Barney Bentall
Barney Bentall (aka Franklin) spent his teenage years holed up on Keat Island, British Columbia with songwriter Gary Fraser. By the late '70's Bentall was fronting a band under his new pseudonym Brandon Wolf doing slashing satire and throwing in healthy doses of the Fraser/Franklin originals.
With quirky tunes like the Dylan send-up "Blonde On Blonde On Blonde" Brandon Wolf was signed to A & M Records. They issued a 4 song EP on A & M's short-lived Debut Series which suffered at retail because retailers were charging full album prices for these mini albums.
Bentall went back to the drawing board with Nairne and Guppy to form the trio The Legendary Hearts (a name taken from a Lou Reed album title) in 1983. As time passed they added Bowman and Muir.
Soon Bruce Allen's management company was handling the case but they intended the Hearts material to go straight into the hands of slick production whizzes Bruce Fairbairn or Bob Rock. And despite caving into releasing a much ignored indie album with Bob Rock, Bentall wanted the material to mature and waited until Jehanne Languedoc at Finklestein Management approached with Finklestein and CBS Records fully behind them before committing any more material to tape.
In under a year the band's eponymous debut was out and burning up the charts with the first hit "Something To Live For". A succession of albums, tours and rave reviews finally landed Bentall some US exposure.
