The
Jam Canadian Music
website by Jaimie & Sharon Vernon have the following line ups listed:
1978 Line-up:
Joey Shithead (vocals, guitar)
Randy Rampage (bass)
Chuck Biscuits (drums)
1985/86 Line-up:
Joey 'Shithead' Keighley (vocals, guitar)
Brian "Sonny Boy Roy" Goble (bass, vocals)
Ken 'Dimwit' Jensen (drums)
Dave Gregg (guitar, vocals)
Joey "Shithead" Keighley (guitar/vox)
1990 Line-up
Joey 'Shithead' Keithley (vocals, guitar)
Chris Prohom (guitar, vocals; replaced Gregg)
1998 Line-up
Joey 'Shithead' Keithley (vocals, guitar)
From Scott Beadle:
DOA were formed when early Vancouver punk band The Skulls broke up after moving
to Toronto in ill-fated attempt to move to London England & become punk rock
stars. (Guitarist Simon Werner did move to his native land, however, forming the
legendary The Pack with his brother John, drummer Jim Walker from Vancouver's
1st punk band The Furies, and singer Kirk Brandon. The Werner bros later formed
the Straps, smashing LP too.)
Joey Shithead, the singer, formed DOA with 14 year old Chuck Biscuits on drums,
from Victorian Pork, a local band that gelled during The Skulls absence, and 17
year old former Victorian Pork drummer Randy Archibald, aka Randy Rampage on
bass. They recorded the Disco Sucks EP on their own label, then The Prisoner and
World War 3 singles for Quintessence.
The Skulls drummer, Dimwit (Ken Montgomery) was actually Biscuits' (Charles
Montgomery) eldest brother, who'd taught him how to drum. Now Dimwit joined
Victorian Pork, which also featured singer Ian Tiles (originally from
Ottawa/Toronto?) and guitarist Brad Kent aka Brad Kunt. Former Skulls roadie
Gerry Hannah, aka Gerry Useless, played some bass with VP, but left to form a
band called The Stiffs, that featured guitarist Mike Graham (Mike Normal),
drummer Zippy Pinhead (school pal of Biscuits) & singer Sid Sick. Future Private
School & Pointed Stick bassist Tony Bardach joined VP.
The Skulls bass player, Brian Goble, aka Wimpy, didnt have anything to do, so he
formed a non-serious band with Dimwit & Brad Kent called Wimpy & the Bloated
Cows, soon renamed The Subhumans.
So all these bands would play shows together. Fellow Burnaby (East Van suburb)
residents were at the core of all of them.
Wimpy & Dimwit decided to get serious and augmented the Subhumans with Gerry
Usless & Mike Normal from the Stiffs (Wimpy now just sang). Sid Sick & Zippy
Pinhead then formed The Rabid, with menacing bassist Simon Wilde and guitarist
Jon Doe.
Brad Kent dissolved VPork and joined DOA. That's him blistering through the old
footage of "Disco Sucks" filmed in Stanley Park at the beginning of the DOA
Greatest Shits video/DVD comp. Kent also went with DOA down to California, where
he met and eventually joined The Avengers (cowrote & played on the standout
studio track Corpus Cristi). (By the way, Kent would come out of retirement to
join an expanded 3-guitar lineup of Death Sentence, before they broke up from
drug problems. He'd also surface in a late 90s version of Victorian Pork, with
Tony Bardach, and Bardach's teenage daughter!).
DOA continued as a trio before splitting up December 1979. Shithead reassembled
a new DOA, with Wasted Lives drummer Andy Graffiti, Private School guitarist
Dave Gregg & Rabid's Simon Wilde. That lineup didnt last though, and by spring
1980 the original trio were reformed and re-recording much of the debut LP
Something Better Change that Shithead & co had started. Then, before touring,
they added Dave Gregg on 2nd guitar. This lineup recorded the Hardcore 81 LP
(both LPs on Quintessence's competitor Friends Records).
After that, Rampage was kicked out. He was replaced on bass by Dimwit (who had
since left the Subhumans, joined the Pointed Sticks, then temporarily rejoined
the Subhumans).
Eventually Chuck got tired of having his domineering elder brother in the band
(the 3rd middle brother Bob Montgomery was DOA's longtime roadie), and in the
summer of 1982 DOA sold him to Black Flag for cash money. Twisted Roots Emil was
drumming for the Henry-led Flag at this time; Chuck left with them on their
departure from Vancouver, to learn songs on the rest of the tour. Read about it
in Henry Rollins Get In the Van book.
No problem: Dimwit moved behind the drums, and Subhumans singer Wimpy
essentially dissolved the Subhumans to join DOA as bassist, where he stayed til
1991. Subhumans 2nd LP came out posthumously on SST Records. Subuhhumans
guitarist Mike Graham and post-Gerry Useless bassist Ron Allen (of the Cover
Boys) formed Shanghai Dog with ex-Young Canadian drummer Barry Taylor, and
singer Doug Andrews.
Dimwit didnt stay long, however. He hated touring & had a bad track record of
stable band relationships (but he'll always be loved & missed, RIP).
He was replaced by San Jose drummer Gregg James (of Verbal Abuse) for a world
tour, and recording John Peel (RIP) BBC Radio session released as Dont Turn Yer
Back on Desparate Times EP. Then Dimwit rejoined for Let's Wreck the Party LP.
Then he was replaced by former Personality Crisis and SNFU drummer John Card,
for True North Strong & Free LP.
This lineup lasted a long time, before Dave Gregg left and was replaced by
lookalike Chris Prohom (former Red Tide?) for the Murder LP. This lineup appears
on the DVD The End, a 1991 video of DOA's last performance at the Mabuhay
Gardens in San Francisco.
Retirement didnt last long, however. A year or two later, Shithead & Wimpy
reformed DOA with young powerhouse drummer Ken Jensen (RIP). (Because he shares
a first name with Ken Montgomery, and because they're both dead, some accounts
confuse the two, and you get silly things like Ken "Dimwit" Jensen!).
Anyways, after the great Logjam LP, Ken died tragically in an East Van house
fire, around the same time as Dimwit's heroin overdose and Simon Wilde's brain
tumour death.
No Means No drummer John Wright recorded and produced The Black Spot with them
(and Ford Pier on guitar). Then Brian Goble (Wimpy) left for good (well, he did
do a tour with a reformed Subhumans lineup), and Joey Shithead soldiered on with
drummer Brien O'Brien of Curious George, and more recently with other drummers
and bass players, including Randy Rampage for one LP.
One last thing about the Skulls: all those guys were in a pre-punk rock band
called Stone Crazy, formed in North Burnaby and relocating to the interior of
the province briefly, then back to Vancouver in 1976-77 where thay got converted
to punk by the Ramones first LP and first concert here. Stone Crazy were high
school pals Gerry Hannah on vocals, Ken Montgomery on drums, former drummer Joe
Keithley on guitar (sometimes trading with Ken), and bassist Brian Goble.
Accomplished guitarist Brad Kent then joined, freeing Joey to concetrate on on
singing. Then they turned into the Skulls, all got punk names, before Brad Kent
quit. It's a remarkable story of long-standing friendships, musical & otherwise.