415 (Eric Martin Band) - 'Just Too Late' (official audio)

Ο Eric Martin έγινε γνωστός -κυρίως- μέσω του συγκροτήματος Mr. Big, των οποίων αποτελεί τον τραγουδιστή. Το ντεμπούτο του στην δισκογραφία έγινε το μακρινό 1983 μέσω του μοναδικού album που κυκλοφόρησαν οι Eric Martin Band ("Sucker for a Pretty Face").

Οι Eric Martin Band ήταν ουσιαστικά η μετεξέλιξη του συγκροτήματος 415, το οποίο δημιούργησαν το 1979 ο Eric με τον κιθαρίστα John Nymann. Μετά την κυκλοφορία του δίσκου "Sucker for a Pretty Face" (ο οποίος επανακυκλοφόρησε στα τελειώματα του περασμένου έτους) ο Eric Martin συνέχισε με προσωπικούς δίσκους μέχρι να προκύψουν, το 1988, οι Mr. Big.

Οι 415 δεν κυκλοφόρησαν κάτι και οι (όποιες) ηχογραφήσεις τους έμειναν στο συρτάρι. Τέσσερις δεκαετίες αργότερα έφθασε η στιγμή και βλέπουν το φως της δημοσιότητας ("Area Code 415", "Boys Night Out" - κυκλοφορούν από τις 23 Αυγούστου 2024), μέσω της δισκογραφικής εταιρείας Metallic Blue Records...

Δελτίο τύπου: «The San Francisco Bay Area in California has always been a hotbed for great rock ‘n roll since fans can remember. The area produced great bands such as JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, GRATEFUL DEAD, CREDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL, DOOBIE BROTHERS, THE TUBES, PABLO CRUISE, SANTANA, JOURNEY, HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS, EDDIE MONEY, BENNIE AND THE JETS, YESTERDAY AND TODAY, and many more.

The scene was definitely competitive among up-and-coming bands in the late 1970s and early 1980s to get the prime Friday night gig at such clubs as Frenchy’s, The Old Waldorf, Keystone, Mabuhay Gardens, Paramount, Warfield Theater, and the Civic Center.

KID COURAGE, featuring vocalist Eric Martin, and the band MILE HI, featuring guitarist John Nymann, guitarist Mark Ross, bassist Tom Duke, and drummer and vocalist David Notary were on the same bill at Mabuhay Gardens, which is where Eric and John first met.

Both were somewhat skeptical of the other but knew their bands boasted some of the top talent in the area. After the gig, Eric and John met face-to-face. John congratulated Eric on a great show and said, “Eric, I wish you were in my band”.

Eric returned the compliment and replied, “John, I wish I were in your band.” Though nothing transpired quickly, the wheels were in motion. Eric moved to Los Angeles where he sang in a band called STARK RAVING MAD with Paul Taylor (WINGER) on guitar and keyboards.

This band played around but ran into dead ends as they attempted to get noticed by a big label. Eric ended up forming his own band called ERIC AND THE RIVALS.

Around this time, Eric’s friend Dave “Jake” Jacobsen, who was originally from the Bay Area but now lived in Los Angeles, put Eric in touch with his old friend John Nymann and the band MILE HI.

MILE HI had just seen the departure of their singer/drummer David Notary. MILE HI recruited drummer Charlie McGimsey and they were now looking for a new singer. Eric’s name hit the top of the list. So, in September 1979, Eric traveled back up north to sing with MILE HI.

This move was quite an adjustment for Eric. He went from living in a house with several other musicians in L.A. to living in a warehouse with Zeke Clark, the band’s road crew manager. Zeke had built some bedrooms in the warehouse and made it a livable situation for the time being.

The band MILE HI began playing shows but drummer Charlie McGimsey departed to join the band STONEGROUND. He wanted to play more hard rock rather than poppy radio songs. It was at this time the band decided to change their name to ROMANCE.

The hunt for a new drummer was now their focus. A mutual friend named Perry Dreiman introduced the guys to a great drummer named Jimmy Hogland. Right off the bat, the band found instant chemistry and the invitation was given to Jimmy to join.

Shortly after Jimmy joined the band, they packed up the van and headed to Los Angeles. Eric’s old manager lined up a few shows and some major label reps to see the band play. The band stayed in a house that Eric’s old manager was paying for.

The guys didn’t have jobs and had very little money, so they were grateful for the orange tree in the backyard. They lived on oranges and pancakes for the most part. Things in L.A. didn’t quite go according to plan. Their shows were poorly attended and no label reps came to see them play.

The guys decided to get some beer and drive around Beverly Hills. Unbeknownst to them, there was an all-points bulletin in the area as the police searched for a terrorist group driving a white van. The van got pulled over with all the officers drawing their guns.

The police pulled every band member out at gunpoint and shoved them up against a wall to frisk them. John was thinking to himself, “Man, the cops in L.A. are really mean.” The band was nervous the police would find their open beers in the van.

The van was thoroughly searched. One of the officers held up the beer indicating his disappointment that he only found beer in the van. Another officer, with his gun still drawn, shouted at the band saying, “Is this all you have?” The police seemed very irritated that they profiled the wrong van.

The police told them that they were looking for terrorists and they should get the hell out of there. The cops did not even pour out the beer. The guys jumped back in the van and took off. The entire trip to L.A. was not a waste after they played a well-received show at a frat party at the Beta House at UCLA.

After the band returned from L.A., they entered Adult Studios in San Leandro, California, and recorded a four-song demo. The band gave a copy of the demo to John Villanueva who in turn gave the tape to Herbie Herbert, the manager for SANTANA and JOURNEY.

The band was playing a few gigs in Arizona, including a show at Choo Choo’s Night Train, when they got a call from Herbie. Herbie told the band that he loved their demo and saw potential. He also informed the band that he listened to their demo with the guys in the band JOURNEY and they also loved what they were hearing, in particular Steve Perry, who enjoyed the song “I’m Alone.”

The band rushed back from Arizona and met up with Herbie to sign to Nightmare Productions and to make a future gameplan. Herbie asked the band to go back into the studio and record five more songs.

ROMANCE entered Rainbow Recording Studio in Hayward, California, where they worked with engineer Mike Hirsch to lay down five songs. With nine total tracks recorded the band was starting to get some traction in the local scene. It was at this time Herbie persuaded the band to change their name. Herbie suggested using the area code from San Francisco: 415.

The band was ready to take the Bay Area and the rest of California by storm. As the band started playing the clubs under the name 415, Herbie instructed the guys that he would be scheduling them time in the studio to cut their first real album.

The band entered the Automatt Studio in March 1980 and were one of the first bands in the USA to use the state-of-the-art Sony M3 32-track recorder from Japan that used 1-inch tape. Herbie was solicited by Sony to get a solid band to demo the new machine that used 16-bit capability and 50KHz, running 45 inches per second, which was new to studios at the time.

As they started to record one day, JOURNEY frontman Steve Perry walked in. The band was excited to have such a legend come watch them record, but they felt nervous. They were recording “I’m Alone” that day, Steve’s favorite 415 tune.

As they saw Steve singing along with the catchy chorus, they thought “what the hell” and invited Steve to come sing backups on the song. Steve told the guys that he did not want to impede on their thing but was having a blast listening to their music.

The band was persistent and Steve eventually agreed. The band was on cloud nine as they belted out the vocal tracks for “I’m Alone.” After the new album was recorded, Herbie and team sent the recordings out to all the major record labels.

415 started opening for more national acts such as EDDIE MONEY, CHEAP TRICK, THIN LIZZY and a sold-out show with LOVERBOY at the Old Waldorf. Momentum moved in 415’s favor as their fanbase continued to grow.

The band opened for JOE WALSH at the Oakland Coliseum and received much praise from the crowd and were cheered into playing an encore. Joe was all for the band going back out and playing to the crowd. 415 went back out on stage and gave the adoring crowed another two songs. Everything seemed to be going great for the band.

Herbie called a band meeting. Herbie was always looking four or five steps ahead and wanted to see more harmony vocals in the band’s music. Herbie informed the band that he would be paying for the band to take vocal lessons from Judy Davis who was known as the vocal coach for Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand.

This was a three-year training with intense vocal sessions and plenty of homework. The band reflects on how demanding Judy could be, but what a sweet and kind individual she was. Judy’s warmup and techniques are still used by Eric to this very day.

The band had put together several more songs for their 2nd album and we able to showcase what they had in front of some large audiences prior to entering the studio. On June 13, 1981, 415 opened for BILLY SQUIRE, HALL & OATS, and JOURNEY at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds. 415 put on a fantastic 25-minute set and managed a good reaction from the large crowd. This event helped boost the band’s confidence, which they would need for their next show.

Less than a month later, they got an incredible opportunity to play Bill Graham’s “Day On The Green” on July 4, 1981, as the opening act at the Oakland Coliseum. This year had an impressive lineup including LOVERBOY, PAT TRAVERS, BLUE OYSTER CULT, HEART, and OZZY OSBOURNE.

Just like in years past, the show featured an unsigned band and this year it was 415. There is typically a lot of booing by the over fifty thousand capacity crowd for the opening acts. 1981 followed the same pattern. 415 began to play and the crowd began throwing food and parts of fireworks at the band.

415 continued to play and the boos started to turn into cheers until the hostile audience turned friendly. After the show, the band went backstage feeling great about their performance. A few minutes later, Bill Graham brought a basket full of the food and fireworks pieces that were thrown at the band.

He added a bottle of champagne to the basket and presented it to the band and said, “Congratulations, you made it the full twenty minutes”. Bill went on to tell the band that no other opening act had been able to make it through a full set.

Though the live shows were ramping up, the guys in 415 were all struggling financially and trying to make ends meet. Luckily the band had Herbie Herbert and Nightmare Productions fronting money for recording. In August 1981, the band entered Fantasy Studios with Gregg Rolie as producer.

They were thrilled to be working with Gregg. They were all fans of his from his days in SANTANA and JOURNEY. The band loved seeing his expertise at work in real time. But it was many of the things Gregg did outside the studio that impressed the band the most, like when he covered their rent for a month or picked them up to bring them to the studio to record.

Gregg really went the extra mile for the band. While they recorded the “Boys Night Out” record, they racked up an $800 phone bill. The band’s management decided to install a payphone in the band house to keep them from running into that problem again.

This tactic worked. The band house was pretty sparce and empty. They had a green couch they got from Eric’s dad, a payphone, and a stuffed marlin mounted on a plaque on the wall. They fought like brothers in the band house but worked hard like a family.

The band continued to play out live, opening for such acts as FOREIGNER, RICK SPRINGFIELD, THE ROMANTICS, KENNY LOGGINS, and NIGHT RANGER. The live shows were going great and the fanbase in Northern California was completely solid.

The band was just biding their time to land a record deal. The frustration of waiting on a record took a toll on Jimmy, however. He enjoyed his time in the band, but was ready to get back to playing the more punk rock style he played in his previous band X-RAY TED. At the beginning of 1982, he departed the band.

John reached out to his friend Troy Luccketta who had just recently married and left the band BENNIE AND THE JETS. Troy came and tried out for the band and was quickly selected as the new drummer for 415 in February 1982. Less than two weeks later, the band returned to playing live shows.

Within a few months, Herbie informed the band that the punk rock record label “415 Records” was threatening a lawsuit if they did not change their name. Herbie suggested the name “Eric Martin Band.” Without too much disagreement, the name became the ERIC MARTIN BAND.

Herbie tried to get a record deal for the band with Columbia Records who had signed JOURNEY several years prior. Management changes within Columbia Records brought new opportunities, as a friend of Herbie’s moved from Columbia to Elektra. The band got the break they were waiting for. Elektra agreed to sign the band to a one-album deal with the option of a second record at the discretion of Elektra Records. Their record created at Fantasy Studios with Gregg Rolie got shelved and the band went on to record the album “Sucker for a Pretty Face”.

The band began recording their next album “Looks Can Be Deceiving” when they were called out to do some tour dates opening for ZZ TOP. When the band returned, they were called in for a band meeting by Herbie. Herbie told the band that he had some bad news.

The band had just been dropped from Elektra Records. Herbie explained that this was not the band’s fault but was actually retaliation against Herbie for an argument he had with the new CEO of Elektra Records. Herbie’s history with the new CEO went back to when the CEO worked for another label and Herbie managed SANTANA.

The two got in an argument and Herbie sent a dead bird in the mail to this CEO with a message that he hoped he would f*****g die. Obviously, the CEO nurtured a grudge so his first move was to discover if Herbie managed any bands on Elektra.

It did not matter that the “Sucker for a Pretty Face” album was selling well and the bands popularity was on the rise. Due to being dropped, the band ultimately broke up. John Nymann was picked up by Y&T, who he plays with to this very day.

Troy Luccketta went onto CITY KIDD who later changed their name to TESLA where he found much success. Tom Duke joined several bands and played thousands of live shows over the years. Mark Ross went onto play with the band JET RED and Dave Jacobsen did a tour with the band UFO. Eric Martin recorded two solo albums before joining forces with what would become one of the top 1980s supergroups, appropriately titled “MR. BIG.”

The 415 albums and various recordings would be locked away in the vault for forty years. A timely meeting at an Eric Martin show in Salt Lake City, Utah, with two record executives who decided to do things old school and go to a club to see some amazing talent, changed the future of 415.

They offered a record deal at the club right on the spot. It was a bold 80s-style move. Eric told the label that he and John Nymann had talked about wanting to release these never-released albums officially. Eric accepted the invitation and the bond between 415/ERIC MARTIN BAND and Metallic Blue Records was born.

The band was still waiting for the record deal to come, but no deal was offered. Herbie told the band they should gear up and get ready to enter the studio again to record their second album. He told the band that he was putting them into the same studio (Fantasy Studios) in which JOURNEY recorded their new album “Escape.” Herbie had another surprise for the band on who would be producing their album “Boys Night Out”.»