The Dave Rave Conspiracy

Dave DesRoches
DesRoches performing with The Gord Lewis Band. Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto, September 11, 2015.
Background information
Also known as	Dave Rave
Origin	Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Rock
Associated acts	Teenage Head

Dave "Rave" DesRoches is a Canadian rock musician from Hamilton, Ontario.

To the general public, he is the sometime Teenage Head rhythm guitarist on the early recordings who graduated to lead singer during a Frankie Venom hiatus in 1985 and catapulted the band back into the charts. Many know him as a session player who has played with such notables as (Daniel Lanois, Andrew Loog Oldham and Alex Chilton)

Dave began his music career in his high school years writing songs and performing driving acoustic rock and folk-pop in and around Hamilton. This evolved into the group, The Shakers, from 1979 to 1982 with Rick Andrew, Tim Gibbons and Claude DesRoches. They charted many singles with albums produced by Daniel Lanois (U2) and Jack Richardson (Guess Who, Alice Cooper).

Three years after the break-up of The Shakers in 1982, Dave took over as lead singer of the punk rock band Teenage Head. He had grown up with the members of the band and had played as a backing musician on their "Frantic City" LP, and "The Shakers" had often opened for their fellow Hamiltonians. Dave replaced Frankie Venom who had worked with Dave on several other projects. He continued to aid Teenage Head with hits like “Can’t Stop Shakin’”. Dave left Teenage Head after a successful run to try things out on his own.

Alongside producer Gary Pig Gold he formed a group called "The Dave Rave Conspiracy", releasing the album "Valentino's Pirates" on Russia’s Melodiya record label in 1992. However, to appease cold war era Russian sensibilities, the album was credited to the Dave Rave "Group", as the label was uncomfortable with the word "conspiracy". Notably, the band also included Billy Ficca, formerly of the influential New York City band Television, and Lauren Agnelli, of the 1980s anti-folk band Washington Squares. "Valentino's Pirates" has become a quite a cult classic, and was the first North American rock album released by a post-Soviet state after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Press surrounding this release included a CBC documentary revisiting Russia with the group as well as 3 promotional videos that were in heavy rotation at MuchMusic in Canada. Bullseye Records re-issued the album for the first time on CD in 2001.