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Los Angeles-based hard rockers Mötley Crüe are set to blow the roof off Westman Place on May 6. Tickets are available at the Keystone Centre box office by calling 204-726-3555 or online at tickets.keystonecentre.com. (SUBMITTED)
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His serious skills on the six-string mixed with his Addams Family like persona is what initially attracted Mick Mars to the other members of the Crüe. Check out an exclusive interview with him in Frank’s Blogs at www.kx96online.com (SUBMITTED)
First off, cheers to Neil Thomson and the team at the Keystone Centre for bringing yet another "Big League" rock show to the Wheat City.
May 6 is guaranteed to be one of the loudest nights in the history of Westman Place. When Los Angeles based hard rockers Mötley Crüe crank up their amps, backed by Tommy Lee’s bombastic beats, that old barn will literally be rumbling!
The infamously unabashed rockers have lined up one their biggest Canadian tours ever. The 18-date tour leg that runs through the Great White North commences just as things are starting to turn green north of the 49th — April 20 on the West Coast, and running through May 14 in our nation’s capital.
Mötley Crüe will be joined by special guests Big Wreck. Their Canadian tour is scheduled to follow a co-headlining jaunt through Australia with KISS (maybe that’s where those rumours about KISS coming here came from?).
The Crüe have racked up some major milestones over their 30+ year existence. Some of the major accomplishments include: worldwide album sales exceeding 80 million, seven platinum or multi-platinum albums, 22 Top 40 mainstream rock hits, six Top 20 pop singles, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, three Grammy nominations for Best Hard Rock Performance and countless soldout tours across the globe, playing to millions of fans.
More recently they’ve managed to continue blazing an impressive trail by becoming the first rock band in history to have completed an epic soldout Las Vegas residency at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
They were featured in an award winning KIA ad that ran during the Super Bowl and their New York Times bestselling memoir "Dirt" is set to be made into a feature film. Anyone who has read that book will now be wondering how they could possibly make the movie any better.
Mötley Crüe is best known for continuing to reinvent not only their live show (with mind-blowing elements such as Tommy Lee’s 360-degree drum roller-coaster) and music (brand new song "Sex" released in summer 2012), but remain on the forefront of entertainment via cutting edge social media interaction.
The Crüe lured Canadian rockers Big Wreck to join them on the massive tour across their home and native land.
Big Wreck frontman, songwriter and producer Ian Thornley’s ‘well-schooled Zeppelin-inspired rock’ secured the Rock Album of the Year Juno nomination for Big Wreck’s current album Albatross.
The five-piece guitar-laden band is sure to bring their sing-a-long radio hits such as "The Oaf", "Blown Wide Open", "That Song" and "Ladylike", as well the most played rock single of the year — their smash "Albatross" as a suitable primer for the Crüe.
While Big Wreck is billed as the support act on this tour, you can consider me as one of the many hard rock fans who consider this to be a double bill rock ’n’ roll attraction!
Long before all the hype of this show came to light, many in the biz had to keep tight lipped about it, including me. Needless to say when the chance to interview Crue guitarist Mick Mars came up, I was instantly enthralled with the opportunity and signed up for my 10-minute Q & A.
Yup! That’s it! Pretty much the industry standard when they’re booked in advance to promote a tour; they can schedule a ton of these things for radio, print and all other media, so you take your 10-15 minutes if you can get it.
Mick Mars is hands down one of the most mysterious figures in the rock world. His actual name is, well… hang on, maybe I’ll leave that out. Why tarnish his shadowy image, right?
Mars joined Mötley Crüe in the spring of 1981. After years of toiling away in various rock bands, he became frustrated with the Hollywood music scene. His growing disdain with the mundane scene lead him to place an ad in the Los Angeles Recycler classifieds.
This now legendary ad read as follows: "Loud, rude, and aggressive guitar player available". Needless to say, Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx contacted Mars and they instantly fell in love with his mysterious persona and, of course, his guitar playing.
Thirty two years later, he is still with Mötley Crüe and is still as loud and aggressive as he’s always been on his axe. He’s definitely seen it all from drug abuse to drinking to the debauchery of the band to depression to bankruptcy to failed relationships to even his own health problems.
It’s no secret that Mars suffers from a disease called ankylosing spondylitis, an illness that caused his lower spine to seize up and freeze completely solid. He’s been dealing with AS for several years now but is adamant that he’ll overcome it and that while it may slow him down, it won’t take him down. In fact that was the first comment he made during our recent chat.
Although it was a quick scheduled chat, we managed to touch on several subjects. Mars was happy to divulge his and the rest of the band’s pre-show rituals and warmups, his guitar gods and the incredible new stage setup with which the Crüe will dazzle their Westman fans come May 6.
He also promises it will be loud and aggressive, just the way he’s always liked his rock ’n’ roll.
You can hear the full unedited version in the blog section of the KX96 website. Simply go to KX96online.com.
By the way, presenting station KX96 will have many more ticket giveaways lined for our listeners as we get closer to the concert date. Stay tuned and good luck!
» Next week in Happenings, we preview Misty Street’s CD and video release!
Frank McGwire is a radio personality and booster of the music scene in Brandon and Westman.
» Frank@kx96.astral.com.
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition March 7, 2013
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