Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke legendary Canadian guitarist Frank Marino. Marino Spoke about his new Blu-Ray DVD ‘ Live in Agora‘ his upcoming 50th anniversary tour and his opinion on fans paying bands for Meet and Greets.

Watch the interview here:

When asked about his new Blu-Ray DVD ‘ Live in Agora
“I think there is about 56 tracks on it, it’s 6 hours long it’s roughly 3 two hour sets. It was done by some really good people who really know how to shoot, the producer who put it all together and his team had done the last 12 or 13 videos for Bruce Springsteen, so we had that crew.  We had the lighting director who did the work for AC/DC. It looks very good.  I really approached the audio a little different than most Live recordings, usually when you are recording and mixing a live record you generally take a perspective of your in the 15th row and watching the band in a hall at a certain distance. But what I did was I wanted to mix it where I am literally on stage at the middle microphone, people never mix live records like that and I think they should. I wanted the sound to match what the camera was doing.”

When asked about the filming of the video and the book that accompanies the DVD
“I told the producer if we are going to do this video we are going to do as much shooting as we can in one day. So did a 12 hour show. We had a Friday night with a 7 hour sound check with the people in the hall and then the next day we started at noon and we finished at one in the morning. I said we are going to do as much as we can from all my old albums, with songs we never played before. I said let’s do as much as we can in one day and we did. So when I ended up mixing down it took many many years because there was some damage to it and took a long time to fix it. So here it is today, I have it down to 6 hours I have all the most important stuff in there.

“So then I wrote a book, a journalist wrote half the book and I wrote the last 20 chapters and in the last 20 chapters I’m basically telling the story of the last years in depth. A book, a blue Ray and DVD’s in the same box and so far people are saying they like it.”

When asked his opinion on fan paid Meet and Greets at shows
“I wont do this but from what I understand a lot of artists I knew, now they are going out and they are selling VIP tickets to  meet them which is ridiculous because I spent my whole life meeting everybody before and after every show I have ever done, for free. But now they are selling this Meet and Greet. in the old days you couldn’t even meet these guys even if you offered to pay them money. And I’m thinking what is the psychology behind that? Guys standing behind the rope line letting two at a time sitting on your lap like you are Santa Claus. I find something screwy about that, weird. The agents that we are using to go out on tour this time even suggested this VIP to me. And I said no, what are you nuts? I’m not going to do that.”

When asked about his past tour with Uli Jon Roth 
“Uli and I are good friends, I spent some time over there in England we did this legends of rock tour and I had a good time with it. Even over there on that tour  I saw things creeping into the actual touring, the autographs and the Meet and Greet. One night and I kind of got in trouble because they said we are going to do the Meet and Greet and I said ok we are going to meet the people? But then we all had to sit at a long table and I’m thinking why are we sitting at a long table? Then I see this rope line and they are letting the fans in two at a time. They are meeting Uli, then Glenn Hughs then me and so on. Then I said out loud what are we like Santa Claus here? They looked at me and said what are you saying? I said this is ridiculous look the people are 15 feet away, why don’t we just walk over there? What are we doing it’s so stupid. You get some people that come into the line and they want to talk a bit longer but then you got some roadie rush them away fast, so they can get the next guy in. I don’t know its just too weird. We should have just walked into that crowd like a cocktail party, shake hands and have a conversation but no one wants to do that. It shouldn’t be like that.”