Fly At Night: The Chilliwack Saga Quiz

Answer: The Collectors

The Collectors' albums displayed a mix of psychedelic, classical, rock and jazz influences. The Collectors also composed the soundtracks for three Canadian movies and a play (George Ryga's "Grass and Wild Strawberries", which (in altered form) became the band's second album).

The band even had a couple of top 20 hits in Toronto. However, after three years and limited success, Collectors' lead singer Howie Vickers quit the band, although the rest of the band stayed. They decided to change their name as part of their new approach.

Answer: Vancouver

The city of Chilliwack, British Columbia is about 100 km (60 mi) from Vancouver. "Chilliwack" means "valley of many streams" in the First Nations Halq'eméylem language. The Collectors felt that that a new name would help them establish an identity as a rock band rather than a 60s psychedelic band -- but they also liked the idea that the name reflected the diverse influences ("many streams") comprising their sound.

Answer: Lonesome Mary

After Vickers left the group, Bill Henderson (guitar, lead vocals) and Claire Lawrence (flue, sax, keyboards, vocals) co-led Chilliwack and composed most of the group's material. However, foreshadowing something that would recur throughout Chilliwack's life, Lawrence quit immediately after the success of "Lonesome Mary", leaving the band as a trio and Henderson as the sole leader and songwriter.

The band's next album flopped, leading to Chilliwack being dropped by both its Canadian and American labels.

Answer: Terry Jacks

With his wife Susan, Terry Jacks achieved a fair amount of success as The Poppy Family, including the number one hit "Which Way You Goin' Billy", which Terry wrote and produced. After the collapse of their marriage, Jacks was remaking himself as a producer and record company head, and he produced the Chilliwack album "Ridin' High".

But everything changed when Jacks' solo single "Seasons in the Sun" (recorded at about the same time) became an international number one hit, and Jacks decided to promote his own single rather than Chilliwack.

Instead, he sold the US rights to Chilliwack to Sire Records, but Chilliwack's next album ("Rockerbox") was released on a Canadian label even smaller than Goldfish - Casino Records - and was the only Chilliwack album never released on CD.

Answer: Heart

One of the members of Heart had moved from Seattle to Vancouver to dodge the Vietnam-era draft, and before long his brother, his girlfriend, and her sister joined him there. Eventually, the sisters (Ann and Nancy Wilson) became the focal point of the band, which broke up the romantic relationships.

At that time, Mushroom operated both a recording studio (Can-Base) and a record label. Heart had gone to Can-Base to record some demo tracks, which Mushroom then released as "Dreamboat Annie" to immediate acclaim.

However, in 1977, when Heart and its producer found out how poor their royalty deal with Mushroom was, they quit the label during the recording of their second album, triggering a huge legal battle ... which Heart eventually won.

Answer: Scientology

In the liner notes to the reissue of Chilliwack's second album on Mushroom, 1978's "Lights from the Valley", Henderson stated that he had quit Scientology after the success of their previous album "Dreams Dreams Dreams", leading to internal turmoil between himself and the other members while recording their next album.

When Mushroom rejected both their first and second versions of the second album, one of the other band members quit. The band added a replacement (who also was not a Scientologist) for a third try, which worked.

However, the other two original band members both quit when it was done, leaving just Henderson and the new guy, despite the fact that the album had produced Chilliwack's biggest US hit to date ("Arms of Mary").

Answer: Brian MacLeod

Brian "Too Loud" MacLeod was the newcomer who joined Chilliwack during "Lights from the Valley" and contributed two original songs to that album. However, the first Chilliwack album to truly feature the writing and producing partnership of Henderson and MacLeod, 1979's "Breakdown in Paradise", was doomed when Mushroom Records collapsed almost immediately after its release -- putting it out of print until 2013. Once again, Chilliwack was without a label.

But it did add a bass player, Ab Bryant, while recording "Breakdown in Paradise", making the group into a trio.

Answer: Wanna Be a Star

Chilliwack signed to Solid Gold Records in Canada, which licensed their albums to the US label Millennium Records - a label started by former U.S. music publishing executive Jimmy Ienner, who was better known as the producer of Lighthouse, Raspberries, and Grand Funk Railroad. During his time working with Lighthouse, Ienner had learned that few American record labels were interested in Canadian acts who chose to remain in Canada instead of moving to the US, and Millennium intended to take advantage of that gap, which led it to Chilliwack.

However, external financial pressures had already begun taking their toll on Millennium - which caused it to turn down an unknown female artist calling herself Madonna later that year.

Answer: Juno Award

The Juno Award (named for former Canadian Broadcasting Corporation president Pierre Juneau, not for the Roman goddess) is the annual award for excellence in Canadian music, and Bill Henderson and Bryan MacLeod were named Producers of the Year for "Opus X" (so named because it was Chilliwack's tenth album, not counting the two Collectors albums).

However, right after receiving the award, MacLeod and bassist Ab Bryant decided to quit Chilliwack to pursue Headpins, and Millennium Records soon collapsed -- the fourth label that Chilliwack had been on to suffer that fate (joining Goldfish, Casino, and Mushroom), putting all of their seven most successful albums out of print in the US.

Answer: UHF

After Chilliwack, Henderson became musical director for the Canadian version of "Sesame Street", which both Ulrich and Forbes were also involved with. The new band name consists of the initials of the band members' last names: "U"lrich, "H"enderson, "F"orbes. UHF released two albums in the early 1990s but it also broke up, and Henderson has occasionally revived Chilliwack for special events (often along with former co-leader Claire Lawrence) during the last 25 years (up to 2019).