Joe Alvero ~ ?
Steve
Bosley ~ Bass
Jim
Buckshon ~ Bass
Loren
Etkin ~ Drums
Kenny Geatros ~ ?
Hamish
MacDonald ~ Guitar
Alan
Robinson ~ Guitar
Lee
Smith ~ Guitar
Kate
Skye ~ Vocals
Kevin
Williams ~ Keyboards
Live Wire Band was formed in 1976 with Hamish MacDonald, Steve Bosley, Doug Grant and Kate Skye. When Bosley left, MacDonald switched to bass for a time, and Lee Smith and Kevin Williams joined. MacDonald was unable to do a road trip, and school friend of Lee Smith's, Jim Buckshon, was recruited on bass.Later, Kenny Geatros was added to the lineup and the band switched the name to The Wires.
Jim Buckshon, November 2010
Jim Buckshon started his bass playing career after only playing bass for 3 months. Always musical, he did play guitar and sing in 1963 in a Vancouver school in a band called The Eight King's Regiment, followed by another high school band in 1967 called The Heat's On. He also wrote and recorded a few songs with fellow schoolmates.
ln 1976, he joined a basement band in Delta BC band called Trolley. This band never made it out of the basement, but he landed his first paying gig in a side project that played small private shows. Buckshon went on to join a Surrey bar band called Sheriff.
Following Sheriff, Buckshon was introduced to guitarist Kenny Geatros at Kits Beach, and jammed with him frequently. Geatros reacquainted Buckshon with Lee Smith and that is when Buckshon was hired temporarily to replace Hamish MacDonald in the Live Wire Band in 1977 when MacDonald couldn't do a road trip. Booking agent at the time was Bruce Allen and later Sam Feldman. They decided to make the temporary position permanent and Live Wire kept Buckshon and later added Geatros on guitar. The Live Wire band played all over BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, finally ending up in Vancouver's A circuit, changing it's name to The Wires, and recorded several songs. When Buckshon's father passed away in 1979 and a road trip had been planned, Buckshon quit and Joey Alvaro, a high school friend, replaced him.
Jim took a short break, was hired by Herb Kessler, a Nanaimo nightclub manager to form a band around Seattle singer Emi Canon, which he got off the ground, then was fired along with 3 other members including Jody Perpick who went on to become Bryan Adams soundman (still is), as well as Terry Gibbard.
Jim then joined a lower profile band called Nightshift for a gig in Whitehorse. The players included Brenda Knight on vocals, Garfield Sherrington on guitar, Marc Gladstone on keyboards, and Rick Fedyk on drums. After a few gigs, Nightshift, with Buckshon now as band leader, was re-formed as Army, with Gary Ellison on vocals and Feldman as booking agent. When Army was booked for too long in small out-of-town clubs, Buckshon unceremoniously wrote AWOL on the walls of the band house and hired Jim Robinson to replace him on bass, and quit the band.
Shortly after, Vancouver top cover band The Kidz hired him to replace Dave Reimer on bass, who had gone on to Bryan Adams. Jim stayed with the Kidz throughout 1981 and 1982 with original lineup of Syl Thompson (vocals), Terry Kellogg - later Dave Anderson (guitar), Peter Allen, later Doug Grant (drums), Colin Wiebe, later Jim Derhouse (keyboards).
While playing with The Kidz, Darby Mills spotted Jim Buckshon and brought the rest of the recording band The Headpins to view him as a touring replacement for Ab Bryant, who was recording an album with Chilliwack. Buckshon did the first Canadian tour of the album Turn it Loud and watched it sell 150,000 units. Buckshon did not renew a touring contract with Headpins following the tour and Dave Reimer replaced him.
Jim then decided to form his own band in 1983 with the first version of Renegade, and recruited Sue Medley (vocals), and some short-term players. However, Jim soon got a good offer from his old friends from The Wires, Kenny Geatros and Kevin Williams, as well as Dave Steele (vocals) and Ronnie Baran (drums) and joined Stiletto replacing Joey Alvaro. After about a year, Buckshon decided to continue university full-time and left the band.
After graduating UBC with a Fine Arts degree in 1985, Buckshon went out to see a band of friend Rob Begg's called Matrex. Ironically, only a few weeks later, Matrex offered Buckshon Begg's bass position and he was hired and joined Geraldo Domilli (guitar), Tony Dominelli (vocals), Paul Minshall (keys), and Lee Hantelman (drums). The band played large Vancouver and out-of-town clubs and recorded about a dozen songs, which later were put on Buckshon's label on an 2004 album called "I'll Always Remember". For personal reasons, Buckshon quit the band in 1985 and Matrex soon broke up
Buckshon started writing material of his own as he was leaving Matrex, with Terry Kellogg (guitar), Kenny Geatros (guitar), Steve Foster (vocals), Paul Minshall (keyboards) and with Buckshon programming drums. Much of this material was used in the later live version of Renegade. Shortly after this, Kellogg hired Buckshon to fill-in for Joey Alvaro to do some Seattle-area gigs, where he met US booking agents Far West, where he later brought down Renegade and Chrissy Steele to perform in Seattle clubs.
Following this, Buckshon again was hired by Darby Mills for the first version of "Don't Look Down' which played concerts all over Vancouver during Expo 86 including opening for Gowan at Expo Theatre. Simultaneously, Buckshon was playing with Raymond May, a Bruce Allen - managed artist. However, Buckshon soon departed Raymond May while the project moved ahead slowly, and Darby Mill's gig ended as Expo ended.
From this, Buckshon took Geraldo Dominelli, Minshall, and added Army drummer Fedyk and keyboardist Gladstone who, with Victoria singer Steve Foster, formed the 2nd version of Renegade. The lineup was solidified by phone in an hour. This lineup played Vancouver clubs and recorded material that was later released in 2003 on an album called "On the Edge", also on Renegade Sounds. Gladstone left and Minshall came in on keys, and Foster departed on vocals and singer Marti Sippola replaced him. This band won a song on Spotlight '88 with Mike Fraser producer, and the song Big City Nights was recorded as the band toured in Vancouver and Seattle. 7 other songs were also recorded and formed the album "Back From the Dead" released on Renegade Sounds in 2001, with almost all of the producing and writing done by Jim Buckshon with the assistance of the band.
At this time, Buckshon was also rehired by Raymond May to tour opening for acts such as the Georgia Satellites, Iggy Pop, and an Aerosmith gig before 15,000 people, while Big City Nights was simultaneously getting heavy rotation on CFOX in Vancouver. Raymond May was subsequently dropped by his label and while Buckshon was negotiating with both A&M Records U.S. and Penta Records for a deal, Sippola was snapped up while in Seattle by Floyd Rose and Renegade was never able to successfully replace him.
Jim ventured in the Chrissy Steele band for a while but did not play live much more following Renegade.
He went on to form Renegade Productions Inc. www.renegadeproductions.net and has worked with the biggest names in music, producing, recording and providing rehearsal studios, crew, equipment rentals, sound services, etc. During this time, the label was formed to release Renegade, Matrex, Stiletto, and also Vertigo (Rob Begg's band) CD's. In the studios, Renegade Productions has had the likes of Joe Cocker, John Mayer, The Cult, Jet, Metric, Tegan and Sara, Theory of a Deadman, Moist,Matthew Good Band, Jordin Sparks, Paul Potts, The Trews, Rancid, Slayer, BTO, Elise Estrada, Damien Rice, Avril Lavigne, Lillix, Daniel Powter, and many many more.
Recently, Jim rejoined has resumed playing bass again, first along with Geraldo Dominelli and Scott Jackson in The Distractions (also including Marc Gladstone), and with Geraldo and Tony Dominelli for a short resurrection of Matrex, as well as with a Maple Ridge band called Rocksteady.
Jim Buckshon, December 2010
