Christopher Titus North on the Rattlers/Battery Club

Raoul and myself and a bass player named Erik Mori all went to Hawaii Loa College. Erik and I were both from Virginia and had played together in high school. Raoul wanted to do a punk band, so he got us together with a drummer who went to Hawaii Loa and Stuart. Some other guy who played the guitar and sang also joined somehow. We called ourselves the Rattlers and we were the house band for the 3-D club during April 1981. We had three guitars and
three singers, so there was some redundancy and sometimes Raoul and I would just wind up dancing on stage. At the end of April there was a bit of a riot in the 3-D and it led to the brake-up of the Rattlers. Summer brake came and went, and in the autumn I came back to Hawaii to find that Erik, Stuart, and the drummer had come back together at the Rattles, effectively kicking Raoul and I out of the band. I was kind of miffed because I enjoyed being in the band, but they had a good sound as a trio.

I was in Japan from Dec 1981 to Aug 1983, and when I came back Erik had been replaced by a hot stripper named Margo and the band had further shortened its name to the Ratls. Raoul, Erik, and I then formed the Battery Club, and played gigs throughout the 1983-84 school year, often teaming up with the Ratls, SRO, the Sharks, and other bands. When I graduated I left Hawaii permanently. The band finally seemed to be be getting tight and it seemed a shame, but it was never that high of a priority for me to be a rock star. I went through Hawaii in Nov 1987 and saw Raoul and Devil Dog at U.H.
as the opening act for Jello Biafra's spoken word. They were great, and I still listen to the Bad Trippin' tape from time to time. While I was in Japan (where I lived for about 10 years) I made a studio recording of some of the Battery Club songs with a Japanese band (the Bag of Cows), and I have those on CD.
I only lived in Hawaii for about two and a half school years, but they were very magical.

Written Friday, February 10, 2006

Christopher Titus North