Fast Forward was a Canadian band formed in 1984 in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. Featuring Ian Lloyd, former lead singer of Stories and a solo artist, the band released one album, ''Living in Fiction''.

History

Prior to the formation of Fast Forward, Ian Lloyd, had developed a solo career, following the 1974 breakup of his former band, Stories. Lloyd released three solo albums between 1976 and 1980, including "Goosebumps" and "3WC (Third Wave Civilization)". "3WC" was notable for its inclusion of Lloyd's cover of " Straight from the Heart", three years prior to

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born November 5, 1959) is a British and Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and photographer. He is estimated to have sold between 75 million and more than 100 million album, records and Single (music), si ...

releasing his own version, to worldwide acclaim. It also was co-produced by

Bruce Fairbairn Bruce Earl Fairbairn (December 30, 1949 – May 17, 1999) was a Canadian record producer. He was active as a producer from 1976 to 1999, and is considered one of the best of his era. His most successful productions are '' Slippery When Wet'' ...

and featured Adams' then songwriting partner

Jim Vallance James Douglas Vallance (born May 31, 1952) is a Canadian songwriter, arranger and producer. He is best known as the songwriting partner of Canadian musician Bryan Adams. Vallance began his professional career as the original drummer and main song ...

, contributing many of the songs and playing drums. Many of the people involved with "3WC" became involved with the Fast Forward project in 1984. The project was initially to be another Ian Lloyd solo album, but Lloyd requested that it be recognized as a band effort. The recording band was primarily Bryan Adams' band.Comments of Ian Lloyd, October 8, 2011
Retrieved 2011-10-09. The album, ''Living in Fiction'' was co-produced by Bruce Fairbairn and Ian Lloyd. Bruce Fairbairn also contributed horns and backing vocals, as a principal member of the band, which also included Jimmy Lowell (bass and synthesizers), Andrew Kirin (synthesizers), Patrick Mahassen (guitar, backing vocals) and

(credited as Rodney Higgs) (drums). Lowell had previously been a member of

Spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

, a band that also included

Holly Knight Holly Knight (born 1956) is an American songwriter, musician, and singer. She was a member of the 1980s pop rock groups Spider and Device, and wrote or co-wrote several hit singles for other artists, such as " Rag Doll", " Obsession", " Love Is ...

and

Anton Fig Anton Fig (born 8 August 1952) is a South African session drummer perhaps best known as the drummer and second-in-command for Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band. David Letterman, for whom the band served as house band on his lat ...

, and which released two albums in 1980 and 1981. After Holly Knight left the band to pursue a solo career, Lowell and the remaining members of Spider joined with keyboardist

Beau Hill Beau Hill is an American record producer who is best known for his work with Ratt, Alice Cooper, Kix, Winger, Streets, Warrant, Fiona, and Europe. He also played instruments and sang backing vocals for some of the artists that he produced, as ...

to form Shanghai, which recorded one album in 1982, prior to disbanding. Guest musicians on ''Living in Fiction'' included

Bob Rock Robert Jens Rock (born April 19, 1954) is a Canadian record producer, recording engineer and musician. In 1976, Rock joined Little Mountain Sound Studios, starting out as a recording engineer and sound mixer. During his time there, he coll ...

(guitar) and the aforementioned Beau Hill (keyboards and backing vocals). Hill also wrote the title track. Fast Forward was primarily a

studio band A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recordi ...

. One video was released for "What's It Gonna Take" and there was one live band performance on Canadian radio. Following the lack of commercial success of the record, the band broke up.

Post-Fast Forward

After the break-up of Fast Forward, Ian Lloyd continued his solo career. Bruce Fairbairn continued as a musician and

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

, and was particularly notable as the producer of '' Permanent Vacation'' (1987), the comeback album for

Aerosmith Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of lead vocalist Steven Tyler, bassist Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton, drummer Joey Kramer, and guitarists Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry and B ...

, among other Aerosmith albums, and other notable albums. Fairbairn died suddenly in 1999, at the age of 49. Jim Vallance contributed to various albums, such as those of Aerosmith, as a songwriter and musician, in addition to his songwriting with Bryan Adams. Guitarist Patrick Mahassen later contributed a co-written song to

Loverboy Loverboy is a Canadian Rock music, rock band formed in Calgary, Alberta in 1979. Loverboy's hit singles, particularly "Turn Me Loose (Loverboy song), Turn Me Loose" and "Working for the Weekend", have become arena rock staples and are still hear ...

. Mahassen, using the name Patrick Mason, also made a name for himself as a member and touring musician for a succession of Swiss hard rock bands, Crown, briefly Krokus, and China, with whom he recorded the 1989 ''Sign in the Sky'' album as lead vocalist. Following a ten-year career as a musician, Mahassen developed an international communications career, including a position as Switzerland resources director for

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil s ...

. Andrew Kirin, a stage name for Andrew Krehel, became a noted jazz accompanyist, as well as a member of new wave band The Jetsonz. Kirin died in 2007.David Schwab blog
Reproduced Obituary Notice for Andrew Krehel, June 21, 2007
Retrieved 2011-09-24.

References

;Citations {{DEFAULTSORT:Fast Forward Musical groups established in 1984 Musical groups disestablished in 1984 Musical groups from Vancouver Canadian pop music groups 1984 establishments in British Columbia 1984 disestablishments in British Columbia