Through several lineup changes and name changes (the band also played as The Payola$, Paul Hyde and the Payolas, and Rock and Hyde), the Payolas core members remained Paul Hyde and Bob Rock, who together wrote virtually all of the band's songs, occasionally with co- writers. As well, Rock engineered and mixed virtually every Payolas recording. They disbanded in 1988, but reformed again from 2003 to 2008, issuing a new EP in 2007. Although in the 1980s the Payolas always seemed poised for a big international breakthrough, the band never quite broke out despite their artistic growth and popular success in Canada.
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Ex-Payolas Chris Taylor and Alex "A-Train" Boynton also guested on a few of this album's tracks. Another Payolas compilation was released in 2002 in Universal Music's 20th Century Masters Series. This compilation also featured the Rock and Hyde track "Dirty Water".
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For the first several years of their existence, the Payolas unsuccessfully tried to break into the U.S. market while dealing with strong radio resistance to their name. The Payolas lack of State-side exposure was attributed in some quarters to the possibility that American radio programmers were refusing to play any Payolas music simply because the band's name would remind the public of one of the radio industry's greatest scandals (and its ongoing practices). Therefore, under a certain amount of record company pressure — but also because they legitimately wanted to crack the lucrative U.S. market — the band softened their formerly hard- edged tunes, and in 1985 altered their name to Paul Hyde and the Payolas. In this way, radio DJs could play Payolas music, but simply announce the artist as "Paul Hyde" if they wanted to avoid uttering the dreaded "p" word on-air.
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Introducing Payola$ is the four-song EP with which the Payolas made their major label debut on A&M; Records.
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However, this release never materialized. The band stopped performing live as of 2008, and the official Payolas' website shut down in 2009. As with the band's first break-up, no formal announcement was made that the Payolas were ceasing operations; however, later in 2009 Paul Hyde resumed his solo career, releasing his fifth studio album.
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In 2006, a track called "Bomb" was available at their website, followed by "At the Angel's Feet". On July 17, 2007, the Payolas released a seven-song EP, Langford (Part One). They then played several live dates, reuniting the late 1980s band line-up of Rock, Hyde, and bassist Alex "A-Train" Boynton — a line-up that performed as "Paul Hyde and The Payolas" and as "Rock and Hyde", but prior to this reunion, had never performed as the Payolas. It was announced that there would be a full length follow-up to the Langford (Part One) EP, to be released in 2008 and possibly incorporating some of the EP's tracks.
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In a Place Like This is the first LP by the Payolas, released in 1981. The album is only available on vinyl and cassette; it has not been released on CD.
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It is unknown as to whether any other tracks were recorded for the full length-album project before the Payolas ceased operations in 2008, and shut down their site in 2009.
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Gerry Wand, Learning by Example: Larrie Londin, brucelarochelle.wordpress.com; retrieved August 11, 2012. In 1987, the band (who had by then changed their name to Paul Hyde and the Payolas) again changed their name to Rock and Hyde and had a hit single in Canada with the song "Dirty Water", which charted on Billboard's Hot 100. In 2007, the Payolas became briefly active once more as a touring and recording act, releasing the EP Langford Part One.
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Finally, in 2003, Rock and Hyde reteamed for a Vancouver gig. An EP called "Missing Links" was released for a charitable foundation, consisting of previously-unreleased Payolas songs and demos, a couple of which had surfaced earlier, in slightly different productions, on Paul Hyde's solo album Living off the Radar. The following year, Rock and Hyde announced they were at long last going into the studio to record a new Payolas release. The band was now a duo, with Hyde singing and Rock playing multiple instruments in the studio, occasionally augmented by session musicians.
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Langford Part One is the seven-song CD EP released by the Payolas in 2007. The album cover features a picture of the Belmont Secondary School which is the Langford high school that Bob Rock and Paul Hyde attended together. The band announced plans for a full-length album in 2008 that would combine the songs on this EP with several newer songs. However, the proposed full-length album project never materialized—although one newly recorded track from it ("Shark Attack") was released as a download from the Payolas' website in 2008.
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Rock began his music career in Langford, British Columbia (a suburb of Victoria), as a guitarist playing with friends William Alexander and Paul Hyde in the former's household basement. After high school graduation, Rock left Victoria and became the co-founder of the Payolas, who became well known with the success of their 1980s hit, "Eyes of a Stranger", which was used as part of the soundtrack of the movie Valley Girl starring Nicolas Cage. In 1983, the Payolas won the Juno Award for Single of the Year. Rock also worked as an assistant engineer at Little Mountain Sound in Vancouver.
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Hammer on a Drum is the third album by the Payolas, released in 1983. The title comes from a line in the song "Where Is This Love." The album is only available on vinyl and cassette; it has not been released on CD.
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Later in 1985, when Paul Hyde and the Payolas' Here's the World for Ya LP was released, its singles included “You're the Only Love”, “It Must Be Love”, “Stuck in the Rain,” and “Here’s the World”. All these singles did moderately well in Canada, and “You're the Only Love”, actually also charted in the US, scraping into the Hot 100—the first Payolas single to do so. However, critical and consumer reaction to Here's the World for Ya went the opposite way. The album was not the hit the record company was hoping for, especially considering Foster's previous track record of producing massive international hits for artists such as Chicago, John Parr, and Barbra Streisand.
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No Stranger to Danger is the second album by the Payolas, released in 1982. It contains the hit "Eyes of a Stranger". The album is only available on vinyl and cassette; it has not been released on CD or as a commercial digital download, although some tracks (notably "Romance" and "Eyes of a Stranger") appear on some compilations.
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Payolas (or Payola$) were a Canadian rock band, most prominent in the 1980s. Evolving from a new wave sound toward mainstream pop-rock, they released several albums and singles that were Canadian chart hits. The band's name is a reference to the payola scandal in the United States in the early 1960s. The group was based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and recorded mostly at Vancouver's Little Mountain Sound Studios.
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The settled initial group formation was Jeffrey Hatcher and Billy Cowsill as guitarists and principal songwriters, plus bassist Elmer Spanier and drummer J.B. "Jay" Johnson. Spanier left the band in 1993, prior to the release of their first album, and was replaced by Barry Muir, who had previously worked with Barney Bentall and The Payolas. The name of the group, suggested by Hatcher's wife, was based on the song "Blue Shadows On The Trail" by Sons of the Pioneers.
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The soundtrack features a host of new wave recording artists including the Psychedelic Furs as well as the Plimsouls and Josie Cotton, both of whom appeared in the film. Songs by Bonnie Hayes, Modern English, and the Payolas also featured prominently. Many of the songs used were minor chart hits in 1982–83. Josie Cotton's "Johnny Are You Queer?" was a regional hit in Southern California in 1981, placing #5 on KROQ-FM's Top 106 songs of the year and "He Could Be the One" from her album Convertible Music had reached #74 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982. The song heard over the opening credits is "Girls Like Me" from Bonnie Hayes' 1982 album Good Clean Fun, which "bubbled under" the Billboard 200 album chart at #206. The Plimsouls' "A Million Miles Away" and the Payolas' "Eyes of a Stranger" were moderate hits in 1982, reaching #11 and #22, respectively, on Billboards Top Tracks chart. "I Melt with You" by Modern English reached #78 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983. The song "I Melt with You" occurred twice in the film: in the ending credits and in the love scene montage.
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Rock is well known as a producer for heavy metal bands such as Metallica and Mötley Crüe. He has also worked with Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Blue Murder, the Moffatts, Cher, the Cult, David Lee Roth, Skid Row, Veruca Salt, Nina Gordon, the Offspring, 311, Our Lady Peace, the Tragically Hip, the Tea Party, Lostprophets, American Hi-Fi, Simple Plan, Tonic, Nelly Furtado, Jann Arden, and Ron Sexsmith. Rock briefly returned to performing, forming the band Rockhead with ex-Payolas drummer Chris Taylor. The band released one self-titled album and two singles before splitting up.
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The band lineup changed frequently over the early years, including McConville eventually leaving the band when her relationship with Campbell ended. She returned to Australia, where she became a backing vocalist for John Farnham. The band was nearly dormant when Campbell made a last-ditch effort to record a demo, which he sent to Payolas manager Cliff Jones in the hopes of securing a recording contract. Jones responded favourably, so Campbell and drummer Phil Robertson recruited Glenn R. Smith, Miles Fox Hill and John Webster to record the band's self-titled debut album.
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Successful American new wave bands in the late seventies included Talking Heads, The Cars, The Knack, The B-52's, and Devo. Some of the Canadian new wave groups included Rough Trade, The Payolas and Martha and the Muffins. After the success of British synthpop acts in the U.S. such as Gary Numan and the Buggles, a number of American bands also began experimenting with synthesizers. In the early 1980s, bands from the United Kingdom became immensely popular in the U.S., and this phenomenon became known as the Second British Invasion which mainly consisted of British new wave and synthpop acts, therefore broadening the definition of "new wave".
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For Here's the World for Ya (1985), the band changed its name to Paul Hyde and the Payolas, but disappointing sales resulted in their being dropped by the label. The team resigned with Capitol/EMI and put out one album, Under the Volcano (1987), as Rock And Hyde. These attempts to increase radio play in the U.S. by changing their band name met with limited success, although they gave Hyde his only two US Hot 100 entries. Still, Rock and Hyde went their separate ways in 1988: Hyde became a solo artist, and Rock an extremely successful hard rock/metal producer (his clients included Metallica), and part of the short-lived band Rockhead.
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Today, Vancouver is home to a number of popular independent bands such as The New Pornographers, Japandroids, Destroyer, In Medias Res, Tegan and Sara, and independent labels including Nettwerk and Mint. Vancouver also produced influential metal band Strapping Young Lad and pioneering electro-industrial bands Skinny Puppy, Numb and Front Line Assembly; the latter's Bill Leeb is better known for founding ambient pop super-group Delerium. Other popular musical artists who made their mark from Vancouver include Carly Rae Jepsen, Bryan Adams, Sarah McLachlan, Heart, Prism, Trooper, Chilliwack, Payolas, Moev, Images in Vogue, Michael Bublé, Stef Lang and Spirit of the West. Larger musical performances are usually held at venues such as Rogers Arena, Queen Elizabeth Theatre, BC Place Stadium or the Pacific Coliseum, while smaller acts are held at places such as the Commodore Ballroom, the Orpheum Theatre and the Vogue Theatre.
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