THE COMPLETE SYMPHONIC SLAM~TIMO LAINE BIO

SLAM: 1974 TO 1978

TIMO: “I was then asked to record a demo for Epic Records in San Francisco. I got Bob Silvert again to play keyboards & Chamberlin, I brought in Noe Cruz from my band Zebra on bass guitar, and a drummer. We started rehearsing at S.I.R. Rehearsal Studios in the spring of 1974 in L.A”.

TIMO: “I desired a fresh new sound, I was hungry to see what could be done to make the guitar do more. I had performed with my Les Paul, Fender amp and Echoplex for years. I wanted to contrast the heavy guitar sounds with more orchestral sounds. My first attempt was to try out the GuitOrgan by MCI This was a micro circuited B-3 organ stuffed inside a Gibson ES-335 hollow body guitar. The frets were cut in six sections that functioned as micro switches. This allowed me to play the guitar and organ at the same time. It was very limited, and did not offer for me, anything I wanted to live with for very long”.

Timo's MCI Guitorgan

Bob Silvert quit so they then auditioned Dan Bates on keyboards, from Fresno, CA and he joined. Dan also played the Chamberlin.

DAN BATES: “I got in a bad car wreck when I was in high school. I got $12,350 and bought a house ($8,500) and the Chamberlin ($2,000). This provided the band with the orchestral sounds of cellos, flute, and choral voices. The band rehearsed week days at S.I.R. because Epic Records was interested in signing us. We had 2 managers. Bill Sherman and Maury Alexander. They basically created the band, The Association, and owned Valiant Records and a ton of record shops all over LA. They called the stores Record Man Records. Every day we rehearsed, we were surrounded by famous people. David Bowie, Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, etc. We were louder than hell and made a ton of sound. Timo was really great and different on guitar. We recorded at a very famous studio on Sunset Strip and another studio in LA. At this second studio we had added another member to the band named Dennis O'Lone. Dennis O'Lone only played Chamberlin. For awhile, we had 2 Chamberlin players in the band”.

Dan commented that this band was a 'symphonic slam'. Timo said that's the new name, and Symphonic Slam was born.

Dan had been playing with his high school friend Jeff Bryon in the most popular band in Fresno called The Eastgates. Dan moved to Los Angeles, but drove back to Fresno to play gigs on weekends with Jeff in The Eastgates. While playing in Fresno, Dan & Jeff met a guitar player named Mark Blythe. They really liked his playing and personality. Both Jeff and Mark would soon be playing in the newly created Symphonic Slam.

DAN BATES: “Epic Records wanted to sign us and paid for the session. They liked the demo and paid for us to record in San Francisco at Columbia Recording Studios (Epic is a subsidiary). O'Lone and the drummer had quit so we moved to my house in Fresno. They then got Dan Bates's high school friend Jeff Bryon on drums, and rehearsed every day. Jeff's parent's were both brilliant musicians. His father had retired from teaching music and conducting the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra. His Father was a Doctor of Music and his Mother was first chair viola”.

Jeff's Mother used these talents playing in the orchestra that backed up Rod Stewart on the Californian leg of one of his tours.

DAN BATES: “The bass player (Noe Cruz) thought it was funny to tip 200% instead of 20%. So, if his drink was $5, he tipped $10. All this was put on Columbia Records bright white credit card. All bands were investigated back then. A guy named Roy Halee showed up and he was pissed that supposedly our A&R man was using money from a "slush fund" to pay for our album project. So he got fired and so did we”.

JEFF BRYON: “We recorded and stayed at a nice hotel in San Francisco, all paid by Epic. Dan and I sang on the demo. Michael did get let go from his A&R job with Epic so that was a waste of time. We went to Santa Ana, CA to record our originals with Noe on bass after that I believe”.

DAN BATES: “Halee was producing a new band in the shittier studio, next to us, they were "Journey" and were recording their first album. BTW Halee loved our tracks. Our A&R connection got fired after we recorded a couple of songs there. Noe Cruz, the bass player quit and we got Mark Blythe, who was a local guitar player. I don't think Mark ever recorded with Slam at all. We kept rehearsing every day”.

TIMO: “In the middle of that production, the producer was fired. He gave me the tapes and said good luck. So I decided it was time to go elsewhere”.

Timo was in Hollywood in 1968 and was recording for MGM Records at the time with his band Train. This is where Timo met Terry Sheppard who was on leave from Vietnam and the two struck up a friendship – one that eventually led Sheppard to invite Timo to Canada. In London Ontario, in the spring of 1975, a local radio personality (and Christian Minister), Terry Sheppard received a demo tape from his friend Timo Laine. Against all odds, and contrary to what every other band in Ontario was trying to do, Terry decided to bring the band from California to relocate to London to try and make it in the music business there.

TIMO: “When we came to Canada in 1975, my friend, Terry Sheppard – a DJ at CJBK radio in London became our manager. We were soon signed by Music Shoppe International for bookings and we worked the clubs full-time”.

This is where I came into the picture. I was preparing to go to work for Nick Panaseiko as a booking agent. Nick was a music promo man and concert promoter. I had just finished taking Recording Engineering in college. Terry had given Nick a reel 2 reel demo tape of Symphonic Slam and he played it for me. I instantly loved the band, they had a unique sound. With Timo playing Guitorgan, Dan Bates on Fender Rhodes piano, Mini-Moog, and Chamberlin, Jeff Bryon on drums, and Mark Blythe on bass guitar they had a very distinctive style. Lead vocals were shared by Timo, Dan and Jeff. I asked Nick to introduce me to Terry and I convinced him to give me a try as their roadie and soundman.

DAN BATES: “Timo talked to Terry Sheppard and told us, "I know a guy that can maybe get us a record deal in Canada".

So they packed up their equipment into Dan and Jeff's two vans and the four of them headed to Canada. Nick decided he wanted to showcase Slam at a local concert. Nick, Terry, and myself thought who would be the best act to headline. RUSH was chosen to contrast the symphonic sounds of Slam. So on June 27th, 1975 Slam opened for Rush at Centennial Hall, London, Ontario. SS was one of the very first opening acts for Rush when they started headlining.

DAN BATES: “Terry got us the gig opening for Rush in Canada. So me and Jeff went to a Rush/Kiss concert and met Geddy (Lee) and Paul Stanley. I told Geddy we will be opening up for them in a couple of weeks in Canada and he said they just finished their tour opening for Kiss and he'd see us up there”.

The concert went very well, the London Free Press gave Slam a great review, saying: “Concert a Battle in Rock Contrasts“ Terry Sheppard had given a copy of the demo tape to Rush. It would later be played at Rush's manager Ray Danniels stag party. Danniels was talking to A&M Record's national promo director Doug Chappell and played Slam's demo for him. Chappell, in turn, took it to Gerry Lacoursiere – VP and General Manager for A&M Records at the time. This would eventually result in A&M offering a 5 year – 5 album deal. Slam toured the bar circuit for the rest of 1975. They played numerous clubs from Sarnia, Ontario to Ottawa to Thunder Bay.

Slam played at a Toronto ON club called 'Yonge Station' in October 1975. The event was to showcase the band for music industry persons. DJ's, record company A&R people, music reviewers, etc., had been invited. As a result of this showcase a Toronto DJ at CHUM-FM invited the band to come in for an interview. They ended up doing a live interview and they played the songs from the San Francisco demo tape. As a result Gerry Lacoursiere at A&M Records called CHUM-FM with an invitation to come in for an interview. Gerry had been approached already by Doug Chappell, after Doug heard the demo at Ray Danniel's party.

TIMO: “The president of A&M was listening and called the DJ and said “Tell that kid Timo Laine to come and see me.” We got signed to record SS. The material was a collection of musical ideas I had been saving while playing clubs and concerts over the years. The songs for SS took years to develop, and months to rehearse and record”.

The band had toured throughout Ontario, including through Northern Ontario in the winter. It had been pretty hard on them, being Southern California boys. They had had it pretty rough, low pay, and living in the manager's basement when not playing. Timo and Terry's previous friendship had driven a wedge between them and the other 3 members. The other 3 members of the band decided that was enough and quit and returned to California. The two songwriters had been Timo and Dan. I had always considered Dan to be the 'Symphonic' and Timo, the 'Slam'. With Dan gone, so were his compositions.

DAN BATES: “One day Mark came to Jeff and I and said he wanted out, he couldn't take it any more and he was flying home. Jeff and I drove across the country at about 45 miles per hour because his valves were going out in his van. He followed me the whole way. We must have left a few days before Xmas because I remember we spent Xmas Eve in a motel in Cheyenne Wyoming. Mark flew home, and we took his equipment in our vans. I felt that we had to get out or freeze to death. Some of those gigs were very long distances. We thought A&M Records had been avoiding us at the time”.

When the original 3 members left we had to secretly put together a new band and rehearse the music under extreme secrecy without A&M finding out what happened. Timo and Terry had set up their own production company and acquired financing. Timo was then able to acquire the '360 Systems Polyphonic Guitar Synthesizer'. Timo upgraded from his Guitorgan to an experimental piece of guitar synthesizer technology. I became the 'Road Production Co-ordinator'.

TIMO: “I then contacted and met with Tom Oberheim, and asked him to hook up a guitar to synthesizers. Oberheim said that he had already worked with that idea, and that I should contact a man named Bob Easton of '360 Systems'. What '360 Systems' had done was invent a device called a pitch to voltage converter. The converter was hooked up to a hexaphonic pick-up allowing it to be sent to 6 synthesizers. Bob Easton had the prototype that was to be hooked up to six Oberheims. I fired it up and Bam!, I fell in love. It was the '360 Systems Polyphonic Guitar Synthesizer'.. I made a deal with Bob immediately, and at a price of $10,000 USD, he sold it to me ($10,000 USD in 1976 = $50,235 USD in 2022 & $63,848 CDN in 2022). I had it shipped to Canada where I was in pre-production for my first Symphonic Slam album”.

“This system was a great tracking unit because it was polyphonic. There was no harmonic problems like the later developed monophonic systems that never worked or tracked well. This was a high performance moon rocket that responded perfectly to my style. Since I used the system on every song on that album, the word got out real fast about this monster guitar rig. To my good luck A&M Records released the album world wide off the starting blocks. The press and media caught on to the new sound, and my famous '360 Systems Polyphonic Guitar Synthesizer' earned me the title "Father of the Guitar Synthesizer."

“Later on, I heard Frank Zappa had bought one from Bob, but could not use it because it was running Moog synthesizers. The Moogs drifted so bad the system could not be kept in tune. So I bought Zappa`s polyphonic guitar as a back-up, but not the Moogs. Jimmy Page called us and wanted to buy my system at a hefty price, but I refused, and explained I was doing tour support with it and was planning another album later. Stevie Wonder also wanted to rent the system for one of his albums, but I was on the road”.

“Only six units were built, mine was the only one that worked properly. I was the first to record an entire album with it on a major label, with a world wide release. There were pitiful monophonic guitar synths on the drawing boards at that time, and even though players were trying to get their footing with them, they ended up being more of a bad joke than a sincere musical effort”.

“The system allows each of the guitar strings to take on the properties of a synth that can be tuned up or down in octaves, while being controlled by a series of foot-controls. The sounds the guitar synth's can create vary from a harpsichord to a trombone with a soulful Motown quack, and the total instrument can produce 18 notes simultaneously”.

360 Systems Polyphonic Guitar Synthesizer

OWNERS OF '360 SYSTEMS POLYPHONIC GUITAR SYNTHESIZERS':

From L - R: David Stone, Timo Laine, John Lowery

At that point we presented the new band to A&M and that's when Timo was signed to A&M Records in mid-March 1976.

TIMO: “A&M concluded that I was a good bet and wanted to record my material. They signed only me. They wanted me to put together a new Canadian project that would meet Canadian content laws (CanCon). They required I become a landed immigrant, and hire at least one more Canadian player. I hired keyboardist David Stone (Diamond Back, Deja Vu, Canon, etc.) and I brought in a drummer from California named John Lowery”.

“I co-produced the album with George Semkiw, and after twelve weeks of rehearsals, all of my songs were ready for the studio. The recording was a big budget deal and we used a state of the art studio called Phase One in Scarborough, Ontario. The cost was expensive for A&M Records. It was about $50,000 Canadian (over $233,000 in 2022 $'s) for studio and production expenses plus our own living expenses that they covered. And another $42,000 that I covered personally for my guitar equipment, and keyboards. Then to top it off, the cover painting by Mati Klarwein (Santana's “Abraxas”, Miles Davis' “Bitches Brew” among many) from his 1973 book “Milk 'n' Honey” was the most expensive invoice the label got in a long time. It cost them $3,000 USD for the rights”.(almost $16,000 USD/$22,000 CDN in 2022 $'s)

Symphonic Slam debut album cover

Artwork by Mati Klarwein

In February of 1976, Timo organized the current SS trio and began three months intensive rehearsals for a month long recording session at Toronto's state of the art recording studio, Phase One. The object of the sessions was to produce an album bearing the forceful and energetic note-for-note action of the band. It's traditional for a group leader to be outstanding in context of his band, and Timo was no exception. He wrote all the music and lyrics, did the arranging and co-produced it with George Semkiw.

A&M Records: “Symphonic Slam's multi-dimensional instrumentation and unpredictable music patterns wind and lead the listener to new spaces. Fuelled with forceful action. SLAM is in the first stage and shows no sign of stopping”.

In our search for a drummer to replace John Lowery, Timo, Terry, Nick Panaseiko, and myself were at a Toronto nightclub when Nick brought Domenic Troiano (RIP) (guitarist for Mandala, Bush, The Guess Who, James Gang, etc.) and drummer extraordinaire Graham Lear over to our table. Graham was born in England but raised in my hometown London ON. I was a huge fan of his. He was incredible as Gino Vanelli's drummer. I believe Graham to be one of the best drummers EVER! When Nick introduced Timo as the leader of Symphonic Slam, Graham said that was really strange as he had recently been at the Guitar Center in Hollywood and saw all these pretty royal blue 'Anvil' road cases stacked along the walls with 'Symphonic Slam' painted on them. He said he remembered them because of the unusual name, and wondered what Symphonic Slam was. The album hadn't been released yet. When we asked him if he would be interested in the gig, he told us he had just signed up with Santana and was on his way back to L.A. to rehearse for a tour. Obviously Carlos knew how good Graham was also. He played for Santana from 1976 to 1987. He then went on to play with REO Speedwagon, Saga, David Foster and played for Paul Anka for many years.

After the album was recorded John Lowery was replaced by Jan Uvena from New York. Jan played all the live Canadian dates after the first LP came out (ie. Massey Hall, Maple Leaf Gardens, etc.) And as one concert reviewer said after Massey Hall "Jan Uvena wasn't the original drummer from the record, he was BETTER!"

Symphonic Slam

From L - R: Timo Laine, Jan Uvena, David Stone

The new band with Jan Uvena on drums then went into strict rehearsals for the next three months re-learning the album. The keyboards got so involved that drummer Jan had to play an Arp String Ensemble while drumming to cover while David's hands were too busy. It was extremely important not to record anything that couldn't be duplicated live. Without Dan Bates' songs, Slam only had the 42 minutes worth of music from the album and one new 8 minute song that would be on the second album. This made it difficult in what type of situations that the band could play under.

Ray Furlotte: "December 22, 1976; The best day of my life up to that point. I stood on the stage at Massey Hall, Toronto, and watched my favourite band and employer, thrill the sold out crowd of 2,760 fans who came on a freezing cold winter's night, 3 days before Christmas to see the only band performing at Massey Hall that night ... the Toronto - Massey Hall premiere of Symphonic Slam."

RPM Magazine ad for Toronto Massey Hall concert

Slam didn't have enough material to headline big concerts, we did headline Massey Hall, but that was a special, one off showcase. Slam's manager, Terry Sheppard, had convinced A&M Records to underwrite the concert. There wasn't any opening act (would cost A&M more), so we showed a 30 minute promotional concert video of another A&M Records artist, “The Tubes”. We gave every concert goer an 8 page, 6” x 10”, card-stock souvenir concert program. Despite some difficulties, the band received great reviews. The volume coming off the stage from Dave and Timo's setups required us using a rather large PA system that we hadn't used previously. We had a large pyrotechnics system that we were told by Massey Hall we couldn't use due to fire regulations. Massey Hall was the premiere concert hall in Toronto but it was old and lacked modern capabilities. Our PA System and lights required more power than Massey supplied so an external generator in a truck was required.

We had an incredible amount of equipment. More than most of the established rock bands. Timo's set up was huge, the controls and foot pedals for his synthesizer were very large and complex. He had a huge wall of Cerwin Vega speakers, with an almost equally large set up for Dave's keyboards. David had 3 large custom made racks full of keyboards: the brand new 'Poly-Moog', 2 Mini-Moogs, Arp Omni, Arp String Ensemble, Univox Minikorg, Hohner Clavinet, piano, organ and Moog synth bass pedals. Jan had a pretty large drum kit. So we were rather limited to where we could play. The Massey Hall concert was only the second performance of this band. The first was a free concert at Sheraton College for 500 lucky fans 5 days before, as a dress rehearsal. The version of SS on the first album never performed live. The Producer and Engineer on the album was George Semkiw, he was also our Sound Engineer for the Massey Hall concert, and the first person to mix them after me. He would soon become known as one of Canada's best Engineers and Record Producers.

TIMO: “After the album was released we played Massey Hall in Toronto on December 22, 1976. The Massey Hall show was a full production with flash bombs, stage props, earthquake/subsonic bass, costumes, and special effects. It put us on the map as verified competition for ELP and got us signed with a new top level booking agency called 'The Agency'. We began touring for The Agency and I replaced John Lowery with a new drummer from Hollywood, Jan Uvena (Harvey Mandel, Jackie DeShannon, Sally Kellerman), for the tour. Lowery had returned to Los Angeles after the album was recorded, and was shot soon after, he recovered, but never returned to Canada again”.

Symphonic Slam headlining Massey Hall for only it's second performance generated a lot of buzz in the Toronto music industry. Some bands that had been slogging it out on the high school and bar circuits for years, couldn't believe what Slam did. Other bands were impressed by what the band's manager, Terry, had accomplished, by getting an unknown band a major international recording contract with a major label. And having the biggest radio station, CHUM-FM, play the entire album non-stop, on the day of it's world premiere (unheard of for an unknown band). And then a Toronto premiere performance at Massey Hall. There were a number of artists that wanted Terry to manage them, including an unknown duo (looking for a record contract) called 'FM' (Nash the Slash and Cameron Hawkins). Terry felt FM's sound was too similar to Slam's and that might be a conflict. He wanted to concentrate his efforts on Symphonic Slam.

Ad for album World Premier on CHUM-FM

The album was released in 12 countries on A&M Records September 1976

01 CANADA
02 U.S.A.
03 JAPAN
04 AUSTRALIA
05 HOLLAND
06 ENGLAND
07 HONG KONG
08 SWEDEN
09 PORTUGAL
10 GERMANY
11 BELGIUM
12 FINLAND
(Timo was born in Finland)

I don't know the international sales, but it went almost gold in Canada. The album entered the 'RPM Top 100 Albums' chart at #85, 'with a bullet' (meaning highest entry for the first week on the charts) on October 2, 1976 and peaking at #56 with a total run of 22 weeks. The self-titled debut was instantly heralded by the critics for fusing elements of progressive rock and jazz with more psychedelic tones. The only single, "I Won't Cry" caught some good response from AM radio. Other tracks like the lead off "Universe," "Let It Grow," and the edgy "Modane Train" (about a troop train derailment in France in 1917 that killed 543 people), made the album a hit on FM radio in pockets throughout Canada, the US, Japan, and Europe. The album was recorded at Phase One studios in Toronto and Produced and Engineered by George Semkiw, the quality of the recording is fantastic for that era. But no matter how good, it couldn't compare to hearing the band live. It was impossible to capture the dynamics of the music on record, that could only be done live. You couldn't believe the sounds that only 3 people produced, you could feel it in your bones! (with help from Cerwin Vega & BGW power amps – same as the 'Sensurround' that was used for the 'Earthquake' and subsequent movies).

A&M Records Press Release - despite these achievements bookings were difficult to get

At that point in time, Slam didn't have enough material to headline big concerts, we did headline Massey Hall, but that was a one off showcase. We opened for Gentle Giant at Maple Leaf Gardens concert bowl less than 2 months after Massey Hall. Slam was added at last minute (2 weeks before concert date) as ticket sales had been slow. Less than 2,000 tickets (of 8,000 avail.) had been sold. After SS was added sales went over 4,300 by showtime. Our booking agent, Music Shoppe International, had a hard time figuring out how to book us. We had hoped that the promoters of the Gentle Giant concert, C.P.I. (Concert Productions International) (the largest promoters in Canada then), would find us an opening slot on a tour, but that didn't happen. The band changed booking agencies to 'The Agency', a new top level agency, but that didn't help. Slam played the college circuit and select larger nightclubs, headlining using various opening acts. Among them: Brutus, Johnny Lovesin, Lenny Solomon Band, Wooden Teeth, etc. Slam hoped for a slot on a major international tour opening for a big established band for big exposure. You had to be a pretty confident band to have SS as an opening act. We had a huge sound, huge stage set up, costumes, fog machines, and pyrotechnics, all the latest gear. The only band confident enough to have Slam open was Gentle Giant. A&M offered little to no additional tour money and when it came time for the follow-up album Timo made a decision.Timo's contract with A&M Records was for 5 years – 5 albums. In reality, it was for one album, with the option for 4 more at A&M's option. This was at the peak of disco, and A&M wanted Timo to add a more disco beat to his music. That wasn't going to happen.

TIMO: “A&M did not pick-up the option by mutual agreement. The label execs wanted me to record a disco album. I told them that that was like asking Segovia to record a surf album. I bailed out of the record deal and started the production of SSII. I wanted to have my own record label. I put an ad in the LA Times under venture capital, and since I was still on the Billboard charts got an investor and started 'Lady Records'”.

Former Deep Purple guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore, heard David Stone playing on the Symphonic Slam first album and lured him to Los Angeles where he auditioned for Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. He competed against, Eddie Jobson of Roxy Music, Mark Stein of Vanilla Fudge, and Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum. Blackmore hired David. Also in the band was Ronnie James Dio on vocals, Cozy Powell on drums, and Bob Daisley on bass. After Rainbow, David joined Max Webster for the Universal Juveniles album and tours, then teamed up with his friend BB Gabor, for his self-titled debut album. David was in high demand as a session musician.

Timo returned to Los Angeles to finish writing and then recording, 'Timo Laine – SSll'. David Stone was replaced by Linda Nardini on keyboards. A bass player was added, first was Jimmy Haslip (who did side 1) and then left to form 'Yellow Jackets'. He was then replaced by Noe Cruz (from Zebra & the first version of Slam) and recorded side 2. Drummer, John Lowery, from the first Slam album returned. But halfway through the sessions he departed. Jan Uvena returned and played drums on side 1 and Lowery recorded side 2.

Newest Symphonic Slam

From L - R: Jan Uvena, Timo Laine, Linda Nardini, Jimmy Haslip

TIMO: “SSII was me doing a lot more vocals and more melodic tunes that I had written on the road within Canada. I had secured an investor here in Newport Beach that put up the financing for Lady Records Ltd., which was a limited partnership between myself and my investor. We hired Nick Panaseiko to get the second album out through Metro Disc. The album was recorded at the Righteous Brothers studio in California and A&M studios Hollywood. It was released on Lady Records in the spring of 1978 and titled: Timo SSll”.