The music they play doesn’t hurt, either.

“It’s so cool that, here we are, playing 30-year-old songs to 20-year-old girls,” he said. “People love it. It’s a lot of fun. There’s a lot of shelf-life left for 80s music.”

As good as they are, they don’t take themselves, or the music, too seriously. After all, this is hair metal we’re talking about.

“We are totally making fun of it,” said Guns. “We change the lyrics around and we all play different characters from that era.”

They also dress the part with Aqua-Net inspired wigs, spandex, makeup, scarves, bandanas and mirrored aviator shades and straddle the line between cheesy and chic.

“We aren’t a bunch of Halloween characters,” said Guns.

Their stage banter is as hilarious as the changed lyrics. Damage (real name Dan Jensen, keys, guitar and vocals), Emaxx (Gil Tougas, bass and vocals) and Blue Steel (Mike Gilhooly, drums and vocals) clearly are having as much fun as the crowd singing and dancing along.

Guns, whose real name is Greg Cox, is a seasoned pro who plays in eight bands and spent 25 years as the guitar player for Canadian hard-rockers Steeler. He played all of the songs BrokenToyz plays today when those songs first came out.

Today, the Toyz stick to the hits. They play a steady stream of Guns n’ Roses, Bon Jovi, Poison, Motley Crue, Def Leppard and Van Halen. Earlier in their career, they had a bigger repertoire.

“We did stuff like Faster Pussycat 14 years ago,” Guns said. “Back then you could get away with it. But nobody knows that stuff anymore, it’s too old and not as mainstream. We’ve probably dropped 100 songs over the years.”

BrokenToyz has played every Tuesday, except for one in 2006 due to the death of original keyboard player Craig Dunnigan. They recruited Damage the week after Dunnigan’s memorial and haven’t missed a gig since.

They don’t plan on stopping anytime soon, either.

“We’re going to keep doing this until no one likes it anymore,” said Guns.

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Cover Bands

By Chris Simnett

I had an interesting conversation with someone the other day.

This person used the term ‘cover band’ like it was dirty. He didn’t realize that I am in a cover band, and I didn’t tell him.

Yes, I’m in a cover band, and yes, I love it.

I write songs, but I don’t necessarily write them for the band I’m in to play them. I write them - like I write anything - for my own enjoyment.

I like original bands. Love them, actually. I grew up on a steady diet of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Accept, AC/DC, Sabbath, Dio, Rush, you get the picture. All are original bands. I still listen to them today.

I like going out to bars and clubs and hearing original music. I like going out to check out cover bands.

Where am I going with this?

I got the sense from this conversation I had that there is a divide between people who like and support local original music and those who think covers are the way to go.

I got the sense that this person felt cover bands were lesser than original bands.

I hope not.

Hey, live music is live music. It’s fun, exciting, cool, loud, sweaty, awesome... the list of adjectives could go on and on.

I know from my experience that when the band I’m in plays an original, it’s like the parting of the Red Sea on the dance floor.

I assume it’s because the songs I have written are just not that good, and I’m probably right.

But I’ve been at other shows by cover bands that have written first-rate songs and the effect is often the same. The dance floor is packed for ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ but everyone seems to be wanting a cigarette outside when the original song is announced.

Some people just like to go out and have a good time and hear familiar tunes and dance. Some folks don't love music the way most of us musicians do.

And that's OK.

It just means that bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest (and any successful band, really), have to work for their success. Really work for it.

I applaud original bands for having the guts, courage and conviction to do their own music. It’s a tough slog building a fan base one show, one person at a time. I have total respect for those musicians who want to go down that road and put in the work. Its not the road for me. Not now, anyway.

You see, I don’t really want to be a rock star.

I have a job, I have a family. I don’t want to go out on tour or spend thousands in recording an album.

I love music. I love playing it, listening to it, thinking about it, writing about it and practicing it. I get a huge rush when my band is on stage and the dance floor is packed in front of us.

Yeah, I’m a metal guy from the 80′s and yeah, when I was 15 I would have told you you were insane if you said when I was 44 I would be playing pop rock songs in a bar in a cover band.

But here I am and I’m loving it.

For me, the joy of playing in a band is having a whole lot of people dancing and singing along with the music we are playing.

Sure, it would be really awesome to have a room full of people dancing and singing along to a song I wrote, but that doesn’t really happen. The band I'm in has a bunch of die-hard fans and they know the words to our originals, and that feels great! But I'm not delusional and think that those two songs we sometimes play in a bar are my ticket out of the 9 to 5 grind.

I’m a decent musician. I’m not a natural player by any means. I have to work hard at it. But I love it and hey, that’s why I do it.

To say or infer that a musician who plays covers is somehow inferior to one who plays originals is wrong in my opinion.

I love all music, respect all musicians and feel that music isn’t a competition.

There’s a place for everyone. There’s a sound for everyone and a scene for everyone.

Originals or covers. It doesn’t matter.