Lawsuit


albums w/ jackets & lyrics
Looking for something new to do after the demise of Breaker a year earlier, guitarist ‘Shaky’ Brian Johnston packed up his bags and moved from Calgary to Winnipeg in ’83 and set up Shaky Records. With Ernst Gruhn on vocals, bassist Randy Booth, Eric Webster on keyboards and Al Webster Kilowatt on drums, they did the local metal circuit, and released their four-track debut EP, BAD BOYS OF ROCK that summer.

Off and on Johnston continued taking the band on the road throughout the west and in Ontario, and released the follow-up THREE THE HARD WAY before the end of the year. Produced by Streetheart‘s Spider Sinnaeve, who also played bass and ex-Aldo Nova and future Streetheartdrummer Bill Carmassi on drums, it was another three-track heavy metal barrage that kept various versions of the group in the bars, which included new singer Joey Saltell (ex Nuthin’ Pritty).

Playing shows with his new group, Ironhead, Johnston released yet another three-song EP in late ’86 with Saltell on the mic in late 1986. He then resurrected Lawsuit for some club dates around the area that same year that featured new vocalist Joey Saltell (ex of Nothin’s Pritty, before the band just faded away by the following spring.

Johnston released STONED TO DEATH in ’03, which featured most of the first two EPs, along with some sessions Johnston did with a who’s who in the studio over the years, including Sinnave and Carmassi, as well as Helix‘s Brent Fritz and Killer Dwarfs‘ Darnell Dwarf, and Streetheart, Jet Set, MacAlpine, and Aldo Nova‘s Billy Carmassi on drums.

  • With notes from Ron Grahame, Jaimie Vernon

    bad boys of rock
    BAD BOYS OF ROCK (1983)
    Hit ‘N’ Run
    Too Young To Die
    Bad Boys Of Rock
    Living For Today
    three the hard way
    THREE THE HARD WAY (1983)
    Save It For Me
    Three The Hard Way
    Rock You To The Top
    stoned to death
    STONED TO DEATH (2003)
    Skin To Win
    Guilty As Charged
    It’s Hard On Love
    Save It For Me
    Living For The Night
    Love Song In F#
    Solid Rock
    Too Young To Die
    Three The Hard Way
    Hit ‘n’ Run
    You Kill Me
    Bad Boys Of Rock