BDThe Benny Doro Collection
The first version of Unchained performing live in British Columbia in 1985.

Music · British Columbia · 1985

Before
the Stripes

Four young musicians. A stack of Marshalls. The first Unchained.

Listen to Benny ↓
11 rare photographsOne beginning

01

Where it all started

Before the tours, they had to become a band.

In 1985, an agency representing singer Randy Bailey called Benny Doro about a Van Halen tribute. Benny was young, loud and already known as a guitar player who could handle the material. One rehearsal settled it.

“They took me to a rehearsal, and I played—and they were like, ‘This is the guy.’”

Tim Steinrock took the Michael Anthony role on bass. Tony Melitza came in from Victoria on drums. Randy stepped forward as David Lee Roth. Benny arrived with a stack of Marshalls he refused to turn down.

They rehearsed the songs, found the chemistry and started working. Canada came first. Then came dates in the United States. The touring life that would shape so much of Benny’s story had begun.

Randy Bailey, Tony Melitza, Benny Doro and Tim Steinrock in an early Unchained publicity photograph.
The first Unchained: Randy Bailey, Tony Melitza, Benny Doro and Tim Steinrock.

The first lineup

They were young enough to believe it—and good enough to take it on the road.

The publicity photograph tried to capture the swagger of the band they were celebrating. It also preserved something more valuable: four musicians at the exact moment a new chapter opened.

The original agency credit remains visible in the recovered artifact.

Listen to Benny

The Call That Started It

Benny remembers the first rehearsal, the original lineup, the Marshalls, the early tours and the bandmate who is no longer here to tell the story.

“1985 is just kind of where it all started—all the big touring and things like that.”

Original narration · 2 minutes 29 seconds · preserved unchanged

02

Narration transcript

In Benny’s Words

I got a call from an agency that was representing a guy named Randy Bailey, who wanted to put together a Van Halen tribute.

Apparently, I was one of the hotshot guitar players who could play Van Halen, even at the young age I was at this time. We’re talking about 1985.

They took me to a rehearsal, and I played—and they were like, “This is the guy. I mean, who else are we getting?”

I almost kind of looked like Eddie, or a big version of Eddie Van Halen, anyway.

They recruited somebody else they had from another band—I think called Sidewinder, maybe. Tim will correct me on this. It was Tim Steinrock for bass, the Michael Anthony role.

Then there was a guy from Victoria I knew named Tony Melitza who was brought in for drums.

We rehearsed a bunch of Van Halen songs. Randy Bailey thought he could be David Lee Roth, Tim did a great job doing Michael Anthony, and I had a ripping stack of Marshalls that I refused to turn down. We did our best Van Halen.

We started playing—and we took off.

We started playing all over Canada, and then we got some gigs in the States.

What we’ve got there in the promo picture is Randy, Tony, myself and Tim. We tried to recreate the whole Van Halen photo look. You can see how young we are in these photos.

My guitar didn’t even have any stripes on it yet.

I’m not sure where these photos are from. I think it’s someplace in B.C. Yeah, 1985 is just kind of where it all started—all the big touring and things like that.

So there’s one for Randy Bailey. Rest in peace. I definitely hope you find peace.

Transcript lightly edited for punctuation and readability. Benny’s original recording remains authoritative.

The first shows

There was no quiet version of this idea.

The photographs are imperfect in exactly the right ways: hot stage lights, deep shadows, motion and grain. They do not recreate the night. They survived it.

The first Unchained performing live in 1985.
Unchained onstage, 1985.
Benny Doro playing guitar onstage with Unchained.
Benny Doro, before the stripes.
Randy Bailey performing as the frontman of Unchained.
Randy Bailey at the microphone.

Behind the front line

The engine room.

Tony Melitza’s drums filled the back of the stage while Tim Steinrock carried the bass and the high harmonies. Tribute bands only work when the details underneath the spectacle are right.

Tony Melitza photographed over his drum kit.
Tony Melitza behind the kit.
Tony Melitza performing live with Unchained.
The drums filled the room before anyone saw the stage.
Tony Melitza smiling from behind the drums.
One surviving look from behind the cymbals.
Benny Doro and Randy Bailey together onstage.

Benny & Randy

The photograph holds what the stage could not.

Randy and Benny share the frame in the middle of the noise—two performers playing the parts they had chosen and beginning a road neither could fully see yet.

Complete recovered record

Eleven Rare Photographs

Every supplied photograph is preserved below. The sequence includes performance frames, individual portraits and the original publicity image.

Unchained live in 1985 Benny Doro live Tony Melitza on drums Benny Doro onstage Randy Bailey onstage Randy Bailey performing Benny Doro and Randy Bailey Tony Melitza over his drum kit Tony Melitza performing Wide view of the stage The first Unchained publicity photograph

For Randy

Some beginnings become memorials.

Decades later, the photographs returned with the noise still inside them. Benny’s final words are not about the shows or the miles. They are for Randy Bailey.

“Rest in peace. I definitely hope you find peace.”

Before the stripes, before the miles, there were four musicians in one room deciding to begin.