Sebastian Bach, Great White, et Quiet Riot

Born Sebastian Bierk and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Sebastian Bach's music career began at the tender age of 14 when he joined a local hard rock band by the name of Kid Wikkid in 1983. However, that band would only last until 1985, and after they split Bierk began singing wherever he could, and in 1987, that took him to rock photographer Mark Weiss's wedding. Also attending the wedding were members of the New Jersey glam metal band Skid Row, whose singer had recently left the band. They were all impressed with the 18 year old up on stage, and shortly after the wedding, they asked Bach to join the band, which he gladly accepted. Skid Row went on to become the last truly enormous glam metal band before grunge arrived and shut it all down, with their self-titled debut album going five times Platinum within months of its release.

Of course, Skid Row wouldn't have been a true glam metal band without inner tension and pettiness, and it all came to a head in 1996, when Bach booked a show for the band opening for KISS. The other band members resented this, claiming that the band were too big to open for anyone, and the resulting arguments lead to Bach leaving the band in the same year. Ever since then, Bach has succeeded in everything he's tried his hand at, from his solo career which began in 1999, a Broadway career which began a year later in the title role of Jekyll And Hyde and a screen acting career that's seen him show up in everything from The Trailer Park Boys to Spongebob Squarepants. He's one of heavy metal's great survivors, and thirty years after his first foray into rock music, he still comes highly recommended.

Great White came together thanks to the musical partnership of singer Jack Russell and guitarist Mark Kendall. Initially, Russell asked Kendall to join the band he was fronting at the time, but their creative chemistry proved so potent that they went off together to form their own band. They wrote and rehearsed together until 1979, when Russell botched a robbery he was committing and accidentally shot a live-in maid in the house he had broken into. Quite rightly, he was caught and sentenced to eight years in prison, and Kendall was left to pick up the pieces on his own. He did actually put together a band called Dante Fox, and played some shows around the Orange County area of California with them. However, Russell was released from his prison sentence after 18 months and rejoined Kendall soon afterwards.

The band played their debut show with Russell at Hollywood’s legendary Troubadour venue and after recording some demo tapes, they secured the services of Alan Niven as their manager. Niven’s first act as manager was to change the band’s name to a nickname that Kendall had picked up around the L.A rock scene. Due to his naturally platinum blonde hair, his white Fender Telecaster and his habit of wearing a white jumpsuit with matching shoes on stage, he’d been given the nickname Great White after the band’s first few gigs. The band unanimously agreed on their new name and by 1982, the band were known as Great White.

By the same year, Niven had formed Aegean, his own independent record label, and with his backing the band hit the studio to record their debut E.P “Out Of The Night”. In the end, not only did he put the record out but he also convinced the L.A Radio Station KMET to playlist a couple of songs from the E.P. They ended up playing the songs so regularly that the bands profile shot up within months, and by the end of the year they were headlining and selling out concert halls all over California. By the end of 1983 the band had signed to EMI America and their self-titled debut album was released early the following year.

The band rode out the rest of the decade as the connoisseur’s hair metal band of choice. They opened for everyone from Judas Priest, and Whitesnake to Dokken and had their 1987 album “Once Bitten…” certified platinum in April the following year. Its follow up “…Twice Shy” was an even bigger deal, achieving double platinum status within five months of its release. Ever since then the band have become one of the most fondly remembered acts of the hair metal era. They were always a little more respectable than the likes of Poison and their ilk, willing to rock out in a way that arguably made them pave the way for Guns N’ Roses. To this day both incarnations of the band that still play can blow the roof of any venue they play, and with a back catalogue like theirs, they come highly recommended.

Quiet Riot formed in 1973 with the original line-up of guitarist Randy Rhoads, bassist Kelly Garni, lead vocalist Kevin DuBrow, and drummer Drew Forsyth. Originally under the moniker Mach 1 and later Little Women, the Quiet Riot name was inspired by Rick Parfitt of Status Quo whose thick English accent made the potential band name “Quite Right” sound like Quiet Riot. After becoming a well-known band in the Los Angeles area, opening for such acts as Van Halen, Quiet Riot signed with Song in 1977 and released their eponymously-titled debut the same year.

The band subsequently released “Quiet Riot II” in 1978, but like it’s predecessor was only released in Japan. After which, Garni was kicked out the band and replaced by Rudy Sarzo and in 1979 lead guitarist Rhoads departed for Ozzy Osbourne’s band essentially derailing the whole project, which officially ended in 1980. The band returned in 1982 with a line-up of DuBrow, guitarist Carlos Cavazo, bassist Rudy Sarzo and drummer Frankie Banali, which turned out to be their most commercially successful. Quiet Riot recorded and released their American debut album “Metal Health” in 1982, which became the first heavy metal album to ever reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Led by the eponymously-titled lead single and spawning the cover of Slade’s “Cum on Feel the Noize”, the latter of which became the first heavy metal song to break into the Top 5 on the U.S. singles chart, the album was their American breakthrough.

With this new found success, Quiet Riot were able to tour as the opening act for Black Sabbath on their Born Again Tour from October 1983 to March 1984. The band’s subsequent release, “Condition Critical”, despite reaching No. 15 in the U.S. album chart and No. 14 in the Canadian album chart, failed to live up to the success of “Metal Health” and marked the band’s decline from the mainstream. Quiet Riot released “QR III” in 1986 and “QR” in 1988, the latter of which proved to be their last album to chart on the Billboard 200.

The band didn’t let this halt their flow however and continued to record and release a host of new albums , and still maintain an impressively extensive touring schedule and live show. Quiet Riot’s subsequent albums include “Terrified” in 1993, “Down to the Bone” in 1995, “Alive and Well” in 1999, “Guilty Pleasures” in 2001, “Rehab” in 2006 and “Quiet Riot 10” in 2014.