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Secret V's
No Life Like It - 12" EP
Useful - 1981
Michael Panontin
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"It was a revolution. Democracy! Let everybody in. Fuck the god damn rock stars!"
Ray Tremblay looked back on his days in the Vancouver punk scene with equal parts spunk and affection. Of course, Tremblay, who passed away at just 53 in 2004, was much better known in music circles as Ray Condo, senior doyen of the Canadian rockabilly scene. The eleven albums he released, starting with Crazy Date in 1986 as Ray Condo and the Hardluck Goners all the way to his 2000 set, High & Wild, as Ray Condo and the Ricochets, are all prized by roots-rock enthusiasts. Tremblay's time as bassist in the Secret V's - to those few who know about it - would be considered a sort of prehistory.
He had arrived on the West Coast from Ottawa after finishing four years at an elite high school that specialized in art and design. He enrolled at the prestigious Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design to further his studies. But after feeling less than challenged there, he dropped out after a year and fell into a different sort of art world.
"I was playing in a band called Secret V's and the aesthetic of the time was - first of all you had to cut your hair off," Tremblay told Mote MGZN in 1999. "We were sick of millionaire rockstar Frampton hair farmers. So the whole punk scene was about, first of all, cut your fucking hair, then get up there and it was about small amps. It wasn't about Marshall amps or power like they're into now. It was small amps and lots of attitude, get up there with balls and express yourself with attitude and you'll learn the musical side later."
Secret V's issued a couple of 12" EPs in the early eighties, 1980's Modern Boy and the more polished No Life Like It the following year. By the time of that second EP, the group were, in addition to Tremblay, singer Bruce Archibald (a.k.a. Lister Travis), guitarist and organist Naomi Moriyama (who had replaced Richard Fuller) and drummer Ken Jones. No Life Like It is much like its predecessor, delivering taut two-minute punk anthems - all written by Archibald - like the bouncy title track, the slightly quirky 'Torn Kimono' and, especially, the fist-pumping 'Rosse Rosse (Brigate Rosse)'.
But things get better when the group decide to flex a little less and show off their poppier instincts. This is especially true on the excellent 'Odessa', Archibald's bitter send-off to a former lover, and the radio-friendly sing-along 'Waiting for the Drugs to Take Hold', a song that CBC Vancouver short-listed for the greatest Vancouver song of all time.
Secret V's broke up soon after the release of No Life Like It. Archibald set off on a solo career, making 'Waiting for the Drugs to Take Hold' his signature tune. But only Tremblay made a full-time career, however peripheral, out of his love of music. In that Mote interview, he connected his love of the Cramps to his future as a rockabilly legend.
"The Cramps are really interesting," he said. "If you listen to their material, their inspiration is coming from the 50s. And that's what drew me to the Cramps...These guys might not play it like the old days, but they certainly understand the spirit of the old days. Rock and roll is about fun. It's about sex, drugs, and fun."
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