With their trademark red leather pants, bandannas, big rock sound and high-energy live shows, Loverboy has sold more than 10 million albums, earning four multi-platinum plaques, including the four-million-selling "Get Lucky," and a trio of double-platinum releases in their self-titled 1980 debut, 1983's "Keep It Up" and 1985's "Lovin' Every Minute of It."
Loverboy will be making an appearance in Brainerd this summer. The band will perform at 8 p.m. June 27 at Lakes Jam at Brainerd International Raceway.
The band includes Mike Reno, vocals; Paul Dean, guitars; Matt Frenette, drums; Doug Johnson, keyboards; and Ken "Spider" Sinnaeve, bass.
For more than 30 years, Loverboy has been "Working for the Weekend" and on weekends, performing for audiences around the world since forming in Calgary, Alberta. After being rejected by all the major U.S. record companies Loverboy signed with Columbia Records Canada, entering the studio with producer Bruce Fairbairn and engineer Bob Rock to record their self-titled debut album, which went on to sell more than 700,000 records in Canada.
Columbia U.S. released the album in November 1980, which went on to sell more than two million albums in the States and four million worldwide. Soon the band found themselves playing on mega tours with Journey, Bob Seger, Cheap Trick, ZZ Top, Kansas and Def Leppard; they quickly became MTV darlings, being one of the first bands ever featured on the music channel.
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Their string of hits includes, "Working for the Weekend," "Lovin' Every Minute of It," "This Could Be the Night," "Hot Girls in Love," "Heaven In Your Eyes," "Turn Me Loose," and "When It's Over."
Loverboy is back with a flurry of new activity, having reunited at Bryan Adams' Vancouver studio The Warehouse, with their original engineer, legendary producer Bob Rock (Metallica, Aerosmith, The Cure, Bon Jovi), who worked under Bruce Fairbairn at the time. The band has recorded two new songs with Rock, "Heartbreaker" and "No Tomorrow," which could be a prelude for a new album.
Their pop culture credibility was cemented by a recent "30 Rock" episode in which Scott Adsit's amateur musician Pete Hornberger revealed he was actually Loverboy's original bassist, showing him inserted into vintage '80s footage of the band wailing away on "Working for the Weekend."
The song is also known as the soundtrack for a memorable Saturday Night Live skit in which
Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze played Chippendales dancers who performed to it at an audition. More recently, Mike Reno penned "Flying High" as the theme song for his hometown
ice hockey team Vancouver Canucks' failed Stanley Cup drive with Ben Karlson, his producer
on local station Classic Rock 101's top-rated morning program "The Bro Jake Show." The band also performed live on Fox News' Fox and Friends TV show.
Loverboy will join the already announced rock artists Boston, Head East and Don Felder, who will also play on June 27. Lakes Jam will feature country artists Lee Brice, Chase Rice, Jerrod Niemann, Chris Janson, along with regional favorite Chris Hawkey.
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Lakes Jam will be held June 25-27.
For a full festival line-up, go to lakesjam.com.
