TWISTED SISTER
Twisted Sister was started when Jay Jay French joined a band called Silverstar on February 14, 1973 as a guitar player. He had played in some local bands and has been previously auditioned for Wicked Lester, the band that would eventually become KISS. In those days, he was using the stage name Johnny Heartbreaker. Soon the band changed its name to Twisted Sister upon the suggestion of the band's lead singer Michael Valentine. After he and the other guitarist Billy Diamond had left, Jay Jay assumed also the vocal duties. In 1975 Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda, a former high school mate of French, joined as co-lead singer and second guitarist. He had previously recorded with a New York City band called SPV. Together with Kenny Neill (fulll name Kenneth Harrisson-Neill) on the bass guitar and Kevin John Grace who replaced Mel "Starr" Anderson on the drums the band followed a glam rock direction, influenced by David Bowie, Mott The Hoople, Humble Pie and New York Dolls. They played at local clubs without much success until 1976. Dee Snider joined the band as lead singer in 1976 and brought his AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Alice Cooper influences to the band. After replacing Kevin John Grace with Tony Petri on drums, the group took a heavier musical direction, but without leaving their glam image, with Dee writing the songs, a duty he would carry on to this day. Although glam was out of popularity those days in the area, with Dee's phenomenal frontmanship the band enjoyed considerable local success. They broke attendance records at large halls in New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tri-state area while their fan base was growing under the name Sick Mother f***ing Friends Of Twisted Sister or S.M.F. for short. On the other hand, no record label was interested in signing the band. So the band released "I'll Never Grow Up Now" / "Under the Blade" single in 1979 under their own label Twisted Sister Records, followed by "Bad Boys (Of Rock & Roll)" / "Lady's Boy" in 1980, both produced by legendary Eddie Kramer. In this period, the group also suffered from member traffic. On October 31, 1978, Kenny Neill left to be a "born again Christian", according to an interview with Dee. He was replaced by the band's road crew member and friend, ex-The Dictators bassist Mark "The Animal" Mendoza (born July 3, 1956). On December 1980, Tony Petri also left for Plasmatics and was replaced shortly by Ritchie Teeter (also ex-The Dictators, ironically, he was replaced by Mell Anderson), then by "Fast" Joey Brighton on April 1981, and finally by A.J. Pero from Cities, another unsigned band with local fame. This lineup (Dee Snider, Jay Jay French, Eddie Ojeda, Mark Mendoza and A.J. Pero) is considered the band's classic lineup with which they would record 4 studio albums and they would do numerous shows around the world. Upon the suggestion of two reporters from Sounds and Kerrang! magazines who were influenced by the band's performances, they left for U.K. in order to be able to find a label. There, they were finally signed by a small British label called Secret Records, that was mainly a punk outlet, on April 1982. On June 1982, the group released their first E.P. Ruff Cuts shortly followed by their first L.P. Under The Blade, both produced by Pete Way of UFO under Secret Records label. Despite the low production quality (it was Pete Way's first effort as a producer), the album was a surprise underground hit in U.K. and they opened for such metal acts as Motörhead. The album had a raw metal overall sound and included "Tear It Loose", a very fast speed metal song featuring a guitar solo by "Fast" Eddie Clarke of Motörhead. Secret Records went out of business before Dee's efforts to write the future hit "We're Not Gonna Take It" lyrics had been completed, intended to be released as a single. After an appearance at the music TV program The Tube, Atlantic Records approached the band and eventually signed them. Ironically it was one of the labels who turned them down in the Club Days period. Somewhere around this period, the band replaced its feminine glam image and makeup with a grotesque look which distinguished them of the glam metal bands of the era. Their first L.P. under Atlantic label You Can't Stop Rock'n'Roll, produced by Stuart Epps, was released in 1983 which included the U.K. #19 hit "I am (I'm me)". Upon the success of the album the company decided to promote the band. The album sounded better (from the production viewpoint) and as heavy as its predecessor. The band was now recognized as a weird looking heavy metal band because their look was reminiscient of the pop/glam bands but their music was closer to the heavy metal bands with leather and chains images. A music video was made for the title track of You Can't Stop Rock'n'Roll, which was the first of the series of comedic videos that the band is popularized in. International fame for the group came when the band's third L.P. Stay Hungry hit the stores in 1984. With the videos of hit singles "I Wanna Rock" and especially "We're Not Gonna Take It" (#21 in U.S.), a song that took Dee Snider three years to write, running constantly on MTV, the album sold over 2 million copies by the summer of 1985, and went on to sell over 3 million in subsequent years. It still remains as the band's biggest success and is considered a classic among heavy metal fans. During the very successful tour, they were supported by the young Metallica. Despite being comedic in nature, violence featured in the videos against parents and teachers placed the band under heavy cricism of conservative organizations. They were singled out by the PMRC in 1985. Twisted Sister songs "Under the Blade" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" were specifically mentioned in the Senate hearing. Dee Snider was one of the few musicians to testify before Congress in the September 19, 1985 hearings. The album was a little more commercial sounding than the first two albums, with Tom Werman's production. But it still included heavy songs such as the title track and "Burn In Hell". The band's fourth L.P. Come Out and Play (1985), produced by Dieter Dierks, was not nearly as successful as its predecessor, although it did earn the band gold albums for sales of 500,000 copies. It was one of the first CDs to go out of print. The failure was partly due to MTV banning the "Be Chrool To Your Scuel" video, on the grounds that it was offensive. The song featured such guests as Alice Cooper (who also featured on the video), Brian Setzer, Billy Joel and many others. Nevertheless, the tour for supporting the album was a near fiasco with cancelled dates and low attendances. Not even Atlantic's re-release of the remixed Under the Blade helped the band recover its popularity. After the tour, A.J. Pero left to re-join Cities. He was replaced by ex-Good Rats (the band from which Bruce Kulick of KISS had also originated) drummer Joey "Seven" Franco. The nickname "Seven" is due to the fact that he was the band's seventh drummer. In 1987, Dee Snider decided to make a solo project, and reportedly approached future Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers, but it did not work out. He recorded an album with Joey Franco programming the drum machine and several session musicians such as Reb Beach on the guitars, playing their parts. Atlantic refused to release it unless it was labeled as a Twisted Sister album. So Love Is For Suckers was out. Although the band had not played in the recording sessions, they were mentioned on the album cover as if they had and they did play some of the songs on shows. The album had a very polished pop metal sound with Beau Hill's production. The band had also removed their makeup which they were wearing since the very early days. Commercially, it was a complete failure. Almost two months after the album's release, on October 12, 1987, Dee left the band, the record label canceled the band's contract, and Twisted Sister broke up. The public announcement of the band's demise came in 1988. After the band's break-up, former members were involved in different projects: Dee Snider formed Desperado, Widowmaker and SMFs. He also wrote, directed and starred in a movie called "Strangeland". Eddie Ojeda went on to join Scarecrow and then formed Prisoners of War, both projects were unsuccessful. He's been working as a session guitarist and guitar instructor. Jay Jay French left the active music except for some guest appearances. He formed French Management and is the manager of the alternative metal band Sevendust. Mark Mendoza briefly joined Blackfoot. Then he worked as a producer and manager. He also occasionally spawned solo projects. A.J. Pero was involved in several projects and subsequently toured with Dee Snider's SMFs. Joey Franco worked as a session drummer and played with Dee Snider's Widowmaker. Meanwhile, Atlantic Records released a "best of" compilation "Big Hits and Nasty Cuts" in 1992 which also featured some live performances from the Under The Blade period. A live album from Stay Hungry era named "Live At Hammersmith" was also released in 1994 by Spitfire Records. The classic lineup (Snider, Ojeda, French, Mendoza and Pero) came together in 1997 to reissue their catalogue with previously unreleased tracks, and they have occasionally performed together since then. In 1998, they recorded a track for the soundtrack of Dee Snider's movie Strangeland. Although Mark Mendoza was not involved in these projects as a musician, he was often present at production phases. In 1999, Club Daze Volume 1, The Studio Sessions, an album containing demo recordings from the pre-Under the Blade era was released. It was followed by its live counterpart, Club Daze Volume 2, Live In The Bars, in 2001. Both albums were released under the Spitfire label. In 2001, a Twisted Sister tribute album by Koch Records was released under the name Twisted Forever - A Tribute To The Legendary Twisted Sister. The album featured a wide range of various artists and bands who had been influenced by Twisted Sister, including Lit, Motörhead, Chuck D, Anthrax, Overkill, Cradle Of Filth, Joan Jett, Sebastian Bach and Hammerfall. Oddly for a tribute album, Twisted Sister was also present with a cover of AC/DC's "Sin City". In November of 2001, the reunited Sister joined fellow New York metal artists Anthrax, Overkill, Sebastian Bach, and Ace Frehley to headline a benefit concert for NYPD and FDNY Widows and Orphans Fund in the wake of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. "NY Steel" rasied over $100,000 for the charity, and the reaction to the first Twisted Sister set in 14 years was overwhelming. The demand for more live dates was immediate, and the band took the first steps to returning to the concert stage. In 2002, a remastered "best of" compilation named Essentials was out, generally considered as a better compilation among fans than the one previously issued by Atlantic. By 2003, the group had re-released all their studio albums, except Stay Hungry, on CD with added bonus tracks under the Spitfire label. Twisted Sister finally reunited for Sweden Rock Festival in June 2003, this time including Mark Mendoza. Also appearing in August of that same year at the Wacken Open Air Festival. Footage from that show was filmed for a DVD release. In March 2004, they entered the recording studio to completely re-record their Stay Hungry album for Detonator Records. The album was released under the name Still Hungry and contained 7 bonus tracks. They reported that they were not happy with the original album's production, so this time they produced it themselves. The group is still together and occasionally makes small tours around the world, in full makeup. Before each mini-tour, they play shows as Bent Brother, where they practice their set and play without makeup, usually at reduced ticket prices. In July 2005, the group played a free concert in Edmonton for the Klondike Days. In late 2005, Dee Snider appeared in a tribute album to Iron Maiden, giving vocals for the Maiden classic Wasted Years. The album was called Numbers From The Beast. Dee was joined by his contemporaries and peers George Lynch (ex-Dokken) and Bob Kulick. Also in 2005, the band releases the 2003 Wacken show on CD/DVD simply titled "Live At Wacken". They also went on tour with Alice Cooper, acting as the support band, delivering a set similar to if it was them headlining. In 2006, Snider and French worked with Lordi to produce and play on a few tracks on their new album Arockalypse. Snider was featured on the first track, "SCG3 Special Report", as the voice of Lordi warning of the upcoming Arockalypse. French guest starred on the song "Chainsaw Buffet". In June 2006, the band announced that they had signed with the American record label Razor and Tie to release a final CD, of heavy metal Christmas music called A Twisted Christmas. The CD was released on October 17, 2006, and was a commercial success. On July 8, 2006, Twisted Sister played in front of 80,000 people in Quebec City, Canada. The show also featured Scorpions as the headliner). They also played a small concert at the Wolverhampton Civic Center. The concert was a success, with many fans hailing it as just the same as Twisted Sister at their prime. The group is still together and occasionally makes small tours around the world, in full makeup. Before each of these mini-tours, they perform as Bent Brother, practicing their set and appearing without makeup, usually at reduced ticket prices, although Snider and French have both voiced the opinion that they do not enjoy playing as Twisted Sister. Twisted Sister was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on Oct 15, 2006. On December 13, 2006, Twisted Sister made an appearance on The Tonight Show. The group performed their rock version of "O Come All Ye Faithful" which is arranged in the style of "We're Not Gonna Take It". On December 22, 2006, Twisted Sister appeared on CBS's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, performing their rock version of "O Come All Ye Faithful". On a recent episode of Dee Sniders syndicated radio program "The House of Hair", Dee stated that due to the success of the Christmas album and also due to the response to the tour promoting the album that Twisted Sister might not retire, and that they are discussing what the bands future should be. C.C. Banana interviewed Jay Jay French stating that TS will continue. They are currently working on a DVD. In 2007, Jay Jay French came out against internet radio broadcasting, claiming in a press release by SoundExchange on March 26 that webcasters were "exploiting" his music. The statement was made in response to a per-performance royalty hike proposed by the Copyright Royalty Board, requiring internet broadcasters rates that analysts have said may destroy the industry.
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