PBF vs. PBF

**Carl I.** · January 9th, 2004, 02:14 PM

You know, I'll plead "dumb-ass" for the time being and admit that I had never heard the Canadian PBF before. Now, it's no secret as to how I feel about the LA scene, and I always avoided the LA PBF until a few years ago when I decided to give them another shot. I found I kind of liked LBWET, but hated the production with a passion and found it a little silly at times. But I never got around to checking out the Canadian band, Sandy's band.

So what the fuck am I get at exactly? Well, thanks to that wonderful "Soapbox" thread and Sandy posting the links, I finally checked out the original PBF. One question: How the FUCK did the LA version become THE band known for that name? If you follow the link on the bottom of Sandy's post, you will find an MP3 to his PBF. Can somebody (Sandy...whoever) tell me if this is what the rest of the stuff sounds like? Was that PBF always just straight-up RnR? Christ, if I finally get my hands on this thing and it all is like this, I am going to be pretty dang upset about the other PBF! LOL!!!

**creeper2** · January 9th, 2004, 02:42 PM

Carl, I have the canadian PBF at home. I've only listened to it once and it was years ago but from what I remember it is just straight-up RnR. For some reason I'm thinking that they reminded me of Kix. If no one can give you a better answer than that, I will throw it on when I get home and let you know what I think it sounds like.

As for the Cali PBF, I consider LBWET as a staple of late 80's early 90's glam rock. If someone was new to the scene I would suggest to them to pick up LBWET and Poison's LWTCDI to start.

**creeper2** · January 9th, 2004, 02:44 PM

i forgot, my choice between the two of them would definitely be PBF.

**RAGGZ** · January 9th, 2004, 05:02 PM

I happen to love both PBF bands.
LA's PBF is what glam is all about in my books.
Canada's PBF is more straight Sleaze Glam Rock.
Though both two totally different bands...LA's PBF was more high energy glam with every song being Glam Anthems. Canada's PBF had some great and not so great songs...in which I also found it to lack in the "I WANT TO HEAR IT AGAIN" department. This is just my opinion and what I heard when I had both bands in my stereo.
And I'm not putting down Sandy at all....it's just an opinion.

**Sandy-Hazard** · January 9th, 2004, 08:12 PM

Here's a detailed reason for the name game Carl. Yes we were always straight up RnR with a glammy edge. Raggz put it best.

Thanks Carl,

Let it be known this is not a bash, just the truth replying to Carl's curiousty.
The reason of us losing the name was because of managment not doing their job properly.we had contacted PBF LA before they even had a full line-up. We'd been tipped off by a fan in San Fran that a band was advertising in BAM magazine using our name. Tommy called Steve or one of the other guys and told them we had an album out and to please not use the name. They basically said to bad. We already had the name legally trademarked in Canada and had told our manager at the time to start the application process in the US for trademark rights. Unfortunately for us our manager did not do what we asked her and that's what screwed us. Had we had the application in progress the LA band would have been totally screwed and would have had to change their name. To their credit and probably good legal advice they got the application in before we did in the US. We had a lawyer look at our case and we were legally protected from infringment in Canada but not in the US. This was a nightmare for us as the US was the market we were after. It also was a bad situation for PBF LA as they couldn't release anything in Canada under the Pretty Boy FLoyd moniker which isn't a huge market "30 Million people" but none the less bothered them enough to buy the rights from us. With our main market torched we had to cave and we ended selling the rights to the Canadian trademark for a substantial bit of money. We had invested 4 1/2 years of very hard work and had built up a good name for ourselves to see it all go out the window. We changed the name to Tommy Floyd but it just wasn't the same anymore. The Gangster thing was totally entrenched in our image and now we couldn't really use it as we didn't have the name tied in with it. The original line-up split about a year after and Tommy continued on for about a year after that on his own. People have accused me of being bitter or whatever, I'm not bitter, It just pisses me off when sites like Metal Sludge go on about Ariel Styles being ripped off and they don't have a clue about our story as the lines became so blurred back then regarding the two bands.

You be the judge on how things got blurred.

Pretty Boy Floyd Canada started in 86 as an original band but were together as a cover band for 2 years prior- Put out a CD first, were featured and had great reviews well before PBF LA in mags like Kerrang, Metal Forces, Hit Parader, RIP, Burnn, Metal Hammer, Metal Edge etc. Charted in the UK for 4 weeks. Had a video on Much Music. Snake from Skid Row personally passed on our Album to Atlantic.

Pretty Boy Floyd LA - Played on the the LA strip for 8 months and got signed to MCA, coincidentally while PBF Canada were getting a lot of press. Our manager had heard from Brett the A&R guy who signed them, that he admitteldy thought a lot of the press that'd he'd seen on us was the LA band.

Long and short - The LA band got signed, but I truly think Karma kicked in as for all the promotion and money that they received they did not achieve very much, and had their tour support pulled within the year of the CD being released. Had we moved down to LA a year prior as we were thinking of doing, things may have turned out much different I think. If we had of had the luck of the draw, we may have been in the same boat as all the other bands in the scene with the onlslaught of the grunge movement.

Carl, Tom and Pete were heavily influence by AC/DC, Steve and myself were influenced by the likes of the Dolls, Pistols, Cheap Trick, so to answer your question yes the rest of the stuff PBF did had a very Sleaze rock sound to it as Raggz pointed out. Near the end we were sounding more like Faster Pussycat or Dogs D'amour. I'll post a couple of MP3's if you want to check out some more.

Hope that clarify's some things for people who knew or were curious about details. I have some other hilarious stories back then that I might post. One involving us calling Trident studios I think when PBF LA was recording the CD and our guitarist pretending to be the A&R guy asking Howard Benson how the sessions were going.

Music is music, some people thought we sucked and some people thought the LA band sucked, it's all a matter of opinion.

Cheers

**RAGGZ** · January 9th, 2004, 08:28 PM

Cool Sandy...let me know when ya put the new MP3 samples on.

**Cotton Candy Lover** · January 9th, 2004, 11:28 PM

I always preferred the LA version of the band. I think LBWET is one of the top underground cds of its era. A friend made me a copy of Bullets and Lipstick once and I thought it sounded rather generic (along with currently being just a tad over priced). Just my two cents.