The band originated in
Vancouver,
British Columbia. The members of the C-FUN Classics changed the band's name to
The Collectors when Bill Henderson joined in 1966. Their psychedelic
self-titled debut album yielded the minor hit "Lydia Purple". Their second album was based on the musical score written by the band for
Grass and Wild Strawberries, a stage play by Canadian playwright
George Ryga. Vocalist Howie Vickers left the Collectors in 1969; the remaining members formed the band Chilliwack in 1970,
Chilliwack being a
Salish term meaning "valley of many streams" and the name of a city east of Vancouver in the
Fraser Valley. Chilliwack released its debut album,
Chilliwack, in 1970. Lead guitarist
Bill Henderson led the remaining former Collectors members: Glenn Miller (bass, guitar, backing vocals), Ross Turney (drums) and
Claire Lawrence (flute, saxophone, keyboards, backing vocals); while he provided most of the vocals and did most of the composing. During 1970, Miller briefly left the band, who were joined on the road by Robbie King (keyboards, bass) and played at
Expo '70 in Japan and other gigs across Canada. In 1971, bassist Rick Kilburn played live with Chilliwack for a short time before Miller returned later that same year when Lawrence departed. New member Howard Froese (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals) joined in 1973. The band released several moderately successful records. Hit singles in Canada included "Lonesome Mary", which entered Cashbox January 22, 1972 (and was their first US charting single, peaking at #75 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in February 1972), "Crazy Talk" (#98 in the US in January 1975), and "Fly at Night" (#75 in the US in May 1977). Henderson, MacLeod and Bryant then began working on Chilliwack's eighth album in 1979, joined by John Roles (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals) and drummer Bucky Berger. The Mushroom label went bankrupt abruptly shortly after their album
Breakdown in Paradise was released in December 1979. Berger was replaced by Rick Taylor and the line-up of Henderson, MacLeod, Bryant, Roles and Taylor toured into 1980. Chilliwack then signed with Solid Gold Records in Canada and
Millennium Records in the U.S. in 1981 as a trio (Henderson/MacLeod/Bryant) and enjoyed its greatest success with this line-up, releasing the albums
Wanna Be a Star (September 1981) and
Opus X (October 1982). The singles "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)" (Their first US Top 40 hit, peaking at #22 in December 1981), "I Believe" (US #33 in March 1982), and "Whatcha Gonna Do (When I'm Gone)" (US #41 in December 1982) were popular both in Canada and in the U.S.
Rolling Stone wrote: Henderson, MacLeod and Bryant were joined by drummer Paul Delaney in the fall of 1981 through early 1982 for U.S. promotional appearances on TV shows, like
American Bandstand,
Solid Gold and
The Merv Griffin Show, before heading out on the road later in 1982 with an expanded line-up of Henderson, MacLeod, Bryant,
Joey Franco (drums), Glenn Grayson (keyboards, backing vocals) and Dennis Grayson (keyboards, backing vocals). Henderson and MacLeod received a Best Producer
Juno Award for
Opus X. However, echoing the Mushroom problems, Millennium Records then collapsed. In early 1983, MacLeod and Bryant left the band to devote more time to their other project, the
Headpins (with
Denise McCann and then
Darby Mills as lead vocalists). Chilliwack's last studio recording,
Look In Look Out, was released in July 1984 with Henderson as the only continuing member. He was joined by session players Ashley Mulford (guitar, backing vocals, from the band
Sad Café),
Richard Gibbs (keyboards, from the group
Oingo Boingo),
Mo Foster (bass),
Simon Phillips (drums) and
Tom Keenlyside (saxophone), with additional vocals provided by Mark LaFrance,
Saffron &
Camille Henderson, Dustin Keller and
Bob Rock. By 1985, the band was without a record deal, and Henderson cobbled together a touring line-up of former member Claire Lawrence (sax, backing vocals), Jerry Adolphe (drums), Brian Newcombe (bass), Robbie Gray (keyboards, backing vocals) and Dave Pickell (keyboards). Pickell was replaced almost immediately by another former member John Roles (guitar, keyboards). This grouping played mostly in Canadian clubs and smaller venues until Henderson disbanded the group in December 1988. The following year, Henderson formed the folk-rock supergroup
UHF. On October 6, 1991, Henderson joined fellow rockers
Loverboy,
Bryan Adams,
Colin James, and
Chrissy Steele at a benefit show at Vancouver's 86 Street Music Hall to raise over $50,000 for Henderson's former Chilliwack bandmate,
Brian MacLeod, who was fighting cancer and undergoing treatment at a Houston medical clinic. MacLeod died on April 25, 1992, aged 39. After the band had been dormant for nearly a decade, Henderson decided to launch a new Chilliwack line-up in 1997, made up of himself, Adolphe (drums),
Doug Edwards (bass, backing vocals), and Roy 'Bim' Forbes (guitar, backing vocals, from UHF). Forbes was succeeded on guitar in 1998 by Bill's brother, Ed, and Chilliwack released a new live album,
There and Back - Live, in 2003. Chilliwack performed at 2005's Voyageur Days Festival in
Mattawa, Ontario, where they appeared with
Moxy,
Toronto,
Trooper,
Goddo,
Killer Dwarfs, and
Ray Lyell for the thirtieth anniversary of Moxy's debut album release. On May 24, 2010, the band members (Bill Henderson, Ed Henderson, Doug Edwards and Jerry Adolphe) were joined by former members Roy 'Bim' Forbes, Ab Bryant and Claire Lawrence, plus Howard Froese's son Tyson on acoustic guitar (standing in for his father, who had died of cancer in the mid-1990s), and Collectors singer Howie Vickers for a Chilliwack 40th Anniversary show at the River Rock Show Theatre in
Richmond, British Columbia. Chilliwack's original bassist, Glenn Miller, died on March 4, 2011, in Toronto after suffering from
muscular dystrophy. In 2015, a new music video by Chilliwack for the song "Take Back This Land" was released. The song became a rallying call during the
2015 Canadian federal election. Henderson occasionally does duo shows with Claire Lawrence. Chilliwack continues to play, mostly at outdoor gatherings and festivals. Doug Edwards died at his home in Vancouver at the age of 70 on November 11, 2016, after a long illness. On January 22, 2022, Chilliwack played
Toronto's
Massey Hall with their friend Geoff Hicks briefly filling in on drums for an ill Adolphe. ==Current members==