Secret V's

Websites:  No
Origin: Vancouver, British Columbia, 🇨🇦
Biography:

Born in Vancouver’s punk underground at the tail end of the 1970s, the Secret V’s were an art-school punk band whose brief lifespan yielded a pair of essential records and one of the most haunting tracks to emerge from the city’s fertile DIY scene. Founded in 1978 by Richard Fuller and Bruce Archibald—then students at the Emily Carr College of Art—the band fused nervy power pop with dark lyrical undercurrents, drawing comparisons to peers like the Pointed Sticks and Modernettes while cultivating a distinctive voice all their own.

The original lineup featured Fuller on guitar, Archibald on vocals (under the alias Lister Travis), bassist Ray Tremblay (then known as Radial), and drummer Ken Jones. This version of the band recorded their debut EP Modern Boy (1980) for Friends Records, the same local label that released early material by D.O.A., Subhumans, and Randy Rampage. Punchy, tuneful, and raw, the record quickly earned the band local acclaim—even as they remained on the fringes of the more aggressive hardcore movement taking root in Vancouver at the time.

Following the departure of Fuller in 1981, the band recruited Naomi Moriyama, whose versatile skills on guitar, organ, and vocals helped push the Secret V’s into darker, more brooding territory. The lineup of Archibald, Moriyama, Tremblay, and Jones cut the band's second EP, No Life Like It, released by Useful Records International later that same year. The standout track, “Waiting for the Drugs to Take Hold,” became a cult classic—its bleak melody and confessional lyrics capturing the disaffected, comedown side of the punk experience. Years later, it was named one of the 50 greatest songs to emerge from Vancouver by The Georgia Straight and was included on the seminal double-CD compilation Last Call: Vancouver Independent Music 1977–1988 (Zulu Records, 1991).

Though the band broke up in 1982, their legacy has grown steadily in the decades since. Bassist Ray Tremblay went on to greater fame under the name Ray Condo, forming the rockabilly group Ray Condo and His Hard Rock Goners and later the Ricochets, becoming a beloved fixture in Canadian roots music until his death in 2004. Bruce Archibald continued writing and performing as a solo artist. While some members moved on from music, the band’s entire recorded output—ten tracks across two records—stands as a compelling document of Vancouver's post-punk fringe.

As Archibald once sang with a weary croon, “I went and exceeded the recommended dose.” It’s a line that lingers, emblematic of a band that may have been billed fifth on the bill—but delivered first in feeling.
-Robert Williston

Bruce Archibald (aka Lister Travis): vocals, guitar, songwriter
Richard Fuller: guitar (1978–1980)
Ray Tremblay (aka Radial, Ray Condo): bass, backing vocals (Ray Condo and his Hardrock Goners, The Ricochets)
Ken Jones: drums
Naomi Moriyama: guitar, organ, vocals (1981–1982)