Helix frontman / founder Brian Vollmer continues his trip down memory lane, looking back at the band's "Wild In The Streets" video from the 1987 album of the same name.

Vollmer: "The 'Wild In The Streets' video was filmed at the Massey Ferguson plant in Toronto (once again!). If my memory is correct, it was filmed on a Friday the 13th, and at some point the power went out. For this vid we had the full Helix stage replete with the metal horn ramps. 

As in previous videos, we sat down as a group and planned out various shots we wanted the film company to do. Rob Quarterly, the director we had used since 'Heavy Metal Love', was once again brought in to do the filming. Brent (Doerner / guitars) had an idea he wanted to come through a wall of glass, so Capitol paid to have some 'sugar glass' brought in. Sugar glass is what they use in movies/TV. It’s supposed to be harmless when you smash it, although Brent had some cuts here and there. The glass was very expensive, so there were only two sheets of it. There wasn’t much room to f**k up. 

Another shot we wanted was to have me bounce my microphone stand off my leg up into the air and then catch it. It was not as simple as it sounded. Try bouncing a steel microphone stand off your leg! In the end we painted a broom stick black and used that for the stand. The broom stick had lots of bounce to it, although I think we broke a couple in half before we got it right. It still took a lot of practice and turned my leg blue after doing it 500 times…lol.

An 'oddity' in the video is where Paul (Hackman / guitars) and Brent throw their guitars across stage to each other. What we ended up using were the guitars actually going back to the guitar throwers-we ran the film in reverse. As with all our little tricks involving guitars, we practiced with cheapies before actually taking a chance on destroying a custom made guitar. Usually things worked out alright. However, when Brent was perfecting throwing his guitar in a circle around his back, he broke off many a guitar neck before he got it right. Also-if you missed-the chances were you were also going to drive the end of a guitar stock into your leg or your crotch. Risky business. But someone had to do it…(Brent, not me!-I'm the singer!)

The vest and belt I used in this video are still in my office downstairs. However, I don’t know what happened to the holster. Now you see other singers using my idea. It wouldn’t be the first time that other bands nicked our ideas. We also worked a long time on our clothes to get a unique look. The leather jacket with the studded fringes took a couple of days to put together. I eventually gave it to a girlfriend from South Carolina by the name of Suzie Best (Suzie was the girl mentioned in Southern Comfort, from the album Old School). 

Staying ahead of the curve on clothes was something very important with us. We always tried to stay on the cutting edge when it came to fashion and spent thousands of dollars on clothes and hours photographing and re-photographing the clothes to make sure they looked as best and as cool as they could. We had some amazing clothes designers. Together with our ideas, our accessories, and our clothes choices resulting from hours of shopping for them, we achieved a unique look."

Helix recently released the Eat Sleep Rock CD on Perris Records, a compilation album with some of singer Brian Vollmer’s personal favorite songs recorded since leaving Captiol/EMI in 1990. The album was recorded at bassist Darryl Gray's own Dawghouse Studios, mixed by Siegfried Meier and mastered by Harry Hess (Harem Scarem). The artwork was done by ex-Helix guitarist Brent Doerner with photos by Victor Azziz Studios. "Brent is a very creative guy," states Vollmer. When he was in the band writing songs, he was with us for I think 16 or 18 years. I've always found him as a person who thought outside the box when it came to creativity so it's great still having him involved with Helix projects. He's like a 6th member."

Eat Sleep Rock adds the new track "Eat Sleep Rock" and includes "The Story Of Helix," a rap that Brian wrote a couple of years ago to kick off the acoustic show. "Eat Sleep Rock" is the first to feature new Helix guitarist Gary Borden, a veteran of the Canadian music scene who has played with Sass Jordan, Toronto and The Guess Who, worked with Gowan, and fronts his own original act Blood Of VanGogh. Brian continues, "Kaleb left last year, he was a solid member for over 10 years and he is still involved with the band writing for the next studio album. Gary is a great guy and he fits right in. It's great having guys with personalities like Gary and Chris (Julke, guitarist) to bring you up as it's tough when you are out there doing it all weekend long, travelling, playing, getting up early and flying. I got a great bunch of guys behind me."

Keep up to date with all things Helix in their newly designed website at Planethelix.com.

Be sure to tune in when Helix debuts their new video "Eat Sleep Rock" on Friday, August 14th at 9pm EST during an episode of Friday Night Live, a local London, Ontario based streaming show. The video was shot and produced by ex-Helix member Brent Doerner. Brian and Chris will stop by for an interview and also perform a special acoustic version of "Eat Sleep Rock" with "Coronavirus oriented lyrics." Join Facebook event notifications here.

The show will also announce a special Helix merch bundle that includes a band signed copy of Eat Sleep Rock, a special coronavirus-themed shirt, a mask and koozie. BraveWords followers can go to RockPaperMerch.com and apply the special discount code BW10 at checkout for anything ordered on the Helix webstore throughout August.