Reynolds Rocks! :: Music from students from Reynolds Secondary High School Victoria BC 1980-84

The Original Line-up:
Steve Coates
drums
Rick Norman (aka Rack)
bass / vocals
Dave Cambrey (aka Flash)
guitar

Subsequent Line-up additions:
Roland Willie had a short stint as vocalist before being replaced by Peter Vos
Snizz (Do-Wop) later joined on guitar and vocals

Peter sang for awhile but after the "Leave Us Alone" incident he was dropped for PR reasons.

Original songs:
Life Goes On
Smile
Death Of A Citizen
Special K
Young Savages

(Steve Coates said they had 16 originals before they broke up. Hopefully I'll be able to list them all eventually.)

As part of the Reynolds scene, Distortion (initially known as Insufficient Material) formed in the spring of 1981. Flash played guitar and laid down the tracks while Rack was the songwriter, vocalist and played bass.

They needed a drummer and place to play, so Steve was added to the band as drummer and later wrote lyrics. Steve, Flash and Rack had the pleasure of practicing at the infamous "New Wave Cave", which was Steve’s parents garage, surrounded in spray-painted acoustic ceiling tiles. Steve’s mom usually brought the boys milk and cookies.

As none of the three really wanted to sing, they recruited Roland Willie to sing. He was soon replaced by Pete Vos. Pete’s tenure lasted only a short while, but he was there for the band’s career highlight - Rock against New Wave at the New Wave Cave. I think Snizz wore the vocals hat as well as guitar after that.

The band’s best track and anthem was "Leave Us Alone" - written by Rack, a love song about Baby-Face from the Nevar and a former girlfriend. She was in attendance at Rock against New Wave, and along with her friends, ostracized Pete. The band dynamic changed after this event, and it was time for a new vocalist

As it happened, little was going on with the Do-wops, so Snizz (Doug Wansbrough) spat out the lyrics for Distortion.

The next eventful moment for the band was the Reynolds school talent show tryout. Distortion chose the song "Death of a Citizen" to perform, a song with a slow beginning and building to a crescendo of torrential proportion. Snizz started the talent show performance by rolling around and hanging off the stage. The song was cut short by the talent show judges before it really got started, as they found it "Disturbing". Shortly after the talent show fiasco, the band members, Snizz and Flash, moved on to play for Velox Strepitus.

Later, Rack, Flash and Steve began jamming again, but the sound had changed. They wanted to be like the Police, and U2. A memorable pop song of theirs was "Special K".

The final interlude for the band occurred a couple of years later (1983). Flash, Rack and Steve reformed to play cover songs.

Flash later moved on, in an new direction, finding new band members - going so far in his quest for musical recognition as to play Prince songs, among other popular tunes of that era.

The final musical saga for Rack and Flash occurred when they found a new drummer, Rob "Shark", and the guys moved to Burnaby to find stardom. This, however, did not happen.....Flash later contacted Joey Shithead, about becoming the new lead guitar player for D.O.A. Flash arranged an audition, but after Joey told him that, "you’ve got to be hot", Flash became apprehensive, and "jammed out".