What you are now holding in your hands is an album of all new original songs by the Pointed Sticks. Three years ago, the idea that there would ever be a new Pointed Sticks record was inconceivable. We had broken up in May of 1981, under dire circumstances, and with no hope of reconciliation. Years, nay, decades, came and went, and many of our contemporaries had tested the reunion waters with mostly disappointing results. The release in 1995 of the Zulu compilation, Part Of The Noise, spurred some renewed interest in the band, but we had drifted miles apart by then, and the death of our mighty drummer Ken ”Dimwit” Montgomery put paid to any thought of playing again.

Then in 2006, all that changed. The previous year, Joe Keithley had approached us about re-releasing Part Of The Noise. We considered this, then on the advice of long time friend and fan, Dale Wiese, we convinced Joe that a better idea was to release Perfect Youth, our long out of print swansong lp.

Apparently, sales were good enough to justify a second release, the Waiting For The Real Thing compilation. Then the call came. Would the band consider re-forming to play some shows in Japan? Sales there had far outstripped any other territory, and our intrepid distributor, Toshio from Base Records, thought he saw a market for a tour.

Preposterous!!! Not only had we not played together in 25 years, some of us hadn’t even seen each other for over 10 years. And besides, our drummer was dead. Case closed. But Toshio wouldn’t go away, and through his connection with Joe, kept upping the ante. Finally, with a promise that Toshio would bear all expenses for the trip, in May of 2006, we actually started to consider the idea. After all, none of our friends would see us, and if we fell flat on our faces, so what? At least we got a free trip to Japan out of the deal. We said yes to 3 shows, 1 in Kyoto and 2 in Tokyo,at the end of July.

The first job was to re-enlist original drummer, Ian Tiles. No problem there. Then we had to practice, and at first, that was rough. Try playing and singing a bunch of songs you wrote when you were 21 years old, without sounding foolish. But the more we got into it, the more we realized what good songs they were, and why people still liked them 25 years later. Still, having no idea of what it would be like when we were actually playing in front of an audience was intimidating. We needn’t have worried. We walked onstage to a sold out house at Whoopies in Kyoto, Bill started the intro to The Marching Song, and the place erupted. Kids who weren’t even born when we broke up, were singing along to every word. Wow!

After the show, our adrenaline level was through the roof. We could still play, and people still liked us! But it was just 3 shows, then back to real life. Or not, as it happened. We decided that things had gone so well, that we were confident enough to play in our hometown of Vancouver. Again, a smash success. Then came New York, at a festival with a bunch of like minded bands from around the world, where we found out that people remembered us in Spain, and Norway, and Italy, not to mention Atlanta, Austin and Los Angeles. Mind blowing.

At this point, we realized that, although we could never become a touring band again, maybe we could carry on in a different way, by actually recording new material. Gord wrote Japanese Fan, and we hatched an ambitious plan to release a single every 4 months. That first single came out, but we soon discovered that the logistics involved in our plan were far beyond our means. So we’d make an album. Which brings us to where we are today. With a brand new album. Y’now, theres an old music business saying, that you have your whole life to make your first record, and six months to make your second. Except in our case, we had 30 years to make our second.

And here it is. If we ever make another record, and that’s a pretty big if, we won’t wait 30 years, it would put us into our 80’s!! But we have made this one, and it feels pretty damn good. The songs are different, but it still sounds like the Pointed Sticks, only older ,and hopefully wiser. Please enjoy, and thanks from the heart to all those who never forgot.

The Pointed Sticks, November 2009

XOXOX