AlleyBrat

1979-1980

AlleyBrat was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1979 after the fracturing of Sweeney Todd and side project music project Rags that same year, the founding members were: Christopher Booth, Philip Booth, Barry Muir, Randy Parr and David Omstead (also refereed to as Bud Omstead).

During AlleyBrat's early days, their work mainly consisted of AC/DC covers and Sweeney Todd songs, doing live shows in the Vancouver area and around Canada, becoming well known in the Glam Rock music scene. Despite the good reception of AlleyBrat in its early days, Chris and Phil moved to Seattle, Washington, in early 1980, ending AlleyBrat's tour.

1980-1981

After relocating in Seattle, AlleyBrat regrouped with a new presentation and style resonant of Clockwork Orange, helping them stand out in the wave of new styles and artists. This era of AlleyBrat featured Christopher Booth, Philip Booth, Steve Carlson and Brian East, partnering with manager Frank Forman who helped them promote the band, this helped them become well known, eventually leading to big artists like Mötley Crüe opening their shows. Brian East met the brothers through a drummer who auditioned for a bar band he played in. In June 1980, AlleyBrat released their first single "It's The Wave / My Description Of You", which was received well in the community. The single was recorded at Thuder Oak Studio in mid 1980. For both songs, drummer Ric Haugin was chosen instead of Steve Carlson, however, although Carlson did not play drums on those tracks, he was credited regardless. Keyboardist Roger Halvorson, who also worked for Roland, was invited to contribute as a session musician to the song using a Roland RS-202 Strings synthesizer (manufactured in 1976), an instrument he would later gift to the band.

1981

In 1981, throughout all the good reception AlleyBrat was gaining, there was a noticeable group of people who were against AlleyBrat, mostly due to their clothing and music not fitting in with new 1980s trends.

This became more evident with the release of their second single Singing In The Rain / We Are The Future, which featured a cover of Gene Kelly's song "Singing In The Rain", coming from the Triad Studio sessions, which featured the songs "Livin' On A Capsule" and "She's An Invader", which were also given out on demo cassette tapes to press and band members. In late 1981, with the era ending with the band relocating to Van Nuys, California. Around the same time of relocation, Brian East was removed from the band for an because Steve Carlson thought he was an inferior musician, leaving Brian to join Savage Grace, with Chris taking over the role of bass.

Later that year, AlleyBrat began recording new songs for an album and a European tour, but both were ultimately cancelled.

In October 1981 the songs "Love In Space", "Memory Banks", "Drop" (Also known as "Drop All Your Neutron Bombs") and "I Live Sci-Fi" (Also known as "I Live In Sci-Fi Movies") were recorded at the studio Stone Fox Rehearsal Studio in Hollywood, Los Angeles. These songs were added to a reel-to-reel tape featuring a fifth song called "Goodbye Spy Girl" which was not labeled and finished. Later in December 1981 they recorded at the same studio the songs "Modern Hero", "To Sir With Love" and "One Last Look" and were feature to reel-to-reel tapes and cassettes that were duplicated in 1982 at the, now difunct, tape duplication company "Project One A/V". These tapes were previously never released to the public, but have since been released from 2024-2026 via Christopher and Philip Booth’s “Lost Album” series (Released under Who’s Who?). After Frank Forman left the band, Marko Van Der Werff, their guitar technician and engineer, turned into their road manager.

1982

In AlleyBrat's final year, the band recruited bassist Brian West, from the metal band London, and Rick Knutson would turn into their new road manager, leaving them to take over a new rock sound, recording songs like "Ain't No Way" at the Troubadour, leaving behind the glam and punk look of the late 1970s and very early 1980s. After this change, Steve Carlson left the band to join the local band "REDAX" in late 1982. This radical change in style caused the end of AlleyBrat, and the band to reform as Affair.

Singles

Songs