First Strike

First Strike was a Christian hard rock band that hailed from Sacramento California. The band formed in the late seventies/early eighties. The original line up consisted of guitarists Pat Boylan and Tim Larkin, drummer Johnnie Delaney, singer Tony Gunn and bassist Chris Salmon. In 1983 the band landed a recording contract with the new wave label Exit Records. In 1984 the band released its debut release, Rock Of Offense. The album was produced by Christian punk icon Michael Roe of The 77's and long time Bride engineer Steve Griffith. Due to the label not knowing how to market the band the album stiffed, although it did receive some distribution to Christian bookstores throughout the US.
By 1985 the band was dropped from Exit.
In 1986 the band replaced Tony Gunn with David Camponaro and released a cassette only 4 song EP titled Crank It Up directly through the band. Crank It Up was more of a pop release than the traditional hard rock vein. The band permanently split up shortly after.