Electric Warrior
Los Angeles, 1977 – 1981
Bob Farrell
Bass
Brian Kassan
Keyboards
Don Mogill
Guitar
Michael Vangerov
Guitar
Scott Stephens
Vocals
Steve Sklar
Drums
ELECTRIC WARRIOR – THE EP
AFTER 40+ YEARS, THE WAIT IS OVER!
On June 15, 2023, Electric Warrior released their self-titled debut EP in collaboration with Liquid Blue. The mini-album includes five original rock songs that were often performed live but, until now, never recorded. Electric Warrior broke out of the garage in the late 70s along with a young crop of LA rockers, including Van Halen and Quiet Riot. But following a tumultuous tour of Canada in 1981, the group disbanded.
1978
Electric Warrior was a rock band birthed in the LA suburbs of the San Fernando Valley in 1978. A great time to be in a band! There were few DJs, Karaoke was yet to be discovered, and drunk driving laws were lax. It was the heyday of live music in clubs, and rock & roll ruled! Your first band is similar to your first girl; you never forget. Members attended El Camino Real and Canoga Park High School.
The original nucleus of the yet unnamed group was guitarist Michael the “Groveler” Vangerov (Rhythm Tribe and Liquid Blue), guitarist Michael Stoekli, bassist David Mednick, drummer Steve Sklar (Blue Shift), and singer Michael Moore.
Vangerov discovered vocalist Scott Stephens (Liquid Blue) when he was at a house party where Skyline, a popular local band that featured drummer Marty Fera (Glenn Frey, Dave Mason), was performing. When the band left the stage for a break, a long blonde-haired kid, high on “Liquid Blue” LSD, walked on stage uninvited, took the microphone, and started singing “Ripples” by Genesis, a-cappella. Vangerov noticed the stoned crooner was his neighbor.
Stephens was known locally for having founded Raw Power Magazine the previous year at age seventeen. He lived just a few houses down the block. The next day Vangerov showed up at Stephens’ front door and promptly offered him the job of lead vocalist for their upstart garage band.
Not long after Stephens joined the fledgling group, he took the reins and became the band’s de facto leader. He named the group Electric Warrior after the seminal T. Rex album and immediately began organizing band affairs, marketing, and booking shows.
During their first six months, the five “valley boys” spent more time in the garage than on stage, assembling a set of rock covers sprinkled with a few originals and finally started “playing out.” House parties and high school dances helped fill their calendar but not their pocketbooks. In 1978 the band did nine shows, eight for “exposure” and one paying a grand total of $25!
1979
In the spring, “EW” did their first corporate event, playing in the parking lot at a local McDonald’s grand opening. The band received “Big Macs” as compensation. It was the era of “showcasing.”
Then suddenly, things started to pick up, and Stephens was landing paying gigs for the group at various clubs on the Sunset Strip, including Gazzarri’s. But just as the band started to get busy, bassist Dave Mednick took off to college and was quickly replaced by Dan Hand.
On one occasion, Stephens & local promoter Craig Sackheim rented out a Canoga Park movie theater for a weekend show with Electric Warrior headlining. In a ploy to save money, Sackheim informed Stephens that he had been unable to secure an opening act. Stephens suggested that EW open the show incognito, wearing masks and costumes. He billed the sham group “The New York Bombers.” The “Bombers” performed recently discarded EW material. At the same time, four females on roller skates came on stage and distracted the audience while performing lewd acts on the singer. Most of the crowd bought it, except for a few who questioned why both bands had extremely short guitar players. Future band members guitarist Don Mogill and bassist Bob Farrell attended this show and were impressed by the headline act. At soundcheck, guitarist Michael Stoekli gathered the group members and informed them this would be his last show as he had found God. Seemingly overnight, he went from a bong to a bible. The band carried forward as four while they searched for a replacement guitarist.
In August, the shorthanded EW opened for Quiet Riot at Star Baby in a show presented by Raw Power when guitarist Randy Rhoads was still part of the group. It was the most critical show yet for EW, as there was a “buzz” surrounding the still unsigned Quiet Riot, and record company AR reps frequented their shows.
Two years earlier, Stephens and Robert Olshever had interviewed singer Kevin Dubrow for a 1977 Raw Power Magazine cover story. With Raw Power, Stephens interviewed the likes of David Lee Roth, Iggy Pop, Ace Frehley, Dee Dee Ramone, Angus Young, Rick Neilson, and Ozzy Osbourne. That fabled interview with Ozzy happened in May of 79’ when Stephens (and two associates) proposed that the former Sabbath frontman might consider auditioning a local guitar player named Randy Rhoads. Ozzy was interested, and Dana Strum (who later found fame with Slaughter) was tasked with arranging the audition. After the Ozzy interview, the legendary Sabbath vocalist asked if anyone knew where he might score some weed. Electric Warrior had a rehearsal scheduled that evening in Woodland Hills and knew drummer Steve Sklar always had available “stash.” Sklar, the most respected musician in the group, also rolled the tightest spliffs. His day job was working at Lion’s Lair, a renowned smokeshop, and he had plenty of connections. Ozzy was up for a trip to the valley and even willing to bust into the EW rehearsal. Despite a chance to hang with a rock god, the Raw Power team decided it would involve too much time shuffling Ozzy back and forth from Hollywood to Woodland Hills, so they declined the offer—a regrettable decision.
Back in the Star Baby dressing room, Vangerov sat with his guitar idol Rhoads as the two played each other’s Les Paul guitars. Neither Randy nor Kevin Dubrow knew this would be one of Randy’s last shows with the group. A month later, Rhoads auditioned for Ozzy and was hired on the spot.
Blizzard of Ozz was released in September 1980, just a year after the Star Baby show. Dubrow was so angry about losing his guitarist that he threatened to thrash Stephens and his Raw Power associates if he ever ran into them. Three years later and without Randy, Quiet Riot found success with their mega-hit LP, “Metal Health.”
Timeline Recap: The Electric Warrior, Quiet Riot, Raw Power Connection
- June 1977 – Raw Power features Quiet Riot on the cover of their 2nd issue.
- May 1979 – Raw Power interviews Ozzy and suggests he audition Randy Rhoads. They ask Dana Strum to contact Ozzy and make the arrangements.
- August 1979 – Electric Warrior opens for Quiet Riot in a show presented by Raw Power at Star Baby. Neither Dubrow nor Rhoades is aware of the arrangements being made for the audition.
- September 1979 – Randy Rhoads auditions for Ozzy and is hired on the spot.
- September 1980 – Blizzard of Ozz released.
EW bassist Dan Hand hung around long enough to do the Quiet Riot show but then bolted the group, never to be heard from again. This opened the door for Mogill and Farrell to join the group just in time for a packed headline appearance at Devonshire Downs. They had only one week to learn the material.
The performance was rough around the edges but netted a bootleg taken direct from the mixing board. It’s the only live recording of Electric Warrior that survives today.
During their three years of existence, Stephens, Vangerov, and Mogill wrote more than enough material for a debut album. Still, without a record deal and short on cash, they never went into a recording studio.
1980
In 1980, Stephens, a pro skater in Roller Games since 1978, was selected to skate with the Los Angeles Thunderbirds, who skated their home games at the Olympic Auditorium, mainly on Saturday nights. The team also traveled often. Stephens’ involvement with the T-Birds and Raw Power created some excellent PR but compromised the band’s performance schedule.
Despite the schedule conflicts in 1980, with the classic line-up of Sklar, Farrell, Mogill, Vangerov, and Stephens, EW was building a solid following and staying busy. Under the direction of Stephens, the group kept rehearsing three times per week, but the strain of low-paying gigs was starting to take its toll. With gigs averaging just $300 a pop and Stephens insisting the band invest at least 50% of the proceeds towards marketing, tension was growing within the group as they split an average of $150 per gig between five performers. Many in the band didn’t see a viable future.
1981
The group’s original format featured two guitars, but in 1981 the group replaced founding member Vangerov with keyboardist Brian Kassan (Wondermints, Chewy Marble, The Tikiyaki Orchestra). Shortly thereafter, Farrell was replaced by bassist Ed Sandon.
The last hurrah for Electric Warrior was a 1981 tour of Alberta, Canada, using a different name, Road Runner, insisted upon by a corrupt talent agent. It was later uncovered that the name change to a generic, already taken, and trademarked name was done to make it easier for the sleazy agent to prevail in court if the group decided later to challenge him.
The final tour lineup was Sklar, Mogill, Kassan, Stephens, and Sandon. The band traveled in a van custom-built by sound engineer Paul Rambacher and played small-town clubs and bars. Paul went on to work in production with Columbia Artists, Live Nation, and many others.
On the Canadian tour, the band played one week in each town, five nights a week. The first two engagements went well. The clubs were full, and the Canadians were digging the American band. But then, on the third leg of the tour, things didn’t go as planned in the small town of Lac La Biche.
At the end of the week, when Stephens went into the owner’s office to collect the pay, he was met by the owner and a security thug and told the band played too loud and wouldn’t be paid anything for the entire week of shows. Stephens pleaded to no avail. It was found out later that the club and agent were in cahoots on the scam. Thinking, at the time, this was a “one-off,” the group carried on and completed the tour, which featured plentiful groupies, hard-drinking, and high drama.
Upon returning to Los Angeles, the band played only three shows before calling it quits. Years ago, there was talk of a one-time reunion show, but it has yet to materialize.
The band had numerous line-up changes, but two members stayed on from the first rehearsal in 1978 to the final show in 1981; drummer Steve Sklar and singer Scott Stephens.
In their four years of existence, Electric Warrior stayed mostly in obscurity but developed a small but dedicated fan base. Still, it was a launching pad for Stephens and Vangerov.
The Aftermath
In 1982, Vangerov joined Chain Reaction, which later morphed into Rhythm Tribe, an Afro-Latin act that Elektra signed in 1989. Despite earning accolades from Rolling Stone, late-night talk show appearances, and a song in rotation on MTV, the group never took off. After ten years of rehearsing, recording, and performing with the group and having not been paid a dime, Vangerov finally left.
In 1995 Stephens was busy putting a new group together, Liquid Blue (named after the type of LSD he previously ingested). He had never forgotten the person who had offered him his first band job and called “The Groveler,” who was out of music and flipping pizzas, to see if he’d like to move to San Diego and join the fledgling group. He agreed and now says it was his best decision ever. Things had come full circle.
Liquid Blue quickly became a busy touring pop/rock act that briefly found fame in China and later transformed into a highly acclaimed events band. Today, Stephens still manages Liquid Blue from the sidelines while Vangerov runs the production end. The band has performed in over 100 countries, recording sixteen albums, and currently features a cast of some of Southern California’s top studio & touring musicians.
In 2022 Stephens and Vangerov finally recorded the original songs they had written as teenagers with Electric Warrior, and the result is a five-song EP.
The story of Electric Warrior is chronicled as a section of a forthcoming book about Liquid Blue by Stephens, “Party Band.”
