Vixen - The Most Popular Female Metal Band From Back In The Day

Fate dictated that there had to be at least one mega-hit female hair band and L.A. based Vixen attained this coveted position in the late 1980s. In various guises, the band kicked around L.A. in the early 1980s at the beginning of the metal scene. Formed by guitarist Jan Kuehemund, Vixen played such haunts as the Troubador and posed for the requisite cheesecake shoots in local music papers like Bam. A revolving door of leather clad members filled the band's boots til the final line-up for recording was solidified. Drummer Roxy Petrucci who had played around Southern California in a funk band called Madam X with her sister Maxine, joined, bassist Share Pederson and vocalist Janet Gardner, along with founder Kuehemund recorded the band's first album in 1987.

Vixen's first EMI album, the appropriately titled Vixen was released later that year. Containing the mega-hit Edge of A Broken Heart, it achieved gold status in the states and sold a million copies worldwide. Vixen opened for Ozzy Osbourne, the Scorpions big metal acts. They had a video in heavy rotation on MTV, Top 40 radio airplay and this success segued into a second album Rev It Up, in 1990.

Retro Review - 1990's Rev It Up

Vixen are a far cry from the Young Americans, but lead singer Janet Gardner toured with the clean-cut up with people type teen singers after graduating from high school and before moving to L.A. where she joined the seminal female heavy metalers. Rev It Up the follow up to the eponymous Vixen, outdoes that CD in certain respects. The lite metal of How Much Love and Wrecking Ball follow the same radio ripe vein of Edge of A Broken Heart. While the torchy, angst-ridden ballad "Love Is A Killer", is over the top drama in the same mold as the old Terry Knight song "I, Who Have Nothing."

Although Rev It Up followed the same blueprint as Vixen, the band disappeared from the mainstream music industry for years as the grunge and rap took over. The band resurfaced in 1998 with a new release on CMC International entitled Tangerine. The recording featured vocalist janet Gardner, drummer Roxy Petrucci and guitarist Gina Stiles. Tours of the U.S. ensued in 1997 and 1998. A spot on this years Voices of Metal Tour with three of the original members (Janet, Jan and Roxy) was truncated due to creative differences. Original bassist Share Pedersen is long gone and currently ensconed in her new band Bubble.

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