As we first reported here, Canuck rock legends HELIX have inked a new deal with Sanctuary Records. Frontman Brian Vollmer comments:

Yes, Helix fans, it’s true. We have just signed an eight record deal with Sanctuary Records in the UK for the territory of Europe. We will now be label mates with MOTÖRHEAD, RONNIE JAMES DIO, BLACK SABBATH, and DOLORES O’RIORDAN, just to mention a few. Sanctuary will be handling the new CD entitled The Power of Rock n’ Roll and seven past catalogue titles: Breaking Loose, White Lace & Black Leather, Half-alive, B-Sides, Back for Another Taste, Live! in Buffalo and Rockin’ In My Outer Space. With the exception of Rockin’ In My Outer Space, Sanctuary will be creating new/bonus artwork on the entire past catalogue. The person in charge of this huge task is Jon Richards. For the past two weeks I have been scanning pictures/write-ups/ads to send him. No date yet on when they plan to re-release these titles, but Power will be out by July/August. It’s ready to go to press now. The past titles will be released after that.

Lynda (Vollmer) and I will be flying to England to meet with the company representatives in late June. I’ll also be doing interviews set up by Sanctuary while I’m there plus visiting all our English friends.

On Friday Gord Prior and Danny Broadbeck went into EMAC Studios and completed the final master for The Power Of Rock n’ Roll. Meanwhile across town Spiro Papadatos was just putting the final touches to the artwork, so we expect to ship the finished product to Sanctuary early next week. Sanctuary has told me they are looking at the July/August time slot for a release and I will coincide that with our North American release. We are also shopping Power in other territories ie. Japan, Australia, and the U.S and we’re waiting to hear back from the people we’ve sent the music to. Being signed to Sanctuary in Europe will help to boost our profile and perhaps attract record company interest outside of Europe.

Here’s how things are shaping up for our June tour out west:

June

7 - Silver Dollar Casino - Calgary, Alberta

8/9 - Grande Cache Hotel - Grande Cache, Alberta

12 - North Peace Cultural Center - Fort St. John, British Columbia
14 - Average Joe’s - Lethbridge, Alberta

15/16 - Edmonton Casino - Edmonton, Alberta

We return home after this short tour and play the next weekend with Rik Emmett of TRIUMPH at Lucknow Arena. Lynda and I leave for England on June 27th and return home on July 9th. Ken Sherwood (our Ontario agent) has told me we are booked July 13th in Ottawa, venue to be announced. It also looks like we are close to being booked in Vancouver and in Sudbury in July and August with many more dates coming in all the time. I find it especially exciting that we are now receiving numerous American offers."