Max Webster was a Canadian progressive hard rock band formed in 1972. The band was initially based in Sarnia, where Kim Mitchell (vocals/guitar) and the poet and lyricist Pye Dubois both grew up. The idea of forming a band took shape after they met and struck up a songwriting collaboration. Mitchell and Dubois would go on to write the bulk of the band’s songs together.
Musically, the band was completed with the addition of Mike Tilka on bass (later replaced by Dave Myles) and Phil Truder on drums (later replaced by Gary McCracken). They later added a keyboard player to become a quartet, with Terry Watkinson eventually becoming the lasting long-term member. Dubois was considered a non-performing fifth member of the group, continually contributing creatively.
Max Webster was first signed to Taurus Records, who issued their debut album in 1976. Several months later, the group was picked up by Anthem Records, who released the remaining four Max Webster albums and a best-of collection.
The band name confused a lot of people. Many believed it was the name of a person – a solo artist with his band, as it were. Upon their trip to the UK in 1979, Radio 1 DJ Peter Powell introduced them on Top of the Pops with “They’ve come over the water from Canada… Max Webster Band!” He was not alone in not having a clue who this somewhat odd band were and who or what “Max Webster” referred to.
The occasion of their visit was a rare #43 placement in the UK singles chart with Paradise Skies from their fourth album A Million Vacations. The band had managed to get some attention in the UK around that time as they were providing support for Rush who were touring and promoting their sixth studio album Hemispheres.
The band already had a long history with Rush at that point. Rush had initially taken them out on the road as openers in Canada. Their first North American tour in 1976 was with Rush as well. This was right before Rush broke through with 2112, and none of the bands were having an easy time. The reviews in the press were brutal.
“Rush taught us that you should make your own decisions and not listen to record company bullshit,” Kim Mitchell told Classic Rock. “They were like, ‘This is our music, and these are our lives.’ The other thing I remember is that when we reached the US, the intensity of both bands’ playing was off the scale, cos we had something to prove. Canada was like the warm-up – you had hockey players skating around at sound-check and stuff [laughs]. But when we got to the Paramount Theater in Seattle – boom!”
By the time they were touring the UK with Rush in 1979, they were very close to breaking through to the next level. Their fourth and newest album A Million Vacations was their first one to reach Platinum certification in Canada, with the needle finally moving a bit internationally as well. While most of their albums had become FM radio staples in Canada, this one also generated hit singles that appeared in the Canadian top 100. And, as mentioned, one minor UK hit, which got them on Top of the Pops!
Things were looking good as they toured the UK and Europe backing Rush in 1979. They managed to get in some successful headline dates of their own at the famed Marquee Club in London. This time was likely the pinnacle of their career as far as achieved success and hope for the future. A lot of that came from the support given by Rush since the beginning. Max Webster relocated to Toronto ahead of their first album release, and quickly met and started rubbing shoulders with the Fab Three, becoming close friends.
“Rush were great friends and they always treated us as equals,” Mitchell said. “There were so many beautiful moments, and they made touring so enjoyable. I can still picture Neil with a book and a pack of cigarettes. He was an intense dude, but so sweet once you knew him. I remember one day Alex couldn’t make sound-check and I played Xanadu with Ged and Neil.“
Things were looking promising, but their career momentum was stalled when the band’s American label Capitol Records refused to finance a follow-up headlining European tour.
The experiences from the tour were still more on the positive side, and the band focused on channeling their energies into the making of their next – and, as it turned out, final – album, 1980’s Universal Juveniles. This is arguably their finest effort, although the album cover hides it well. It depicts Kim Mitchell in a shrink-wrapped yellow spandex outfit with white leather ankle boots, running towards the camera. This was an outfit even Justin Hawkins of The Darkness might have thought twice about wearing.
“People still ask: ‘Have you still got the yellow jumpsuit?’” Mitchell told Classic Rock, laughing. “Let’s just say that if I regret anything in life it’s that jumpsuit.”
Universal Juveniles was produced by Jack Richardson, who had previously worked with Badfinger, The Guess Who, and Alice Cooper. It was recorded at Phase One Studios in Toronto.
One of the songs the band had demoed was a brooding epic called Battle Scar, written by Mitchell and Dubois as usual. They all reconvened at the studio on 28 July 1980 to record it. On that date, a huge thunderstorm was raging outside, giving a nice, ominous setting.
The band also had guests there for the occasion. All of Rush – Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart – joined Max Webster at Phase One to join in the recording of the epic track. Rather than handing off instruments to their famous guests, they joined in, taking a friendly ‘battle’ approach where they would play at the same time, playing off of each other.
They rehearsed it for a bit, then recorded it live from start to finish. Mitchell has said the finished recording was the first take, but that they did many more just for the fun of it.
As such, the song features two lead vocalists, two guitarists, two bassists, two drummers, keyboards on top, and backing vocals as needed. Two bands, with all of their amps. “Pye said it sounded like a Boeing 747 taking-off,” Mitchell laughed.
Both bands brought their best game as they responded to the palpable magic in the air, with thunder and lightning flashing across the sky outside as they recorded their take.
Been in jail for a thousand years
Found a fist in an empty field
Only quarters for meals
Feel the way I feel…Bust the busters
Screw the feeders
Make the healers
Feel the way I feel
The song is very much a mood piece, starting with a brooding and evil-sounding part with bass and lower register guitar. Then it settles into a slow but insistent thumping rhythm. It creeps along at first, building some incredible momentum as it goes on.
Given the full participation of Rush, and the duelling instruments-approach, you would be forgiven for expecting a more progressive and high-octane song than this. Battle Scar is more about a foreboding sense of evil, a seething atmosphere, and a building an intensity that peaks at the end of the song. The song’s power comes from within, and you do feel it at the end if you’re up for following the song along on its journey.
There’s no doubt that Rush make a stamp on the song. While Alex Lifeson provides a lot of his usual textures as well as a great solo alongside Kim Mitchell, Neil Peart does his best to settle into the groove rather than overplay anything, but he can’t resist a few incredible fills. Geddy Lee is absolutely amazing on vocals, providing what possibly might be his final high-pitch screams before he settled into a lower register from the 1980s onward.
Lyrically, the song takes the shape of a generic and deliberately over the top protest song, written and sung very tongue in cheek. It protests anything and everything, hence the seemingly mismatched imagery. It’s saying down with ‘The Man’ (particularly the DEA); down with big business (particularly the fast good giants and agriculture on an industrial scale); and down with religious faith healers. It is also a rally against white supremacy and racism in general.
It’s a polemic and a call to arms, albeit a satirical one. The illustration on the original lyric sheet is of a chicken holding a placard, which probably says it all.
The one thing this song most certainly is, is a stonkingly brilliant slice of rock. Even if judged as a Rush song, its quality is right up there where you’d expect it to be. It’s an amazing collaboration, played live in the studio, which gave the recording an incredible feel and unique kind of energy.
While the version on Universal Juveniles had been done live in the studio, the track had been properly demoed by the band a year prior in anticipation of a full and proper studio recording. There were no guests planned at that point, so the intension was still on making it a proper studio production, which is reflected in the demo.
The demo was included on the Max Webster career-spanning box set The Party, released in 2017. It is interesting to hear the demo’s attention to detail and focus on production values in favour of the more spontaneous, moody, and bombastic live take that ended up on the album.
Rush did not make it a habit of appearing on other people’s records – especially not all three of them! But, Max Webster were not just anyone to them. “Those guys were big friends of ours,” Lifeson recalled to Classic Rock. “But Pye was a little mysterious – kind of a strange fellow! He was very quirky, a bit of a nut, but he did write great lyrics.”
It was during this time that Pye Dubois first gave a poem to Neil Peart with a suggestion that they collaborate on a song. The original draft was called Louis The Warrior. Peart took the idea, massaged it, took out some of Dubois’ lines and added his thing to it – primarily an element of autobiography – and chose the simpler title Tom Sawyer. Just like that, one of the band’s most celebrated songs was completed. Dubois later also provided words to tracks like Force Ten, Between the Sun and Moon, and Test For Echo.
As good as the album was, this would prove to be a period of great instability for the band. Prior to the recording of Universal Juveniles, Watkinson left the band, leaving Max Webster a trio of Mitchell, McCracken, and Myles. The album was recorded with the assistance of session musicians David Stone (who also briefly toured with the band) and Doug Riley. Watkinson did however return to participate on the recording of Battle Scar.
It got even worse when Myles left Max Webster immediately after the album had been recorded, leaving Mitchell and McCracken as the only serving members.
Still, the release of the album went ahead on 3 October 1980. A new line-up was assembled for touring, and this version of Max Webster performed a New Years Eve show at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Garden on 31 December 1980 where Geddy Lee joined them onstage to sing and play his Rickenbacker bass guitar for Battle Scar. Unfortunately, no recording of this has ever turned up.
The band had unfinished business in the UK, given how lack of funding had ended things prematurely the previous year. They had an exciting new album to promote and a small tour was lined up. Battle Scar was even released as a single in the UK – the only market where this happened. You’d think there would be a bit of a push behind the band this time around, but unfortunately, bad promotion for the shows led to poor ticket sales. Only two dates to supporting Black Sabbath went ahead, with the remaining shows cancelled.
Touring continued closer to home, but the end was in sight. Mitchell had started to feel burnt out by the band’s continual struggles, unstable line-ups, and lack of recognition abroad. After thinking about it for a while, he decided to leave the band directly after a gig supporting Rush in Memphis on 16 April 1981. In effect, that was the end of the band.
“I walked into the dressing room and said: ‘I’m going home’” he told Classic Rock. “Their jaws all dropped, but I was burnt out. I’d been thinking of leaving all through that tour, but hadn’t said anything. I felt we’d taken Max Webster as far as we could. I was thinking is there more to life musically than this? What’s my next move?”
That next move turned out to be Kim Mitchell – the name of an EP released in November 1982, and the start of a solo career. He continued the songwriting collaboration with Dubois, and his solo success quickly eclipsed that of Max Webster. Mitchell sounded energised, but also seemed to have mixed feelings about how much easier it was for him to reach a broader audience, and especially popularity beyond Canada, than it had been for his old band.
Scoring four gold LPs and one platinum one in their native Canada, Max Webster were hardly small beer at home. Internationally, though, they remained a cult band that never took off. Mitchell has stated the fact that they could not break in the States as one of the reasons they broke up. This was a sad end for the band who had deserved so much more, but their legacy lives on through Kim Mitchell. There have also been a few sporadic reunion tours over the years, all of which have proved that the band isn’t forgotten.
In addition to having a solo career, Mitchell has also had a long career as a radio show host on Toronto’s Q107. He has been able to interview a lot of musicians over the years, and once got the chance to ask Gene Simmons why KISS never took Max Webster out as support. Simmons’ honest reply: “That’s easy – you were too good!”
Facebook Comments