Is Once Enough ?

Here is a band we were in competition with in the early 80s, these guys and Twisted Sister, who makes it Twisted Sister.
These guys, Skywire would kick your ass. The big guy in the middle wound up playing for Alice Cooper but he died from
natural causes very young. He was the lead guitar player but he doesn't play lead on this tune. He smoked Rusty Brenneir
the guy who was playing the lead.
They used to do this rockin tune, 'High as 99". Now it's the year 2001 and I am in the studio with
my drummer Chuck and he has the 45 hanging on the studio wall. I says we got to listen to this. So we dig up a turntable put it on.
We both look each other wondering, neither one of us remembered them sounding like heavy metal. Upon further research, the 45
we put on was meant to be played at 33+1/3 lol. All you had to do was kick it up to 45 and voila, instant heavy metal!
This was the only recording I could find. These guys were way better than this and if anyone went anywhere it should have been them.
The big guy could do all the EVH tricks. Although not my cup of tea, I would go see them because they were such good musicians.
 
Last edited:
dogooder said:
Here is a band we were in competition with in the early 80s, these guys and Twisted Sister, who makes it Twisted Sister.
These guys, Skywire would kick your ass. The big guy in the middle wound up playing for Alice Cooper but he died from
natural causes very young. He was the lead guitar player but he doesn't play lead on this tune. He smoked Rusty Brenneir
the guy who was playing the lead.
They used to do this rockin tune, 'High as 99". Now it's the year 2001 and I am in the studio with
my drummer Chuck and he has the 45 hanging on the studio wall. I says we got to listen to this. So we dig up a turntable put it on.
We both look each other wondering, neither one of us remembered them sounding like heavy metal. Upon further research, the 45
we put on was meant to be played at 33+1/3 lol. All you had to do was kick it up to 45 and voila, instant heavy metal!
This was the only recording I could find. These guys were way better than this and if anyone went anywhere it should have been them.
The big guy could do all the EVH tricks. Although not my cup of tea, I would go see them because they were such good musicians.
Click to expand...

Ah cummon man, Twisted Sister? They were rubbish, a comedy metal band, cummon man please. Like Poison and Motley Crue and all of those ridiculous terrible bands. Roth created a monster of awful terrible 80s hair metal bands. Bon Jovi were a pop band, it was all just terrible. Awful and no musical ability. The 80s were just awful. I grew up in the 80s and I hated the 80s in the 80s!
We look back on David Lee Roth now as a really cool guy in the 80s but now I look back and watch those videos he made and think, WHAT A FUCKING DICKHEAD ON COKE!
That is my assessment.
 
Smithers XKR said:
Ah cummon man, Twisted Sister? They were rubbish, a comedy metal band, cummon man please. Like Poison and Motley Crue and all of those ridiculous terrible bands. Roth created a monster of awful terrible 80s hair metal bands. Bon Jovi were a pop band, it was all just terrible. Awful and no musical ability. The 80s were just awful. I grew up in the 80s and I hated the 80s in the 80s!
We look back on David Lee Roth now as a really cool guy in the 80s but now I look back and watch those videos he made and think, WHAT A FUCKING DICKHEAD ON COKE!
That is my assessment.
Click to expand...
Sorry I got a bit angry, I apologise and do not wish to be nasty in any way. Apologies
 
Smithers XKR said:
Ah cummon man, Twisted Sister? They were rubbish, a comedy metal band, cummon man please. Like Poison and Motley Crue and all of those ridiculous terrible bands. Roth created a monster of awful terrible 80s hair metal bands. Bon Jovi were a pop band, it was all just terrible. Awful and no musical ability. The 80s were just awful. I grew up in the 80s and I hated the 80s in the 80s!
We look back on David Lee Roth now as a really cool guy in the 80s but now I look back and watch those videos he made and think, WHAT A FUCKING DICKHEAD ON COKE!
That is my assessment.
Click to expand...
There were three bands in the area, we, Skywire and Twisted Sister. Skywire kicked everybody's ass.
 
dogooder said:
That is alright. I hated long hair 80s music and that was not what we were playing Thank god for the New Wave British invasion.
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Yeah thanks the 80s we would go to rock bars and the club and it was about who had the tightest jeans and the biggest hair. I fucking hated it. The thing is that I still have all my hair now and those blokes are fat and bald. Anyway it was horrible, I loved the 70's when I was a kid, Eagles, Steely Dan, Doobies. Just the best time xxxx
 
Smithers XKR said:
Yeah thanks the 80s we would go to rock bars and the club and it was about who had the tightest jeans and the biggest hair. I fucking hated it. The thing is that I still have all my hair now and those blokes are fat and bald. Anyway it was horrible, I loved the 70's when I was a kid, Eagles, Steely Dan, Doobies. Just the best time xxxx
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I loved the 50s and sixties,, Little Richard, Cream, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry etc. Then again, we like the music we grew up with. That doesn't mean I cannot appreciate more "modern music", yet it makes me hold it to a higher standard? If I want REAL alternative music I have to go back to the 30.s and 40s or earlier.
 
dogooder said:
I loved the 50s and sixties,, Little Richard, Cream, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry etc. Then again, we like the music we grew up with. That doesn't mean I cannot appreciate more "modern music", yet it makes me hold it to a higher standard? If I want REAL alternative music I have to go back to the 30.s and 40s or earlier.
Click to expand...
I love Django Rheinhart, his beauty of playing xxxx
 
dogooder said:
That is alright. I hated long hair 80s music and that was not what we were playing Thank god for the New Wave British invasion.
Click to expand...
I am sorry doogooder, I see you are a very undestanding musician xxx I apologise xxxx I really do. I see we have a lot of common ground in our musical likes. Sorry mate
 
Smithers XKR said:
I am sorry doogooder, I see you are a very undestanding musician xxx I apologise xxxx I really do. I see we have a lot of common ground in our musical likes. Sorry mate
Click to expand...
It just floats my boat so much listening to Stephan and Django playing together, its heaven mate to me so sweet music. I must learn some little riffs like this
 
dogooder said:
There were three bands in the area, we, Skywire and Twisted Sister. Skywire kicked everybody's ass.
Click to expand...
Well the thing is that there were a lot of good metal bands around in the 80s with fabulous permed hair and with very good technical players mixolylian locrian lydian etc but ultimately it was all a pile of shite. I bought into that. Sorry to call it out, it was big hair big shoulder pads falsness , sorry sorry sorry.

I prefer this

 
Smithers XKR said:
Well the thing is that there were a lot of good metal bands around in the 80s with fabulous permed hair and with very good technical players mixolylian locrian lydian etc but ultimately it was all a pile of shite. I bought into that. Sorry to call it out, it was big hair big shoulder pads falsness , sorry sorry sorry.

I prefer this

Click to expand...

God I LOVE the Doobie Brothers xxx
 
Def Leppard.
When I lived in Nigeria, I read about them and the New wave of British Heavy Metal and I was really intrigued. Then when I got back here, I bought the edition of "Sounds" that had the infamous Geoff Barton attack "Has the Leopard changed its spots ?" and I went out and bought "On through the night"
iu
at a record shop we used to have called "Our Price." It took me a few listens to warm to them but once I did I loved that album like it was a child of mine. 42 years on, I still love it. But I never had any motivation to check out anything by them although I bought their biography {it's brilliant} and over the years, any documentaries that come out I'll watch, or interviews. I heard quite a bit of their stuff on TV over the years and it never moved me in the slightest. Their debut album is almost like a different band. The lead singer Joe Elliott hates it.
That's his prerogative !
I've long said that the artist is not always the most reliable judge of their work !! 🤪
 
Basically they were pretty crap as musicians in the beginning, the original lineup was a bit hopeless in 78. They struck it lucky with Robert John. However Joe Elliot is a great rock singer with great power and range. Viv is a brilliant guitar player and Phil is a great and versatile guitar player.

 
dogooder said:
Here is a band we were in competition with in the early 80s, these guys and Twisted Sister, who makes it Twisted Sister.
These guys, Skywire would kick your ass. The big guy in the middle wound up playing for Alice Cooper but he died from
natural causes very young. He was the lead guitar player but he doesn't play lead on this tune. He smoked Rusty Brenneir
the guy who was playing the lead.
They used to do this rockin tune, 'High as 99". Now it's the year 2001 and I am in the studio with
my drummer Chuck and he has the 45 hanging on the studio wall. I says we got to listen to this. So we dig up a turntable put it on.
We both look each other wondering, neither one of us remembered them sounding like heavy metal. Upon further research, the 45
we put on was meant to be played at 33+1/3 lol. All you had to do was kick it up to 45 and voila, instant heavy metal!
This was the only recording I could find. These guys were way better than this and if anyone went anywhere it should have been them.
The big guy could do all the EVH tricks. Although not my cup of tea, I would go see them because they were such good musicians.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to reply to this, the lead guitarist here (Robert Athas, now known as Kane Roberts) isn't dead, though you MIGHT be thinking about the drummer (Victor Ruzzo), who did pass away at some point. Just wanted to reply to correct that tidbit! (Also just wanted to correct the spelling on Rusty's last name, it's Brinnier!)

In fact, Kane rejoined Alice's band temporarily just last year! So he's very much alive LOL.

Nice to hear more about Skywire though! I've been looking into them in recent times, and that song Louise was properly released on Kane's Unsung Radio album back in 2012! It's a shame the band didn't last longer (from what I know, they lasted from 1981-1983), but I'm glad that there's some info about them online!

I'm very curious about that song, "High As 99", is there any way you could post that online or anything? I'd love to hear it! A few other songs I know of that connect to Skywire are Condition Red, Junior's Ready To Rock, and I'm Waiting For You. I'm Waiting For You has two versions that eventually got released by Kane, one on a 2012 Saints And Sinners re-issue as a bonus track on a second disc, and one on Unsung Radio. The only songs I've heard however are Louise and I'm Waiting For You, though, as Condition Red and Junior's Ready To Rock haven't popped up online to my knowledge.

Seeing as Pat Travers also did his own version of Louise, I suspect the song Women On The Edge Of Love (also done by Pat Travers and Kane) MIGHT have origins in Skywire if I have my timeline straight. Same with a song called In The Heat Of The Night, which Pat Travers also did, which has Kane as a co-writing credit (granted, not under the name Kane Roberts, but it's him lol)

Some songs on Kane's first solo album (a self-titled release) might also have some origins in Skywire. Still trying to nail that down though, I've chatted with other members of Skywire about it.
 
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