Primordial Roots: The DJ’s, Overdrive, and Tuff Luck

To tell the story of Mean Streak, I have to start with the early, primordial bands that eventually morphed into it. This whole musical journey blossomed out of a friendship with one of my earliest best buds, Jason Campbell. Jason and I started together. We shared a ton of common ground, including the fact that we both had incredibly supportive fathers who had played in prominent bands in their younger years. Most notably, my dad played in The Ambassadors, and Jason’s dad was in The Far Krys. Mr. Campbell actually shared the stage with the Henman brothers of April Wine guys and Sandy Morris of the Wonderful Grand Band. Meanwhile, my dad played with a laundry list of musicians, including Brian MacLeod in Stonehenge, of Chilliwack and The Headpins.

With that heritage in common, we were fiercely driven to learn our instruments. In fact, I credit Jason for giving me the exact encouragement I needed to keep going in those tough early days. Jason played drums like his dad, and I played guitar like mine.

Our very first practices consisted of hammering out “Wipe Out” and random bits and pieces of whatever songs we were trying to learn. Initially, we called ourselves The DJ’s (for David and Jay), but we quickly started looking for other musicians to grow the band. Various friends joined the ranks as we progressed to small milestones, like playing the school cafeteria for spirit week or performing a school concert under the names Overdrive or Feedback.

Playing in front of an audience—even though we weren’t great yet—was absolutely exhilarating. We were completely hooked.

Around this time, two pivotal things happened: Jason became much more interested in singing than playing drums, and I happened to hear Jim Kieley playing from behind the stage with his band, Talon. He was an awesome drummer. Out of that shift, a new, far more serious band was born: Tuff Luck. We were only 15 and 16 years old. The lineup consisted of Jason and me, Jim (whom we successfully poached from Talon), a bass player friend named Steve Wellman, and another buddy of mine, Trevor Greening, on guitar.

We immediately caught people’s attention and started booking actual gigs for cash. Being 15 years old, playing in bars, and making real money when minimum wage was only $4.75 an hour felt pretty legendary.

Unfortunately, this dream-come-true lineup didn’t last long. Jason was too good, and a bigger fish came along and poached him from us. Jason moved on to record an album of original music with a band called The Privateers. I was devastated at the time, but I’ve come to learn that the things that go wrong in life are often what motivate us to do better. That exact motivation is what led me to found Mean Streak—my first truly great band.

The Mean Streak Legacy

David Caines was the driving force behind Mean Streak. He, Rich Haigh, and Shawn Basha were the primary members of the Mount Pearl, Newfoundland hard rock band Mean Streak from 1988 to 1993. As long as the three of them were together they accomplished great things, and the project ultimately fell apart when that core dynamic changed. Below is the full history of the band’s journey across its distinct eras

Mean Streak: Version 1

After Jason left for The Privateers, Tuff Luck dissolved. I wanted to keep going so Steve Wellman and I immediately started working putting together a new project. I thought of my school friend as another guitarist, and he was keen to join. Three of us together rehearsed with a singer Zack Kellum and drummer Robert Buck. It was a cool vibe, but it eventually fizzled out for reasons I can’t quite recall.

Somehow, the three of us ended up jamming with singer Shawn Basha and drummer Mike Crotty, and there were fireworks! We had undeniable chemistry, which led to our first club gigs. Rich, Steve, and I thought Shawn Basha was an amazing singer. He was then, and still is now. The band name “Blue Streak” was suggested by Rich’s mom, Linda, and I said what about “Mean” instead? Thus, Mean Streak was born!

I briefly left the band after this as I had plans to move to Toronto, and was replaced by Craig Rideout. I soon came to my senses and rejoined the band. When I returned, the Privateers had run their course, and Jason Campbell joined us on drums.

Wow. That was my very first experience dealing with real vocal harmonies. We suddenly had two powerhouse lead singers in a single band. With that, the first official lineup of Mean Streak was born.

It was around this time that Rich’s house, with parents George & Linda plus Aunt Marie, became the home base. Our families were incredibly supportive, with lots of time spent between Dave’s & RIch’s house, but everyone was welcome at the Haigh’s!

This version of the band was incredibly well-received. We caught tons of praise and compliments while playing shows all across the island. We had some massive nights, but it wasn’t built to last. Jason moved on to other ventures, and to fill the void, Jim Kieley stepped in on drums. We played like this until Steve Wellman finished his computer science degree and moved away to Toronto.

Version 2: Raw Rock & In Your Face

After Steve left, we brought in Ken Walsh on bass. Ken was a fantastic guy and rounded out the rhythm section beautifully. Mean Streak V2 was officially born. I call this V2 because it felt like a completely different band.

While V2 was technically weaker on backing vocals without the two lead singers, Jim was such a powerhouse, serious rock drummer that we more than made up for it in pure rock ‘n’ roll energy. This was the rawest, heaviest version of the band, and it’s the lineup that ultimately broke us into the mainstream local scene.

We built a massive following of people our own age. It became common for us to play multiple weekends in a row at the same clubs. Back then, The Strand at the Avalon Mall was the biggest venue around, and Barkley’s in Mount Pearl was a massive hotspot too.

This V2 lineup was the creative unit that wrote and recorded our original album, In Your Face. Rich and I were the main musical creatives, writing the guitar parts and arrangements. The workflow was efficient: Rich and I would hammer out the musical foundations together, and then, for the most part, hand it off to Shawn Basha to pen the vocal melodies and words. It worked beautifully. In hindsight, it’s a shame we didn’t write more together. Shawn was an incredible singer and entertainer, and our songwriting would have only gotten tighter if we had stayed the course.

The only exception to our usual writing process was the track “Little Teaser.” That song originally grew out of an early writing session with Jason Campbell; I had brought in a guitar riff, and the two of us did some initial writing based around it. However, the track was heavily reworked by the time the V2 lineup took shape. My memory of it now is that the song was completely overhauled for the studio, and the only element retained from that original session was the title.

The story of how that album actually came to be is pretty special. A great friend of ours and an exceptional soundman, Joe DeProfio, believed in the band fiercely. He approached Ward Pike—who was the main guitarist and songwriter in Jason’s old band, The Privateers—and convinced him to record us because he knew we had something unique.

We held our album release party at Barkley’s, and it was a total smash. The venue was absolutely packed to the rafters, all of our families were in attendance, and we had an unforgettable night.

Read the liner notes and lyrics here: IYF Liner

We had several singles on the radio. Shot Down was aired all across Canada. VOFM in Newfoundland played Taken’ All, Breaking the Laws, and of course The Open Road fairly frequently. The Open Road became a standard in our live shows. People started to become interested in working with us in a managerial sense.

NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT: MUCHMUSIC’S THE NEW MUSIC (1992)

In November 1992, MuchMusic’s flagship alternative music show, The New Music, travelled to St. John’s, Newfoundland, to cover the historic “Bridging the Gulf” music industry conference. Host Teresa Roncon profiled the exploding local scene, capturing the raw energy of the bands breaking out of the island landscape.

The V2 lineup of Mean Streak was prominently featured in the broadcast [08:12]. The segment showcases the band’s signature “in your face” rock and roll philosophy, high-octane live concert footage from St. John’s, a brief band interview regarding the realities of staying based in Newfoundland, and a clip of the band delivering a heavy, passionate live cover of Pearl Jam.

This national television broadcast captured Mean Streak at the absolute height of their power in the early ’90s East Coast scene.
Full show here: https://youtu.be/22fU8VFFzBw?si=Wx78XDv9ICbP1KdH

Behind the Scenes: The MuchMusic Interview (November 1992)

When the MuchMusic crew traveled to St. John’s in November 1992 to cover the “Bridging the Gulf” music industry conference for The New Music, Mean Streak was right in the thick of it. Legendary VJ and Power 30 host Teresa Roncon was on the ground profiling the exploding local scene, tracking the raw energy of the bands breaking out of the island landscape.

The segment captured the band in our prime, featuring live footage of us ripping through Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy”—a staple of our high-energy cover sets—alongside a performance of an unreleased original track, “Faithful Lies”

While the broadcast captured the professional intensity of the band, it left out some of our favourite off-camera moments. During the interview, I told Teresa a story about an infamous night where the band had been drinking and somehow ended up hanging out on the roof of Barkley’s—a local bar we frequently packed out. The party only broke up when someone down below shouted that the cops had arrived, sending us scrambling back down. MuchMusic chose to keep the broadcast safe for TV 😂 and left that particular piece of rock ‘n’ roll history on the cutting room floor, but for those who lived through the Barkley’s era, that was just standard operating procedure.

Version 3: The Polish and the ECMA Stage

Eventually, the wheel turned again. Jason Campbell returned to the band, and Mark Reccord stepped in as our new bass player, ushering in Mean Streak V3. We also now had a manager/agent.

This final iteration was a little less raw rock ‘n’ roll, but significantly more polished. With Jason back, we were able to tackle much bigger arrangements with intricate, multi-part vocal harmonies. The gigs were a massive success, and we played to fantastic audiences.

The pinnacle of this lineup was a tour that took us all across Newfoundland and up into Nova Scotia to play a high-profile East Coast Music Awards (ECMA) showcase at The Flamingo in Halifax, sharing the bill with legendary acts like Thomas Trio and the Red Albino.

As the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Eventually, I left the band to pursue my university degree, and Jason moved on shortly after to continue his journey—ultimately joining Signal Hill. Without the core pieces, Mean Streak wrapped up shortly after our departure. It was a hell of a run.

REUNION SHOW

I had an idea to put together a group of reunion shows in 2008. I asked the Mean Streak guys who were around if there was any interest, and they all went for it. By this time, Jason Campbell had been in Halifax for years with Signal Hill, and Ken Walsh was out of province as well. The reunion was a hybrid of V2 & V3 for a V4 version that features Mark Reccord and Jim Kieley as the rhythm section for the first and last time.