While most creative fields are highly competitive, the music industry is particularly so based largely on the crowded marketplace of acts competing for musical market share.  To achieve notoriety in this industry is a great feat in itself, but maintaining that connection with fans, despite a burgeoning surge of new bands all looking to build their own brands, takes musical talent, serious business acumen, and indefatigable determination.  Singer, songwriter, and bassist, Dave Weakley, has all of these qualities in abundance.

In 1980, as mainstream music in America was undergoing seismic shifts away from the influence of disco and toward new wave, punk, and metal, Weakley joined a Philadelphia-area, glam-metal band called Teeze that had formed two years earlier.  Weakley, looking very much like a heavy-metal Ziggy Stardust, was a critical addition to the band and helped refine the group's strong sound and theatrical image.

The west coast metal world was exploding with activity at this time, and in late 1981the leaders of the L.A. glam scene, Mötley Crüe, released their independently-produced debut album, Too Fast for Love, which sold an impressive 20,000 copies.  Meanwhile on the east coast, as Philadelphia was experiencing a musical renaissance, Teeze had become full-time performers up and down the east coast and were packing metal clubs from Baltimore to New York City.  Weakley recalls, "We played for five years as a cover band and folded our own tunes in after our cover contract expired.  We then became an original band playing only a few covers that we really liked in the set, most notably Bowie and AC/DC.  We played as much as possible in all of the boroughs of New York City, and in New York State, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey."  The band wisely collected contact information from fans, and within a short time had a marketing database in the tens of thousands.  Considering that this was years before public use of the Internet, such an achievement for an unsigned band is even more remarkable. 

Teeze released a self-produced, promotional single in 1984 that immediately went into heavy rotation on Philadelphia's Metal Shop program on WYSP.  The successful single was followed in early 1985 by the band's independently-released album, Teeze.  "We hooked up with an east coast distributor for Listening Booth and sold 5,000 copies the first week.  We kept selling at that pace and were noticed by worldwide distributors," Weakley explains.

Teeze was engaged in a veritable marketing blitzkrieg, and as the band's management worked to stir major-label interest, independent international distribution company, Greenworld Distribution, offered Teeze a one-album, exclusive distribution deal.  As a company that had distributed albums for Mötley Crüe, Ratt, and Great White, this was a major achievement for Teeze.  Weakley remembers, "We went worldwide with a new color cover on the album and a couple of extra tracks.  We then were creating a buzz and were regulars in European and Japanese magazines."

Recording of the band's first major-label release began in early 1988 under the direction of producer, Max Norman, known for his work with Ozzy Osbourne and Loudness.  Multitudinous recording and scheduling problems beyond the band's control delayed delivery of the completed recordings.  When Teeze finally got to hear the final mix, they discovered that there was hardly and bottom end in the mix.  With so little bass, the album sounded weak and thin.

The band members told their management that a remix was needed, but Champion disagreed.  The classic conflict between the pursuit of musical artistry and the business bottom line pushed tensions to the limit.  Since the project was already behind schedule, Champion wanted Teeze to release the tapes to Columbia for pressing.  After stressful arguments, Champion agreed to do a second mix with the assistance of Columbia A&R rep, John Mrvos.  The band were relieved until they learned that Mrvos only wanted to remix the three tracks that were being considered as singles.  This caused the album to sound inconsistent, which only heightened the friction between Teeze and their management.  Finally Champion agreed to another remix, but only on the condition that the band members could not attend the remixing.

The bottom end in the final mix still sounded inadequate and the record sounded over-produced, but the band finally relented to pressure from Columbia and their management and agreed to deliver the master tapes for the album, which was scheduled for an August release.  Unfortunately, the worldwide release date was pushed back to late September, causing anxiety for the band because the 4th quarter of the year is the worst time to release a debut album.  As the calendar year comes to a close and the holiday gift-buying season approaches, record companies focus their marketing efforts on established acts to generate significant income before the end of the year.  This pulls much-needed attention and resources away from new bands trying to build their brand equity.  It was around this time that the William Morris Agency became the booking agent for the band.     

During the tumultuous recording of the album, Champion had raised concerns about the band's name having never been trademarked, despite the band being known as Teeze since 1977.  Management were concerned because there was a Canadian hard rock band who recorded on a major label from the mid-seventies to 1980 under the name Teaze and an R&B group called Tease who recorded on RCA and Epic Records throughout the 80s.  Fearing legal troubles ahead, record company lawyers announced that the Teeze name had to go.  The band reluctantly changed their name to Roughhouse and immediately began the immense task of rebranding the group to its established fan base just as their international release was about to hit record stores.

In August 1988, Champion Entertainment flew some of the band to Los Angeles for the high-profile Concrete Foundation Forum convention where albums from metal's biggest bands would be promoted.  The event would give the band an opportunity to announce their new name and promote their upcoming album.  Champion had informed Roughhouse that this was a meet-and-greet opportunity where they wouldn't be performing.  The band members were shocked to discover that nearly every band being promoted at the convention would be performing, from veterans like Judas Priest and Megadeth to new label-mates, Warrant, promoting their debut album.  Roughhouse were understandably furious that Champion had inexplicably failed to book them to perform at the event, and the band's management were not forthcoming about their reasoning.  The only major promotion during the L.A. trip was an interview with MTV News.

Because of the band's history with Tommy Mottola, their management assured them that since Mottola was now the CEO of Columbia's parent company, CBS Records, the band would be well-supported by the label.  The original A&R rep assigned to Roughhouse's album had been reassigned, and their new A&R rep was John Mrvos who had signed Philadelphia metal band, Britny Fox.  At first Columbia was promoting the upcoming albums from Roughhouse and Britny Fox together, but when the Britny Fox album debuted before Roughhouse's, the label's focus shifted to promoting Britny Fox's new hit single, "Girlschool", which was getting loads of attention from MTV and radio stations across the country. 

As the paths of these two bands began to diverge from their similar origins, it became increasingly apparent that it was business management, above all other factors including talent, that was the primary source of this dramatic divergence.  Weakley elaborates, "Britny Fox had the door man of the Galaxy night club as their manager.  Who sold more records?  Who had bigger tours?  Who got support?  Britny Fox did because they had an ass kickin' manager.  A door man beat out Randy Hoffman.  Britny's manager was an ass kicker.  I don't know him, but I have a lot of respect for that guy and what he accomplished.  The band wasn't too shabby either."

As the release date for the Roughhouse album neared, an attorney claimed his client owned the rights to the name despite having never released any products under that name and only performing in a small regional area.  With significant time and money already invested in their ad campaign, rebranding effort, and product release for the band, Columbia refused to have the band change its name again.  Unfortunately this stance cost $10,000, taken out of the band's advance.

With most major problems seemingly out of the way, the band were ready to get back out on the road, this time to promote their Columbia release.  The group's PR firm got the band covered in such prominent publications as Playgirl, Hit Parader, Metal Edge, Kerrang!, Billboard, and Circus. 

In a bizarre move that seemed counterintuitive in the burgeoning age of video, Champion didn't want Roughhouse to film a video for their first single, "Tonight".  The band asserted that without a video to promote the single on MTV, the album would die on the vine.  Finally, after the album had already been on store shelves for two months, the band were scheduled to film a video, which landed them straight onto MTV's Headbangers Ball [sic] among the top 20 videos.

While the single was performing well on MTV, the band were puzzled by the lack of airplay on radio stations across the country.  Concerned by this, band members began contacting radio stations in between shows on their tour.  In what can only be described as any band's worst nightmare, they discovered that Columbia representatives weren't promoting the album to radio.  Program directors contacted by the band began calling Columbia to find out why they hadn't been told about the new album.  Shockingly, executives at the label called a meeting with the band demanding that they were to stop calling radio stations to promote their single.  At a time when they should have felt on top of the world, the band's morale was at its lowest.

Even with William Morris as their booking agency, all that was scheduled for Roughhouse was a minor club tour of their established stomping grounds primarily in the northeast and midwest.  The band's single was picked up by some larger radio stations but with such limited exposure in the U.S., radio interest quickly waned.  The tour wrapped up in January 1989.

Sadly, the band's last-minute name change had a very negative effect on record sales.  The brand equity the group worked so hard to build over the years was lost because the record-buying public weren't familiar with the band's new moniker.  The shaky launch, ironically fuelled by poor management, caused Champion's support to waver.  

By the beginning of 1989, MTV had dropped the video and Roughhouse found themselves without an opening slot on a major arena tour.  Their saving grace was found in PR wizard, Annette Minofolo, who maintained steady international press coverage for the band while they headlined, and continued selling out, gigs at smaller venues along the east coast.

As the situation began to look increasingly bleak, the band were called to New York to meet with Champion and Columbia Records.  They were dropped by both companies.

While musicians typically look upon a major-label deal as finally hitting the big time, the reality of such business deals doesn't always mirror expectations.  Reflecting upon his experience with Columbia, Weakley says unequivocally that the label's marketing was insufficient and unsubstantial.  He maintains, "We did have a publicist, Annette Minofolo, who went to bat for us and really hung in there.  She was our only hope.  The major label, though...they destroyed us.  We marketed ourselves much better."

So what aspects of the label's marketing efforts didn't work so well?  He answers, "Everything.  Product managers leaving and management not being on the ball.  Our management was so bad.  We would show up at a club in Michigan or Boston and meet the people just putting up our flyers the day of the show.  The CBS rep in Chicago passed out at the bar.  It was a disaster in every city.  After the 1988 tour, we were mortally wounded."

By the summer of 1989 the band decided to strike out again in search of new management and a new record deal.  Unfortunately another major shift was taking place within music and the industry was focused on the Seattle grunge scene.

Despite the challenges, the group recorded a new batch of songs, but stress and disagreements soon escalated resulting in both guitarists leaving the band.  The remaining members sought replacements in February 1990.  They wrote more songs, hired new management, and by the beginning of 1991 they were heading back into the studio to record a new demo.  While their new management sought major-label interest and even secured critical showcases for the band, the industry was no longer interested in flamboyant metal acts and now favored bands in the style of Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam.  MTV marched in lockstep with the record companies eliminating 80s bands from their video playlist.  In the face of insurmountable odds, Roughhouse disbanded in October 1991.

Through the early 90s there were occasional Roughhouse reunions, but the music scene had changed and Weakley eventually played in a few different bands in the Philadelphia area.  "The local thing was a big party, and at the time, that's all I wanted to do," he observes.

About 10 years after Roughhouse disbanded, Weakley decided to form and front his own band, American Sugar Bitch (ASB).  After all that time and so much evolution within the music industry, it can be difficult for any band to reconnect with their fans.  Undeterred, however, Weakley put his marketing experience to work and began promoting his new band locally and discovered a hybrid audience at his gigs.  "Some of the early fans are still around and some are new.  We take any fans," he laughs.  "We have some very loyal fans, and we appreciate their support.  Roughhouse reunions brought some back, and ASB opened for Roughhouse several times.  ASB is not a full-time band; we're in it for the playing, recording, and creating.  The bottom line with ASB is that we have fun."

After maintaining a marketing presence with fans via magazines and postal mail back in the day, Weakley now utilizes the Internet as the sole means of connecting with fans.  "We use the web only.  We have MySpace and a couple of websites.  We are recording right now so when the new record is done we'll be banging the drum again."

Like so many musicians before and since, Dave Weakley found that the reality of the charts-and-graphs business side of the music business was far from what most artists hope for or anticipate.  As a professional musician, it is wise to be as well informed as possible and try to maintain as much control as you can.  Weakley contends, "My advice is to stick to your original plan.  If you want to make something artistically valid, stick to it.  There is so much canned commercial music out there, but there is also so much great music out there, too."

The obvious lesson for those seeking to pursue a career in the music business is that regardless of your talent, the wrong management decisions can derail the potential success of even the most skilled performers.  Fortunately for Dave Weakley, he can now record and perform his music on his own terms.

To hear ASB's music visit: http://www.asbband.com/

Note: Special thanks to Mick Baker for his superlative historical detailing of Teeze's activities.