Before Digital even came out in April of 1988, we were starting to look to the future in terms of a new label. We started to travel south to Los Angeles, doing shows as early as 1987 there in the hopes of attracting some new label interest. We played all of the Hollywood/L.A. area clubs like the Whisky, FM Station, Dancing Waters, Goodies, and others from 87 to 89.

I must admit, I have never been a big fan of the whole "Hollywood" scene. I think the other guys liked it far more. Everything seems so fake to me down there as compared to our S.F. Bay area home. Most people in L.A. are just cold and not very personable by nature.
I will never forget a bizarre experience that I had playing in Hollywood for the first time in 1983 with my old band "Black Leather". We were playing at the famous "Troubadour", and while we were getting ready to go on, I asked a waitress for some ice water to put on stage. She came back a few minutes later with the water and said to me: "That will be two dollars", I said, " you mean to tell me that you are going to charge us for water?.....they don't do that up north in S.F."....she looked at me and snarled: "Then why don't you go back to f**king S.F........"
YIKES! Nice attitude! People who have never been to California may think of it as one state, but in many people's opinion out here, it is really divided in half culturally, and geographically by on an east-west line somewhere around Bakersfield. Actually, lets make that three parts, the extreme northern part of the state is probably really Southern Oregon!! Ok, back to the music.

We did not have much luck in L.A. in terms of label interest or expanding our fan base. We did have some great times with the VR faithful at our shows, but we never really broke through to the masses. The mood in that town was still very much made up of the VanHalen, Motley Crue, party band, glam band mentality. Guns and Roses had just taken off big time, and I think all of the labels were scrambling to find more bands like that. I don't think that a band like VR really could impress any of those people. We were to Metal, too good, too serious, too musical. None of us had needles in our arms, cigs hangin' out the side of our mouths, 50 tattoos, or junkie girlfriends passing out backstage. (ok, I was the only one with tattoos!)

I always liked it when we came back from L.A., the air was cleaner and the clubs gave us free ice water! Although we were basically a band without a record deal by summer of 1988, it was still a great time for VR. We had a very loyal fan base in the Bay Area, and I have very fond memories of those great days in the late 80's. The club scene was really going strong and it was a lot of fun whether we were playing or just hangin' out. There was a real sense of camaraderie among most of the local bands whether they were signed or not. There were many really good local bands that I remember from those days, mostly in the hard rock vein like: Heist, Soldier, Kamikaze, GhostTown, and others.

"Unsigned in 89" was how the new year began for VR, but we were not to worried. Our label in Europe (Roadrunner) was showing some interest in signing us. We were going full speed ahead with writing new tunes and debuting them live, determined to be ready with an albums worth of kick ass songs when the right label did come calling. Killer songs like "Ship of Fools", "Down to the Temple", "Axe and Smash" , and "Can you here It" were showcased to the VR fans, who embraced the new material with great enthusiasm at Bay Area concerts.

In early '89, we would meet an interesting man from New York. His name was Bob Zemsky, and he would change the bands fortunes in a very profound way....very soon.........