SKIN
Dean Chamberlain was born in San Francisco and grew up in the nearby city of San Mateo. After the Motels (the original band that is) broke up, he ran an ad looking for other musicians; out of this, a trio called Skin was born in 1978 that also included Michael Ostendorf (bass) and Randall Marsh (drums). They started playing gigs in the L.A. area, and scouts for Warner Bros. Records signed them the day after they heard one of their shows. Ostendorf left the band, and after Gary Tibbs replaced him on bass, they changed their name to Code Blue, hospital-ese for a patient requiring immediate resuscitation.
The opening cut on the Motels’ breakthrough album, All Four One is called “Mission of Mercy”, and that might not be a nod to their earlier name, Angels of Mercy. However, the lyric “skin to skin” from Code Blue’s excellent song “Face to Face” could very well reference their original name Skin.
(September 2012)
