Dokken live at the Spectrum - In My Dreams 11/10/1987

0:05 SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, welcome to the concert room inside the Philly Concert Experience. I'm your host, Bob Hill. The concert room is a podcast session dedicated to the performances, performers, bands, and artists who played on the stage at the legendary Philadelphia Spectrum Arena. The Spectrum held numerous concerts over its 40 plus years of existence, earning the nickname America Showplace. And today I'm gonna do a little more uh heavier in the feature performance in our podcast session. We're gonna go back to the 80s and talk about a band that I really, really like, Dawkins.

0:42 SPEAKER_00: Uh Dawkins actually has a long history in the music world, not just uh the albums they put out starting in the early 80s up to recently. Um I'll give you a little bit of background, it's kind of detailed, but I I find it really interesting on how Don Dawkins uh formed Dawkins and uh navigated his way through the eighties with all those great albums and hits. Um so uh Don Dawkins formed a band called Airborne in the uh late 70s with drummer Bobby Blotzer and bassist Juan Crucier. Uh now they left in the late 70s, but Don Dawkins toured Germany and met up with an up-and-coming producer named Michael Wagner.

1:29 SPEAKER_00: And we'll jump around to the beginning of the 80s, but uh Don was invited by Michael Wagner to come over to his recording sessions with the Scorpions, who were recording Love at First Sting at Dieter Dirk Studio in Germany. And the reason Don got invited over is because uh the lead singer for the Scorpions, Klaus Mey, he was undergoing uh and he underwent throat surgery, and Michael Wagner thought Dawkins uh would be a great use to record guide tracks for the band while Klaus recovers. And the reason is is because uh and this is true, uh Don sorta has the same kind of tone, uh, and the ta the the kind of r vibrato that uh Klaus also has with the Scorpions.

2:20 SPEAKER_00: So Michael thought he would be a good fit to uh to record some guy tracks over there while Klaus uh recovers from uh surgery. And this way they don't hold up recording and the band can record uh their guitar, bass, drum parts here and there using uh these vocal guy tracks. And uh Don actually ended up singing uh back up on I believe it was Big City Nights, um on that record. So um but here's where it kind of gets really interesting, um, because up until now it's just kind of like an inside little one-off uh story in Don's life.

3:01 SPEAKER_00: Uh but while recording the guy tracks, Don asked Michael Wagner uh if he could produce some demos in the studio, I guess uh off time. And I believe they recorded about four or five, including the song Breaking the Chains, and a song called Paris. These demos uh actually helped Don get signed to a record deal with the French label Career. I'm looking at it right now because I have it. I actually sent it over, bought it in Germany, and it was shipped over from Germany. Okay, this was uh recorded July September of 81 at Dieter Dirk Studio, produced and engineered by Michael Wagner 1981 Career International.

3:48 SPEAKER_00: They all flew back to LA, Don get signed to Atlantic Records, they re-record Breaking the Chains. Um so Nel Dawkins is signed to a major label, the lineup is set, and they go on to release a lot of great albums and hits throughout the eighties, and uh the rest, as they say, is history. And to me, again, it's always just uh really interesting uh backstory. Um Dawkins were torn open up for major bands back then. Uh I was actually lucky enough to see them at the Spectrum in the mid-80s. They opened up for Judas Priest.

4:22 SPEAKER_00: If I remember the top of my head, that was eighty five. Uh, but they uh they were great. And Dawkins played the Spectrum a total of four times. They were one of the many opening acts that packed the Spectrum for their set. We treated them almost like it was a co-headline build. Um we loved its metal and hard rock, and uh you know, I always found Dawkins more melodic than their appears in this genre. So speaking of, let's get to this crackling performance of Dawkins at the Spectrum. We'll go back to November 10th, 1987.

4:56 SPEAKER_00: Their last performance at the Spectrum. They're opening up for Arasmith here. Uh great night of tunes, right here. Uh the vocals and harmonies and melody is classic Dawkins. We're gonna quick listen to uh In My Dreams off Lock and Key. The album was released in 1985. Here is Dawkins on the Spectrum stage, November 10th, 1987.

5:26 SPEAKER_02: You know, I just want to tell you one thing, you know. We never wanted to be rock stars, we just wanted to have some really bad time with people like you, you know what I mean?

5:43 SPEAKER_02: As long as there's people out like as long as there are people out there like you, we will always be back to party with you, you dig?

10:08 SPEAKER_00: Okay, and there we go. What great performance by Dawkins on the Spectrum stage November 10th, 1987, with Irismith. Great nine to tunes that night. As I mentioned at the top, Philly packed the spectrum for uh a lot of bands who were opening. Dawkins was uh always a favorite. Um you know, see when you're in the parking lot partying, sometimes an opening band isn't your thing, so you hang in the parking lot and then you go in and see the headliner, but uh bands like Dawkins, all of us uh definitely piled into the spectrum to see them, and you can hear the crowd.

10:41 SPEAKER_00: Uh sounds like it's sold out. Um we loved our metal and hard rock, and we love bands like Doc. So if you were there and uh saw this tour at your local arena, then lucky you. I hope this brings back good memories. And uh if you've never seen Doc Alive, this will give you an idea of the power and melodic um aspect this band uh is on record and live. So thanks for dropping by and listening. Please feel free to leave a comment. Of course, subscribe if you enjoy these sessions. We're uh wrapping up season one on here.

11:16 SPEAKER_00: And I have a few good uh interviews lined up for season two, and also some great more uh featured performances at the spectrum. And uh we'll dive deeper into the concert experience at the Philly Spectrum and beyond. Thanks again and see you soon in the concert room.