ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL
LONG SYNOPSIS:
At 14, Toronto school friends Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever.
Their band Anvil went on to become the “demi-gods of Canadian metal,” releasing one of the heaviest albums in metal history, 1982’s “Metal on Metal.” The album influenced a musical generation including Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. All those bands went on to sell millions of records but Anvil’s career would take a different path – straight into obscurity.
But Lips and Robb never gave up on their childhood dream and kept rocking, always believing that one day Anvil would taste the success that had so long eluded them.
The film follows Lips and Robb, now in their 50s, as they gear up to record their thirteenth album, “This is Thirteen.” Coping with increasingly impatient families, crippling mortgages and the effects of old age, they know this is their last chance to really make it.
To prepare for the album, the band heads to Europe on their biggest tour in twenty years. Even by Anvil standards it is a spectacular string of disasters. The band’s new manager, Tiziana, is a highly strung incomprehensible Swiss-Italian with no prior experience. Her poor planning ensures the band consistently misses trains and planes and rarely plays in front of more than a dozen people. To make matters worse, the band doesn’t always get paid. But Tiziana promises five thousand people will be attending the final date of the tour - the Monsters of Transylvania rock festival.
Less than two hundred Romanian headbangers show up, the opening act is a raffle to win a weekend for two at a Black Sea resort and Lips’s hemorrhoids pop out during Robb’s drum solo.
Returning to his job at Children’s Choice Catering in Toronto, Lips remains philosophical about the highs and lows of the music business and the fact that Tiziana is now planning to marry Anvil guitarist Ivan Hurd. Putting any bad feelings aside, Anvil rallies to play the wedding reception, showcasing speed-metal classics such as “666” and “Butter-Bust Jerky” to a hall of horrified elderly guests.
Still believing that a great new album is their last chance to make it, Lips contacts the band’s old producer, Chris “CT” Tsangerides, the man who captured their magic on “Metal on Metal” twenty-five years before.
When CT hears the demo, he couldn’t be more excited. He has nothing but fond memories of their past collaboration and asks only that the band covers his basic studio costs.
But for Lips and Robb, now back at their $12-an-hour day jobs, this is an impossible task. Reluctantly Lips asks his sister Rhonda for help. Recognizing her brother’s heroic persistence in chasing his dream, Rhonda offers to loan her brother the money.
Amid the picturesque English countryside, the recording sessions begin. Conflict erupts immediately. The pressure to get it right affects the whole band, especially Lips and Robb. After a huge fight Robb storms out, vowing to quit the band. CT steps in to calm the explosive atmosphere, reminding his old friends that they are closer than brothers.
After tearful apologies and proclamations of undying love, the album is completed on a high. Thanks to songs like “Sweaty Betty” and “Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda,” the band feels it’s their most coherent, dynamic work since their glory days.
Finishing the album, however, is one thing; selling it quite another. Anvil makes the rounds of record companies back home, only to discover times have changed. No one wants to sign a group of balding, spandex-clad fifty-somethings, no matter how heavy the music.
The inevitable rejection letters start to trickle in and Lips, now desperate for money, is forced to get a job as a telemarketer selling miniature flashlights.
By any normal standards the journey has not been a success but Lips comes to terms with what success really means. He has everything he needs. Family, fans and the integrity of having stayed true to a pact he made with his best friend thirty years ago. When all is said and done, he’s made thirteen albums and his music will last forever. He is happy with his place in the world.
Undeterred, Lips and Robb vow to find a way to distribute the new album themselves.
As they begin the process of learning internet marketing a call comes in out of the blue.
Anvil is invited back to play Japan, the site of their greatest concert success. But will the fans from a quarter century ago remember them?
LONG SYNOPSIS:
Their band Anvil went on to become the “demi-gods of Canadian metal,” releasing one of the heaviest albums in metal history, 1982’s “Metal on Metal.” The album influenced a musical generation including Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. All those bands went on to sell millions of records but Anvil’s career would take a different path – straight into obscurity.
But Lips and Robb never gave up on their childhood dream and kept rocking, always believing that one day Anvil would taste the success that had so long eluded them.
The film follows Lips and Robb, now in their 50s, as they gear up to record their thirteenth album, “This is Thirteen.” Coping with increasingly impatient families, crippling mortgages and the effects of old age, they know this is their last chance to really make it.
To prepare for the album, the band heads to Europe on their biggest tour in twenty years. Even by Anvil standards it is a spectacular string of disasters. The band’s new manager, Tiziana, is a highly strung incomprehensible Swiss-Italian with no prior experience. Her poor planning ensures the band consistently misses trains and planes and rarely plays in front of more than a dozen people. To make matters worse, the band doesn’t always get paid. But Tiziana promises five thousand people will be attending the final date of the tour - the Monsters of Transylvania rock festival.
Returning to his job at Children’s Choice Catering in Toronto, Lips remains philosophical about the highs and lows of the music business and the fact that Tiziana is now planning to marry Anvil guitarist Ivan Hurd. Putting any bad feelings aside, Anvil rallies to play the wedding reception, showcasing speed-metal classics such as “666” and “Butter-Bust Jerky” to a hall of horrified elderly guests.
Still believing that a great new album is their last chance to make it, Lips contacts the band’s old producer, Chris “CT” Tsangerides, the man who captured their magic on “Metal on Metal” twenty-five years before.
When CT hears the demo, he couldn’t be more excited. He has nothing but fond memories of their past collaboration and asks only that the band covers his basic studio costs.
But for Lips and Robb, now back at their $12-an-hour day jobs, this is an impossible task. Reluctantly Lips asks his sister Rhonda for help. Recognizing her brother’s heroic persistence in chasing his dream, Rhonda offers to loan her brother the money.
Amid the picturesque English countryside, the recording sessions begin. Conflict erupts immediately. The pressure to get it right affects the whole band, especially Lips and Robb. After a huge fight Robb storms out, vowing to quit the band. CT steps in to calm the explosive atmosphere, reminding his old friends that they are closer than brothers.
Finishing the album, however, is one thing; selling it quite another. Anvil makes the rounds of record companies back home, only to discover times have changed. No one wants to sign a group of balding, spandex-clad fifty-somethings, no matter how heavy the music.
The inevitable rejection letters start to trickle in and Lips, now desperate for money, is forced to get a job as a telemarketer selling miniature flashlights.
By any normal standards the journey has not been a success but Lips comes to terms with what success really means. He has everything he needs. Family, fans and the integrity of having stayed true to a pact he made with his best friend thirty years ago. When all is said and done, he’s made thirteen albums and his music will last forever. He is happy with his place in the world.
Undeterred, Lips and Robb vow to find a way to distribute the new album themselves.
As they begin the process of learning internet marketing a call comes in out of the blue.
Anvil is invited back to play Japan, the site of their greatest concert success. But will the fans from a quarter century ago remember them?