About
THE DERELICTS
since circa 1987
The Derelicts formed in Seattle during the summer of 1987. i joined the band in November of 1988, replacing original bass player Joe Kilbourne. hopefully if any of my facts concerning the early days and formation of the band are incorrect i can get Joe and/or Tom Price to fill in the blanks here. AFAIK the beginning goes something like this... Neil Rogers(guitar) and Duane Bodenheimer(vocals) had played together in a band in Denver, where they both grew up, called Psychodrama. Neil moved to Seattle and met Joe Kilbourne and Tom Price cuz, you know, he was a Punk Rocker and started hanging around Fallout Records when he was still new in town. so Neil and Joe started playing some simple straight ahead punk stuff with Tom Price playing drums. soon after this got going, Duane was convinced to move to Seattle to sing for Neil's new band. after a while they started looking for a drummer as Tom is actually a guitar player and had more important things to do, like GAS HUFFER for instance. they found Ric Bilotti by placing a drummer wanted ad in the Rocket. or maybe they answered Ric's ad, i can't remember. anyway they started playing with Ric and things started to get a lot heavier and faster cuz, um, yeah Ric fuckin pounds that shit. they started playing shows and people really liked what they were doing. the Derelicts were in an interesting position in the local scene at the time. on the one hand they were mainly influenced by and connected to old-school hardcore and straight-ahead punk bands. on the other hand they knew lots of local bands that were more connected to the grunge scene and playing in the over 21 clubs in downtown Seattle. Duane's singing was firmly rooted in hardcore, but he sang with such passion and honesty, and his voice had a richness and ability to do something really powerful within the context of a really melodic riff. so while the band could play an all-ages show and go over well with a younger hardcore crowd, they could turn around and knock-em dead opening for a more grunge oriented band at a club like the Vogue. they played a ton of shows and then put out the "Bullet For Fifi" 7" in the summer of 1988. as the band started to gain popularity in the local scene and began to venture further out on the road and play more and more shows, Joe decided that he did not want to continue playing and partying at the pace the rest of the band was going. besides playing bass he was also fairly serious about bike racing, and the heavy drinking and drug abuse that came with being a Derelict was getting in the way of his athletic aspirations. in the fall of 1988 Joe left the band and they started looking for a replacement. i was acquainted with Joe but did not know the other guys in the band. i had seen them play a couple of times and loved what they were doing. a mutual friend told me they were looking for a bass player and that Joe had recommended me as someone they should try to get to replace him. i met them and we played some stuff and hit it off, so i became a Derelict. for almost three years after that we played hundreds of shows all over the Pacific NW and up and down the west coast a couple times, always straddling that line between the old school hardcore scene and the grunge and garage bands that were gaining popularity in the clubs at the time. Neil would spend one practice wishing we would slow down and try to be more melodic and tuneful, and show up at the next with a new blistering hardcore riff! we struggled with it, and fought amongst ourselves over the direction of the band, but in hindsight i think this conflict gave birth to some very powerful songs. we fought a lot, and everyone but Neil quit the band at some point, only to return a few days or a week later. we were all really bad at controlling our emotions, and the fact that we were drunk(all four of us) and on hard drugs(half the band) pretty much at all times didn't help matters. but people really liked the band. the audience always responded well, even when we were fighting on stage! people just love that shit. we kept getting more and more popular, and playing bigger and bigger shows. i think our songs and recordings got progressively better, and we became tighter and more professional on stage. all during this time Duane and Ric continued to sink deeper and deeper into heroin addiction, and when Duane told me he was moving back to Denver and not coming back, i decided to leave the band for real. this was in the spring of 1991. things pretty much fell apart from that point on. Duane went back to Denver, Neil was already putting Zipgun together, and the Derelicts just kind of came quietly to an end.... i made this page because since i joined Facebook there have been so many reminders that lots of people remember the Derelicts and still listen to and love the band. i'm hoping people have a lot of live and promo pix and flyers and stories to add to this. the pictures i have on here are about all i have of the band so bring em on! there's gotta be some good stuff out there... i wanna see it!Ian Dunsmore 3/21/2010
Unknown
Past Events
The Cambie at the Esquimalt Inn
10
Oct
2014
21:00 16:00
