Skin Tight Orbit

Skin Tight Orbit was a heavy rock band from Regina, Saskatchewan. John Bellamy sang lead and played guitar, Dan Dongworth played guitar, Ed Saraka played bass and Rick Soloduke played percussion, with all four sharing vocals. The band registered its name in Saskatchewan on October 2, 1998.

In 1999 the group released a twelve-song, self-titled CD. The band produced the album itself. Grant Hall recorded it at Buffalo Pound, and Kevin Churko mixed and mastered it at Touchwood Studios in Regina. Rick Manshande took the photographs and Ken Whittal handled art direction and design.

Hall had opened Touchwood in 1985, and by the late 1990s it was one of Saskatchewan’s main recording studios and a busy room for Regina’s heavier bands. Into Eternity made its first album there between May and October 1998, with Hall producing, mixing and mastering.

Churko was close to leaving Regina. In 1999 he began working with producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, which took him away from Saskatchewan for several years and led to his later work with Ozzy Osbourne, Disturbed, Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch and In This Moment. The Skin Tight Orbit album comes from the end of his Touchwood years.

The record gets better as it goes. It opens with ‘Another Hit’ and ‘No Sympathy’ and gathers weight song by song, with the darker and more developed material in the second half. ‘Terrorized’, ‘Waterfall’ and ‘Stupid’ lead into the closing ‘White Lightning’, and the album leaves its strongest impressions as it progresses through to the end.

Skin Tight Orbit worked the Regina club circuit alongside Into Eternity and Morally Sound. On December 26, 1999, the band played a Boxing Day Bash at the Exchange with Morally Sound, Another Wave and Into Eternity. On April 1, 2000, it shared a bill with Morally Sound and Into Eternity again at Ryly’s Canadian Grill. Into Eternity was still an independent Saskatchewan band at the time.

Skin Tight Orbit’s name also appears on the lineup for Shakin’ The Lake, a three-day festival in Minnedosa, Manitoba, held June 30 to July 2, 2000. The bill included Nickelback, Matthew Good Band, 54-40, The Headstones, I Mother Earth, Limblifter, The Watchmen, Big Sugar, Moist, Wide Mouth Mason, Edwin and the smalls, along with fellow Saskatchewan band Morally Sound.

The CD was made in Canada and issued by the band. Its booklet thanks family members from the Bellamy, Dongworth and Saraka households, Regina shops B-Sharp Music and Neil’s Ace Of Clubs, and a long list of friends. Fans could reach the band at a Cable Regina email address or visit its small website on relfx.com.

Dongworth kept playing in Regina and appears on guitar and dobro on Hugh Poorman’s 2012 album Red Road. Saraka started a new group, Soul Reviver, in July 2010, leading it as singer, songwriter and guitarist, and his song ‘Messing Around’ turned up in the 2026 RPM Challenge through the Saskatchewan project Dared Reunion. A Regina SoundCloud account under Bellamy’s name holds ‘White Lightning’ along with ‘Unkle Fuzzlund’, a Skin Tight Orbit song that does not appear on the CD.

-Robert Williston