Chris Masuak

Christopher William Masuak (born 1959) is a Canadian-born Australian musician, guitarist, songwriter and record producer.

Christopher William Masuak, born in Kamloops, British Columbia in Canada, migrated to Australia by 1974 as a teenager.

His nickname of "Klondike" came from his Canadian youth.

He attended Maroubra Bay High School.

Masuak was a member of J.K. and the Can Openers in 1974 and then joined the Jackals alongside Rubin Acosta, Archie Archilles, Alf Azzopardi, Johnny Kannis and Steve Willman during 1974 and 1975.

According to Kannis the Jackals were "a school band that Chris Masuak and I started while we were in year 10 [with a] Maltese rhythm section."

They played cover versions of material by Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Blue Öyster Cult, Ted Nugent, Lou Reed and original country rock tracks written by Masuak, including "Death by the Gun".

Kannis remembered that "Chris' guitar playing was so raw, original and his lead breaks took your head off!"

After their third gig Masuak and Kannis met Deniz Tek of punk rockers, Radio Birdman, who jammed with them.

He joined the punk rock group, Radio Birdman (1976–78, 1995–96, 1997, 2005–07), then the hard rockers, the Hitmen (1978–84, 1989–92), and the Screaming Tribesmen (1984–89).

In late 1976 Masuak joined Radio Birdman replacing Philip "Pip" Hoyle on guitar, vocals and piano; fellow members were Warwick Gilbert on bass guitar, Ron Keeley on drums, Tek on guitar and vocals, and Rob Younger on lead vocals.

They issued their debut four-track extended play, Burn My Eye, in October.

They followed with their first studio album, Radios Appear, in July 1977.

In November 1977, while still members of Radio Birdman, Masuak, Gilbert and Keeley, joined Kannis in Johnny and the Hitmen together with Charlie Georgees on guitar (ex-Hellcats).

They disbanded in June 1978 after recording their second album, Living Eyes in April, which was issued posthumously in early 1981.

Early in 1978, when Radio Birdman were touring overseas, Kannis formed a new version of Johnny and the Hitmen which disbanded soon after.

In July 1978, after Radio Birdman had dissolved, Masuak and Kannis revived the Hitmen with new members, Ivor Hay on drums (ex-the Saints) and Phil Sommerville on bass guitar.

Gilbert rejoined in September, initially on rhythm guitar and took over bass guitar when Summerville left in the following year.

Greg Falk of The Canberra Times caught a gig by the Hitmen in April 1979, they played "Hard and fast rock at an incredible volume became the norm for their presentation."

Most of the group's material was written by Masuak or Gilbert.

Back in 1980 Masuak produced a single, "Cool in the Tube", for Surfside 6, a briefly existing punk pop group with the line up of Jolyon Burnett on lead vocals, Catherine Courtenay on bass guitar, Toby Creswell on keyboards, Geoff Datson on guitar, John Hackett on drums, Greg Masuak on guitar and Richard McGregor on guitar.

They released three singles ahead of their debut self-titled album in July 1981 on WEA Records.

Earlier Masuak explained that for the album, "we should just do our best, be ourselves and play on it representing our songs the way they should be represented."

He also wrote and produced their next single, "Can't You See the Sign", in 1981.

They followed with a second album, It Is What It Is, in November 1982 but early in the next year they went into hiatus.

Masuak has also been a member of New Christs (1983–84), the Juke Savages (1992–96), the Raouls (1996–97), and Klondike's North 40 (2002–08).

He currently plays with The Viveiro Wave Riders in his adopted country of Spain.

He has released material as Chris Boy King and as Klondike.

In June 1983 Masuak teamed up with former Radio Birdman band mate, Younger, in a new line-up of his hard rock group, New Christs, with Mark Kingsmill on drums and Tony Robertson on bass guitar (both from a latter day version of the Hitmen) and Kent Steedman on guitar (also in the Celibate Rifles).

They supported Iggy Pop on the Australian leg of his international tour.

Masuak had previously produced that group's 1983 single, "Igloo".

By November Kingsmill and Robertson had left and were replaced by Michael Charles on drums and Bob Wackley (aka Bob Hood) on bass guitar (ex-Razar, The Buddies, Grooveyard).

New Christs issued a single, "Like a Curse", in April 1984 before disbanding in the following month.

In June Masuak and Kannis reformed the Hitmen with Kingsmill, Robertson and Richard Jakimyszyn on guitar (ex-Lime Spiders, New Christs).

They recorded a live album, Tora Tora DTK, which was released in November, after they had disbanded.

Masuak, Kingsmill and Robertson all joined Mick Medew, on lead vocals and guitars, in July 1984, for a new line up of his rock band, the Screaming Tribesmen.

While a member of the Screaming Tribesmen, Masuak undertook a side project, Chris Boy King and The Kamloops Swing, as a country rock group in 1986, which issued a four-track EP, Klondike, in the following year.

The group's debut studio album, Bones and Flowers, released in October 1987, was co-produced by Masuak with Alan Thorne (Hoodoo Gurus, The Stems).

Masuak remained with the group until 1989.

Radio Birdman were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in July 2007.