The Kings

THE KINGS ARE STILL HERE

Canadian Power-Pop Band Glides into Gold and Platinum Status

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

IF YOU WERE ANYWHERE NEAR A radio from late 1980 through most of ‘81, their signature hit was an inescapable rock and roll delight. The Kings’ “This Beat Goes On / Switchin’ To Glide” single was an enormous broadcast and live-set favorite. Although it didn’t quite elevate the Ontario-based outfit to superstar status, they continue to create music that remains as true to their original power pop vision as anything from their classic debut LP The Kings Are Here. This spring, while celebrating the Covid-delayed 40th anniversary of their initial album and single - finally certified Platinum and Gold by Warner Music Canada - the band has issued a brandnew track. The decidedly retro vibe of “I Know So” picks up where 2019’s “Circle Of Friends / Man That I Am” left off, blending their harmonious, New Wave-esque strengths with a sly nod to early ‘60s soul and ‘40s Big Band jump. Releasing their music independently, The Kings can now address their loyal subjects directly - via an informative website, personalized social media interaction and a wonderfully self-effacing documentary featurette, The Kings: Anatomy of a OneHit Wonder. But don’t let the glib title fool you, the group has written and recorded over 100 other great songs, fueled by equal doses of kinetic energy, crafty humor and catchy hooks. Additionally, a new long-player and live collection of vintage performances from Toronto’s historic Heatwave Festival are planned for release later this year. Recently INsite hopped into The Kings’ virtual Mercedes for a long drive through the past and present with Canadian Songwriter Hall of Famers “Mister Zero” (guitarist John Picard) and “Dave Diamond” (singer, bassist David Broadbent).

Have you used the pandemic downtime to be creative? Zero: Yeah, we’ve been in the studio and we’ve just put out a video. So we’ve been busy working on new stuff and resurrecting old stuff. The gigs have all dried up so ya gotta keep doing something. It’s actually kinda good to not worry about going somewhere and playing, you can just focus on creating new things.

Let’s talk about some of the new stuff. The latest single, “I Know So” has a different vibe, but you retained The Kings’ familiar sound. Zero: We’d had that song around for a long time on an old demo. Then we remixed and remastered it and there it is. It came from one night where some people in the bar really knew how to jitterbug and stuff. They started dancing like that to that song so that became the idea behind the video.

The video is a cool mash-up with a ton of clips. Zero: Yeah, because there’s a horn part in it, we tried to sync to clips of big bands from yesteryear. We went through at least 100 different clips to sync it all up. Diamond: The tempo had to match with the right instrument at the right time, too. So there was quite a bit of editing, that’s for sure. now since we even made that video.

You continued the same sort of history The result is similar to the way you edited message with the keyboard player line-up all the Kings’ vintage performance pieces in the “Circle of Friends” video, too. for the “Switchin’ To Glide” video. So Zero: Oh, yeah good eye for noticing many different eras were that. We have our original represented, including FOR A CANADIAN BAND - keyboard player Sonny haircuts, venues – AND THERE ARE LOTS OF Keyes with our current Zero: And the clothes! Diamond: Yeah. That video includes about 42 different video sources from over the years, from VHS and all different CANADIAN BANDS THAT NEVER HAD A HIT RECORD IN THE US AT ALL, AND CERTAINLY NEVER PLAYED ON AMERICAN BANDSTAND keyboardists Peter and Christina. The fun thing about that one is we were able to get our friend Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Kiss, Peter Gabriel) to mix it for kinds of formats, but I - WE’RE PRETTY PROUD us. He produced our early think it worked out great. OF IT. THANKFULLY, WE stuff on Elektra, just after DID MORE AFTER THAT. WE he’d worked on The Wall. It’s surprising Elektra DEFINITELY DIDN’T STOP - didn’t issue a video when the song was new. Didn’t they want to spend some more of your money for an official video? Zero: It worked out that AND NOW HERE WE ARE WITH A LOT MORE MUSIC. WHEN EVERYTHING SETTLES DOWN, WE’RE QUITE READY TO TAKE TO THE STAGE AGAIN. “Circle” is as much of a hit song as the landmark “Switchin’” Diamond: I think so, too. It’s a mix of older and newer ideas and of course in the US, it was out just it was done pre-Covid before MTV hit. If it was another year time. We’d been working on it for a while. or two later, we would have been part of Ezrin seemed excited to work with the ol’ that. But the thing about our video is, King boys again. We went to [his studio in] they would’ve never let us make a video Nashville for the final mix. He said, ‘Don’t for the whole segue with the two songs. forget your local famous producer when At five and a half minutes, I kinda doubt you’ve got more work to do!’ that would have ever happened. And in retrospect, most everything from back then You can’t beat the history he brings along. was really lousy, visually. So our video of it, Zero: Sometimes when we’re here which took a long time to make, shows us rehearsing, we’ll play some stuff some onstage really rocking out. That’s how we’d other people have done for us and it’s like, like to be remembered, so I think it’ll stand ‘Dang it, Bob! Why are you so good?’ the test of time.

That begs the question, where can good rock songs be heard at this point? Rock has become a strange sort of niche market - whereas in the old days even old people were aware of rock and roll acts. Zero: That’s a good question. I think for artists like us, it’s gotta be through You Tube and social media. We’ve been trying to promote through Facebook. You can target your city, province or country and certain demographics. Because this is our 40th anniversary year of our first album, a few newsworthy things that have happened this year. We got into the Canadian Songwriters Hall Of Fame and we finally got noticed for a Platinum award for our album The Kings Are Here. And the single is getting a Gold award so we’re pretty happy about that here in Canada.

It’s been a long time coming. Zero: It’ll be 41 years in the summer but the thing is, we’ve been aware that we were eligible for the honors for a while. It’s just taken a little while for them to acknowledge it. It was on the charts for 23 weeks into 1981.

The Kings did American Bandstand as the single was rising, around that time. Zero: Yeah, I think that was in December of 1980. We out were in L. A. on tour. That’s the weekend we’d played the Whisky. Diamond: Yeah, but it was on John Lennon day - the day he was murdered. They say, you know where you were when a certain thing happened? Yes, we know exactly! We were at the Whisky - A - GoGo in Hollywood.

What was the vibe in the club that night? Diamond: I think John was killed around 11 pm and with the three-hour difference, we were just getting ready to go to the club to do our show. I was getting ready for the gig, and I’d just come out of the shower and turned on the television. Then the newsflash came on about John Lennon. I picked up the phone and called Zero, ‘Hey, put your television on!’ As soon as we got the Whisky, it was just dead.

Then you had to play a live set? How’d it go down? Zero: That night we basically played like shit, let’s face it. Diamond: I don’t think anybody wanted to hear any band playing. It was just so somber, it was awful.

But at least you’d made it to American Bandstand and that was quite a rite of passage for any good band. Diamond: It was quite nerve-wracking. We felt really out of place playing that show, being young Toronto guys talking to Dick Clark. We’ve gone back and watched, even when famous bands were on there, when they talked to Dick Clark, they were a little starstruck by the whole thing. When he did that between-song interview, boyoh-boy! Zero: But it’s quite a calling-card. For a Canadian band - and there are lots of Canadian bands that never had a hit record in the US at all, and certainly never played on American Bandstand - we’re pretty proud of it. Thankfully, we did more after that. We definitely didn’t stop - and now here we are with a lot more music. When everything settles down, we’re quite ready to take to the stage again.