27. Slyder 1979–1984 (Fort Lauderdale)

Slyder: David James, Jimmy Gambone, Billy Livesay, Jorge Laplume.
Courtesy of Discogs.

 

When MTV “launched” on August 1, 1981, television, as well as radio, changed forever: music was now a visual medium. Suddenly, overnight, local UHF-TV stations across the U.S aired homegrown, weekend “rock video” programming on Friday and Saturday nights.

Here in South Florida, Dave Dixon from WKAT-AM, who served as the host for the nightly, late night movie block, “All Night Show,” on WKID-TV 51 (WCIX-TV “Channel 6” had their own DJ-cum-overnight TV host with Big Wilson and “Night Owl Theater”), also co-hosted the channel’s rock video programming block alongside Randy Thomas of WAXY 106 FM.

Dave Dixon and Randy Thomas.
Courtesy of WKID-TV 51 Facebook.

 

What made WKID’s program special was the programming of recorded-live concert clips and produced videos by local artists segued into the major artist videos of the day, such as “Sometimes a Fantasy” by Billy Joel, “You Better Run” from Pat Benatar, and “Dream Police” by Cheap Trick (I also remember watching Clocks with their new wave hit, “She Looks a Lot Like You,” and Steel Breeze with “You Don’t Want Me Anymore,” on WKID before MTV aired the videos).

For those young rockers who couldn’t go to the clubs, they’d could see and hear locals the Cichlids with taped-live performances of “Jewish Girl” and the Kids with “Time to Explain,” along with produced videos by Z-Toyz with “Miami Breakdown” (which became an MTV Basement Tapes finalist, and winner), in addition to “Money” and “Good Girls Do” by Slyder.

Slyder and the Kids in concert,
September 1980.

Hollywood Sun-Tattler, Vol. 54, July 1983.

MTV and Lynyrd Skynyrd

For their own appearance on the debut edition/rounds of the MTV Basement Tapes, Slyder entered a video for their single, “Dance with Me,” which won their round against six other bands in July. Billy Livesay and company advanced to the September finals for the first prize of a recording contract with EMI Records: they lost out to the Seattle hard-rock trio, Rail, which became known as the first winner of the March 1983 to January 1989 competition series (Martha Quinn hosted from 1983 to 1986; Mark Goodman, who co-hosted, took over as host in 1987; Kevin Seal was the final host from 1987 to 1989).

Back home, the Knack-slanted power-pop of Slyder shared stages and multi-billed shows with Johnny Depp’s band the Kids (which morphed as Rock City Angels) on the South Florida local scene during its 1977 to 1984 existence. Quickly establishing as a solid live act, Slyder opened the national tour stops for Cheap Trick, the Fixx, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and the Romantics at Fort Lauderdale’s defunct Sunrise Musical Theater (now home to a fire n’ brimstone “megachurch”). Meanwhile, the Kids opened for the Psychedelic Furs at the Sunrise, as well as U2’s first South Florida appearance at the Agora Ballroom (morphed into The Button South), as well as local dates for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, the Pretenders, and Iggy Pop. Each also completed regional touring stints as an opening act for national bands.

Notice Slyder and the Kids on an August double-bill,
along with appearances by the Cichlids.
Tar and the Nicotines was another go-to band
for opening national tours in Miami.
Courtesy of Agora Ballroom Facebook.

Slyder was certainly poised to climb the U.S radio charts amid the ’80s new wave/power pop sweeping radio by way of their management with industry heavy-hitter Alan Walden. Starting in the business managing and producing soul singer Otis Redding, Walden founded Capricorn Records, which brought the Allman Brothers, as well as the “Southern Rock” genre to the world. Then, as the founder of Hustler, Inc., Walden repeated his success in the genre by signing Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Outlaws. As the Southern Rock genre waned and new wave music rose, Walden needed a band to develop: he signed Slyder.

"Dance With Me" b/w "Lucky," the band's final recording
and non-album single, released in 1983
(not featured on their 2014's Fervor Records reissue).

Then a five-piece making their debut in 1979 featuring ex-Kids Jimmy Gambone on co-lead vocals and guitars with Billy Livesay, along with bassist Jorge Laplume, keyboardist Steve Parke, and drummer Dave Petratos, the band entered Miami’s Sonic Studios to recording their ten-track album issued on Alan Walden’s Hustler Records—a label name which appears on many albums and singles by Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Outlaws, natch (but nationally distributed by MCA and Arista, respectively). Even with national tours for Cheap Trick and the Romantics to promote the band, the rest of the country didn’t see what South Floridian rockers saw when witnessing Slyder on stage. Upon the departure of Parke, Slyder continued as a quartet until their 1984 demise.

Then, Slyder returned in 1988 with a new, fresh sound.

Slyder Mk. II, aka The Big Bang, left to right:
Jorge Laplume, Jimmy Gambone,
Randy Blitz, and Billy Livesay.

 

As less-hectic “Americana” garage/roots rock bands, such as Wisconsin’s the BoDeans and Boston’s Del Fuegos, signed major label deals and found radio airplay in the mid-’80s, Slyder Mk. II—Billy Livesay, Jimmy Gambone, and Jorge Laplume, along with ex-Rockfellas’ drummer Randy Blitz (1983 to 1993)—regrouped as The Big Bang. The producer behind the boards on their lone release, 1988’s Broken Dreams, was Hal Hansford—who also worked with Miami’s punk-to-goth rock Amazing Grace during the same period. Unfortunately, as with Amazing Grace, the radio-friendly, Brian Adams-styled rock from the pen of Billy Livesay and Jimmy Gambone unjustifiably failed to secure The Big Bang a major label record deal.

Post Slyder . . . Still Rockin’

By 1996 Billy Livesay formed his namesake band with Jorge Laplume from Slyder and The Big Bang. The Livesays have since released three albums: Rose Colored Glasses (2011), Faith, Hope and Love (2014), and Hold On . . . Life Is Calling (2016). Songs from the catalog have appeared in U.S network television movies and series (One Tree Hill and My Name Is Earl), as well as major motion pictures (Straw Dogs and Promise Land).

By 1998 Billy Livesay toured the world with E-Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemmons in his band, the Temple of Soul—as Livesay came to share the stage, as well as record, with fellow E-Street Banders Little Steven and Bruce Springsteen. He also toured for several years with as lead guitarist and vocalist for a reconstituted Foghat led by band mainstay, Tony Stevens.

The rest of the Kids and Slyder also did well for themselves: Slyder drummer Dave Petratos took over the backbeat for the Romantics. Bruce Witkin from the Kids teamed with Johnny Depp once again in Alice Cooper and Joe Perry’s Hollywood Vampires project. Mitch Perry, the original Kids’ guitarist who Johnny Depp replaced, relocated to Los Angeles where he joined Billy Sheehan’s Talas. His fruitful career featured memberships in a later-day Asia (replacing Steve Howe), replacing Yngwie Malmsteen in Ron Keel’s Steeler, the McAuley Schenker Group (alongside Michael Schenker of Scorpions and UFO fame), Sydney, Australian metal band, Heaven (you remember them with a little MTV airplay), the Lita Ford Band, and Bad Boyz (1990 to 1994 with ex-members of Rough Cutt and Quiet Riot).

As with the alt-rock of Dore Soul in the grungy ’90s, the ’80s new wave catalog of Slyder lives on as part of the soundtracks to various cable television and streaming series through Phoenix, Arizona-based Fervor Records, an independent label specializing in acquiring previously released and unreleased demo catalogs of unsigned bands for the purposing of offering affordable music licensing alternatives to advertising agencies, as well as low-budget cable television and streaming series.

* * *

You can visit with Billy Livesay and keep abreast of his latest musical adventures at the band’s official website, as well his official, personal website. The Best of Slyder is available at Fervor Records, while the Livesays catalog is available at ReverbNation.

The first embedded clip is the video for “Dance with Me” that was entered into the MTV Basement Tapes. The second clip is the audio only for “Money” and “Good Girls Do,” both which came with their own videos. In addition to Z-Toyz, another South Florida band that made the MTV competition rounds was Raul Malo’s pre-Mavericks concern, the Basics, with “Kids in the Street.”