overboy: yes, the kids are back

Kevin Gillies
SPOTLIGHT NOW

The kid is hot tonight
Oh, so hot tonight

But tell me,
Where will he be ton larry?

OW MANY times
have you heard. that
song? Lovetboy gui-

tarist Paul Dean once said
The Kid is Hot Tonight was
symbolic of the band’s rnete-
oric rise on the pop charts
and equally meteortc

descent. ;
yas released in

The single +
“ ith Turn Me Loose,
1980, along w [f-titled

on the band’s debut, Se
album. By halfway through the
‘80s Loverboy’s MUSIC Was -
inescapable as, the airwaves con-
oul.
a he te ‘806, the band had:
toured the world several times
over with a large variety ol head-
lining acts; released five albums
(plus a greatest hits package!
which had produced 15 singles;
recorded top-selling soundtrack
songs for major MOVIES and the
XXII Olympiad: and made
Canadian recording“industry histo-
ry by winning Juno Awards in six
categories in a single year. Plus
they became the first Canadian
group to he awarded Columbia
Records’ Crystal Globe Award, for
the sale of more than five million
records outside their Native land.

In April 1988, 19 Belfast,
Ireland, Loverboy played their last
live show with Def Leppard. Then
they were gone. The band mem-
bers were tired and needed a
break, so they split amicably.

The public, nowever, Never
really knew what became of the
group. Radio stations, from places
like Cleveland, started calling
localones to find oul what was
happening with Loverboy.

“We took the time to take a test
— amuch-desened rest” lead
singer Mike Reno said. recently.
“Andwhen we took the rest, we
didn’t schedule wher we'd come
back."

In the years that followed each
band member remained occupied
-— pursuing solo projects, working
on small projects with different
musicians or joining different
hands — but nothing compared to
the frantic pace of the ‘80s,

“t's great for people to be able
to vo olf and do nuusic individual
ty,” Reno said reflecting on the
past couple of years, “But | think if
you talk to both Paul and 1 the
music we've done individually
definitely isn’t Loverboy but
they're an expression of incdividu-
ality which any artist needs to do
in order to keep the juices flawing
and to keep happy.

“You just can’t take the polf
clubs out of Arnie Palmer's hanel
you know. He’s poing to play any-
way. It’s the same situation. You
can’t take the microphone away
from me and you can’t take the
guitar away from Paul,” he said.

in October 1991, the group
appeared as a surprise act at the
benefit for cancer-stricken Brian
“Too Loud” Macleod. The show
featured local musicians such as
Bryan Adarns and Colin James.
That's where the five original
members (Doug Johnston, Mike
Reno, Paul Dean, Scott Smith and
Matt Frenette) got a taste of per-
forming as Loverboy again.

“We realized that the most fim
we have, all around, is with the
Loverboy project and we're such a
goad group of friends socially that
it’s a perfect situation.”

So they tried a two-week mini-
tour of Western Canada in May
last year and enjoyed it so much
that now they are on an &0-date,
tour of mid-sized, American cities,
with the band returning to the
Lower Mainland in September.

“We're out here making people
happy, letting America know that
we're back.”

Reno said the band feels preat
and is enjoying the tour — more
the performing and less the travel.
He said they're “makin’ a mess of
the U.S.” He also expressed a

See Loverboy page 32

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