For more than 30 years, LOVERBOY has been “Working for the Weekend” and on weekends, delighting audiences around the world since forming in Calgary, Alberta, when vocalist Mike Reno was introduced to local guitar hot shot Paul Dean, both veterans of several bands on the scene, at that city’s Refinery Night Club.
After being rejected by all the major U.S. record companies LOVERBOY signed with Columbia Records Canada, entering the studio with producer Bruce Fairbairn and engineer Bob Rock to record their self-titled debut album, which went on to sell more than 700k records in Canada. Columbia U.S. released the album in Nov. 1980, which went on to sell more than 2 million albums in the States and four million worldwide.
Soon the band found themselves playing on mega tours with Journey, Bob Seger, Cheap Trick, ZZ Top, Kansas and Def Leppard, to name a few; they quickly became MTV darlings, being one of the first bands ever featured on the music channel.
With their trademark red leather pants, bandannas, big rock sound and high-energy live shows, LOVERBOY has sold more than 10 million albums, earning four multi-platinum plaques, including the four-million-selling Get Lucky, and a trio of double-platinum releases in their self-titled 1980 debut, 1983’s Keep It Up and 1985’s Lovin’ Every Minute of It. Their string of hits includes, in addition to the anthem “Working for the Weekend,” such arena rock staples as “Lovin’ Every Minute of It,” “This Could Be the Night,” “Hot Girls in Love,” “Heaven In Your Eyes,” “Turn Me Loose,” “When It’s Over,” “Heaven In Your Eyes” and “Queen of the Broken Hearts.”
LOVERBOY went on to win a still-record six Juno awards in 1982, and until a three-year sabbatical in 1989, were one of the Top 5 grossing touring acts in the world, performing in over 100 cities across the U.S. and Canada. Their success made them the first Canadian group ever to earn Columbia Records’ exclusive Crystal Glove Award, celebrating the sale of over five million albums outside their native country. Since 1992, the band has maintained a steady road presence, with Sony/Legacy releasing a greatest hits compilation, LOVERBOY – CLASSICS, in 1993, which went gold five years later. In 2001, the band released a live greatest hits CD, Live, Loud & Loose, which captured the group doing what they did best, entertaining their legion of rabid fans.
In 2005, LOVERBOY celebrated 25 years together by performing in selected cities throughout the U.S. and Canada. During the summer tour, the band introduced a couple of brand-new songs, which led to Just Getting Started, their first new studio album in a decade. In March 2009, the group was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame at the Juno Awards show at GM Place in Vancouver, BC, where they joined the likes of Bryan Adams, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and David Foster.
Aside from Reno and Dean, LOVERBOY still includes original members Doug Johnson on keyboards and Matt Frenette on drums, with Ken “Spider” Sinnaeve (a former member of Dean and Frenette’s pre-LOVERBOY band Streetheart), who replaced the late Scott Smith on bass, and continues a healthy touring schedule around the world.
“Being in a band is kind of like being on a team,” says Reno. “Everywhere we go, we try to make it look and sound good.”
And now LOVERBOY is back with a flurry of new activity, having reunited at Bryan Adams’ Vancouver studio The Warehouse, with their original engineer, legendary producer Bob Rock [Metallica, Aerosmith, The Cure, Bon Jovi], who worked under Bruce Fairbairn at the time. The band has recorded two new songs with Rock, “Heartbreaker” and “No Tomorrow,” which could to be a prelude for a new album.
“Bob phoned Mike and I out of the blue and told us he had a song that might work for us that he’d love to produce,” says Dean. “He sent it over and we just flipped out. It’s a great, kick-ass LOVERBOY song.
“It was just fantastic to be on the same page with everybody else in the band again. We had been through several false starts recording-wise over the years. Mike was really inspired this time. It was a great experience. I think these tracks are some of the best work we’ve ever done.”
Their pop culture credibility was cemented by a recent 30 Rock episode in which Scott Adsit’s amateur musician Pete Hornberger revealed he was actually Loverboy’s original bassist, showing him inserted into vintage ‘80s footage of the band wailing away on “Working for the Weekend.” The song is also known as the soundtrack for a memorable Saturday Night Live skit in which Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze played Chippendales dancers who performed to it at an audition.
But it is LOVERBOY’s reputation as a live act which has always been its calling card, as the group continues to entertain fans of all ages, amazing even Reno, who has lost more than 50 pounds recently to keep up the pace.
“Something’s in the water,” he says. “I go to these concerts expecting there to be 3,000 people, and there’s seven or eight thousand people! And most of them are young! Even kiddies, like 10 years old. They even know all the words. It’s freaking me out.”
“I look at our concerts as a 100-minute experience,” says Dean, who still claims to be able to fit into the same pair of red leather pants he wore on the “Queen of the Broken Hearts” video in 1983. “I’m a normal guy up until 10 minutes before we hit the stage. Then the heart rate goes up and I consciously step into the bubble. And I don’t come out of it until 30 seconds after that last cymbal smash and I walk off-stage. It’s a great stress release, better than riding a Harley.”
“When we do live shows these days, I notice the songs have come to a better place,” says Reno. “We’re playing them a little differently, but the catalyst is still the same. We love these songs—they’re part of our DNA, and they’re part of a lot of people’s DNA.”
Perhaps the band’s most famous song is “Working for the Weekend,” which has fueled a generation’s dreams of toiling every day for the chance to celebrate come Friday night. Dean realizes it has taken on a whole new meaning these days.
“You’re lucky if you can work for the weekend now,” he says. “We’re all fortunate to be doing that.”
With four decades under his belt, Dean sees no end in sight for LOVERBOY… or himself.
“My dream has always been to play guitar and entertain people,” he enthuses. “There’s no feeling like looking out in the audience and seeing them grinning ear to ear, everyone on the same wavelength. And once we start with the mega-hits, the place goes crazy. That’s why we do what we do and will continue.”
“People send us a lot of love and we end up loving them back, so it’s just a big love-fest rally,” adds Reno.
Still “Working for the Weekend,” LOVERBOY’s catalog includes some of arena-rock’s most enduring anthems, and they are about to add to that legacy.
For a list of upcoming tour dates, please visit http://loverboyband.com/home.html
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