Copyright The Calgary Herald
Thursday, September 21, 1989
ENTERTAINMENT
The concert circuit this summer is dominated by retirement-age rockers. The rock veterans are selling a lot of tickets, but Chris Coyne, bass player for the British group the Godfathers, doesn't have much use for The Who et al.
"They're just in it for the money," said Coyne, calling from a truck-stop pay phone somewhere on the highway to Nashville. "You'd THINK they'd have enough by now . . . It's pathetic. I've got time for Keith Richards, but The Who haven't even made a record."
While groups such as The Who, the Doobie Brothers and Crosby, Stills and Nash are well past their prime, the Godfathers are on the rise. The band may be playing clubs instead of arenas, but its shows have the kind of power and passion multimillion- dollar promotional campaigns can't buy.
The Godfathers formed in the mid-'80s when brothers Peter and Chris Coyne recruited three new members for their band, then called the Syd Presley Experience. Legal problems forced a name change shortly after the addition of drummer George Mazur and guitarists Kris Dollimore and Mike Gibson. (Peter Coyne handles lead vocals.)
The group's 1986 debut, Hit by Hit, yielded the underground hit This Damn Nation. The Godfathers followed with the rousing Birth School Work Death (1987) and then this year's full-throttle More Songs About Love and Hate.
The Godfathers haven't had massive radio exposure on mainstream stations although in a better world (say, one free of Tiffany and reconstituted Doobies), they would rule the airwaves as The Who and the Stones did in their day. Songs such as Birth School Work Death and She Gives Me Love are pure, unadulterated rock 'n' roll without any additives or preservatives.
Extensive touring, however, has helped the band build a following. The Godfathers opened for Love and Rockets recently. Coyne joked that the tour with Love and Rockets was a bit of a holiday ("early to bed and early to rise") because the band played for only about a half-hour every night, but the Godfathers generate more energy in 30 minutes than most bands do all night.
The band's repertoire ranges from the neo-psychedelia of When Am I Coming Down? to the R&B-based rock of I'm Lost and Then I'm Found to the raving rockabilly of Walking Talking Johnny Cash Blues.
The two Coynes, naturally, grew up in the same musical environment.
"Me and Pete had six sisters and two brothers; they were buying records from the '50s, the golden period of rock 'n' roll, and then the '60s and early '70s. It was like an instant music college at home. And they always purchased the best stuff; they weren't into Top 40 really - some of that was pretty bad, wasn't it?"
Coyne seems fairly confident of one thing: the ultimate triumph of the Godfathers.
"We're going to take this to the top," Coyne said. "We haven't started yet - to use a baseball metaphor, we're on first base, and we're trying to get a home run."
Hitting the ball out of the park, however, does not mean selling out the franchise. And when the Godfathers are as old as John Entwistle, Coyne doesn't plan to totter out on the road one last time to put the finishing polish on his retirement nest egg.
"I'd rather go into T-shirt merchandising," he said with contempt.