SCREAMIN' -- Singer and lead guitarist Tony Poukkula hits the high notes during one of Black Ice's songs.
(Ocean Breeze photo by Chris Butterfield)

Rockers happily work for success

By Giselle Price

(Note: This is an article that appeared in the Aberdeen High School newspaper the "Ocean Breeze" December 20, 1982).

Music flows through his mind as he absorbs a lecture in English class. Two others play air guitar and drums as they jump and jive in aerobics. Another mentally runs over this week's three new songs while in Contemporary World Problems. The fifth thinks of new lyrics at Raymond High School.

Bring them together, and "once you hit it, there's no stopping" Black Ice, a local high school rock group. John Purdy, Tony Poukkula, Doug George, Nathan Whorton, and Duke Harner strive for musical success.

THE FIVE seniors, practice their mostly Judas Priest-Rush-and VanHalen influenced music four times weekly for three-hour sessions in lead singer Purdy's garage.

Unlike The Who's Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, the five young men do not believe antagonism between group members produces good work. They are a close bunch, inside and outside Black Ice. "We all do things together. Everyone has each other's mom as a mom. Were one big family" Harner, the drummer explained.

This friendly cohesiveness is a key to the band's new self-satistifaction. "We're real happy with where we are now," Harner said. "Our combination of songs is, just right for dances because we have a good ratio of heavy metal to soft music". Referring to another local group, Shrapnel, that the quintet is very good friends with, Harner said, "They say we're better than they were at our ages".

However. circumstances were not so rosy last vear, when Black Ice had been established for about a year. "We had a bad image then--we weren't good enough musicians," lead guitarist Poukkula said. "We played songs for ourselves instead of the audience like '2112', which doesn't fit at a dance". "And our attitudes were against each other," unlike their present happy harmony, he added.

BLACK ICE has progressed, not only from last year to this year, but also from their pre-Black lce days.

Once upon a time, the Rock `N Roll high schoolers were Rock `N Roll junior high schoolers. Bass guitarist Whorton and Harner began playing rock music together as seventh graders and Poukkula joined them a year later. After a few years of development, Whtorton and Harner again joined forces, in summer 1981, with Poukkula, who introduced Purdy to the fold. Several guitarists passed through Black Ice until rhythm guitarist Doug George of Raymond joined the group in June 1982.

The group members did not enroll in "Rock`n Roll 101" at their schools to learn to play their instruments. All had musical back grounds. Earlier, Whorton had saxophone, Purdy had plaved trumpet, and Poukkula had played violin and drums. Whorton said they taught themselves to play guitars and drums and to sing, using records as aids. The busines, side Of being in Black Ice was picked up through accounting and business math classes, and general experience.

The group-members' personal acquaintance with instruments aside from their own has increased their understanding and appreciation of each other. Because Poukkula has played drums, he can understand Harner's point of view towards something involving drums. Likewise, Purdy and Whorton have guitar, and George's real love is the bass guitar. These experiences allow them better understanding of their colleagues.

JUST AS GEORGE is a bassist in rhythm guitarist's disguise, the young artists are two-dimensional individuals. "We're two different kinds of people," Purdy explained. "In school, we're just average kids, but when we're on stage we let go and will do something like putting arms around each other". "We try to act crazy," Poukkula interjected.

"When I see groups like Van Halen (`David Lee Roth is my idol')," Purdy continued, "I get the feeling they don't care what people think and that's great, becauae they can do anything they want". All but Harner wear costumes, and expand their "craziness" into this area, partly because "people won't pay attention to (mistakes) if you wear costumes to attract them," Purdy commented.

They have learned that those barriers of accepted behavior do exist, truly making them "two different kinds of people". Doug once wore leg-warmers for a dance at which they played and received many favorable comments. Encouraged, he wore them to a party...but for the first and last time. Purdy sometimes wears girls' blouses with button-up fronts and puffed up sleeves at shows, but if one bumped into him at school, he would be wearing a pseudo-referee shirt or something equally conventional.

PURDY AS lead singer, is naturally thought of as the center of attention and thus criticism, and said, "It's terrible. If someone ranks us down, they tell me".

However, Harner interposed, "If someone doesn't like a member's performance, they'll tell another member. We ask why they thought something was bad. Constructive criticism helps," he concluded. Black Ice tapes its shows to evaluate and perhaps alter some components. One problem of the group's shows that the members would like to solve is crowd control. When the three guitarists and Purdy walk back to Harner between songs to check the next listed song, kids sometimes jump onto the stage and take charge of the microphones. Purdy said, "People do that because they're our age and they think we will think it's okay".

Black lce is attempting to make crowd control the responsibility of its employers, by adding this to their contracts. Crowd control problems made Black Ice's first gig, at an outdoor party, a somewhat hazardous experience. "We were scared. We started unloading and guys were saying, 'these kids look 12 years old!" They said, 'I can play better than they can,' and they threatened to get up and play our instruments," Harner recalled.

AFFIRMING THAT they have good times as well as bad times, the group members agreed their best experience was playing for the second home dance of this year. In Black Ice's first apearance at Sam Benn Gym, the crowd was huge and happy. "People were jumping around having a good time and when I looked from the stage, there were people all the way to the far wall," Purdy said.

This dance reaffirmed their belief that "if the crowd is dead, the band is dead." Sometimes, the unexpected occurs. When the band played "Blackout" by the Scorpions, at a dance, George's guitar string broke. The next time they played' the song, the lights went out. Some thought it was a planned effect, but it actuality, someone had accidentally unplugged their lights.

With the recent flurry about satanic messages in rock music, some could take the occurrences as a sign that their heavy metal music is tainted. "I respect what they're doing, but I don't think I'm going to go to Hell for my music," George said. He said that after seeing a program that played records with supposed satanic messages, he "got scared and threw away some records".

THE FIVE young musicians plan to make careers in rock 'n roll, and their future building has already begun. "We're still waiting for bigger and better things," Whorton said.

But they do not just wait. They are working to obtain gigs at local taverns, where they are allowed to perform as minors, but must leave the premises during, breaks when alcohol is served. They admitted they need to promote themselves more, and have printed and distributed business cards. All will attend Grays Harbor College next fall and continue with Black Ice, venturing out to Seattle and Olympia on weekends for playdates. They know the', must write original music to be successful, and all write songs now. A couple are played at shows, including George's "Good Girls".

The group-members' feelings for music and Black Ice could indicate their futures. "Black Ice is the heart and soul of my life," George said half-jokingly. "I don't look at Black Ice as the only thing in my life--but it is important," Whorton said. Purdy simply said, "I've just always wanted to be a professional musician".


TAKING IT EASY -- Drummer Duke Harner takes a break between songs.
(Ocean Breeze photo by Chris Butterfield)


RHYTHM -- Black Ice members John Purdy, Nathan Whorton, Tony Poukkula and Doug George rock out
at a recent dance at the Miller Natatorium. (Ocean Breeze photo by Chris Butterfield)

Photos from the November 12, 1982 dance by Chris Butterfield: