Chilliwack

Chilliwack is a Canadian rock band centered on the singer and guitarist Bill Henderson. They were active from 1970 to 1988; Henderson re-formed the band in 1997. The band started off with a progressive rock sound that incorporated elements of folk, indigenous, jazz and blues, before moving towards a more straight-ahead hard rock/pop rock sound by the mid-1970s. Their six best-selling songs were "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)", "I Believe", "Whatcha Gonna Do", "Fly at Night", "Crazy Talk" and "Lonesome Mary". The band's line-up has changed many times. The band originated in Vancouver, British Columbia. The members of the C-FUN Classics changed the band's name to The Collectors when Bill Henderson joined in 1966. Their psychedelic self-titled debut album yielded the minor hit "Lydia Purple". Their second album was based on the musical score written by the band for Grass and Wild Strawberries, a stage play by Canadian playwright George Ryga. Vocalist Howie Vickers left the Collectors in 1969; the remaining members formed the band Chilliwack in 1970, Chilliwack being a Salish term meaning "valley of many streams" and the name of a city east of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley. Chilliwack released its debut album, Chilliwack, in 1970. Lead guitarist Bill Henderson led the remaining former Collectors members: Glenn Miller (bass, guitar, backing vocals), Ross Turney (drums) and Claire Lawrence (flute, saxophone, keyboards, backing vocals); while he provided most of the vocals and did most of the composing. During 1970, Miller briefly left the band, who were joined on the road by Robbie King (keyboards, bass) and played at Expo '70 in Japan and other gigs across Canada. In 1971, bassist Rick Kilburn played live with Chilliwack for a short time before Miller returned later that same year when Lawrence departed. New member Howard Froese (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals) joined in 1973. The band released several moderately successful records. Hit singles in Canada included "Lonesome Mary", which entered Cashbox January 22, 1972 (and was their first US charting single, peaking at #75 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1972), "Crazy Talk" (#98 in the US in January 1975), and "Fly at Night" (#75 in the US in May 1977). The track "Rain-o", a blues-based composition that appeared in different versions on their debut album, Chilliwack (June 1970) and the later Dreams, Dreams, Dreams (January 1977), was a well-known concert favourite, but far too long to be released as a single. Chilliwack's debut was followed by two more albums: Chilliwack in September 1971 and All Over You in December 1972. In April 1974 their album Riding High on Goldfish Records (Terry Jacks' label) contained one of their biggest hits, "Crazy Talk", which was produced by Jacks. This album was not released in the US until early 1975 (on the Sire Records label), where it was retitled Chilliwack (their third U.S. release to bear that title). Chilliwack had a difficult time sustaining success because of constant changes of label. The two Collectors albums were on Warner Brothers and Chilliwack's first five albums were on four different labels in Canada: Parrot, A&M, Goldfish, and Casino Records. Rockerbox, their fifth album, was released in December 1975 on Sire Records in the U.S. and (with a different cover) on the little-known Casino Records label in Canada. It was Chilliwack's least successful album in Canada. The band was then signed to Vancouver's Mushroom Records, with distribution throughout North America. After completing one album for the label, Dreams, Dreams, Dreams, Chilliwack began work on their seventh album, to be titled Lights from the Valley. The first attempt at recording proved unsatisfactory, leading to discord among the band members. Froese was replaced by Brian MacLeod, who contributed guitar, drums, keyboards and backing vocals. The album was re-recorded; with some of Froese's vocal and guitar work, as well as percussion from session drummer Eddie Tuduri, included in the final mix. By the time of the record's release, bassist Glenn Miller and drummer Ross Turney had left the group. Mushroom was also having financial problems which hampered the promotion of the album after its release in June 1978. Drummer Skip Layton and former Prism bassist Ab Bryant were recruited to perform with Henderson, MacLeod and Jamie Bowers (guitar and keyboards, who had also played on Lights from the Valley) in Chilliwack's 1978 live gigs. Henderson, MacLeod and Bryant then began working on Chilliwack's eighth album in 1979, joined by John Roles (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals) and drummer Bucky Berger. The Mushroom label went bankrupt abruptly shortly after their album Breakdown in Paradise was released in December 1979. Berger was replaced by Rick Taylor and the line-up of Henderson, MacLeod, Bryant, Roles and Taylor toured into 1980. Chilliwack then signed with Solid Gold Records in Canada and Millennium Records in the U.S. in 1981 as a trio (Henderson/MacLeod/Bryant) and enjoyed its greatest success with this line-up, releasing the albums Wanna Be a Star (September 1981) and Opus X (October 1982). The singles "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)" (Their first US Top 40 hit, peaking at #22 in December 1981), "I Believe" (US #33 in March 1982), and "Whatcha Gonna Do (When I'm Gone)" (US #41 in December 1982) were popular both in Canada and in the U.S. Rolling Stone wrote: At their best, Chilliwack was the finest Canadian rock band, outrocking BTO and outwriting Burton Cummings. But a lack of consistency kept it from international success. Henderson, MacLeod and Bryant were joined by drummer Paul Delaney in the fall of 1981 through early 1982 for U.S. promotional appearances on TV shows, like American Bandstand, Solid Gold and The Merv Griffin Show, before heading out on the road later in 1982 with an expanded line-up of Henderson, MacLeod, Bryant, Joey Franco (drums), Glenn Grayson (keyboards, backing vocals) and Dennis Grayson (keyboards, backing vocals). Henderson and MacLeod received a Best Producer Juno Award for Opus X. However, echoing the Mushroom problems, Millennium Records then collapsed. In early 1983, MacLeod and Bryant left the band to devote more time to their other project, the Headpins (with Denise McCann and then Darby Mills as lead vocalists). Chilliwack's last studio recording, Look In Look Out, was released in July 1984 with Henderson as the only continuing member. He was joined by session players Ashley Mulford (guitar, backing vocals, from the band Sad Café), Richard Gibbs (keyboards, from the group Oingo Boingo), Mo Foster (bass), Simon Phillips (drums) and Tom Keenlyside (saxophone), with additional vocals provided by Mark LaFrance, Saffron & Camille Henderson, Dustin Keller and Bob Rock. By 1985, the band was without a record deal, and Henderson cobbled together a touring line-up of former member Claire Lawrence (sax, backing vocals), Jerry Adolphe (drums), Brian Newcombe (bass), Robbie Gray (keyboards, backing vocals) and Dave Pickell (keyboards). Pickell was replaced almost immediately by another former member John Roles (guitar, keyboards) and bassist Newcombe was succeeded in 1986 by Lee Oliphant. This grouping played mostly in Canadian clubs and smaller venues until Henderson disbanded the group in December 1988. The following year, Henderson formed the folk-rock supergroup UHF. On October 6, 1991, Henderson joined fellow rockers Loverboy, Bryan Adams, Colin James, and Chrissy Steele at a benefit show at Vancouver's 86 Street Music Hall to raise over $50,000 for Henderson's former Chilliwack bandmate, Brian MacLeod, who was fighting cancer and undergoing treatment at a Houston medical clinic. MacLeod died on April 25, 1992, aged 39. After the band had been dormant for nearly a decade, Henderson decided to launch a new Chilliwack line-up in 1997, made up of himself, Adolphe (drums), Doug Edwards (bass, backing vocals), and Roy 'Bim' Forbes (guitar, backing vocals, from