Yes folks... hope you've had some good things happen today, because this post will be a real picker-upper!!
Ironically, last night I went through some old photos and found a bunch from our 89' tour. It brought a lot of memories into finer detail... sadly, many of the crappy memories are in these pictures!
Ah, where to begin!!
Well.. I guess the worst news should be first.
After we finished in the Northeastern States, we headed down to Nashville for a gig we had booked there, but also to have a meeting with Jeff Moseley at Reunion Records. We were anxious to get some idea of when we might be starting a new album and also to get their general take on our new demo package. I have no memories of the actual gig we did there or whether we even HAD a gig. But I DO remember our fateful meeting with Jeff in his office.
After the informal BS that accompanies all business meetings, Jeff began to tell us the bad news. Our Into Thy Hands album was selling less than our Sanctified album did. We had no success at radio either. He expressed Reunion's concerns about lack of forward momentum. Basically, he was displaying his case for why Reunion had decided to drop us from the label. We must have seen this coming, but it certainly was a huge disappointment. Here we were on an extremely modest first US tour, potentially losing our shirts as a result, and yet Reunion had no intentions of doing another album with us. Had we known this ahead of time, we might have saved ourselves the hassle of doing the tour in the first place. This was early into the tour, so we still had another 2-3 weeks to go.
It started to get nasty when we basically told Jeff that we really felt Reunion did jack shit for us on the 2nd album. I think once we realized there was nothing to lose, we felt like it was ok to tell Jeff exactly how we felt about the company. In doing so, we basically told him that we were going to start shopping our new demo to other labels and not let this ruin the band. Jeff was quick to point out that although Reunion would not support us in a new album, we were still under contract and would not be allowed to shop our new material to other labels!
We couldn't believe this. First he tells us we're being dropped, and then he basically tells us we're stuck in limbo until Reunion decides whether or not to let us be free agents again. It was the classic, "if I can't love you, nobody can" concept!! Reunion didn't want us anymore, but they weren't going to let us walk into a rival company and get a new deal. I believe at this point, somebody may have threatened a lawsuit (which of course, Reunion would have won because they had the money to hire enough attorneys to wipe us out of existence!) It's safe to say that our goodbye to Jeff at Reunion that night was not full of hugs and handshakes!
In the end, Reunion must have seen the end of The Awakening coming before we did, because they quickly let us out of our deal and made no restrictions against us looking for a deal elsewhere.
So what a night that was in Nashvegas! We left the office and walked around Broadway Street and felt completely defeated. I think Andy took it worse than the rest of us because he was never one to look at the bad side of things. This was pretty bad. The rest of us of course did what anyone else would do - we tried to use this as motivation to get a whole new thing happening for the band. It's easier to NOT look at how grim your situation is and believe that somehow Santa Claus will come off his sleigh and make everything better!
While we were walking around town that night, a homeless guy was trying to cross the road, but his legs were shot. He might have been a US Vet. I remember Al carrying him across the street. It put our bad fortune in some perspective.
So that bad news infected the rest of the tour. We had some good times in our travels and had some good shows, but there was no shaking the fact that once we got home, we were going to have to do some major soul searching and potentially start the band over from scratch.
Part Three: The Awakening Discovers The Bible-Belt!
In looking through my photos last night, I was reminded of a few not-so-good memories from our time in Florida.
We played a church in Pensacola, and encountered our first Christian con-artist. The pastor of the church went up on stage during the intermission and really talked up the fact that we had come a long way from home to do this concert for them, and that we had a lot of equipment with us that cost a lot of money. This was what we normally dub a "Love Offering," where, although the customers have already paid their ticket price or may even have spent some money on a T-shirt or a CD, they should reach deeper into their savings to help out those responsible for their evening of entertainment/enlightenment! It's the classic Altruist slogan: "From each according to their ability to each according to their need!" Don't get me started!!
We were touched by this display from the pastor. We could certainly have used some extra money. I'm sure we weren't making a fortune at our shows.
At the end of the night, while our gear was being packed up, the pastor settled up with us. He paid us exactly what our contract said he had to pay us - and no more!! Fortunately, Glenn, our manager, was there to represent us. He asked about the love offering money, since he made it clear that this money would be given to us. The pastor said that he made no assurances that we would be getting that love offering money, and that he was under no obligation to give it to us. He said that the love offering would help keep things afloat for the church!
We couldn't believe that he lied to his congregation about this money. For all we knew, he was pocketing the whole amount, because honestly, how would they find out?!
This was my first encounter with what I later would refer to as "christian businessman!" I can't tell you how many times in my professional life, there has been some kind of financial issue when working with Christian clients. I got hired once to perform worship music for a guy who made it clear he wanted to "hire" "only the best" musicians for this gig. Nice of him to flatter me, telling me that I was one of the best musicians out there. After the first unpaid rehearsal, he said that money was tight and that perhaps I could do the gig as my "sacrifice to God."
These sorts of things happen all the time, but our deceptive pastor in Pensacola was our first shining example!
So are you having a good time reading this today?!!
Oh boy! Maybe I should make this a 4 parter!!
While in Florida, I remember also having some clashes with the people. We were and are from Canada, which is a pretty laid-back country. The so-called Bible-belt is a world none of us had experienced except on TV. While we were touring in Florida, we hung out with some of the fans and supporters of The Awakening down there. Many of these people were wonderful, but a few were really from some other planet.
In 1988-89', I had first discovered the music of Brian Wilson. The Pet Sounds album was pretty much all I was listening to during that whole tour, and I was anxious to buy some more Beach Boys cassettes while at the various record stores in the USA. On a day off we had in Florida, some of the volunteers from the gig we had just done offered to drive us around town for the day. I'll never forget the response I got when I asked where the local record shop was. When they found out that all of the guys in the band listened to "SECULAR" music, they were shocked and disappointed! A Christian should only listen to Christian music. Being the arrogant guy I am, I was quick to point out that 95% of the music put out by Christians is unlistenably bad!! I guess the Devil really DOES have the best music! They were so offended by this, and I was so upset about being judged by people who didn't even know us. It was a real wake-up call about the viewpoints of your typical Bible-belt Christian.
We also had a bizarre encounter at a Florida radio station. We were booked to come in for a live interview, and for fun, we decided to listen to the station on the way there. The segment that preceded ours was a call-in show about how dangerous SECULAR music is. There were countless callers calling in to say how they used to like Zeppelin, but that the words to that music are so evil, that they encouraged drug use, sexual sins and any other host of horrible outbreaks! We were shocked to hear this stuff. We thought this was insane mind control by a bunch of very hung-up Christians.
When we arrived at the station, certain members of our group (I'm suspecting Mike and me especially!) could not keep our mouths shut about what we had heard on the previous program. Fortunately, or UN-fortunately (!), we didn't mention any of this on the air, but as soon as our segment was done, we started a lengthy debate with our interviewer and told him how narrow-minded they all seemed. I'm pretty sure they weren't going to be having us back anytime soon, and I'm sure they came away with this attitude that Canadians are all socialist-pigs and humanists!!
We even had altercations with some of our fans. I remember being outside during our intermission, and having a guy come up to me in front of tons of people and ask me, "Hey... yeah you... how do you know Jesus loves you?" There was a long pause, because I wasn't sure why he was asking me this, and then he quickly answered his own question..."Because the Bible tells us so." Oh, very cute! Nice guy!
And then there was an after-show dinner with some of our fans from the show. I have no idea what I said, but obviously something funny happened and I made a joke. It might have been somewhat off-colour, but it certainly wouldn't have been dirty. This guy looked right at me and said, "and you call yourself a Christian saying something like that?!!"
So safe to say... I couldn't wait to get the Hell out of Florida!!
We headed back up to Pennsylvania and finished our tour before heading home.
There were some great times on the road, and despite what I've written above, we DID meet a lot of great people. But as the tour came to a close in early March of 89', the grim reality of what happened at Reunion began to overshadow everything else. Maybe our weird encounters with the Bible-belters explained a little bit about why our band was not eating up the radio market in the Christian music business. If those kinds of people were our target audience, perhaps we were in the wrong marketplace. One lady we met in Florida was starting up her own radio station. She had a slogan already picked - "God's music for God's people." What a nice way of saying, "you fornicating sons of Satan can listen to something else!" It just all seemed other-worldly to us. Going home to Canada meant taking some time to process all of these events and decide whether or not The Awakening should even continue to call itself a Christian band anymore. Next to these sorts of people, we really seemed like devil worshippers. We were just too far out of their idea of mainstream to make it work.
You have to remember too, that in the late 80's, the scandals of Jim Baaker, Jimmy Swaggart and Oral Roberts were making non-church people think that the single most plentiful ingredient in a Christian is hypocrisy, and the second ingredient being stupidity. It was going to be harder to sell somewhat watered-down Christian music to mainstream America, so the labels started pulling away from a mainstream sound. The words to the songs would all become overt and aimed at the already converted. This was not a good sign for The Awakening, who had made a conscious effort to tone down the preachiness of our earlier material. Meeting some of the worst examples of christianity made us seriously consider getting out of the scene all together.
We got home from the tour, and yes, we were in huge financial debt. I don't remember how bad it was, but it was bad. Fortunately, Andy was the only one who had marital obligations, but it certainly wasn't that much easier for Mike, Al and me. Ironically, when I would tour America again in 1996 to a similar financial outcome, it WOULD have a tragic effect on my marriage. The rock and roll world is not an easy one to stay alive in, especially if you have a wife, a house or kids in the mix. It's a career best lived by young people with no obligations and nothing to lose. Fortunately for us in 1989, we were all able to bounce back from the large debts we incurred during the tour.
Well, my friends, I'm sorry to say that the plot line doesn't get much brighter from here on out! Things within the band really started to come apart as 1989 continued. By early summer, the band would call it quits. Between March and May of 89', we continued to write songs, rehearse and do shows, but we were definitely coming apart as a group.
More on those wonderful days coming up soon!
Thanks for reading, and sorry for being a downer with this one. Go have a nice coffee or desert and don't let it get you down.
Cheers my friends.
Ian - June 23/09
No downer, this happens to the best of groups. Look at the global thermonuclear meltdown that The Eagles had on their 1980 tour, and subsequent breakup. Music is a rough and tumble business, from what I gather.
ReplyDeleteAs for secular music, I'm of the firm belief that truth can be found even in the midst of the cruft. It's knowing HOW to look and HOW to listen that's the key. Personally, I LOVE the Pet Sounds album, some really breakthrough music there!
As for "Christian Businessmen", I hear ya, and dynamically at that! Been there myself, but the lesson there is that people are people, regardless of the labels they wear. I know that believers are supposed to have a better moral compass, but they're still humans, and subject to the same weaknesses. Sometimes maybe even more so, due to either "pressure to perform", or not knowing how to handle the trust they've been vested with by virtue of the label. It's definitely a dilemma.
I was in a local Christian Rock band in Colorado from 1984 to 1986 and was very disappointed when we broke up. We had a few meetings (like 2 about 1 or 2 years apart) to see if we could rejoin, but it never did happen.
ReplyDeleteBy the mid 90's I was getting more and more frustrated with Contemporary Christian music. I don't even listen to what is being produced these days and haven't listened to Christian Radio for well over 10 years, more like 15 years.
I have The Awakening's album "Into Thy Hands" and just recently converted it from cassette to MP3 and started listening to it again since probably 1993. It is such a great album and I totally appreciate it.
Some bands that I gravitated to were the full works of Undercover because of how they grew and developed and the deep (and many times sad) stories they had in their lives and how most of them still have faith in God (one for sure doesn't anymore).
Also Resurrection Band's last album "Lament". They wre always cutting across the grain of what was "acceptable" in Christian circles and yet they always had the most powerful and potent ministries. Reaching out to those that were the total castaways and rejects that, to be blunt, many Christians were too scared to talk to.
Thanks for your work Ian, and all of The Awakening. Your music definitely is not dead even today.
Looks like I just typed out a long comment and lost it to the ether.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I didn't discover The Awakening until their final album, Into Thy Hands. I only just recently discovered that there were even any earlier albums. In fact, Into Thy Hands was my first contemporary Christian album, at all. I would jump at the chance to buy the others.
I understand the need for a Christian musician to listen to secular music. The only way to get great ideas for new songs is to glean them from any available source. Personally, I think that the Christian music industry has everything I need in a personal music collection. The secular stuff strikes me as boring, meaningless and over-used. I have a non-Christian coworker who strongly agrees with me. There are so many great Christian songs out there, that I don't really feel the need to look elsewhere, at the moment.