Sudden Darts

Allan MacInnis on John Werner and Sudden Darts

Not many musicians have maintained multi-genre careers on two continents for close to 50 years, but John Werner, frontman, songwriter, lyricist and rhythm guitarist for the new garage / psych-oriented rock band Sudden Darts, has done all right. 

Originally from England, Werner came with his family to the “godforsaken outpost” and -47 degree winters  of Edmonton, when he was four years old. 

Growing up in conservative Alberta in the 1960s, the young Werner found his counterculture fashion,  “long hair and a pair of blue velvet bellbottoms” did not serve him well with local rednecks; he was once randomly punched while walking down the street. Worse, he felt isolated from the 60’s music culture he loved.  

At fourteen, John ran away from Edmonton to Montreal “hitchhiking and hopping freight trains;" the latter practice landed him in jail for a week in Saskatchewan.  John later sought respite playing in bands in the hippie-friendly, warmer climes of Vancouver. In 1977, John joined the Furies  - the first punk band in Western Canada’s history - replacing original bassist Malcolm Hasman for a series of seminal gigs, including a national TV broadcast "live from the PNE."

But soon the call of the burgeoning British punk scene brought John, his brother Simon, and Furies’ drummer Jim Walker, (who plays on Public Image Ltd’s first album) back to England. Arriving in 1978, they lived in squats, successfully auditioning for bands,and brushing shoulders with punk rock royalty from Johnny Rotten to the Damned. 

One early lineup of seminal UK post- punk band The Pack, fronted by long-running UK punk hero Kirk Brandon (Theatre of Hate, Spear of Destiny) consisted of both Werners and Walker— the band was “3/4s from Vancouver,” Werner remarks. Werner co-wrote several songs, including the original version of the song “Legion,” which would later be reworked into a Theatre of Hate staple. The band had a "near breakthrough" with the offer of a John Peel session, and were "Roger Daltrey's first choice to play the band" in the film version of Quadrophenia, having "meetings at the Who's offices in London, but we lost out to a local mod band, who were probably a better fit".

Walker and the Werners also played together in The Straps, whose 1980 song “Just Can’t Take Anymore” is sometimes credited as the being the first UK psychobilly single, fusing rockabilly and punk, “even beating the Meteors” (widely described as the first UK band in the genre) to vinyl. 

The Straps released a handful of 7 inches, as well as a single LP in 1982, featuring Rat Scabies of the Damned on one track.

John’s musical palette expanded by attending 30 consecutive South bySouthwest festivals since 1989, and while exploring a career as an alt country singer / songwriter.

Since he returned to Vancouver in 1998, he has played with Linda McRae, Howard Rix, and a revitalized Furies, with original guitarist/ vocalist Chris Arnett and “new guy” drummer Taylor Nelson-Little (Art Bergmann, Payolas). And since 2018, returns on-and-off to England to play well-received reunion shows with the Pack, this year playing at the famed 100 Club and Rebellion Festival in Blackpool.

 He is also the bassist for the much rootsier band of Jr. Gone Wild alum Graham Brown, appearing on 4  Graham Brown Band albums and touring with him across Canada. 

But there have been tough stretches. In 2017, Werner separated from his wife of 38 years, living in the basement of their shared home through “five years of grief.”  This hibernation was the origin of his current project, Sudden Darts, with the bulk of the songs of his new album, Oh Yeah!, written between 2017 and 2024. 

Musically a fusion of all of Werner’s loves, from UK psychedelia, garage  through to punk, with some country and roots-rock, Sudden Darts is named for an eccentric practice of his late brother’s, wherein Simon would approach you, declare “sudden darts,” and start stabbing you in the chest with his extended index fingers. 

Songs on Sudden Darts' self-titled 12-song debut include “Cabin Fever,” wherein a guy and gal living off the grid break up, leaving the singer alone in the wilderness; “Falling Apart,” about someone who “loses their job, partner, and home and hits the skids;” “Strange New World,” Werner’s commentary on the current state of things; “Rabbit Hole,” about the risk of getting “caught up in mazes, being overwhelmed and losing our sense of reality;” and “Stop and Smell the Roses,” which sees Werner chastening himself for his post-breakup glumness: "I was so busy feeling sorry for myself, I realized I had to stop and count my blessings." The album culminates in “Test Drive,” of which Werner says, “You don’t get a guidebook on how to live life, so get out there and don’t be afraid to take risks.”

With a new romance with his partner Rebecca, a new band, and his work as singer songwriter and bandleader in his 50+ year career, Werner is following his own advice.