DAVID REED: About Honeymoon Suite
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Rock ‘n roll smells funny. I remember those smells as vividly as the images and the sounds. In the summer of 1987 (or possibly 1988) my Dad took me to my first rock concert. We saw Honeymoon Suite at the Brockville Memorial Centre.
Hockey arenas have a distinct aroma in the summer. There is a dampness, combined with stale popcorn, sweaty hallways and greasy fries. Add to this potpourri of fragrances the stink of stale cigarettes (and some other smoke I could not identify), the sting of Final Net hairspray, and the sweet, strawberry-flavoured haze from rock n roll smoke machines.
The fashion was something to behold as well, as we watched groups of rockers all in black intermingling with gaggles of teenaged girls in neon and leg-warmers. There were leather jackets and jean vests and silk shirts with the collars turned up. The hair was big, the makeup was bright and the music was loud. Green and blue lasers cut through the haze as I processed this spectacle in my crisp new Honeymoon Suite t-shirt and acid-wash jeans.
After begging my Dad for who knows how long, I had finally won the war of attrition and convinced him that taking me to this concert was a good idea. There was even a rumour that the drummer (Dave Betts) had an aunt who lived in Gananoque, but with no Internet to confirm or deny it, the rumour was just something I hoped was true.
Dad is more of an oldies guy, with a collection of Beach Boys, CCR and Jim Croce albums upon which I was raised. But I had invested significant time and energy attempting to educate him on the finer points of Honeymoon Suite, by incessantly dragging my three favourite cassettes along any time we got in the car together. I recently found those tapes in a box, while looking for my old Eagles cassettes.
Honeymoon Suite
(WEA Music, 1983)
The self-titled debut with the iconic album cover featuring a heart-shaped bed of nails boasts four singles, including New Girl Now, Burning in Love, Stay in the Light and Wave Babies. Derry Grehan’s crunchy guitar riffs instantly captivated me and the lyrics for Wave Babies made reference to pretty girls lying “on the beach with their tops undone.” This was shocking at the time, but I had not yet discovered Guns N Roses.
Local trivia - did you know that Wave Babies was written in a hotel room in Trenton, and that the video was filmed at Sandbanks?
Honeymoon Suite - The Big Prize
(WEA Music, 1985)
What Does It Take is the big radio single, a well-deserved hit, but I was also drawn to the grinding guitars of Bad Attitude and Ray Coburn’s colourful keyboard palette on tracks like Feel It Again and One By One.
Honeymoon Suite - Racing After Midnight
(WEA Music, 1987)
Johnny Dee’s voice sounds better than ever on this album. The two monster singles were Love Changes Everything and Lookin’ Out for Number One. There are some great deep tracks on this one, including Fast Company, Tears on the Page and Long Way Back (with guest vocals by Michael McDonald). There is also a remix of the theme song from the motion picture, Lethal Weapon.
These classic cassettes are well-worn from years of obsessive playing and replaying, and the CDs are holding up fine, but I’d love to find them on vinyl. The hunt begins...