Just received this from one of the "detectives"
August 31, 2005
Styx have it covered on new CD
By LINDSEY WARD - Winnipeg Sun
We've all heard Mr. Roboto like, a zillion times. And with its beepy, sci-fi rhythm, recreating it might seem like child's play.
Turns out it's not. Ditto for pretty much every other Styx tune. And getting hired to play with the Chicago-based classic pop-rockers is no small feat, either.
"Styx is a very exclusive club," says the band's newest member, bassist Ricky Phillips. "The band doesn't think of it as the new Styx -- they think of it as a continuum."
Luckily, Phillips had a VIP pass to the club, which includes singer-guitarists James Young and Tommy Shaw, percussionist Todd Sucherman and Canadian singer-keyboardist Lawrence Gowan.
The bassist had shared stages with Styx when he played with pop-rockers The Babys and Bad English, both fronted by singer John Waite. He and Sucherman had also worked together, and he and Shaw had both played with Motor City madman Ted Nugent.
But that doesn't mean he knew Styx's intricately crafted songs.
"Styx's music is very unique ... they're not common arrangements," Phillips says, adding his biggest challenge since joining the band in 2003 has been memorizing their two-hour sets.
"You don't know what's going to happen next, and I think that's what's been the charm about Styx's music over the years."
In 1972, Styx began as theatrical prog-rockers, breaking into the mainstream with radio hits Lady, Come Sail Away and Blue Collar Man. Following several artsy concept albums in the '80s, they jumped back on to the charts with '90s power ballads like Show Me the Way.
Despite a full plate of their own hits, Styx's latest release is a covers album entitled Big Bang Theory -- which Phillips claims happened by accident.
"It wasn't because we said 'Hey let's do a cover album,' " he says. While performing at Dallas's Crossroads Guitar Festival last year, they tossed a cover of The Beatles' I Am the Walrus into their set and before they knew it, they had recorded a full disc of classics from rock heroes like The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Willie Dixon.
"We decided the only way to make a cover record special was to do the songs that influenced us when we were younger," Phillips says.
Which explains the whole "big bang" concept.
"It was the beginning of our universe and what became our universe. They were the songs that influenced us."
Styx heat up CanWest Global Park tomorrow night, following a set by San Francisco theatre-rockers The Tubes. Doors open at 6 p.m. Admission is $40.
http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2005/08/31/1194795.html
