History & Biography Harlott set foot on the streets of Toronto for the first time in June of 1983. The band was formed after the disbanding of Metallion which had been formed the previous autumn by guitarist Stan Cowan and bassist Peter Dove. The original Harlott line-up was comprised of Cowan and Dove, who were joined by an Englishman named Tony De la Hunt on lead vocals, Russell Gong Fayette on lead guitar and Steve Cribar on drums. Terry Sadler (Strappado) would rehearse with the band earlier. The Canadian band had a demo in 1983 featuring the songs Running All Night, Don't Need Your Love and Sweet Innocence. The band's first show was in support of Toronto act Banshee at the Malton Arena near Toronto. The band placed an emphasis on its live show and supported Lee Aaron often. A second demo followed in 1984 which was engineered by Robin Brouwers (Lee Aaron, Manowar, etc.). The band would obtain an opening slot for Anthrax and Raven, but the show would be cancelled.
The band was based in Toronto, but Cowan was originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia and New York. He would also establish and run a record store called Sonic Temple later.
Peter Dove (later in Chyld, Slash Puppet and in V05 with Sebastian Bach), co-founder of the band, was fired in 1984 at a time when a deal with Capitol Records was in the offing and was replaced on bass by Mark 'Sparky' Kawano. For a brief period, Steve Cribar was replaced on drums by Dave Sampson (who would later go on to join Jade), only to return to the band, ready to work all the harder for the Harlott vision. Guitarist Russell Gong decided that Toronto was not where he wanted to be, and returned to his native Vancouver, to be replaced by Frank Bartoletti who had just left Lee Aaron. A few years later, Bartoletti would join forces with Pete Dove in the formation of Slash Puppet. De La Hunt, incidentally, was also replaced towards the end by Jean-Francois Roberts of Montreal’s Stormbringer. A five-song demo was recorded, but the band packed it in a few shows later. The band also had songs featured on two Canadian Metal compilation albums (like Moose Molten Metal Volume 2 in 1986 alongside Harlot's Webb!).
De La Hunt died in 1988.
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