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Wildside – One of the Best ’80s Rock Bands You’ve Never Heard Of

February 14, 2021 By the80sruled Leave a Comment

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, there were a ton of great, up-and-coming rock bands who were influenced by the Crue, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, Cinderella and other great ’80s rock bands that were just getting started. Unfortunately for them, Nirvana and the grunge rock scene (along with their record labels and MTV) completely pulled the rug out from under these bands and dashed any hopes they had of ever “making it” big!

One of those bands that should have made it “big” was Wildside, a band formed in 1988 at the height of the Hollywood hair band craze. The band consisted of guitarists Benny Rhynedance and Brent Woods, lead singer Drew Hannah, bassist Marc Simon, and drummer Jimmy D.

Wildside were set up to take over the rock world in the early ’90s when “Capitol Records came calling in August of 1990, and a bidding war between Capitol and Polygram ensued, with Capitol winning the bid for 7 figures and 5 albums. It was the biggest signing of a Hollywood rock band since W.A.S.P. back in 1984.” via last.fm. “With legendary Led Zeppelin record producer Andy Johns at the helm, Wildside recorded their debut CD in secret at Eddie Van Halen’s personal home studio, and also at the renowned A&M studios in Hollywood throughout 1991. Master metal mix-meisters Steve Thompson and Michael Barbierio mixed the CD to near perfection. They had mixed and produced many big hair rock bands in the 80’s. Capitol Records had a slick package to market to the metal masses. How could they lose?”

Grunge… Like so many other great bands just getting started, it was basically over, and according to their biography on last.fm, “in late 1993, after an “upper management shake up” at Capitol Records, all the execs that signed Wildside were “no longer with the company”, including then Capitol President Hale Milgrim. New management at Capitol immediately called it quits for the band in the fall of ’93. Regardless of an iron clad contract and a 5 album deal, new Capitol execs ripped up the band’s contract and said, “Good luck guys, it was nice knowin’ ya!”.

Well, we’re here to introduce you to Wildside if you’re one of the unlucky ones who never heard the band in their prime. And, if you were lucky enough to see them live back in the day, this one is for you as well! Poison, Motley Crue, Cinderella, Ratt were all great bands, but it’s time some of the other great bands that nobody got a chance to hear got their day in the sun as well!

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Filed Under: All Posts, Hair Bands, Hard Rock, Music Videos, Wildside Tagged With: Wildside

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