Chain Reaction

by Charlotte Dillon
Octavian was a Canadian rock group that formed around 1970. Members included guitarists Bill Gauvreau and Warren Barbour, keyboardist Rob McDonald, drummer Kirk Dorrow, bassist Ray Lessard, and singers John Pulkkinen and Darryl Alguire. The group saw the release of one album, Simple Kinda People, and a few singles before breaking up in 1977. With Octavian no more, Barbour and Lessard turned their attention to putting together a new group, Chain Reaction. The lead singer they brought in to join the new team was Phil Naro.
Chain Reaction recorded their one and only album in 1982, X-Rated Dream. The debut was released under the Trillium Records label. As bad luck would have it, Trillium promptly began to go fail. The band canceled their deal and pulled the album back. A little good luck, and a few good reviews, soon earned the album a spot on the Attic Records label. After that one piece of good fortune, a black cloud seemed to hover over the band. As Chain Reaction tried to tour and promote their album, everything that could go wrong, did, from accidents to mistaken arrest. Almost as if to put an end to their continuous troubles, the bandmembers called it quits before another album could be finished.