Biography
In the closing years of the 1960s, Toronto rock outfit Steel River's guitarist Tony Dunning looked ready to break through on a major scale. Their opening single, "Ten Pound Note," entered the Canadian top ten and also registered strongly in England, Germany and Australia. Follow-up releases never repeated that level of impact, however, and the band called it quits in 1973. They resurfaced briefly in 1980 to put out the single "Armoured Car," only to split for good soon afterward.
Dunning first teamed with the same musicians who would form Steel River—vocalist John Dudgeon, drummer Dennis Watson, keyboards player Bob Forrester and bassist Rob Cockell—inside the part-time mid-1960s group Toronto Shotgun. After tracking a 1969 demo produced by Greg Hambleton, the players cut two albums for his Axe Records label, Weighin' Heavy in 1970 and A Better Road in 1971.
Dunning first teamed with the same musicians who would form Steel River—vocalist John Dudgeon, drummer Dennis Watson, keyboards player Bob Forrester and bassist Rob Cockell—inside the part-time mid-1960s group Toronto Shotgun. After tracking a 1969 demo produced by Greg Hambleton, the players cut two albums for his Axe Records label, Weighin' Heavy in 1970 and A Better Road in 1971.