Exodus

Exodus was a Vancouver-area rock band made up of guitarist and lead singer Dan Hare, bassist Bob Hare and drummer Alex Franson, with Dave Stone adding Hammond B3 to both of the band's known records.

Their first single, 'Passin Thru' backed with 'Hellp', was cut at Buttertree Recording in Richmond. The three band members wrote both songs and produced the sessions themselves, with Jim Dean and Donn Tarris engineering and Tarris handling the mix. 'Passin Thru' filled the A-side at 5:19, a long stretch for a debut 45, with the 3:53 'Hellp' on the flip. The band issued it privately as DH 814. The label carries no date, but its PROC credit places the pressing after mid-1977, and it most likely appeared somewhere between 1978 and 1981.

Buttertree was Donn Tarris's room, and it was busy. Blue Northern recorded their breakthrough blue-vinyl EP there with Tarris at the board in November 1979, and Tarris's circle of players and engineers, Jim Dean and Dale Penner among them, moved between Buttertree and a second Richmond operation, Steppingstone Production House.

Exodus followed Tarris to Steppingstone for their second single in 1982. 'Forever and a Day', written by Dan Hare with a writer credited only as Jarman, was paired with the Hare and Franson song 'Hey Girl'. Hare co-produced with Tarris, who engineered with Penner assisting, and the sleeve thanks the Franson family. The band was represented at the time by Brian Barry Representation of North Vancouver.

Both songs turned up again that year on Eight On Eight (SSPH 1000), Steppingstone's showcase compilation of the local acts working out of the studio. It gave the band the widest circulation either single appears to have had.

The keyboard credit carries a familiar name. David Stone, the Toronto-born keyboardist who played on Rainbow's Long Live Rock 'n' Roll and toured with Max Webster behind Universal Juveniles in 1980, later worked on the West Coast with B.B. Gabor. Whether he is the Dave Stone on the Exodus records has not been confirmed.

Dan Hare never left the stage. He has fronted the Vancouver show band March Hare since the late 1990s, plays well over a hundred dates a year, and works solo and in tribute acts to Bob Seger and John Fogerty. Alex Franson went on to drum with Steelhorse and later co-founded the rock band Under Fire.

-Robert Williston