Anvil : One of the saddest stories of rock
Anvil is a rock band from Ontario, Canada that in the 80's was the role model of starting rock acts like Metallica, Anthrax, Guns and roses ( Whenever I say the name of this last band i feel pangs of disgust but they existed nevertheless and there was actually people who like them, well...).
Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and the rest went on, after a famous Tokyo tour in which all of them performed together, in 1983 I think it was, all of the rest went on to sign huge record deals and would later become platinum artists for their sales, they all toured massively and gathered tons of money around the globe, all of them except Anvil.....Why was that...? all of the aforementioned bands reckoned that Anvil was probably the biggest metal band of its time.....Anvil, it seems , refused to work with a manager after some bad experience and later on they would find difficulties to get an agreement with monster record companies who wanted to extort them, or so the story goes...Lars Ulrich, from Metallica has said that Robert Rainer, Anvil drummer, was the best of all drummers at the time, and Steve Kudlow, the front man, was a very peculiar show man himself, dressed like bondage performer and bringing into the stage plastic dildos with which he'd play his guitar and tease the public, they were big at that time, but then something happened...a little afterward their second release they totally vanished......
In 2009 the movie Anvil : The story of Anvil came out to light and presents the band members, still active in a very secluded environment in Ontario, Canada, and depicts, step by step all the ups but mostly, all the band deep downs into forgetfulness and frustration, a great , great band that never really was....not for the record companies at least....Film Director Sacha Gervasi made the movie of this great band in 2008 and came to theaters in 2009, and believe me, this is not just some documentary of a dinosaur band, this is a movie with lots of pain and sadness, and with hope : when there is nothing else to expect from the rock business and from music itself, Steve Kudlow keeps his struggle and basically his drive to go on trying to succeed just because of Anvil. Robert Rainer, the friend of his youth, sometimes just don't wanna keep going, but at last, together, they keep making music trying to find once and for all, the redemption they need, Anvil is more like a stone tied to their necks but they won't quit. They want what they were denied: Their place in rock history.
(To this matter, the movie comes very, very close to the 2005 movie NEW YORK DOLL, the storiy of the new york dolls and Arthur "Killer" Kane....aaah! What a sad business is Rock 'n ' roll.....Once they wanted to be rock stars, and they were, but only for 5 minutes or so, then, it makes you feel sad how neglected they were and how this turned out to be the worst nightmare of their lives. Check out new york doll too if you can, is another fairy tale mixed with a great musical experience in a horror film.....)
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