<--press kit   <--- reviews

June 27, 2003

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Working Class Hero
by Chris Riemenschneider

Brian (GB) Leighton has proven that a hard gigging, covers-playing,
suburbs-rocking singer is something to be.

A couple years ago, Brian Leighton ran into his friend and fellow singer-songwriter Scott Laurent at a nightclub before a show.  It was a Saturday night, so naturally Leighton and his almost-namesake band had a gig somewhere in the Twin Cities.

"I saw Scott and said, " Hey why aren't you playing a gig?" Leighton remembers.  When Laurent explained that his band performed the previous night, Leighton replied, "So did we.  So what?"

Sitting down over a sandwich and a Bud at the Monte Carlo in downtown Minneapolis, a couple hours before his gig down the street at Bunkers ("every Wednesday for nine years"), Leighton recounted the conversation with more humility than it might seem.

The 32-year-old son of a Minneapolis cop wanted to explain why he doesn't ever take a gig, or his audiences for granted.  With 200 to 250 shows a year - as many as six a week, sometimes in the clubs that other acts with his popularity wouldn't touch with a 10-foot microphone stand -- it's hard to believe that sometimes the guy born Brian Leighton Glodek doesn't put a show on cruise control.

"Scott's band is great; they should be packing them in every night, too, and they do actually do very well," said Brian, which is what friends call him.  "I don't know why it's my band that can do it. I don't know why we have this audience that will follow us from one end of town to the other and see us sometimes four times a week."

“Whatever it is, I try to never forget how lucky we are."

It's a pretty good guess that over the past couple of years, gb Leighton has gotten more people to pay a $5 to $10 cover than any other act in town.   The singer and his six-piece band usually play at least four and up to six shows a week, sometimes without leaving the metro area. He spreads them out:  After Bunkers on Wednesday, he might play a sports bar like P.O.V.'s in Andover on Friday, a bowling alley like Bogart's in Apple Valley on Saturday, or maybe an outdoor gig like the one he played at the Bierstube in Oakdale two weekends ago.

.Sundays in the summer often are saved for an afternoon spot at a destination bar like P.D. Pappy's in Stillwater, where the band has played for 13 of it's 15 years.     

"He packs 'em in time after time after time," said Pappy's owner Greg Lindow.

The band reaps plenty of benefits from it's busy schedule. The musicians and soundman are all on

salary.  When they play out of town, they travel in a 36-foot RV.  And when they come home, it's to houses, newish cars and (for some of them, including Brian) wives and kids.  But no day jobs.

"We've made it into a comfortable living," confirmed Brian, whose son Leighton (last name: Glodek) is 2.

But it does come at a price.   Playing the suburban sports bars so much results in a certain amount of disrespect, the way a TV actor might be set off by dinner theater.

And while plenty of people sing along to Leighton's songs nowadays, he still plays many of the covers he got his start on, such as "Hey Baby," "Brown Eyed Girl," anything by Springsteen, some Eric Clapton or Steve Miller - stuff you might hear a wedding band do.

For these reasons and maybe a few others, Leighton has gotten Scant radio play and little respect from critics. He hopes to correct that with a CD coming out Tuesday called "This Life."'  Whether or not the disc changes things, he wants it known that he still feels lucky.

"Our job is to entertain people who are out to drink, have a good time and maybe meet someone," he said.

"It's a job.  We take it seriously as a job.  And we take a lot of pride in doing the job well. But it's a job that we also have a lot of fun with. A lot of fun."

Whatever it takes...

The CD's producer, former Prince & the Revolution drummer Bobby Z, is a firm believer in Brian's talent.

"Whatever you think of the places he plays, you can't pack a bar every weekend out of the year unless you've got something special," Bobby said on a recent morning, sitting behind the console at Echo Bay studio in New Hope.

Bobby got on the gb Leighton bandwagon two winters ago, offering to record "and see what happens."'

What happened was that Minnetonka based Liquid 8 Records, the new company behind recent CD's by Daryl Hall, Midnight Oil and even Vanilla Ice, heard the tracks and signed Brian to a contract.  For the label, he's a chance to modernize.  For his part, Brian gets the national distribution and promotional dollars that his past four studio CD's lacked.

Bobby and Brian recorded a lot of "This Life" on Mondays and Tuesdays, the band's off days. Some of the tracks feature the band, and some are with seasoned studio musicians such as Michael Bland (also an ex-Prince drummer), Sonny Thompson and Jeff Victor.  Similarly, some of the tunes were written by Leighton, and several are from songwriters with a track record, including Men at Work's Colin Hay, the Rembrandts' Phil Solem and Bobby Z.

Settling on outside help was not an easy choice.  "There were some tough decisions made," Bobby said.  "But Brian's a smart businessman.  He knows that certain things have to be done."

Leighton says he has no regrets.

"I've wanted to get on the radio since Day One," said the singer, who played gigs while still at Mounds View High School   The summer after he graduated, 1988, he told his dad he would enroll in classes to become a police officer if his career did not take off.

Brian recently looked at a calendar from those days and, he said, "I can remember thinking back then, 'Wow, I've got six gigs in October.  I've made it."

Radio remains a sticking point, though.

"It got to a point where I said, 'Fine.  Whatever it takes.  Let's do it'" he said.  "It wasn't easy telling [my band members] they weren't going to be on every track.  But at the same time, it was tough for me to swallow the fact that every track wasn't going to be written by me."

The end result is a CD that sounds more, well, commercial.  A few songs might sway critics, especially the title track (a stirring, climatic ballad) and the rock-rousing cover of "Come and Get Your Love" by 70's funk band Redbone.

Mostly, thought, this records sounds tailor-made for the radio.  The first single, "Summertime," and the similarly cruisin'-oriented "Perfect Timing" are like Sheryl Crow hits with male bravado.  And the opener, "With Nothing" -- an old Ten Ton Bridge song with lyrics by Leighton - comes on with a sly rock riff a la Santana's "Smooth."

"It's a different kind of records for Brian," Bobby Z said proudly.  Even if radio doesn't come around, "I think people are going to turn their heads on this one.  Brian poured his heart into it and sang his ass off."

It's Long Overdue...

The Wednesday crowds at Bunkers - where the release party for "This Life" happens next week - include firefighters, secretaries, city employees, wait staff from other bars, minor-league sports players, you name it.  It's usually the biggest crowd that you'll see for any midweek gig in town.

On the Wednesday before last, the large parking lot was filled by 10 PM.

"How many of you were here last week?" Leighton asked on stage, to a smattering of applause.

He actually didn't perform a week earlier because of a bout with laryngitis.  As a concession, the club previewed the new CD.  Bar sales that night were as strong as most other weeks.  "I got about four phone calls saying it was the best show I ever gave," Leighton joked.

Stephanie Baldwin, 28, from Burnsville, guessed that she sees Leighton play seven or eight times a month.

"It never gets old {for me}, because they're always changing the show and always giving it their all," said Baldwin, who coincidentally sells ads for radio stations Cities 97 and KDWB.  She smiled when asked if gb Leighton belongs on the radio.

Said her friend Kris Boden of Coon Rapids, "He's a lot more genuine than most {acts on the radio}.  I think it's long overdue."

during his three-hour-plus set (with one break), Brian scatters in many of the new songs.  His heartfelt delivery of "This Life" strikes a chord with the crowd, and "Perfect Timing" does its job in getting things energized.

Unfortunately, bigger and better reactions come from the covers, including "Hey Baby" and "All Along the Watchtower."  The latter serves as a workout for guitarist Luke Kramer, the longest gb Leighton band member at nine years.

The best responses, thought, were for older Leighton tunes, including "One Foot Over" and "Love For Sale."

Chad Swiderski, a St. Paul grocery worker who was miming the words to "One Foot Over," said he doesn't care if they new CD gets radio play.

"I don't know if radio is his thing," he said.

Asked what Leighton's thing is, Swiderski gestured toward the overall scene as best he could without bumping elbows with someone else.  Simultaneously, he checked out a girl in a tight, low-cut T-shirt passing by.

"This," he said.