Anvil brings metal & music to the Film Festival

July 20, 2008

If you don’t believe in fate, destiny or déjà vu, you will after watching this year’s hottest rock and roll movie (according to Rolling Stone) “Anvil! The Story Of Anvil.” The documentary of the band that put Canadian heavy metal on the map and inspired a generation of head bangers will show twice during the fourth annual Traverse City Film Festival next week.
Anvil will also perform Friday, August 1 at Union Street Station in Traverse City.
This movie and the band will become the anthem for all musicians and bands struggling to make it in the world of music.
In many ways Anvil’s plight is similar to the great African American songwriters and bluesmen, many who remain nameless who penned some of rock music’s great songs and served as the inspiration for many of pop music’s all time greats, and who received little or no compensation for their efforts.
Anvil served as the inspiration for many of the all-time greatest heavy metal bands, such as Metallica, Slayer, Guns N’ Roses, Motorhead and Anthrax. All give credit to Anvil, yet more than 30 years since forming, the band remains in musical obscurity.

TRIALS & TRIBULATION
“That is where the fate and destiny comes in,” says Steve “Lips” Kudlow, vocalist and lead guitarist. “I really believe that we were meant to go through all of these trials and tribulations so this film could be made. We were destined to become an example, and I think we have done a damn good job over the past 30 years – showing how to struggle while not giving up on that dream.”
So when did Ludlow reach the conclusion that his band’s fate and destiny were predetermined?
“It was in 1978 and we were on our way to a show in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada, and we lost control of our van and it rolled over. Everyone who saw the accident and the police all said we should have been killed. But the poles that held up our lights kept us from getting crushed. We all walked away without a scratch,” said Ludlow. “I was never a particularly religious person, but at that moment I knew this band was destined to accomplish something. I just didn’t know what that destiny was going to be.”
Ludlow got his start on the guitar at the age of 10 when in 1966 his father came home with an electric guitar.
“I was one chip off of one of my father’s blocks,” laughs Ludlow. “I inherited his interest in music and performing. My one brother is an accountant and the other brother is a doctor. See, it is that destiny thing. Well, once I got that guitar, I couldn’t put it down. Like everyone else I was inspired by the Beatles. But more so by the Stones – they were dirtier and they were a guys band. Then there was Hendrix. I was into him when a lot of people were not.”

ROOTS OF ROCK
At the age of 14, Ludlow formed a band with high school classmate and drummer Robb Reiner, and the group would go by various names -- Gravestone, Lips -- before becoming Anvil.
“We couldn’t play clubs so we played at the school. See, some smart school administrators decided that they should open the schools at night time as drop-in centers so kids would have something to do, and to keep us from getting into trouble,” said Ludlow. “So we would all go get shit-faced first and then show up to the drop-in center trashed. Well, we became popular as a band because we had all original music; we played covers only because we wanted to, not because we had to.”
By 1978 the group had become an underground favorite in Canada and appeared to be well on their way.
“We were the Canadian metal scene,” laughs Ludlow, who used a dildo to play slide guitar in the early days. “I had a very simple philosophy and it was ‘f--k money, give me metal. I just wanted to go out on stage every night and rock out and make enough money to get by and not be a sellout. I don’t want to be critical of others’ success, but at the root of playing, metal is not selling out, and that is something we never did.”

MAKING THE FILM
As for how the film came to fruition, Ludlow goes back to the destiny thing.
“In 1982 we met this 15-year-old kid, Sacha Gervasi, who was a big fan of the band and became our roadie,” said Ludlow. “At the time we just thought he was some kid and I had no idea that he would play a role in our destiny. As I look back on my life I am starting to see how all the pieces fit together to tell our story.”
Filmmaker Sacha Gervasi in 2004 wrote The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Steven Spielberg. He has subsequently written Comrade Rockstar for Hanks, How to Marry A Millionaire for Nicole Kidman, and is also co-writing Henry’s Crime for Keanu Reaves.
So how did Ludlow get reconnected with Sacha?
“I had not heard from Sacha in more than 20 years and I get this call from him all of a sudden, saying he needed to meet with me,” said Ludlow. “Well to make a long story short, he told me he wanted to make a movie about Anvil, to tell our story. It was at that moment that my life completely flashed before me. It was at that moment that I realized that all of our struggles and hardships as a band had a purpose and this was the purpose.”
Ludlow started examining all of the coincidences and moments of fate in his life. He began to realize that everything he had done in the past was reconnecting and déjà vu was setting in.
“At a meeting with Sacha and the film’s producer Rebecca Yeldham (Kite Runner and The Motorcycle Diaries) who was in Toronto for the film festival and unconvinced that this was a story to be told, I told her my story,” said Ludlow. “We were at this fancy restaurant and I told her how during our band’s struggles we all had day jobs and one of my jobs was delivering fish to this restaurant. I told her this was the first time I had ever been able to be a customer here. It was at that moment I think she became convinced. See, I didn’t get at the time how important delivering those fish was going to be for my future.”

PAYING TRIBUTE
During the filming Gervasi sought out several musicians inspired by Anvil.
“While he was interviewing Tom Araya, the bass player and lead singer for Slayer, Tom told Sacha that he needed to speak to me right away,” said Ludlow. “So I get this call from Sacha who puts Tom on the phone. Tom says, ‘Hey Lips, are you feeling this sense of déjà vu? Do you feel you are completely in line with your destiny and that you now can sense your future?’ I was like, wow, yeah I can. All sorts of weird stuff like this happened during the filming.”

POWER TRIO
As a band Anvil has had many lineups with Ludlow and Reiner always at the root of it. They started out as a power trio and eventually added more players, only to return to their power trio roots.
“My philosophy is, why do you really need a f--king second guitar player in the band overshadowing your guitar work?” laughs Ludlow. “I look at Grand Funk, who we were inspired by, as the ultimate power trio of all time. Look, I am not sure why the original band is not together but Mark Farner, in my opinion, is probably one of the best guitar front guys of all time. Look, it took three guys to replace him.”
Ludlow starts feeling the fate and destiny thing again when he learns that Grand Funk bass player Mel Shacher lives in Traverse City, and his idol Mark Farner lives in Petoskey.
“I wrote this song ‘Computer Drone’ that was totally inspired by Mark’s song ‘Paranoid.’ You have to be kidding me -- these guys live in Northern Michigan,” said Ludlow, who begins to start sounding like a star-struck kid hoping to meet his idols.
In many ways Anvil set themselves up for their destiny simply in their name. Defined as a heavy iron block used by blacksmiths as a support for chiseling and hammering objects into their shape, that is exactly what Anvil was for so many bands.
“Not only were they an inspiration to me when I was getting started, they remain so today,” said Slash of Guns N’ Roses fame. “They never sold out and they stayed true to the music.”
Slash, along with Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, took the stage with Anvil at the Sundance Film Festival, performing Ted Nugent’s “Catch Scratch Fever.”
“Yeah, Ted Nugent is the man. We are so excited to come to Michigan to perform. It really is the music capital of the world. With bands like Grand Funk, The MC5, Nugent and others, they made heavy metal what it is today,” said Ludlow. “What really blows is these guys are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How in the f-—k can Ted Nugent not be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Ted Nugent is rock and roll. Well, I tell you what, Ted Nugent doesn’t need the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because he is in mine and so many others’ hall of fame.”

GETTING RESPECT
Ludlow starts to get worked up as he takes his point further.
“I don’t understand why musicians are pitted against each other. No one pits Van Gogh against Picasso. Artists are respected for their work and not compared to one another. Somewhere along the way some asshole came up with the idea that musicians should be compared to one another. That is bullshit. We draw inspiration from other musicians, but we never try to be like other bands. It is why we never went commercial. We decided to make it on our terms. Sure it would have been easier to sell out and make radio friendly songs but that is not who Anvil is.
Ludlow can only chuckle at the suggestion of changing lyrics to his songs to make them radio-friendly.
“We have this song ‘Show Us Your Tits.’ Sure, we could have changed one word to make it radio-friendly, but it wouldn’t have the same meaning,” said Ludlow. “We have this other song called “Back Waxed” that is pretty graphic sexually. This is who and the hell we are. We are Anvil and we did it our way. Sure, it has taken 30 years and I have a wife, god bless her, who makes more money than I do. But guess what? I never f-—king quit. I am not going to quit because at the end of the day, we are going to be the best f-—king bar band that ever existed. Plus, what else could I possibly do for a living? I was destined for this life.”
• “Anvil! The Story Of Anvil” has won two “Audience Awards” (LA Film and Sydney Film Festivals) and the “Best Documentary Award” at the Galway Film Festival in Ireland. Catch Anvil live in concert next Friday night at Union Street Station. For screening information visit traversecityfilmfest.org