Jump to content

W.A.S.P. (band)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Tokus (talk | contribs) at 10:58, 28 December 2005. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the band. For other meanings of wasp, see Wasp (disambiguation)

Self-titled first album

W.A.S.P. is an American heavy metal band formed in 1982 which gained notoriety for its "shock rock" image, music and live performances.

History

The band, formed in Los Angeles, California, initially consisted of Blackie Lawless, Rik Fox, Chris Holmes and Tony Richards. The band initially became famous for its raunchy and at times shocking live shows; Lawless was known to tie semi-naked models to a torture rack and hurl raw meat into the audience. The band's debut single, entitled Animal (Fuck Like A Beast), was equally controversial.

The initial line up didn't last for long, as Rik Fox left the band and was replaced with Don Costa. Shortly after that, Don Costa also left the band and his position on the bass was filled by Lawless. At the same time, guitarist Randy Piper joined the band.

W.A.S.P. signed to Capitol Records for their debut LP, W.A.S.P., on August 17, 1984 (1984 in music). The band's first single ANIMAL was omitted from the album in the United States to prevent the album from being banned from major chain stores. Capitol planned to release it as a single only in Europe, in a black plastic bag with a sticker warning of offensive lyrics. Eventually, however, Capitol was convinced to release the album with its original packaging in April 1984.

L.O.V.E. Machine and I Wanna Be Somebody helped the album sell well, and set the band up for Blind in Texas, song written in Minnesota, by Blackie Lawless. The song was released on the next album The Last Command on November 9, 1985.

W.A.S.P. became a target of the Parents Music Resource Center, an organization led by Tipper Gore and dedicated to opposing violent and sexual lyrics. The publicity helped sales greatly, whereas PMRC's efforts were unsuccessful.

Inside the Electric Circus was released on November 8, 1986. The album saw Lawless switch to guitar replacing the departed Piper and former King Kobra bassist Johnny Rod replacing Blackie on bass. It received somewhat poor reviews. However bad album reviews weren't exactly a high priority when the tour for the album started.

Shows on the Inside The Electric Circus album tour were recorded. On November 27, 1987, the Long Beach arena concert was released as the Live...In The Raw album.

The later 1980s saw the band's fortunes dwindle swiftly. Their fifth album, The Headless Children, got released on April 15, 1989. This was their first album without any sexually explicit songs and also the first one that sold rather poorly.

The band effectively disbanded in November 1989 (1989 in music). Mainman Blackie Lawless started to work on a solo project, but felt that the result sounded so much like W.A.S.P. that he finally released it as a W.A.S.P. album. Ironically, many critics feel that this album The Crimson Idol has been the best W.A.S.P. output so far. Chris Holmes returned to W.A.S.P. in 1996 and left again in 2002.

The follow up to The Crimson Idol was Still Not Black Enough, a collection of tunes that extended the Crimson Idol mythology as well as included cover songs as "bonus tracks". The initial European edition included a different track listing from the American and a subsequent American re-issue featured yet a different track listing. No version to date includes all the various tracks on one disc.

In April 2004, W.A.S.P. released the first part of The Neon God, subtitled The Rise , a conceptual album about an abused and orphaned boy who finds that he has the ability to read and manipulate people. The second part, The Demise, was released in September 2004.

Current Band Members

Line ups

(1982)

  • Blackie Lawless (vocals / guitar)
  • Chris Holmes (guitar)
  • Rik Fox (bass)
  • Gary Holland (drums)

(1982-1983)

  • Blackie Lawless (vocals / guitar / bass guitar)
  • Chris Holmes (guitar)
  • Randy Piper (guitar)
  • Tony Richards (drums)
  • Don Costa (bass)

(1984-1985)

  • Blackie Lawless (vocals / bass)
  • Chris Holmes (guitar)
  • Randy Piper (guitar)
  • Tony Richards (drums) (on the W.A.S.P. Album)
  • Stephen Riley (drums) (on The Last Command Album)

(1986-1987)

  • Blackie Lawless (vocals / guitar)
  • Chris Holmes (guitar)
  • Johnny Rod (bass)
  • Stephen Riley (drums)

(1988-1991)

  • Blackie Lawless (vocals / guitar)
  • Chris Holmes (guitar)
  • Johnny Rod (bass)
  • Frankie Banali (drums)

(1992-2005)

  • Blackie Lawless (vocals / guitar)
  • Dan McCabe (guitar)
  • Doug Blair (guitar)
  • Johnny Rod (bass)
  • Phillip Wolfe (keyboards)
  • Chris Holmes (guitar)
  • Darrell Roberts (guitar)
  • Mike Duda (bass)
  • Frankie Banali (drums)
  • Stet Howland (drums)
  • Bob Kulick (guitar)
  • Ken Hensley (keyboards)

Trivia

  • The band can be seen briefly in the movie The Dungeonmaster (1985) about an evil wizard.
  • Blackie can be seen in the movie This is Spinal Tap; he is in a mock commercial having wine and food with a female: this can be seen in the VHS version that came out shortly after this movie came to video.
  • W.A.S.P. contributed Scream Until You Like It for the horror film Ghoulies II.
  • Some people believe the initials of W.A.S.P. stand for "We Are Sexual Perverts" or "We Are Satan's People". "We Are Sexual Perverts" is inscribed on their first album into the vinyl next to the label. Another possible abbreviation is "White Anglo Saxon Protestants" (see WASP). When asked, Blackie normally doesn't give a straight answer; in one interview, he answered "We Ain't Sure, Pal".
  • According to Blackie, with the exception of only one member, every time someone left the band was because of drugs.
  • In the song Sunset and Babylon (with lead guitar Lita Ford), the Rainbow Bar and Grill of West Hollywood is mentioned. Opened in 1972, it catered to some of the world's biggest rock and roll celebrities (and is today known as a favorite bar of some celebrities, mostly rock musicians). Blackie met Rod Smallwood in this bar.
  • Ken Hensley, former member of Uriah Heep, played keyboards on the The Headless Children album.
  • At one time they had a flame-throwing cod piece (it shot fire from the crotch). It was used to add effect to their songs. It also would leave the lead singer severely burned when it back fired one day.

Discography

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W.A.S.P._(band)&oldid=32984932"