Bonfire - Part 1: Local Radio Stations

In the summer of 1988, an exchange student from Minneapolis in the USA was in Sweden and heard an album called Look Sharp! by the group Roxette. He brought the album home and encouraged his local radio station (KDWB 101.3 FM) to start playing it. Although the album was not on the regular format catelogue, one DJ listened to it and decided to spin the LP. It wasn't long before Roxette became a much requested musi artist to be played on the air and thus the band had broken into North America. It is a legendary tale of a foreign group that had a record company who did not push them into what the record industry deems as the "mainstream" market of North America, more specifically the USA, and managed to by-pass board room politics and became big hitters in the music business. Roxette would go on to release Look Sharp! in North America and follow it up with 4 more releases plus a reissue of their first recording, Pearls Of Passion. Unfortunately the big record labels stopped P.R.ing the group (thanks in part to grunge and alternative styles) but mostly unknown is that Roxette released 7 more albums and are planning to release a new one (I have them all which is amazing to say since I am not into that type of music particularly).

The title says Bonfire....why did you open with Roxette?, you are likely thinking. Well I wanted to give an example of what has happened when a radio personality took a chance and played something off the regulated catelogue that could turn out to be the best thing for the band, the listeners, the fans, the radio and the record companies. That is because I am experiencing the same situation with a band that I have been into for 20 years and I've hit a brick wall. I am talking about what is likely THE best hard rock band out there currently who releases a new album every year for the last 17 years.....BONFIRE. This will be a three part series that I will be posting. Part 2 will focus on Bonfire themselves, Part 3 will cover what the present and past band members have done/are doing since being in the band. Today's part 1 is covering my own experience to get Bonfire some airplay on the radio and to return to North America, especially to Canada. Part 2 and 3 will feature link to some of Bonfire's music so people whom are reading this can hear the music and understand why myself and many others are fans and supporters.

The first time I had ever heard of Bonfire was in 1987. My best friend had a cassette album called Fireworks, easily one of the albums any hard rocker should have in their collection. The music was awesome sounding, great guitar riffs, heavy drumming and the lead vocals were harmonic and easy to sing along to. At that time Def Leppard was my favourite band so I didn't give Bonfire much attention. The following year I went to West Germany to visit my dad and over the radio and on the TV I had seen/heard some things that involved Bonfire. I was hooked with the song Never Mind. I returned to Canada and copied the Fireworks album from my friend. The band was growing on me. In 1991, Bonfire became my second favourite band and in 1996 they unseated the Leps as my #1 all time favourite. It is where Bonfire sits today for me and I doubt they will ever be unseated, especially if they keep pumping out great music like they have been. My one disappointment was that I got into the band after they stopped coming to North America. Once their Point Blank album was recorded, their record company refused to promote them here anymore. To this day if you go to any music store you can only order Don't Touch The Light and Fireworks, meanwhile the other 31 releases you have to hope the store has availability to imports. Yep, you heard me right.....31 RELEASES!!!!!! That's a total of 33 and they are releasing a new studio album this year. So after all this time and after the band played a couple of "come back" shows in the States I thought I'd try to help them in Canada.

First I contacted Cornwall Lift Off, a popular annual balloon fesitival that features many great music talent, some big names even. I let them know that Bonfire was trying to get back into the North American market and suggested that they get the band for 2010 while the group is looking for North American dates. I was told that the festival organizers "would check the band out and see what their Board thinks." Not bad for a start so then I contacted the radio stations. First I contacted CKON, a station that I knew would play different and new things at least once. Heck, back when I was working as a security guard in the early 1990s I once heard them play Bonfire's entire live album, Live...The Best, which was so surreal for me. I waited for a response to my e-mail but I never got a reply. I tried calling but was told to just e-mail my request, it would be easier. I then contacted the radio programmer for the Cornwall stations, who just happens to be the entertainment director for Lift Off. I was told that Bonfire was not a mainstream act and not on their regulated approved catelogue for air-play. That was strange because I wondered what happened to the songs Starin' Eyes, Sweet Obsession, Sleeping All Alone and the theme song from Wes Craven's movie Shocker called Sword And Stone....all songs Bonfire released and charted with in North America. It was then that I realized that the chances for Bonfire to even be considered a possible act to play at Lift-Off was little to none. I was nonetheless disappointed and for a while I felt that nothing could be done to get Bonfire here to Canada.

Joerg Deisinger, Bonfire's former bassist, released a book in 2008 called Fire And Fame. It was co-written with Carl Begai, who is living in Toronto and was my means to get the book much faster than others whom made orders (also was lucky to get his and Joerg's autograph!). It is a terrific read and is not a tell-all book, but a biography of Joerg's life, most centred on his career as a musician. He wrote about Bonfire's public relations problems, which was right from day 1 but only became a major problem when BMG decided to not release any more Bonfire albums in North America, starting with the 1989 release of Point Blank (a GREAT follow-up to Fireworks). Even with the first two albums that did get North American release, the problem was not many were pressed and record stores only ordered the bare minimum. As Joerg stated in one chapter, if the manager/owner ordered 100 units he did his job....he didn't have to push to sell the record if he didn't like the band or couldn't be bothered. There was more but I am not going to write everything here. So basically the band, which had great music and a growing fanbase, was swept aside and told that they weren't going to make it on the big stages of North America. Meanwhile they were huge in Europe and had no support to expand elsewhere.

So here we are, it's 2010 and it is still happening. Bonfire continues to play as headliners at various venues, have sold out their rock opera performances (The Rauber) every time. New music....heck GREAT MUSIC.....is being released by them more than the other "mainstream" bands like Def Leppard, Dokken, Kiss, Aerosmith and Van Halen (and who says these guys' new albums are any good?). Yet no one will support Bonfire's step into North America.

So I had given up on trying to convince Cornwall radio stations and festivals to play Bonfire for a time....but I did get a new boost that made me feel there might be a chance someday. Where I work, we keep the radio on. Finally, after we were able to predict what songs our local stations were going to play (seems it is ALWAYS the same ones) I got POed and put on one of Bonfire's CDs. Everyone liked it so I brought more in. Then on a suggestion from a co-worker, we called up the Virgin radio station in Ottawa, since that signal was coming in clearly, and to my suprise not only did they play Sword And Stone by Bonfire, but also one of their new ones, What's On Your Mind?. I went home and looked up the Virgin radio station's web site for Ottawa and there I saw a blessing. They have available for requests 19 of the 33 Bonfire releases...especially the best albums, in my opinion. So needless to say our industrial plant no long tunes in to local stations. It is not because our stations refuse to even consider playing Bonfire but because their catelogue is recycled too much and repetitive without being open to something new. It's pretty bad when you hear "Missin' You", "Hot 'N' Cold" and that cover version of "I Want To Know What Love Is" three times on the same station in a 12 hour period.

So let's end like how we started, reflecting back to 1988, Minneapolis and Roxette as our examples. If it was done back then it can certainly be done today. If a Cornwall radio station took a chance and played any of the more recent Bonfire songs, it could be the crack in the doorway that the band needs to make a full return to North America, a revival of their fan base here along with more sales and radio requests. Wouldn't that be nice?