Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Vancouver punk pioneer Randy Rampage remembered as hard rocker with 'heart of gold'

Vancouver punk pioneer Randy Rampage rocked so hard, members of the city's music scene say he helped define the hardcore genre.

Vancouver punk pioneer Randy Rampage rocked so hard, members of the city's music scene say he helped define the hardcore genre.

 Joe Keithley, left to right, Chuck Biscuits, Randy Rampage pose backstage at O'Hara's in Vancouver in 1979 in this handout photo. Veterans of Vancouver's music scene are expected to attend a memorial on Sept. 29 for punk pioneer Randall Desmond Archibald, known to hardcore rockers as Randy Rampage. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Bev DaviesJoe Keithley, left to right, Chuck Biscuits, Randy Rampage pose backstage at O’Hara’s in Vancouver in 1979 in this handout photo. Veterans of Vancouver’s music scene are expected to attend a memorial on Sept. 29 for punk pioneer Randall Desmond Archibald, known to hardcore rockers as Randy Rampage. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO – Bev Davies

A memorial will be held next month for the peroxide-blond headbanger, who as the founding bassist of D.O.A., is widely cited among the "founders" of hardcore punk.

But those closest to Randall Desmond Archibald, as the musician was legally known, say he was a hell-raiser with a "heart of gold."

Susanne Tabata, Archibald's partner of more than a decade, says the 58-year-old died in their Vancouver home on Aug. 14 of an apparent heart attack.

Tabata says the longtime longshoreman and former frontman of thrash-metal band Annihilator was selfless as both a person and a performer.

On-again-off-again D.O.A. band-mate Joe Keithley says Archibald's high-octane sound and onstage acrobatics helped put Vancouver's punk scene on the map.