Ten Foot Pole

en Foot Pole was founded in 1983 as Scared Straight.

Scared Straight was a punk band from Simi Valley, California. The band was formed in 1983 by a group of friends and was originally called S.O.F. Original members were Scott Radinsky, Mike Thompson, Gary Gallanes, and Dennis Jagard, who started the band to enter a “Battle of the Bands” competition at a local skate rink. After going through several members and name changes, they began playing with some “Nardcore” bands from nearby Oxnard, California, which helped them gain recognition. All of the Scared Straight records were released by Mystic Records.

In the early 1990s, they changed their name to Ten Foot Pole. One of the reasons for the name change was to move away from the “straight-edge” reputation that followed the band with a name like Scared Straight. In the beginning, Ten Foot Pole had a reputation of being a more aggressive, hardcore punk band that likes to party and have fun. The band released two albums under their new name with the old lineup: Swill and Rev. After the release of Rev and a split EP with Sweden’s Satanic Surfers, Radinsky was forced to leave the band due to his professional baseball commitments and Ten Foot Pole’s desire to be a full-time touring band. From then on Dennis Jagard took over lead vocals for the band.