The Spoilers were a Southern
California punk rock/
new wave band formed in 1978.
History
The Spoilers began in
Los Angeles, California in 1978. The founding members were
Chris Hickey
Chris Hickey is a professional rugby union coach and the former coach of the NSW Waratahs in the Super Rugby tournament.
Early coaching career
Chris Hickey first started his coaching career in 1992 with the First Grade Ballina Seahorses rugby u ...
, George Padgett and Dean Stefan. Bill Hickey was also considered a semi-member of the band when he was not attending law school at Berkeley. Their first EP was released in 1978 on
White Lunch Records and contained the songs "Has Been" (written by Dean Stefan), "Battling On" (Chris Hickey), "Boys Night Out" (Dean Stefan) and "The Ugly Nancies" (Chris Hickey). Hickey and Stefan were credited with guitar and Padgett with bass.
Under the management of local impresario
Stan Bernstein, the band moved from a punk to a new wave band, to fit their image as soft clean-cut suburbanites. Bernstein released a second Spoilers record in 1979, ''Balloon Water Race'', that contained "Focus" (Dean Stefan), "Loose Words" (Chris Hickey), "Mr. X" (Craig Wisda) and "Point Blank" (
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...
). A 45 single followed in 1980 on White Lunch Records, of Stefan's "Greta", backed with Hickey's "Loose Words". The single was played by
Rodney Bingenheimer on the
KROQ as well as on
Dr Demento's syndicated show.
The band then relocated south to Los Angeles. A five-song mini album was recorded with
Paul Wexler, but was not released due to contractual disagreement with Wexler. Instead, the band left to record a 1980 single on
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
’s record label,
The Rocket Record Company. This single featured Stefan’s "Reckless" backed by a new version of "Battling On".
Kessler and Wisda left the band in 1981. Hickey and Stefan then recorded a 12-song album, produced by
Steve Verroca, and using studio musicians.
Later solo work
Chris Hickey went on to release six solo albums, co-lead the alt-folk band
Show of Hands with future Beach Boy
Randell Kirsch
Randell Kirsch is an American musician.
Early life
Kirsch received his first guitar lesson in 1962, performed publicly for the first time in 1963 at the Fresno County Fair, won the Wolters Elementary School talent show in 1966 with his band Th ...
, and lead the alternative band
Uma. Both bands released CDs on major labels (
I.R.S. Records
I.R.S. Records was an American record label founded by Miles Copeland III, Jay Boberg, and Carl Grasso in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave ...
and
MCA Universal, respectively). Dean Stefan released a solo album ''Trial and Error'' and wrote much of the soundtrack music to the children's television series, ''
Rainbow Fish
''The Rainbow Fish'' is a children's picture book drawn and written by Swiss author and illustrator, Marcus Pfister, and translated into English by J. Alison James. The book is best known for the distinctive shiny foil scales of the Rainbow ...
''. These songs were released as a CD on Sony Music.
References
External links
Chris Hickey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spoilers
Punk rock groups from California
Musical groups established in 1978
Musical groups from Los Angeles