April Wine enjoyed hit albums with 1978’s First Glance, 1979’s Harder… Faster, and 1981’s The Nature of the Beast – but guitarist Brian Greenway accepts that his band remain under the radar. “The Canadian thing probably had something to do with it,” he says.
“We did the best we could. We broke up in ’84, and by the time we’d gotten back together in 1992, we’d just sort of missed it.”
He’ll be the last man standing from the classic era when April Wine tour with Triumph later this year. “The legacy is there,” he says.
“We still do very well in rooms – but I’ve been told we’re too loud, and that stopped us going back to those rooms. We weren’t doing arenas anymore, and we were too much for clubs. But we’ve been going back to places that we haven’t been for years, and the reaction has been very strong. You just gotta be there to do it.”
I’d got to know them after they came to Montreal in 1970, and I’d also been in two bands with Steve Lang, who became their bass player. In 1977 they were looking for a player who could sing a little, play a little keyboard, and write a little. They got me in for a trial summer tour, and now I’m the last one here!
What gear were you working with then?
The guitar I’ve played on every April Wine album is a 1972 sunburst Gibson Les Paul Custom that I got for $550. I’ve had that guitar for going on 52 years. Gibson started putting new ones out this year, and in Canada they’re $7,400 – so $500 is a good deal, right?
I acquired a Marshall stack; it was the late ‘70s and it was an arena rock band, right? The only pedal I had was an MXR Phase 90 with the script writing, but then I got a Boss Chorus Ensemble. The tone got me addicted – when it broke I’d say, “I can’t play!”
Have you modified the Les Paul?
I hated the frets on it, so in ’78, I got it fitted with jumbo frets. With the guidance of a luthier I shaved down the neck with a razor blade to bring it into line with the specs of a ’59 or ’60 neck. Then I had it refinished from the teardrop red and yellow to a more tangerine/mango faded sunburst. It’s stayed that way ever since.
They put a lacquer on it that heavily aged for some reason, so around 10 years ago I had another luthier restore the top. And I had the pickups replaced with Seymour Duncan Antiquities. It’s got a sound of its own even with replacement pickups.
Looking back on the classic April Wine song Roller – how did that come about?
First Glance was partially recorded when I came in, and the band were just learning Roller. We took that on the road with us for a good six months, played it in front of a lot of people and re-tuned it. It was one of the first few songs that we road-tested an awful lot before we recorded it. I guess that showed.
It’s important with a ballad to get the track just right before you start vocals. You couldn’t do a nondescript ending like you can now
With other songs, we’d learn them in the studio. Myles Goodwyn was the only writer. He didn’t want anybody else writing, so he kept the songs to himself. He’d bring them in, show them to us, and we’d create our parts. But with Roller, he had that lick down – and it’s an interesting little lick too.
How about I Like to Rock?
The ending of that is interesting. Before I was in April Wine I was in a band called All the Young Dudes, and we’d play clubs because it was a drinking band! We’d get bored, or drunk, and start playing two songs at the same time, just for shits and giggles. One time we did Day Tripper and (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction at the same time.
So when we were recording the end of I Like to Rock, I went into Day Tripper, and Gary Moffet – who’d been in that band with me before April Wine – went into Satisfaction! The engineer and Myles liked it, so that went on the record.
What’s the story behind Just Between You and Me?
That was done in England at Manor Studios. It took some time to get the bed track on that; it just wasn’t clicking properly. I worked on it for a few hours with the rhythm guitar, and Myles and Mike Stone were in the control room listening, and I gave up.
Then Gary came in. He was just relentless – very mechanical with repeating things over and over perfectly. He got the track down, and an hour or two later we had it. It’s very important with a ballad to get the track just right before you start learning vocals. You couldn’t do a nondescript ending like you can now.
April Wine are hitting the road with Triumph soon, which is a wonderful celebration of the underrated Canadian hard rock scene.
Yeah, and there’s a lot of us! April Wine have been together for a long time. We were there when the industry was just being created. We helped prove that you could tour across the country and make money.
When I found out Triumph were going back out and we’d be doing an arena tour with them, I said, “What a great package!” We worked with them in the ‘70s, so it goes back a long way.
Seen through the lens of underrated Canadian rock bands, how do you view the legacy of April Wine?
I think we could have been bigger in the US – but who knows? There was a lot of competition. We could have toured more in the States, but we did very well during the time of those three albums, First Glance, Harder… Faster, and The Nature of the Beast.
With the new band the chemistry is very strong… the best since the five-piece from 1977
It started to fall off with [1982's] Power Play… but music was changing. Guitar bands were going out of fashion. Thank God they’re sort of back again.
Why do you think that is?
Rock bands like us have survived all these years, and guitarists never went away. I think the invention of modeling made the guitar a lot more friendly in recording studios. Maybe that’s part of the reason why it came back, rather than how we used to have to turn things off to record. A lot of that became noise pollution. Modeling saved the guitar from being a victim of noise pollution.
What’s next for April Wine?
Dates for the tour are still being added. We’ll continue to do festivals and hopefully go back to some of these markets we’re doing this year. Hopefully, that’s gonna rebuild the name and get us back to where we can do another album.
There’s a live album from Myles’ last show that’s in the can and ready to go. We don’t have a label that’s interested, but we’re ready for it to happen. After that, who knows? With the new band the chemistry is very strong. I like this lineup – I think it’s the best we’ve had since the five-piece from 1977 through 1984.
- Catch April Wine on tour now. Their road trip with Triumph commences on April 22.
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