BABYLON A.D. In the beginning By Derek DavisThis is how I remember it.Jamey called me sometime around Christmas of 85 and said he had been practicing with an awesome guitarist named John Mathews. He wanted to know if I would come down and check them out at their studio in Fremont. I was already in another band called Audio at the time and we were doing really well headlining all our shows. We also had management and some good demos. So I was mildly interested.I went to Jamey and John’s studio on a Saturday night and was blown away by the music and sound just two guys could make. John was a great guitarist with a crazed look in his eyes and was performing like he was on stage. And Jamey hit the drums hard and tight. Johns had his own style and sound and his music was very catchy. Right away that nightI started writing lyrics to his music. This band was definitely forming. We just needed a bass player and possibly a second guitarist.About two weeks later Jamey heard about a kid named Ron Freschi from Hayward that could play like Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen.James and I went to Ron’s house and watched him play in his bedroom and right away we knew we had another great guitarist with his own sound.I got hold of Robb Reid who had been one of my old bass players in another band and we named ourselves the Persuaders.We started practicing 3 to 4 days a week. John and Ron had a great chemistry and knew how to play off each other and everyone was really psyched up from the sound and the quality of songs we were writing. Between us we had a lot of different influences, John was into Thin Lizzy and Boston, Jamey was into the Cheap Trick and Tony Brock of The Baby’s and Rod Stewart, Ron liked Van Halen and George Lynch of Dokken, I was influenced by The Producers, Aerosmith and Motown soul, and Rob liked Prince. So we had a lot of diverse music that would influence and create our sound. Within about two months we were out playing live and from then on it was like a rocket ride. We practiced, played and partied like wild animals just about every single night. In those days there were lots of clubs to play and soon we were headlining them all with a large following of friends, family members, hanger-ons, groupies and oddballs.There was twisted Jim, my crazy cousin, screaming Jack my other crazy cousin, big Jim, G-man, Luanna Turner who did our mailing list, and her bunch.Our crew, Jimmy Chan, Sal Neives, Mark Vinchenzi, and Kurt Tucker who every one thought looked like Bon-Jovi, Mick the ex con\u002Fphotographer with his own harem of Betty’s, our slang term for girls. The Niles Boys, Neil Duffy, John Boy, Jolio, Will James, Johnny the Duke Lopez, and 5 to 10 other misfits. And there was Joey Castros Ranch which provided us a place with non stop action and other contraband on many a night. There was also Dennis and Marty Bostock and their Porter palace where mayhem and destruction reined. There must have been fifty other characters that were in our gang. Cuzz that’s what it was, a fukin Gang. Boozing, Bruizin, Ballin and Brawlin almost every night. We played, partied, fought and f****d pretty much in that order.In 86, 87, 88 we were determined to rule the Bay Area club scene. And from the moment we formed it was not-stop peddled to the metal with a vengeance attitude. We wanted a record deal and we were gonna get it! Just about every weekend we had a gig. We headlined the Stone in S.F, the Omni in Oakland, the Keystone Palo Alto, and every other club or gig the bay Area had to offer. But the most important place at that time was a small bar\u002Fclub called Niles Station in the Old Historic town of Niles. This dark, gritty, tough place was where everything happened. We played and hung out so there so much the owner\u002F bar tender Joey must have went broke with all the drinks he gave us on the house. This placed just Rocked and everybody played here. Us, the Flame, Vain, Eric Martin,The Shakes, Tesla, Johnny, Ron Thompson, even Eddie Money a couple timesBut we were the band that put the place on the map. We were the first of the Bay Area unsigned bands to have A.R guys Fly in from L.A or N.Y to see our shows. And a great show was what we had. Along with our songs we had a certain (I’ll Kick Your A**) attitude on stage that resonated with the fans that were coming to see the band. There were so many hot Betty’s hanging around with us so naturally the guys came out to see the action. It was Loud, Hot and Packed when we performed.And we gave it a hundred and fifty percent. We’d play the gig, drink like fish, stayed up till dawn and just do the craziest sh*t.There were fights at almost every gig. Between our band members or the Niles boys or Twisted Jim. Somebody was always in a fight.And our reputation grew as a fun band to come and see partly because of the unknown factor of what might happen on any given night.In 87 we hooked up with real good management. This is essentially how we finally got signed. We made a two song demo with the songs (Do You Want It) and (Last Time for love) on it. Jamey and I flew down to L.A. on a Friday night not knowing a single soul.We landed at L.A.X, grabbed our bags and went to a club close to the airport to try and hook up with somebody who might let us crash at their place.We partied for a few hours and met this chick who took us home. She was the ex-girl friend of Duff from Guns and Roses so she played us some of their demos, the ones before they where signed and we crashed at her house. The next day we told her we needed to rent a car to get to Hollywood but we had no credit card. She took us to a rental place and rented us a car and we were off to Hollywood.We had 10 promo packs with us. Each one had a cassette, picture and bio.We hit the sunset strip and it was a fukin zoo. There were mobs of people everywhere.The Rainbow, The Whiskey, The Roxie and Gazzarie’s where all packed out the doors. There was a definite scene that was exploding in the streets. Band guys with flyers promoting there bands, half naked girls falling down drunk, commotion everywhere you looked. James and I snuck into every club through the back doors looking for anyone who might look like an A.R guy or someone in the music business.We finally ended up at Gazzaries around midnight half plastered and we had given out most of our stuff to hot looking chicks and different promotional street people.We noticed a guy sitting alone in a suit and I said to James, “that guys got to be somebody”, he’s the only guy in here in a suit”. We went over and introduced ourselves as best we could over the loud music and being half inebriated from drinking all night.He took a promo pack and said thanks I’ll listen to it. He then told us he was there seeing the band on stage for a video shoot. About 10 minutes later the band finished their set and the next thing we know (Do You Want It) and (Last Time For Love) come over the P.A system of the club. James and I were blown away and it sounded awesome!Well the guy in the suit comes over to us and says (man this sounds great)! My name is Jay Malla I’m a manager and I want to see your band as soon as possible. We exchanged numbers and were elated that he liked us even though we didn’t know exactly who he was or what he could do for us. Then James and I proceeded to get sh*t faced drunk the rest of the night. We still had the rental car we could sleep in, but it was too cold so we ended up at this flea infested hooker hotel on Hollywood blvd and slept a few hours.In the morning we drove back to the air port and left the car in the parking lot and flew home happy but hung over. To us, our first experience in L.A had been a success and we couldn’t wait to tell everyone what had happened.Jay Malla called the next week and asked when he could see us. I told him we had a gig at Niles Station the next Saturday. He flew up to see our show, partied all night with us and told us all about himself. He was once a singer\u002Fsongwriter himself and once had a record deal, publishing deal and had sung on tour with Joe Perry when Joe left Aerosmith for awhile. Jay was a fast talking New Yorker with an attitude just like ours so we knew right away this was gonna work. He told us if he didn’t get us a record deal in six months we could fire him. We liked that!For the next few months we continued our surge. Playing and partying to the limit. We also wrote a lot of songs. Most of the time John or Ron would come to the studio with a really good riff and then I would start writing lyrics sitting on a smelly ole beer soaked couch. The band would play the riff over and over and then we would put a few more parts to the song and if we thought it was good we’d put in our set.We also started recording almost everything we wrote, on 4 trk, 8 trk, 16 trk anything we had at our disposal because money was tight. None of us had what you could call a real job. All of us were in our early 20’s and we were basically living at home or with our girlfriends working off and on in construction, or going to school. Meanwhile back in L.A. our new manager Jay Malla was talking to Record Company’s and setting up showcases for us. We started playing in L.A. and we played everywhere, The Whiskey, The Roxie. FM Station, The Troubadour, Florentine Gardens the Country Club and some other places that I can’t remember their names. We were getting real tight and getting more exposure. People in the business were starting to talk. Jay even partnered up with Bill Acoin the infamous ex manager of Billy Idol, Kiss, Donna Summers and others. This guy had all the keys to the music business, but we thought he was a fukin parasite for reasons I’ll leave unsaid. We told Jay, (You’re our manager but fuk that freak). And that was the end of that team.By now we were at the six month point with our manager and sure enough we started doing showcases. People from all the majors were seeing our gigs. We had private showcases with RCA, MCA and Arista and that’s when we first met Clive Davis.A showcase was set up at S.I.R studios in S.F and when we were done we talked for about a half an hour to Clive. He said we were almost there and he wanted us to write some more songs and that we could be the next Aerosmith. But we were left without a deal so we were bumbed, but he said he still wanted to see us soon in a few months time to see how we were improving. During this time there were constant phone calls between Arista’s west coast A.R manager Randy Gersten, Jay and I discussing the band.I wrote some songs with Jack Ponti and the song Desperate stood out. We heard Clive really loved this song.A few months passed, it was late 1988 and we were the top band in the S.F Bay Area.So we decided to make a stab at playing and living in L.A. We quit what ever jobs we had and rented an apartment called the St James off of Hollywood Blvd. A lot of people lived in this building. Actors, musicians and industry type and there was usually a good party at the pool in the day or on the roof at night. We fit right in.We were in L.A three days when the phone rings and Clive Davis says I want to see you guys on Saturday which was two days away. We scrambled to put a showcase together at S.I.R studios in L.A. and even though it was sort notice, we knew we were ready because all we had been doing for the last few months since we met Clive was eating, drinking and shitting music. That Saturday we played 7 songs for Clive, Randy and another guy from Arista’s EastCoast division. At the end of our set Clive stood up and opened his arms like the God Father and said “welcome to the family boys”. John, Jamey, Ron, Robb and I had just got a record deal! We went out that night to the Rainbow were mayhem ruled and got totally incapacitated. Started two or three fights, got kicked out and went home with new betty’s. We were off to the races. Or so it seemed!Living in L.A. was a whole different animal and we soon were making friends with other rockers, Porno stars, ex this, ex that, I used to be somebody, I am somebody, every kind of celebrity or semi - celebrity the town could chew up.We quickly learned the ropes and the lifestyle in L.A. which for us was sleep all day party and play all night. Practice when you had too. It was a train headed off the tracks and we were riding in it.It was about this time the record company suggested we change our name. So naturally living in modern hedonistic Hollywood we changed our name to Babylon A.D.For a year we practiced, played gigs in and around L.A and finally we started making our Record. There were so many fast changes that year in 89 it is almost impossible to comprehend. We now had publicity people, record people, accountants, lawyers, the William Morris agency for bookings, a road crew, management, producers and a lot of other sh*t to pay for. We took photos, did interviews, fired people, and hired people.We were in the eye of the storm and reality was hard to find.Every day was very fast and a lot would happen. Of course the booze and the contra band were prevalent and would soon catch up to us. And our casualty was John Mathews the crazed wild eyed, mad man, from another planet. It seemed he just didn’t want to do it anymore. He just stopped wanting to function and we had to make the painful decision to let him go. John had been the spark of our band, and now we were in the middle of recording our first record and we had this to deal with. It fukin hurt.He was one of our brothers and it felt like we were cutting off an arm. But like I said, we were caught in a whirlwind then, with people telling us this and that. A lot of factors come into play that make you feel you’re really not in charge.We were lucky enough to get Dan DelaRosa to fill John’s shoes but he was missed by us all. The Machine had by now taken over. The Corporate monster you so wanted to be a part of is now strangling every vein of creativity, originality and desire that you have because they need to make sure they can sell their product, You! And You! Will follow their command or else “Go back to wince you came”. That is the game and everyone that gets a shot at the brass ring quickly learns or gets thrown from the train by the men in suits.Well that’s a small glimpse of what it was like in the beginning of Babylon A.D.There is so much I could write and the story’s I could tell would fill a small book I’m sure. But for the most part we were five guys in an a** kicking Rock band, living life to the extreme, sucking the marrow to the bone and drowning in good times.This CD is the Babylon A.D.\u002F Persuaders best. Made up of 12 songs which we recorded over 1986, 87, and 88, and never got a chance to see the light of day until now. Derek Davis\u002FBabylon A.D.