Vocalist and lyricist Paul Hyde and multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Bob Rock were the band's core members throughout its history.
The band's name is a reference to the United States payola scandal of the early 1960s, which was a pay-for-play scheme involving commercial radio stations.
[1] Rock told The Province in 2003 that their band's name caused one record executive to tell him "I won't lift a finger to help you.
[4] Rock, who moved to Victoria from Winnipeg at age twelve, described his first encounter with Hyde to the Times Colonist in 2007: "He had his hair all cut off, and later I found out it was because he wanted to look like a skinhead when he immigrated to Canada so he wouldn't get beat up.
Being such a fan of English culture and bands, I saw this kid standing there in a long trenchcoat and shaved head and I went, 'That's a guy I wanna know.
'"[4] Influenced by musical artists such as David Bowie, Slade, T. Rex, Alex Harvey and Be-Bop Deluxe, the pair formed the Paul Kane Blues Band and toured Vancouver Island in the mid-1970s.
[5] Rock and Hyde were joined by drummer Ian Tiles (of Pointed Sticks) and bass player Marty Higgs to form the pop-punk band Payola$.
[8] Higgs and Tiles left shortly after the single was recorded and were replaced by drummer Taylor Nelson Little and sax/bass player Gary Middleclass (né Bourgeois).
[8] Middleclass left in 1980 (later becoming a teacher at the Vancouver Film School sound design program); he was replaced by Lawrence Wilkins on bass.
[11] In the 2011 book, Have Not Been The Same; The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995, Rock said: "The funniest things was that after we played the first date, all the guys in Split Enz were on stage going, 'Is that Mick Ronson?
[5] The album included the single "Never Said I Loved You" featuring Carole Pope, vocalist of rock band Rough Trade, which reached No.
[1] By this point, the band consisted of Hyde, Rock, drummer Chris Taylor and bassist Alex "A-Train" Boynton.
[1] The album marked a return to the politically and socially conscious lyrics of the Payolas' early work, with Rock also handling the sound engineering.
[23] The Payola$ reformed for a one-time gig on October 26, 1994, with Rock, Hyde, Boynton and new members Matt Frenette (drums) and Richard Sera (keyboards).
[2] An EP called "Missing Links" was released for a charitable foundation, consisting of previously unreleased Payola$ songs and demos, a couple of which had surfaced earlier, in slightly different productions, on Paul Hyde's solo album Living off the Radar.
[citation needed] As with the band's first break-up, no formal announcement was made that the Payola$ were ceasing operations; however, later in 2009 Paul Hyde resumed his solo career, releasing his fifth studio album.
[32] In a 2020 interview with the Vancouver Sun, Hyde said that he hadn't performed live music in five years and had changed his focus towards visual art.