2 Promoters Seeking to Mine Heavy Metal

A) Record stores. B) Makeshift basement studios. C) Wild parties. D) MTV. E) San Fernando Valley nightclubs.

Question: Which of the above do not regularly feature heavy metal music?

Answer: E.

But not for long, if Michael Fell and Jason Lord succeed. Fell, 27, is the new owner of Michael Fell’s Industry, a Canoga Park club that aims to rock the Valley with heavy metal. Lord, 37, head of Jungle Productions in Sylmar, has initiated a weekly heavy metal night (Thursdays) at the Country Club in Reseda.

Both promoters say Valley metal fans--especially adolescents--are undernourished, and they think they’re just the guys to satisfy that appetite.

The Valley “is a big marketplace for heavy metal,” Lord said. “Now, there is no specific place to hear it on a specific night. Many kids are into it, but no one is providing it for them. And that’s unfair.”

The Valley, according to club owners, booking agents and record industry executives, has never been the prominent showcase for heavy metal that Hollywood is. With clubs like Gazarri’s, Doug West’s Troubadour and the Roxy, Hollywood was--and still is--a haven for metal bands and fans. They say metal’s negative image and the opposition it would generate from nearby residents has dissuaded new metal clubs in the Valley.

“Club owners are worried about the kind of disreputable people the music would attract,” said Michael Faley, president of Metal Blade records in Sherman Oaks, which primarily records heavy metal bands. “They think it will cause more trouble than it actually will.”

The Country Club used to regularly feature heavy metal bands, but it lost its liquor permit last November after neighbors complained about loud noise and lewd behavior from club patrons. The question now is whether the club can survive without alcohol.

Lord says that, yes, he will beef up security to guard against damage and complaints about concert-goers and he will play softer background music during concert breaks to keep the crowd calm.

“Some promoters haven’t known how to calm down the frenzy and that’s how these shows get a bad name,” said Lord, who grew up in Long Island but has worked as a sound man, studio musician, producer and promoter in California for 14 years. “The crowd wants to party and you can’t let them get out of control.”

Lord said that each show will cost him about $2,500, but he will receive about 50% of the ticket receipts. Eventually, he said, he’d like to take the best performers from the Thursday night shows and stage a big monthly event on Saturday nights. Future lineups at the Country Club include the bands MX, Eratikill and Armored Saint.

Michael Fell wants every night to be a major event. Fell, who runs the club with his wife Catherine, spent five years booking shows at Gazarri’s and the Troubadour. Five years was enough.

“I thought, ‘Why am I doing it for someone else when I can do it for myself?’ ” Fell said. “I knew I could do it.”

Fell, who grew up in Encino, says his greatest resource is his close contact with Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley groups. In one capacity or another, since ninth grade, he’s been involved with area rock bands.

“When someone in the Valley wanted to have a band play at a party, they called me,” Fell said.

The computer in his office has data on hundreds of bands. Even before he purchased the club, which was formerly the Metro, Fell and his wife had telephoned dozens of groups and had told them to set aside tentative dates.

But acquiring a club was no sure thing. First, a club they thought they had purchased in Hollywood fell through. They searched all over the state and couldn’t find anything.

Then they learned that the Metro was for sale. The Fells bought it and spent $40,000 renovating the public address system, dressing rooms, lighting and stage.

“We took an ax and kicked the old stage out,” Catherine Fell said. “No wonder the club didn’t do well before. It wasn’t properly outfitted.”

They were concerned that the club’s location on Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Canoga Park might be too far away for fans from other parts of the Valley or Hollywood.

“It was a major turnoff,” she said. “But now it’s a major turn on that the Country Club has lost its license. That was a great break for us. We’re going to get a lot of their people.”

Michael Fell’s Industry is open three nights (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) a

week and features at least one metal band each night. The eventual goal is to open the club, which seats 400, five nights a week.

“We want to become the smallest largest showcase in the world for rock ‘n’ roll,” Michael Fell said. Upcoming shows will include the bands Omen, Vice, Brunette and Sibling Rivalry.

Record executives, club owners and booking agents say the future of heavy metal in the Valley depends largely on the efforts of Lord and Fell.

“The fans aren’t going anywhere,” said Metal Blade’s Faley, “but the heavy metal scene depends on these clubs staying open and promoting the shows.”

Rachel Matthews, A&R; manager for Capitol Records in Hollywood, predicts success for the two ventures.

“It’s something that the area desperately needs,” Matthews said. “There is a definite audience for these bands and there aren’t any places to play.”

And heavy metal bands are eagerly awaiting the results.

“I’m really depressed about what happened at the Country Club,” said John Bush, lead singer of Armored Saint. “A part of our life is gone and it’s sad. We want to keep playing in the Valley. We have a lot of fans there. Hopefully this will all work out.”