Andrew Champion

Andrew "Champion" (born Andrew Jennati Ataie: June 4, 1970) is a notable East Bay California vocalist who sang in such bands as Screw 32, Hopelifter,^[1] End Of The World, Shadowboxer, Highwire Days, two stints in the Dance Hall Crashers early incarnations, and most recently Curse The Cannons.

Biography

Growing up in the East Bay straightedge and hardcore community in San Ramon and Berkeley, he was involved in the San Francisco scene of the early eighties prior to the East Bay becoming popular in the mid to late eighties as well. Working as a volunteer in almost every capacity at the Gilman Street Project, Andrew was closely associated with the club. He attended the first show and then regularly for the next ten years. As a close friend of Tim Armstrong of Operation Ivy, Andrew would later live with him and Brett Reed at the Adeline Street house just as Screw 32 was becoming popular and Rancid was increasing its base in the early and mid nineties.

Andrew was a seminal member of U.S. Thugs, where he gained the name 'Champion' when he had rushed to get a tattoo for the crew's original name (The 'East Bay Champions'). He was the only one to get the tattoo prior to the final selection of U.S. Thugs as the crew's name (Champion and Lars went to the tattoo shop in San Francisco together, but Lars didn't have enough money at the time to get the tattoo by Daniel Higgs of Lungfish fame). He was also one of the first four to get the original U.S. Thugs tattoo from Eric Hogan in Sacramento. Eric and Andrew had been friends from when Eric had lived in Alameda and Oakland years before. The name Champion however stuck as Andrew's stage name from then on and to this day people still use it.

His vocal style has been likened to Shawn Brown, Dave Smalley, Dave Vanian, and others with a vibrato singing style while still being straightforward and 'edgy'. Having spent some time in England as a teenager, Andrew was heavily influenced by early eighties and late seventies punk and power-pop music as well as more obvious genres like new wave and rock. Having lived all over California, Andrew has finally returned to the East Bay and currently resides in Berkeley California.

References