S.D. Metal Album Given Another Fighting Chance

In the music biz, timing is everything. A lack of it certainly helps explain why the mid-’80s heavy-metal quintet Warrior, whose nucleus featured three San Diegans, never rose above the level of cult favorites among headbangers. The band broke up in 1986, after its major-label debut, “Fighting for the Earth,” failed to generate sufficient sales.

Now, Metal Blade Records--an independent, Tarzana-based outfit specializing in the harder-edged rock acts--is counting on timing in its effort to revive interest in “Fighting for the Earth.” The label recently remastered and rereleased the recording on compact disc and cassette, in the hope that a combination of metal’s current vogue and a distribution deal with mammoth Warner Brothers Records will make the album a retroactive hit.

The nucleus of Warrior was formed by guitarists Joe Floyd and Tommy Asakawa, and vocalist Parramore (Perry) McCarty, who knew one another when they played in various early-’80s bands in San Diego. (McCarty sang in the local band Phenomenon with Robbin Crosby, who would go on to form the popular metal band Ratt.) The three did not work together, however, until 1983, after each had moved to Los Angeles.

After scoring the elusive recording contract in 1985, Warrior assembled “Fighting for the Earth,” an album of apocalyptic metal that would be widely regarded as a “classic” by metal fans, even though it sold relatively few copies by platinum-or-poverty standards. When it was originally released in this country on the huge MCA label (and in the rest of the world on the British-based Virgin Records), the record was highly touted in metal magazines and by word of mouth. But, according to Floyd, the release did not synchronize with industry trends.

“Our album came out around the time that MTV announced it would no longer play heavy-metal videos,” Floyd said last week by phone from a recording studio in Los Angeles. “Almost simultaneously, (hard-rock radio station) KMET stopped playing metal, and a lot of other stations were moving toward the playlist format. We had been signed around the same time as bands like Quiet Riot and W.A.S.P., and we all had trouble getting airplay after that. Unfortunately, our record company had no Plan B.”

With little or no airplay, “Fighting for the Earth” sold modestly here but did better in Europe. After a year or so, the album had generated worldwide sales of only 100,000 units, and Warrior disbanded.

Today, Floyd and Asakawa live in the Los Angeles area. McCarty, 30, splits his time almost equally between the Big Orange, where he has formed a new band, and a home in Encinitas. The vocalist allowed in a phone conversation last week that his current work is influenced by his 1989 collaboration with Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens on Stevens’ album “Atomic Playboys.”

“I’m pretty proud of the ‘Atomic Playboys’ album,” McCarty said. “My new music is somewhat similar to that material in that it’s hard rock, but hopefully radio-accessible. You could also say it’s a little like Def Leppard or Bad Company.”

McCarty said he hasn’t yet heard the remastered version of “Fighting for the Earth,” but he had a vivid recollection of the circumstances surrounding its original release.

“The ironic thing about that album is that it started as a demo tape that we sent to several L.A. radio stations,” he said. “KMET . . . played it on the air as part of a local band program and then got a lot of phone requests for it. Those requests got us into regular rotation on KMET, and that led to us getting signed. So airplay got us a record deal, and when we finally had an album, a lack of airplay made sure it wouldn’t sell.”

The reissued “Fighting for the Earth” has been getting good reviews, especially in the Los Angeles area. On Monday, Metal Blade’s head of publicity, Jim Filiault, said he had no actual sales figures, but said the release is selling “much better than we’d expected.”

Leaving parking lots of large-scale venues has always been a headache, but a number of clever heads used to have the Sports Arena egress sussed. The trick was to arrive early enough at a concert to park in the corner of the lot directly across from Tower Records. The rollaway gate there was closed before shows, but would be open afterward, enabling those parked nearby to sneak out and onto westbound Sports Arena Boulevard while most of the other concert-goers were gridlocking at other exits.

About a year ago, the Police Department told Ace Parking to keep the gate closed after shows because it required extra police staffing. Ace did a comparison study and discovered to its surprise that closing the “secret” gate had a negligible effect on total exit time from the arena, Ace Vice President Dick McCarthy said Monday.

“We found that closing what we call the southwest gate only affected the larger gate nearby that empties into the intersection of Sports Arena Boulevard and Kemper Street,” McCarthy said. “We’d prefer to see that corner gate opened, but, in fairness to the police, it hasn’t made much difference to keep it closed.”

A year after the gate was semi-permanently locked, however, cunning, self-satisfied rogues can still be seen heading for that corner gate, even when minimal attendance at an event leaves the area all but vacated. Their disappointment at finding the gate still closed after a concert has occasionally been very audible. McCarthy has a new tip for them.

“If you were to follow the fence from that southwest gate by Tower all the way to the northwest gate on the opposite side of the lot, you’d find it a fairly quick exit,” he said. “The northwest gate is only open when the police are on hand because it empties into the blind intersection of Kurtz and Hancock, but the police are here for almost all concerts.”

GRACE NOTES: The cancellation of saxophonist Courtney Pine’s gigs at Elario’s has forced a juggling of the venue’s scheduling. The new agenda has Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers continuing a three-night stand tonight and Thursday, Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets performing Friday and Saturday, and the mighty Mighty Penguins playing Sunday. . . .

Just added to the Del Mar Fair Grandstand Stage series (starting time: 7:30 p.m.): June 23, Joe Sample; June 24, Cheap Trick; June 28, Ralph Tresvant; June 29, Englebert Humperdinck; and June 30, Tony! Toni! Tone! On the infield stage, the Edlos, a Bay Area satirical a cappella quartet that mixes Gregorian chant, barbershop and other vocal styles, will play at 2 and 5 p.m. July 4.