APRIL WINE Uncorks And Lets It Flow


by Ed White

Canadian rock sensation April Wine made a spectacular American headline debut before an excited crowd at the cozy Roxy Theater in Northampton, PA., December 15. Judging from the crowd's reaction, the group was right - "The Whole World Is Goin' Crazy!" The Washington based group Artful Dodger opened the concert, which was sponsored by WSAN.

Opening the anxiously-awaited show with a tremendous burst of flame from a huge toy cannon, April Wine uncorked and let the music flow with in credibly harmonic power. Missing from the stage was the group's 18 foot tall Mad Hatter (familiar to Canadian fans), but the luminous toy cannon was combined effectively with a dazzling light show to provide plenty of visual effects. Aside from a few technical problems due to a new sound crew, the group performed almost flawlessly.

Attired in a white dinner jacket and blue jeans, the group's leader Myles Goodwyn made his cream-colored electric guitar sing like a cat. Besides being the lead singer and guitarist, Goodwyn writes most of the group's material and produces the albums.

Adept at blues and ballads, April Wine is really at its best live playing straightforward rock and roll- Canadian style with plenty of powerful heavy metal guitar riffs. Goodwyn's dynamic exchanges with guitarists Gary Moffet and Brian Greenway and bassist Steve Lang added extra electricity to the performance. During drum- mer Jerry Mercer's incredible solo on a cut called "Weeping Widow," someone yelled "go nuts!" And Mercer really went nuts! When he added a slowmotion exchange of one-handed drum rolls to the solo, the audience went wild.

April Wine may not yet be a household name in the U.S., since only two of their albums have been released here, but the group's last Canadian tour grossed well over a million dollars, according to Donald Tarlton, president of Donald K. Donald Productions.

The group has had four gold records - the last two also gained platinum status - in Canada. "The Whole World Is Goin' Crazy" topped the Canadian charts and became the first album in Canadian rock music history to ship platinum (100,000 orders on the day of its release).

To get an idea of just how large a following the group has in its own country, the warmup band for April Wine's last Canadian tour was a perhaps more familiar, Canadian group Heart.

April Wine seems to have everything together offstage as well as on. I talked with Myles Goodwyn and Gary Moffet in the group's dressing room after the concert.

Question: What are your reactions to playing in such a small hall like this after playing to crowds of 7,000 and more in Canada?
Myles:Well, it's a full house. Playing to 550 people in a 10,000 seat arena would be kind of frightening. But just to see it filled, the number really doesn't matter.

Question:How do you feel about your ex-warmup band Heart making it big in the U.S. -ahead of you?
Gary:Great! Farout! They're a super band. They deserve whatever they get.

Question:A lot of Canadian bands are making it big in the U.S. now. What do you think is the reason for this sudden acceptance, other than the music is getting better?
Myles:I think it's just a maturing process, you know. The bands have had more time to get it together. And there's a thing that we have in Canada called the CRTC. It's a piece of legislation that the government put through where the radio and television people have to play thirty percent Canadian. And, so, because of that, all of a sudden people are investing money in studios and groups and record companies. That happened about eight years ago now, in 1970. So, in the last eight years we've really had a chance to do something. Up until then you played clubs and you really didn't have a chance to do anything unless you left the country. So, eight years later, the bands have started to develop.

Question:Did any group make a great influence on your music?
Myles:I don't think we have any obvious musical influences, because we all listen, in our leisure time, to different things. Jerry, our drummer, is more rhythm and blues or jazz and Steve (Lang) is into a more progressive, intellectual, British kind of rock trip. Gary and I are rockers.

Question:One of the things that impressed me most about April Wine is that it isn't just a lead singer and a backup group. How do you feel about that?
Myles:Well, that's what we want to do. I'm the lead singer; maybe I'm the spokesman, but if the group can all hustle out there together . . .
Gary:... it makes it stronger . . .
Myles:... and more cohesive.

Question:What do you try to do with your music?
Myles:What we did tonight was straightout rock. That's all we were able to do under the circumstances. But in Canada we do an hour and a half to two hour show. We use piano and synthesized strings and we have girl background singers at times.

Comment: What about the Mad Hatter?
Myles:... and the Mad Hatter, which is like 18 feet high and nods and bobs to the music.

Comment: The cannon was pretty exciting.
Myles:Yeh, the cannon is fun. There are certain things that we'd like to bring down here, because when you see a group there has to be something that you remember.

Question:What are your plans for the future in the U.S.?
Myles:We've never been a strong singles band, but on the album we're working on now we're making a pretty strong attempt at it. And maybe this album will open up the AM, and the FM as well. I really don't think that you can record a Top 40 single and then have the album a throwaway - just a collection of cuts and a single. You really have to concentrate on a good album product, because the FM is so strong these days - everywhere. So you concentrate on strong album cuts and then if you get a single shot it's great! 'cause that's what opens all the doors. That's the difference between a super group and just being a group.
Gary: And in the meantime we're going to come down here and tour our - off and play.
Myles: It's really a different trip up there, as we were saying. In Canada it's really easy to become self-indulgent when you figure you're the best. You know, nobody can touch us up there, not even Heart. And that can be a bad thing for the group. You lose perspective.

Question:There's nowhere to go from the top, right?
Gary:From the top to here. But it's a start. We don't look down on any of these halls. They're places where we can perform and people can watch us.

As the group's manager Terry Flood, president of Aquarius Records (April Wine's record company), told me before the concert: "They enjoy getting back to the roots; the small clubs. They get off on it!"

"It could have been as sweet as wine . . ." And it was!