Shark Island (band)

Shark Island was an American rock band from Los Angeles that played during the 80's.

The band was officially started in 1979 by singer Richard Black, whose name then was Rick Czerny and lead guitarist Spencer Sercombe, under the name of "Sharks". Czerny and Sercombe had met in high school and were playing together for quite some time. Rick was most-often compared to Aerosmith's Steven Tyler in that he wore outfits that were either oddly put together or were very colorful with many things that wouldn't even clasify as clothing. Rick was also one of the first vocalists who began the trend of using a wireless microphone in the Hollywood club circuit.

Spencer, a very creative guitarist, played and worked for B.C. Rich guitars. He was part of the design of the Warlock shape before it began its mass production. Moreover, Spencer auditioned for KISS after Ace Frehley left the band even going so far as to dye his hair jet black from his natural blonde color. However, Spencer never got the gig with KISS losing out to Vinnie "Wiz" Vincent in 1982.

The band changed its line-up frequently during their first years and released an independent album called "Altar Ego" in 1982. During these years, the band became of the hottest bands from the L.A. rock scene. American Heroes/Mondo Cane was an act that either opened for Sharks or had Sharks opening for them. There were numerous occasions when both bands would play in the same venues such as The Whiskey, The Icehouse, The Roxy or The Troubadour. It was at that time that Lanny Cordola, the band's lead guitarist/songwriter, began noticing the unique and riveting stage persona of Shark's vocalist, Rick Czerny. Lanny began to entertain the idea of Rick being the frontman for American Heroes/Mondo Cane but nothing ever came of that same idea so both bands continued to perform separately.

Dave Bishop was the drummer of Sharks during the height of their popularity in Hollywood, CA. Dave used various shapes of cowbell-like instruments in his drumming. His drum kit was especially unique in that he actually had a shark's jaws permanently fastened to the outer drum head of his bass drum facing the crowd.

Jim Volcipelli was Shark's bass guitarist and, in his own right, was not only quite a performer but he also brought lots of excitement to their live performances. One of Jim's bass guitars was custom-designed that had an air-brushed shark's head and teeth painted on the end near the volume/tone knobs. Much like Michael Anthony of Van Halen, Jim's vocals were wonderfully strong and melodic bringing a very welcomed sound to Hollywood's rock scene. Many bands, at that time, only had the vocals of the lead singer as opposed to having background vocals too. Often after the live shows, Jim was available to either sign autographs or talk to the Shark fans after the show.

Not only did Sharks release "Altar Ego", they released two singles as well. "Hey" was a live single recorded on May 10th, 1981 at The Ice House in Pasadena, CA-the Shark's hometown and on the flip side was Mark Bolan's "Bang A Gong (Get It On)". The artwork of "Hey" featured a black 45 rpm sleeve with LIVE SHARKS across the top in bold red letters with 3 homemade "USDA stamps" saying, Guaranteed Live on the top of the stamp and Packed In Its Own Juice on the bottom of the stamp. The other single that Sharks released was "I'm Electric" which, strangely enough, featured a drum machine rather than Dave Bishop doing the percussive duties. On the backside of that single was "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" very cleverly put the music and, oddly enough, of a Judas Priest song. No particular fancy artwork was created to this 2nd single as it was just in a plain white 45 rpm sleeve. This was given out to the fans when Sharks headlined.

Following in the tradition of Van Halen, Mötley Crüe and other L.A. bands, Shark Island was also the house band at the world-famous Gazzari's on the Sunset Strip. Bill Gazzari even helped produce their first single, a cover of the Frank Sinatra song "New York, New York".

In 1985, they changed their name to "Shark Island" and released another independent album titled, "S'cool Buss" the next year. Not much is remembered about this album as there were only 1,200 copies ever made (200 in a red cover and 1,000 in a turquoise color). One song that might have been the single from this album is "Palace Of Pleasure". It is impossible to verify this since this album is not available anywhere and was only available at that time from the band members themselves.

Sharks were able to get a record development deal. Supposedly, they were signed by A & M Records and were in fact signed to a development deal for one year with A & M with no promise of being picked up for a record deal. During these times, the line-up continued to shift with drummer Walt Woodward leaving to join The Scream and on-and-off guitarist K.K. Martin definitely parting ways with them due to "artistic differences".

Bassist Chris Heilmann and drummer Greg Ellis joined in 1989 to record and release the band's only official album titled, "Law of the Order". The single of this album, "Paris Calling" was quite an elaborate and well-produced video for an unknown band in America. Sharks had been known in L.A. nightclubs for having a raw, rough and hard-edged sound while being melodic and having memorable songs as well. Much like Van Halen's debut album, it was believed that Shark Island's first album would be something very close to what they were live. Rick Derringer was the producer of this album on Epic Records and it's speculated that he wasn't familiar with Sharks/Shark Island's high-energy and bombastic live performances.

After that, the band just vanished from the scene with most of its members joining other projects. Apparently, there were some unreleased songs recorded sometime in the late 80's or early 90's but nothing else was released. In 1989, Shark Island's songs, "Dangerous" and "Father Time" were both featured in the movie Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and were released on the soundtrack album.

After the Break-up

* Richard Black went on to join failed supergroup Contraband in 1991, with Michael Schenker and Bobby Blotzer (Ratt), Share Pedersen (Vixen) and Tracii Guns (L.A. Guns). He later started a band called "Black 13" in the mid-90's but never released any albums.

* Greg Ellis left the band and played in Michael Monroe's band and in Jerusalem Slim with Michael Monroe and Steve Stevens. They released one self-tiled album in 1992.

* Spencer Sercombe played in the band Riverdogs with Vivian Campbell (now with Def Leppard). They recorded a self-titled album in the mid-90's. Afterwards, he played in Bill Ward's band (ex-Black Sabbath) and recorded an album in 1997 called "When the Bough Breaks". He also played in a ZZ Top tribute band called "Fandango".

* Chris Heilmann has previously been in Tormé and went on to play guitar with Chromosapien with Doni Castello from Burning Tree vocals,Dan Rothchild bass, formerly of Tonic, Craig McCloskey Guitar, and LA session drummer Dan Potruch

In 2005, Shark Island released "Gathering of the Faithful," featuring 13 new songs.

Discography

As Sharks

* Altar Ego (1982)

As Shark Island

* S'cool Buss (1986)
* Bastille Day - Alive at the Whiskey (1989)
* Law of the Order (1990)
* Gathering of the Faithful (2005)

ee also

* Contraband

External links

* [http://www.billward.com/ Bill Ward's page]
* [http://www.melodicrock.com/interviews/sharkisland-richardblack.html Richard Black interview]
* [http://www.rockwired.com/rockwired_interviews_shark_island.html ROCKWIRED INTERVIEWS RICHARD BLACK OF SHARK ISLAND (2007)]