The Tubes formed in March 1972 in San Francisco, and featured members from two Phoenix bands who had moved to San Francisco in 1969. One, The Beans (alternately billing themselves as the Radar Men from Uranus), included Bill Spooner, Rick Anderson, Vince Welnick, and Bob McIntosh. The other, the Red White and Blues Band, featured Prairie Prince, Roger Steen, and David Killingsworth. After performing at Expo '70 in Japan, Killingsworth left the Red, White and Blues Band, leaving Steen and Prince to audition new bass players, albeit unsuccessfully. Before moving to San Francisco the Beans had been a local favorite in Phoenix, selling out shows with a tongue-in-cheek concept rock show called "The Mother of Ascension" featuring costumes and props. The Beans' manager and former Alice Cooper Group drummer, John Speer, suggested they add Prince and Steen along with their roadie John Waybill to one of these shows. Waybill's nickname among the band was "Fee," short for "Fiji," thanks to his copious head of hippie hair. After securing the opening slot for Led Zeppelin at Kezar Stadium by winning a bet with Bill Graham that they could sell out three local shows, the band pulled out the stops, including Waybill dressed as an early version of "Quay Lewd" throwing "Cocaine" (flour) and "Pills" (candy) at the crowd, who threw it back. Graham threatened that the band would never play in San Francisco again. but calmed down and eventually fell in love with the band, booking them at Winterland and other California venues for New Year's shows and Halloween.
After the 1973 Led Zeppelin show, Herbert wanted to manage the band, but Spooner and the group went with local management team Mort Moriarty and Gary Peterson, also known as "Bag O' Bucks", and after unsuccessfully pitching the group to Columbia Records, they managed to secure a deal with A&M Records. The Tubes' first album, the Al Kooper-produced 'The Tubes', was released in 1975, and included the track 'White Punks On Dope', which was an "absurd anthem of wretched excess" and ridiculed the Hollywood kids of the rich and famous. By late 1975 the had band created a stage show unlike any other, after hiring Kenny Ortega to direct and choreograph, and event support/video pioneer T.J. McHose to run a live video feed with films for each song. The show was critically acclaimed and broke them into show business in Los Angeles during sold-out runs at the Roxy Theater, David Allen's Boarding House and Bimbo's in San Francisco. The Tubes' second album, 'Young And Rich' came out in 1976 on A&M Records, and was produced by Ken Scott. It featured 'Don't Touch Me There', a suggestive duet between Waybill and Styles, which was arranged in classic "Wall of Sound" style by Jack Nitzsche. The band toured America with a new stage show, including new numbers 'Slipped My Disco', 'Madam, I'm Adam' and 'Pimp', and in 1977 they released their third album, 'Now', which was an attempt to write less satirical songs, with the band sharing song-writing duties with Bill Spooner.
They played a small American tour of the west coast and a month-long run at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, featuring the band's most elaborate stage show to date. Their fourth outing was 1978's live album 'What Do You Want from Live', which was recorded during their record-breaking run at the Hammersmith Odeon, London. They followed this with a tour of America, and they played a sold-out run at The Pantages Theater in Hollywood, which attracted celebrities such as the cast of Laverne and Shirley, Cher, Kate Jackson, and Gene Simmons. The band went back to Europe to follow up this success, but it was canceled after Waybill fell off stage and broke his leg at a Leicester, England show. The band's fifth album, 1979's 'Remote Control', was a concept album produced by Todd Rundgren, about a television-addicted idiot-savant, inspired by the Jerzy Kosinski novel 'Being There', which was later made into a movie starring Peter Sellers. Much of the new music was rewritten by Rundgren and the band in the studio, and synth player and visual stylist Michael Cotten designed an innovative multimedia stage show for the 'Remote Control' tour, which employed multiple TV monitors and a 35 mm film projector, However, after a disastrous gig at UCLA's Royce Hall, which was beset by multiple technical problems, including poor visibility of the small TV screens, the show was scrapped and was replaced with a stripped-down tour in the U.S., Japan, and Europe, with Squeeze as the support act.
The band's fifth studio album, the self-produced 'Suffer For Sound', was meant to complete the group's contract with A&M, but the recession had affected the music industry, and many other bands were cut from A&M at the end of the 1970's. The Tubes owed A&M a large amount of money, and after playing the new record for Jerry Moss, their manager Rikki Farr insulted Moss' taste in music to ensure that the band was let go and were able to sign with a new label. Tubes friend Matt Leach compiled the outtakes, b-sides, and oddities collection 'T.R.A.S.H. (Tubes Rarities And Smash Hits)' for a 1981 release on A&M, after which the band was signed to Capitol Records, toning down the X-rated sketches for the live shows, and redesigning itself as a leaner ensemble with a view to release more accessible hits. They worked with Bobby Colomby to find a new musical direction, and then met with possible producers, including Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, before deciding on David Foster. In 1981 they recorded 'The Completion Backward Principle' with him as their first album for Capitol, and so 'Suffer For Sound' was quietly forgotten. If you are interested to hear what the follow-up to 'Remote Control' would have sounded like then here is that very album.
Track listing
01 Drivin' All Night
02 Dreams Come True
03 Dangerous
04 Don't Ask Me
05 Holy War
06 Rat Race
07 Train Of Pictures
08 Don't Slow Down
09 Suffer For Sound
10 Color Me Wild
11 Satellite
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