Cam and the Rockhammers were a Canadian rock band from the mid to late 1980s, best known for their hit "Chipping Away (At Your Heart)" from their one and only album, 1987's "Chipping Away." Although practically unknown in the United States, the group had a modest, if not cult following in Canada. Unfortunately, brushes with the law and a stint in rehab by Cam, lead singer and tambourine player for the band, ultimately led to the bands demise in 1989.

History

Cam and the Rockhammers can trace their roots back to a drunken college bet in 1985. As geology students at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, the four founding members of the band (lead singer and tambourine player, known only as the one name moniker Cam, lead guitar Michael "Pinky" Ward, bass player Dan Fleming, and drummer Sean O'Halloran) found themselves entered into a campus radio talent show after Cam lost a drinking contest to the campus radio DJ. Having only ever played a couple of times together in Cam's parents basement, the group entered the talent show as a Men Without Hats cover band under the name "Cam and the Gneiss Guys," and were surpised to walk away with a second place finish. Encouraged by their unexpected accolades, the four college students began to seriously entertain the notion of pursuing a career in music.

Cam began writing some original songs for the band shortly after the talent show, however following an early rehearsal session, bass player Dan Fleming quit, citing Cam as becoming too controlling and manipulative (a criticism that would plague Cam for years). Relegated to a three piece band, Cam and Gneiss Guys were forced to begin the search for a replacement bass player.

After months of searching, the group was having little success. One hot summer evening, and on the heels of yet another unsuccessful tryout, the trio found themselves at the local pub. Following a night of heavy drinking, the trio realized they would not be able to afford the tab. Attempting to skip out on the bill, the three inebriated students briskly headed for the exit. Unfortunately, just as they were approaching the door, Ward tripped and fell head first through the front entrance window. While O'Halloran stayed to help his injured friend, who suffered lacerations to his face and hands, Cam apparently panicked, and sprinted out of the pub and up the road. Now although accounts of what transpired next are varied, the general consensus is that Cam passed out in a dumpster some three blocks away from the pub, and awoke the next morning to a rat chewing on his left foot, which was missing a shoe. Still a little inebriated from the night before, Cam decided he should visit the hospital in order to get a rabies shot. While in the waiting room, a disheviled looking man holding his left elbow and with a bruise over his right eye, sat next to Cam. Upon conversation with the man, whose name was Travis Kingsley, Cam learned that he had injured himself after he had attempted to ride his bike off of a roof and into a neighbours pool while drunk. Cam also discovered the man played bass guitar, and asked Kingsley to come out to a rehearsal session once he was feeling better. A few weeks later, Kingsley took Cam up on his offer, and was asked to join the band shortly after. Kingsley's brother Todd was asked to join the band not long after as a rythym guitar player.

The group changed their name to the Rockhammers just before they embarked on their "Hammered Tour" of 1986, in which they toured numerous bars and taverns in the southern Ontario region. Following the release of their first, and only, studio album "Chipping Away," in 1987, Cam and the Rockhammers embarked on a cross Canada tour. In the beginning of their "Still Hammered tour," they were playing to crowds of a couple hundred people, but based largely on the popularity of their radio hit "Chipping Away (At Your Heart)," Cam and the Rockhammers soon found themselves playing in front of larger and larger audiences, culminating in the Canada Day concert in which they were one several acts to perform in front of 20,000 screaming fans in Vancouver, BC. Unable to cope with their meteoric rise to fame, lead singer and tambourine player Cam was forced to enter rehab due to his growing addiction to prescription nasal spray, all but ending the success the band had worked so hard to achieve. In 1989, Cam and the Rockhammers tried to make a comeback by launching their "Clean Slate tour", however interest in the band waned, and they broke up shortly thereafter.