Randy Rampage, RIP

Randy, Chuck, Joey.

The Hot Nasties played a few shows with DOA, and with Randy, who played bass for them, off and on.

A big loss.  One of the originals.  RIP, Randy.

Vancouver punk legend Randy Rampage died Tuesday night. He was 58.

As the original bassist in DOA, Rampage was one of the founding fathers of Vancouver’s alternative music scene. With his peroxide blond hair and ever-present black leather jacket he was a riveting onstage presence, prone to leaping into the air and doing the splits in the middle of a song.

He quit and rejoined DOA a few times over the years, which inspired the title of a 2017 autobiography he wrote with Chris Walter, I Survived DOA.

He also did a couple of stints as singer for thrash metal standard-bearers Annihilator. In recent years he fronted his own band, Rampage, which had just recorded a new album.

But punk rock and thrash metal don’t always pay the bills, so Randall Desmond Archibald worked as a longshoreman in between music gigs. He worked on the North Shore docks Wednesday, then came home and was relaxing in a chair watching a South Park DVD on TV when he suffered an apparent heart attack.

He had recently returned to work after being off on compensation after he was hit by a forklift at work. It was the second time he had a run-in with a forklift – a few years ago his leg was crushed by a 7,000 pound roll of newsprint.