  After Stallion Thumrock had run its short course by the mid ’70s, BC natives Brett (also ex of The Electric Prunes) and younger brother Joel Wade, wandered around on the west coast circuit and played as a duo.After hooking up with Doug Louie and Pacific West Productions, they eventually signed a deal with Epic Records in 1978, and entered Total Sounds West Studios in Vancouver to record their debut album in late ’78. With Brett on guitars and Joel handling vocals and bass, they recruited Dale Jacobs as producer. Both brothers had played on his debut album a year earlier, and their sessions included a whole slew of studio musicians, including Jim Vallance on drums (most noteable as being Bryan Adams‘ songwriting partner), Graeme Coleman on piano, and Wayne Kozak (another Stallion Thumrock alumni) on flutes and other assorted instruments. They released WHICH WADE?, a mix of contemporary pop, in the spring of 1979 to little fanfare. Unimpressed, Epic took over and re-mixed the tracks, taking out a couple of songs and adding “One Way Ticket,” which had originally been scrapped from the initial sessions. The album was re-released as ONE WAY TICKET – SPECIAL EDITION that fall. The title track became the first single, backed with “Rainbow Mountain,” but went nowhere on the charts. “In The Sky” followed it before the end of the year, but it too failed to make a dent on the charts. Although the brothers had formed a backing band and were touring sporadically across the country, the label was disenchanted and dropped them in early 1980. They returned to the studios and recorded some new material in ’82, and released the new single “Smooth Sailing” b/w “Silver Seas” later that year on the independent Prime Time Records label. After it too went nowhere, the brothers went their separate ways and onto other projects. Joel signed a songwriting deal with BMG, and has performed with and produced many artists, including Rik Emmett, Ringo Starr, Harry Neilson, and Bob Rock, and re-released a string of moderately successful solo records, including 2005’s DON’T LOOK BACK. Brett became a highly demanded session player and opened his own studio, and also wrote commercial jingles and did some TV work before taking a job as resident producer, engineer, and aranger at Creation Studios in Vancouver. He then became an audio production instructor at the Art Institute of Burnaby, and has worked with such artists as David Foster, Louise Mandrel, Roy Oribson, Valdy, Rita McNeil, Ray Charles, and Michael Bolton, among other artists.
|
