Having scored some decent exposure, Richmond’s Explorers head to Tokyo’s Budokan Theatre for the Yamaha Band Explosion

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON OCT. 11, 1991

By Steve Newton

When Richmond’s Explorers won the national Band Warz competiition in Winnipeg last month, they claimed a prize package worth a whopping 75 grand. That might not be as much as Guns N’ Roses makes in one night, but it did include a lot of goodies, like a $10,000 equipment voucher, $10,000 worth of tour support, and a 60-hour recording session–not to mention a trip to Tokyo to compete in the Yamaha International Band Explosion on October 27.

So which one of the aforementioned prizes was the band most happy with? Well, none exactly.

“The exposure,” emphasizes Explorers keyboardist, vocalist, and saxophonist Mike Norman. “It kinda comes along with it, but it’s so important, you know. And it’s starting to snowball. People are starting to recognize us as a band–not only as the band that won Band Warz, but as a good band.”

Exposure was one thing the Explorers didn’t get a lot of, playing at Vancouver venues like 86 Street and the Town Pump. The group couldn’t keep a crowd in a club.

“People would usually leave before we got on,” sighs Norman, remembering the bad old days when the Explorers’ local gigs were usually part of multi-band showcase dates. “We’d sometimes be the second or third band on…. but I’m sure if people didn’t have to work in the morning they would have stuck around.”

With the rejuvenated interest in their band, the Explorers shouldn’t have to worry about an empty house when they join the Catherine Wheel and headliner Glen Stace at 86 Street this Friday (October 11). And tame crowd response wasn’t the story at the finals in Winnipeg, either. According to the Band Warz publicity material, the Explorers received a standing ovation from the Walker Theatre’s capacity crowd–although that’s news to Norman.

“It all happened so fast, you know. All of a sudden we were out there playing and then it seemed like five seconds later it was over, and I didn’t have enough time to take everything in. I don’t remember, to be honest, but if they said we did, we did!”

A Nanaimo native with a background in jazz and R&B, Norman teamed up with bassist Shane Hendrickson and the Churko brothers, Cory (guitar, vocals) and Kevin (drums) after the latter three had spent time cross-crossing Canada in a country band. Now–armed with a sound Norman describes as “mainstream rock ‘n’ roll with a few twists”–the four are headed to the famed Budokan Theatre, the same place where Cheap Trick recorded its breakthrough live LP.

“It’s kinda weird,” chuckles Norman. “We have this inner urge in all of us, once they introduce us, to go out there and say, ‘I want you to want me.'”

And what does he think the chances are of Canada’s entry coming back with the world championship?

“It hasn’t even quite hit me that we’re going to Tokyo,” says Norman. “I think it’s gonna hit me when I’m on the plane. But I have no idea what our chances are of winning, ’cause I saw the tape of last year’s bands and there’s such a diverse number of bands–even more diverse than what we were competing with in Canada. It’s going from fusion to very heavy metal. So I have no idea what they’re looking for, or how the judges are going to be feeling that day.”

With local producer-to-the-stars Bruce Fairbairn and mainstream rocker Jon Bon Jovi doing the judging, it would seem like the Explorers have as good a chance as anybody of taking the gold medal. But win or lose, they’ll stick by their original game plan.

“We’re just gonna keep slogging it out, you know. We’re gonna try and take this recognition that we’ve received and just use it to our advantage–knock on all those record-company doors and hope that something good comes out of it.”

If anything good does transpire, the Explorers will most likely have to dump their alter ego, the Underground Outlaws, a country-rock band whose earnings pay the rent. But they could live with that.

“Thats pretty much our working band,” says Norman, “so if we have to put it on hold, that’s fine wth us. The Explorers is where our hearts are.”