Tommy Solo's classics with Frank Soda part one

In part one of my classic interview with Seminal Canadian rocker Frank Soda we discuss his early years starting out in the Canadian bar circuit in the 1970s. From his time with Buddy Knox to muscle rocker Thor & beyond, Frank shares his experiences leading up to Frank Soda & the Imps signing with Quality records.
I met Frank Soda while he & the Imps were backing up Thor at the St. Regis hotel in North Bay Ontario (my hometown) circa 1977. Having the opportunity to jam with the Imps during the Saturday afternoon matinee, I was inspired by Frank to pursue my own dream of being a rock & roll guitar slinger one day.
We recorded this interview in the early days of the pandemic in 2020 & it's definetely worth hearing again.

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Episode Transcript

(00:23):
Welcome to Tommy Solo's Famous Friends ClassicEditions. This is an episode that I
recorded in the early days of thePandemic with Frank Soda, who hadn't spoken
to in person since we met backin the late seventies. I apologize for
the audio quality, as I wasjust learning about the recording process back then.
Anyway, it's a good one andI hope you enjoy and today I'm

(00:46):
very happy to have with me oneof Canada's seminal rockers from the seventies and
eighties, mister Frank Soda. Welcometo the show. Frank. Well,
it's great to be here. Niceto talk to you. Tommy. Well,
that's my pleasure. So you wereborn in Italy and moved to BC
when you were a little kid,and you were, like a lot of

(01:07):
us, I guess, inspired bythe British invasion, and it wasn't long
before you were winning local Battles ofthe bands. What can you tell me
about the early years, right,Well, yeah, it was during high
school basically, you know, weall sort of used to, you know,
play in our basements and everything else, and then there was all these
local Battle of the Band competition andwe ended up putting, you know,

(01:30):
together different musicians which played with differentpeople, that type of thing, and
then we finally found a good unitand we'd go and play at the Battle
of the Band. We ended upwinning a couple of them. So it
was a good way to actually,you know, make sure you had the
practice and sort of to make sureyou had all your chops together because you
were being judged. So it wasa good way to start, you know,

(01:51):
the process of learning music, youknow, right. And from what
I understand, it was quite thetalent pool in that Northwest BC area.
You know. I've talked to severalpeople about how there seemed to be these
crazy geographical pockets where there's huge talentall kind of focused in one area,
and that's what I gather. Yourscene was like, well, yes,
I was lucky because in Paris byc had like Jim Balance and Howard Frows

(02:15):
grew up there, and we'd alwayshad these musicians come up from Vancouver,
like Blair Thornton and he ended upbeing with Bucking Turn later and people like
that. Friend, like they said, I put together that band King Lear,
like we were talking about. Hisname was Kevin Nickel. He was
a very, very talented keyboard guitarplayer from the Vancouver area. Get Pressed

(02:36):
used to come up all the time. He ended up playing with Brian Adamson,
Sweeney Todd, and he's still aphenomenal musician. So it was great
that all these musicians would come up. I would hear him and listen to
him play and pick up chops anddo stuff, and then we'd take it
and put our own band together.And like you say, these Battle of
bands, you know, Yeah,there's an awful lot of people that came

(02:57):
up from that area. I understand. It's a certain point. You ended
up being a guitar player in BuddyKnox band from the Party Party Girl Fame.
Editors. Note what I meant tosay was that Buddy Knox was known
for his huge hit party Doll asin come along and be My Party Doll.
Now back to the show. Yes, it did because in that area

(03:19):
after you know, when we didthe high school stuff in the Battle of
the Bands and playing in gymnasiums andall that. You know, then,
like I said, all these greatmusicians who would be coming up, and
there was a circuit to play.You could play like four or five nights
a week and I ended up justgoing up, up and down from Terrorist
Kid them Out, Prince Rupert,all that Northwest area, up and down
Smithers and all the way to Vancouveras a matter of fact, you know,

(03:42):
with different bands, and that way. It was a good way to
gig and actually why I could supportmyself, you know, being you know,
my late teens and then on tomy early twenties after. But on
the way there, there was aclub in Smithers that a lot of bands
would come up to play. Itwas called the Devil's I think it was
called the Devil's a Web, that'swhat it was. And Buddy Knox was
playing and his guitar player got sickbecause we had just played the night before

(04:06):
or a few days before, andso we stuck around. Of course,
his guitar player got sick. SoI had to learn that lack from party
to all and play along with them. It was fun nice. I played
with the drummer a number of yearsago named Gord Hager who had a stint
with Buddy Knox, and he sharedyour sentiments and said it was a lot
of fun to play with that band. So how did you go from that

(04:27):
to hooking up with the legendary musclemanthor. Yeah, okay, what happened
like a fit because there was placesup in that Northwest area to play.
So after we put together bands thatactually could make money and stuff like that,
we played these little pubs and fourcame up to play a pub and
he threw in from Hawaii, Ibelieve, you know, with this lady

(04:48):
at the time who had just wonMisnude Hawaii or something, and we picked
them up at the airport. Theycame in all tanned and everything else,
and they came up to play ashow and kid Man and we were the
backup band. So he would belike this because he said, you know,
hey, these guys are great.Maybe sometime I'm heading to Ontario.
Blah blah blah. You know thatthat the thing, Let's put together a

(05:10):
band. So that's all that allstarted. Nice. So you took the
train from Vancouver to Toronto, youhook up with thora and all of a
sudden, you guys are opening theshow and breaking cinder blocks on this guy's
chest. That must have been quitethe experience. That was nuts, because
yeah, one time at the Montebellobelieve in Saint Captain's, Ontario, like
I said, people would come upand they would beat drunk, and he'd

(05:32):
let this guy wheel the sledgehammer tobreak the bricks on his chest. He
was a bit crazy, you know, all him, and sometimes these people
would try to actually do harm tohim. And one time a big brawl
broke up because one guy tried toactually hit him with the sledgehammer and try
to do a bit of damage,and bounces got in and then they had
to close the whole street down atthe Montebello on Saint Captains. I'll never

(05:55):
forget that. Yeah, who knowswhat inspires people to their levels of stupidity
sometimes? And he had no kidding. Yeah really, I mean, you
try to put on a show,you it's not supposed to be a pissing
contest. Really. Yeah, SoI understand that at some point in time,
you guys were guests at a Kissshow because John was chosen to present

(06:19):
them with their platinum record. Yes, exactly. Well what happened was Kiss
was playing actually at that time,as a late seventies, it was half
the Maple Leaf Gardens. They weregetting very big, like Kiss was getting
big, but they weren't really huge, you know, they only played the
half of the Maple Leaf Gardens andat that time, Or was in conversation

(06:39):
with the actual manager for kiss youknow, to look at his show and
that type of thing, you know, maybe talk about signing him and that
type of stuff. So they invitedus all down and we were guests back
the age and it was fantastic.So he got to kind of open the
show himself a little bit, presentthe old album to them, you know,
and then we hung off for thewhole show. So it was a
great experience, I'll bet. Soall of a sudden, Thor is invited

(07:02):
to be on the MERV Griffin Show, and from what I understand, they
insisted on using the NBC whatever thenetwork orchestra, and so that said,
yeah, so that meant you guyswere left on your own, well exactly.
Well what happened was there was atime when he did not end up
signing with a coin there from aboutKisses management, he had another manager,

(07:26):
Bruce Wilson was his name, andthrough him he got all these offers,
like to go to the state andto do things like that. And when
he got the MURV Griffin offer,it meant that he would have to leave
us behind because he only used theorchestra for that. Like I mean,
if you see that quick, you'llsee what I mean. It doesn't suit
the song, you know, Imean it was way heavier the way you

(07:47):
know a rock band plays it.So anyway, while he did that,
he got offers to do all sortsof other stuff but Las Vegas shows.
And while he was getting those offerswith the Inch kept playing and at that
time Shama Fem came down and recordedus live live in the tuba was called
Member the Piccadilly Tube in Toronto,and then from there we were offered a

(08:07):
contract. So that's what ended uphappening. That's when the split happened with
Thor, So it wasn't really sadending. And from what I understand,
you've played some shows recently with Thor, is that right? Well, I
still played with him quite a bit, to be honest, I've been doing
the last ever since he came backfrom he had moved down to South Carolina
area there because he had married alady that ended up being a part of

(08:28):
his show. And after we hadsplit and then he mpstedop the quality Erecas
contract, he ended up going toNew York and then England, then and
all sorts of stuff, and heended up signing other deals, and then
after the years passed by, heended up sort of semi retiring in South
Carolina, keeping a bit of musicand a bit of business as well with

(08:50):
his wife because his wife was comethere. But he moved back here in
the nineties in Vancouver where I hadmoved back to, and there was a
big separation with his wife had happened, and he was very very taken aback
by that, you know, itwas it was a real tough time for
him. But he came back andever since then, you know, we
always remained friends, even though therewas a bit of a when we split.

(09:11):
There was a bit of sort ofanger for a while, you know,
but then after a while we allstill remained friends. So he came
up here, and I've been recordingand writing and doing shows off and on
with him ever since the nineties,really, you know, and still to
this day. And we'll be rightback after this. Well, I want

(09:45):
to go back now to the timebetween Thor going onto the MERV Griffin Show
and you guys going on your ownand you talked about the Live in the
Tube and then you were signed withquality records. So you did an awful
lot on your own, and Ican personally remember your shows. You were
hard pressed to be a side manin anybody's band, because I got to

(10:07):
remember you flying across the stage doingscissor kicks. You had the famous TV
what was the song that you youwrote? TV people? Yeah? Yeah,
yeah, and you exploded the TVon your head. I mean your
shows were crazy, man. Wellyou know what I tell you right now.
I always it's kind of like oneof those things where you enjoy doing
the show, but then it becomesa bit almost like too much in a

(10:31):
way. There's some regrets you canhave because I became almost too much of
the show. They wanted the TV, they wanted the exploding pig, they
wanted the exploding moon man or whateverI had, you know, and we
enjoyed doing that. But the problemwas I think that we just didn't concentrate
enough on the actual production of themusic is what it ended up happening.
You know. So I had fundoing the show, but then it sort

(10:54):
of becomes like you know, thedevil you know kind of thing. It
becomes like you don't spend enough timeI'm really working on songs so it has
sort of pluses and negatives too,you know, I get it. Yeah,
it's one thing to have a huge, live energy show and then to
try and represent that on a record. So yeah, there's got to be

(11:16):
a balance between the show and theproduction. But man, your show is
were something else. Well, yousee, what ended up happening with us
is that even before there was alot of stuff that was happening live on
touring bands across Canada and all that, what ended up happening was we ended
up having video screens that we takewith us. We ended up having three

(11:37):
roadies. We had such a bigproductions. What ended up happening because I
used to kind of be introduced onthe television screen would come on and then
we had that way back then.And what happens is that if you're doing
that, you got to keep thatmachine going. You got to make a
lot of money to keep it afloaton the road, and then you don't
have time to sit down and say, hey, let's work on some new

(12:00):
music or work on you know whatI mean. But that's what ends up
happening. Yeah, when you're alreadyat the top, how is it?
How can you top it? Iget it. Yeah. Well, now
you did a lot of things thatwere ahead of your time. I'm curious
where you got the idea to doguitar battles with yourself. The funny thing
is about the guitar battles is becausewe had the video screen on stage anyway.

(12:20):
So what I did was I justsaid, you know, in the
middle of the show, I'm justgonna run out wireless and I'll record myself
doing something. I'll be jamming withmyself. I didn't really develop it like
right nowadays, you know, someonelike See Bay or something could do an
orchestral thing with himself, you knowwhat I mean. Right, all I
did back in the day, wejust recorded it on VHS. You know,

(12:43):
I just recorded a VHS so myselfand then boom they put it on
the screen. And I did that. So I didn't take it to the
level that someone could do it now, you know what I mean. Well,
you did it first anyway. Yeah, that's awesome. So along the
way you entered up up sharing thestage with some pretty impressive people. I

(13:03):
mean, you opened for the StanPeters, shared the stage with Deep,
Purple, Triumph, Savoy Brown,et cetera. Do you have any fond
memories of those times, anything specificthat stood out in your memory, Well,
I sure do, you know.But the thing is is that when
you get into the music business,and you as well, you know,
and any musicians you know that whenyou hear someone play and then you actually

(13:26):
get to meet him, it's justlike, oh my goodness, you know,
I actually met this musician that Iused to listen to and you know,
and play and try to get hislicks and all that. And Kim
Simmons was one of those people.So Kim Simmons and Sabab Brown I used
to, you know, try tolearn all his licks and all this stalk
way back in the day. Andwe ended up doing the Deep Purple Picnic
it was called, So were oneof the opening bands, along with Share,

(13:50):
a whole bunch of other bands atthat time. And I'll never forget
it. Like, Kim Simmons wason my right when we were playing.
He was just standing there at thewhole show, you know, and I'm
going, jeez, I can't sithim. So anyway, when we finished
playing, he actually came up tome, and that's the truth. He
came up to me. He said, it was a great show. You
know, blah blah blah, thattys of thing. We got to talking.

(14:11):
He actually gave me his number,and I'm sort of going, oh
my god, I'm not worthy,you know, that type of thing,
and he says he gave me hisnumber. He says, yeo on the
new y'a hope now And I can'tremember exactly what it was and that type
of thing. And we've always keptin touch, and I still got that
picture of us that we took backstagethere, and then later when he came
out to the Yale in Vancouver.I never did get him to sign it,

(14:33):
but later when he came to playthe Yale, because he still plays
all the time, all these bluesshows and even some small or some bigger
some concerts. But he ended upplaying the Yale here in Vancouver, which
was a club, and I endedup going down there and getting it signed,
and then we just talked about oldtime, so stuff like that.
That is a memory that really sticksin my head. You know, that's

(14:54):
a good one. I want togo back to the pocket of talent that
you came up around you. Youwere around people that ended up in bands
like Trooper, Prism, Chilo wacI mean that had to be a really
positive influence on you. Oh yeah, for sure. Well, the thing
is is that the guitar player upin Terras, Howard Prose, ended up

(15:15):
with Chili Wac. When I leftwith Florida Vancouver. He had moved down
to Vancouver and he got the gigwith Chiliwac. Meanwhile, a Jim Balance,
of course, my drummer from theJohn Ashasser used to play with him
and his brother Mark and stuff inthe little bands in Terrace, and I
would see him all the time.I remember hanging out and going down to

(15:35):
his basements and he could put onthese Beatles songs and analyze them. He's
a phenomenal. He could play keyboardsand guitar and drums and basically everything,
you know, and he basically couldanalyze and almost sit there and write out
the part the Beatles are playing thathe was so into it, you know.
Yeah, we all know about oneguy, yeah exactly, you know.

(15:56):
And he ended up coming down andof course did the Prism, you
know, he wrote all the prisonstuff. And then then he ended up
with Brian Adams of course. Nice. Yeah, So then you signed with
Quality Records. You did a coupleof albums on your own, and at
some point the band broke up andyou ended up recording Saturday Getaway with the
new lineup in eighty one. Howdid that happen? That's great, Well,

(16:18):
that happened because it was just thatwe've been together for so long.
You know what happens with bands youget together for you know, you've been
together so long with four and thenin the seventies in your touring, then
in the eighties and then we werekind of like a machine, if you
know what I mean. And itended up that after we signed with Quality
Records, basically the imp started saying, well, listen, maybe we should

(16:40):
start getting more money instead of havingall these road managers and that kind of
things. So you start getting intolittle things like that. Later, of
course, you know, we laughedat and everything else. But when that
happened was the manager at the timethat we had it was managing us and
getting us all these deals. Heended up signing Lee Aaron and Lee and
all that, you know, buthe would say, well, listen,

(17:02):
Frank, if they're going to belike that, I got a couple of
great musicians that are right there,you know. So it came to a
head that type of thing. Sowe ended up like just using it was
Glenn Graddo and Peter Crowley kind ofagain in the offiction. Listen, we
have to keep things like a budgetthing, you know, I mean,
we can't not have a road managerbecause you know, you guys still want
to go up and not too inyour drums or move your gear and all

(17:25):
that. You know what I mean. Right, So it was one of
those things that happened with me inand so he ended up like just hiring
those two. And but later on, like I said, we still remain
friends and stuff. You know.Well, I hope you enjoyed Part one
of my twenty twenty conversation with FrankSoda. He had a lot more to
say, and well you're it allin part two. Stay tuned for that.

(17:48):
Tommy Solo's Famous Friends is a oneman production, meaning that I've done
all the work including recording, editing, guest acquisition, et cetera. And
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(18:11):
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