The Detonators

The Detonators were formed in 1979 by Bruce Hartnell and Juan Camacho in Redondo Beach, CA., to participate in the emerging hardcore punk rock scene that was exploding in southern California at the time. Just out of high school, the two life-long friends played various parties and gigs with numerous drummers—as punk rock was still fairly frowned upon by most musicians, and finding a drummer willing to stick around long enough to allow the band to build an audience what quite a task in itself.

Korky Ollerton joined on drums in 1981, and with Hartnell on bass, and Camacho on guitar, the band took to putting and advertisement in a L.A. weekly paper, “The Recycler”, for a vocalist. Mike Mooney passed the audition, and with his inclusion, the band set off work on material that was to become their first LP, “Emergency Broadcast Systems”.

Released in 1983, the LP allowed the Detonators to gain better gigs, opening for The Dead Kennedys, Discharge, Minor Threat, The Misfits, MDC, The Dicks, 45 Grave, among others in the hardcore scene.