Sidinex
In 1982 Scott and I met at the same high school and started jamming together in his basement. He told me about this wild guitar player named Phil from Toronto that he used to jam with before he moved to my hometown, and that we should get a band together. Before long Phil, Scott and I were getting together every weekend playing covers typical of the day, like: Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest and a bunch of New Metal that was coming out in the early 80's.
The name of the band became Sidinex, which is Phil's last name spelled backwards (Sidinex - Xenidis, get it...). We were soon playing local high schools and house parties in Kitchener (our hometown) and Toronto. There was this guy who used to come to the house parties named Todd Farhood who was able to sing all the Scorpions and Zeppelin stuff no problem, so the three of us decided to get him to be the lead singer for the band.
Before long, the four of us were opening up local shows for bands like Nazareth, Foghat, Lee Aaron (the metal queen), Thor and doing local Metal shows with Razor (yes, the same band in your archives), as well as shows of our own.
By the time the summer of 1984 came around we had a few original songs of our own and through a few connections made with Dave Carlos of Razor we thought we should put out a 6 song EP. This was a pretty wild thing to do for a group of kids who were only 18 and 19 years of age. So in the fall of 1984 we went into the studio to record the songs that were going to make us famous rock gods... (yeah, right!). Everything was going OK in the studio but we needed an album cover and title. The idea came about that we should have a naked girl in a window with two kids looking in at her, but none of us knew anyone who would do it or had the right breasts for the job. We found the perfect figured girl backstage after a gig and when we learned she was a stripper we all decided to go see her dance at the local strip club. After seeing her take off her clothes we knew we had made the right decision. Needless to say, the two boys in the photo shoot found her as amusing as we did. Conclusion, one album title "Forever Young".
After the album's release in the winter of 1985 there was a lot of great support for the album but the biggest was Toronto radio station Q107 where they played "Shadows" and "Next Time Around" on their midnight metal show and gave it great reviews. The DJ liked it so much he invited us up for an interview live on the air. Very cool. Sidinex also placed in the top 25 (out of over 300 bands) in Q107's Homegrown contest. A contest, where unsigned bands send in recordings of original songs to win recording time and be on a compilation album. Now we're definitely going to be rock stars!
NOPE!
Soon after, there were differences of opinion between Todd and the rest of us, so Phil, Scott and I went back to being a trio. Todd started doing live sound and monitors for bands and stopped singing altogether. The three of us continued playing gigs across Ontario and Quebec, opening for recording acts and recording demos of original music with Phil and myself doing vocals. We had great response from crowds wherever we played and had some minor interest from managers and music business people. In 1987 we changed the name from Sidinex to Flip City so people could actually pronounce it.
In 1988 the music business people started talking, not about the band, but about Phil, who had always being the driving force behind the band and an incredibly talented guitar player and performer. Phil was offered a gig with Frozen Ghost, a nationally, famous recording act with a song in the charts. And so, after playing together for 6 years the time had come to finally to call it quits. No hard feelings or regrets. We still remain best friends to this day.
Todd Farhood has made a career doing live sound and monitors for major Canadian bands and has toured extensively across North America. He was also the Tour Manager for the Fun Lovin' Criminals European tour. Todd is currently the tour manager for the legendary Canadian band Blue Rodeo. Scott Masterson kept playing drums in local bands but finally realized his true calling was dealing craps professionally in casinos. He is now dealing at Casino Niagara in Niagara Falls and loves every second of it. Scott still plays the drums in his spare time.
Musically, I've played with dozens of bands since then, lived in the Persian Gulf playing pubs and USO shows in Bahrain and Dubai, U.A.E and recently did a stint with an original rock band called Full Length Mirror. Currently, I'm working full-time in the day, and playing locally in the pubs on weekends still getting off on music.
Phil X continues to blow people away with his guitar playing and has played with Aldo Nova, Triumph, and recorded with Bon Jovi. He and his writing partner Ninette now live in Los Angeles and are one of L.A. hottest acts with their band Powder. Phil does studio work on the side and has recorded for Tommy Lee's Methods of Mayhem, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie and Andrew WK. Phil has also played guitar on a ton of other stuff as well, but I couldn't begin to write it all down.
Thanks to Stefan for writing back to me after I stumbled onto his site looking for my old band on the net, and for keeping a fanatical interest in collecting metal albums from small bands like ours. By the way only 1000 copies of "Forever Young" were pressed with most of the sales around the Kitchener and Toronto area.
Cheers, Kevin Gingrich, 2002
All words, images & Logos by courtesy of Kevin Gingrich.