It was 1989. I was working at Marks’ Work Wearhouse dreaming of a life in the music business. The year before I had received a Certificate in Recording Arts – but I realized I didn’t really want to be a sound engineer. I just wanted to sing.

I had a friend who was a dancer and travelled all around British Columbia and Alberta. She told me about this band she met while in Alberta, I believe they were called “Restricted”. Their singer was leaving the band and they were thinking of finding someone to take over from her.

I don’t have any documentation of how any of this went down, and my memory of dates is a little fuzzy. I do remember hopping on a Greyhound from Vancouver to Calgary (or was it Edmonton?) to meet the band and audition. I remember being in the crowd and watching the band play. The band sounded good and Adele (the singer) was doing a great job fronting the band and getting the crowd into it. I remember being pretty nervous.

Sometime after I got back home (could have been days, could have been weeks) I was told they were interested in me singing with them, and asked me to join them in Winnipeg so we could get some rehearsal time in. The bands’ name was changed to Fatal Attraction, and after getting a few weeks of rehearsal under our belt we started gigging.

We travelled around in an old school bus, affectionately known as Bob. The back half stored all our PA, equipment & luggage and the front half had some bunks and places to sit. Bob had character and sometimes Bob had issues … like the time we lost the tire on the highway going from Stoney Plain Alberta on our way to Prince Albert Saskatchewan.

Pretty sure the first place we played was Fort Francis in Ontario. We played mostly in Manitoba: Winnipeg, Flin Flon, The Pas, Thompson and Brandon to name a few. We’d make our way into Ontario sometimes, playing Kenora and Thunder Bay, as well as Saskatchewan. I specifically remembered playing in Moose Jaw, and the club was in an old vacant hotel that really had a Shining vibe to it.

We were a rock band in the late 80’s playing cover songs in bars. We’d tear down Saturday night after our set, pack up the bus and travel to next weeks’ gig, where we’d set up, play for the week and tear down and travel the next Sunday. Rinse and repeat. Despite being broke all the time, and being in northern Manitoba in the winter (Thompson), it was a really great experience; we had a great light show and a kick ass sound. In retrospect I wish I toughed it out longer.

It’s a shame I don’t have more pictures (or maybe that’s a good thing – ha ha!!). I do have my old set tapes, but as I don’t have a tape recorder I’m not even sure the cassettes still hold their sound. Here’s an example of one of our sets (for a gig in Kenora ):

  • Heartbreaker (Pat Benatar)
  • Don’t Tell Me You Love Me (Night Ranger)
  • Twice As Hard (Black Crows)
  • Take it on the Run (REO Speedwagon)
  • Wheel in the Sky (Journey)
  • The Best of What I’ve Got (Bad English)
  • Shelter
  • Still Got This Thing For You (Alannah Myles)
  • Black Betty (Ram Jam)

It turns out our band was also featured in a pamphlet for one of the hotel bars that we played in Edmonton. I ran across this pamphlet totally by accident many years after Fatal Attraction disbanded. I was kind of surreal coming across this.

Fatal Attraction was:

  • Tracey Lowrey (Vocals)
  • Dean Watts (Guitar)
  • Randy Peterson (Guitar)
  • Chris Plater (Drums)
  • Ed Edwards (Bass & Keys)
  • Todd Huckle (Lights)
  • Corey Sherwin (Sound)