Victim of Changes

   In early 2013, a Craigslist ad looking for musicians to form a proper Judas Priest tribute band was created. Quickly 5 members came together and started rehearsals with the game plan to get the music down tight before presenting our live show to the public. Victim of Changes: A Tribute to Judas Priest was born with John O’Malley on vocals, Charles Butch Judge on bass, Chris Ramsey on drums, Paul Duthil and Glenn Anderson on guitars. A quick personnel change brought in Eddie Catterson on drums, as Chris Ramsey’s lingering back injury prevented him from continuing. Eddie hadn’t played drums in over 20 years but was itching to get back into the music scene.

   In September 2013 rehearsals commenced and quickly it became apparent that we were ready to Unleash this Beast to the masses. Our first show was at Blackthorn 51 on Nov 2, 2013 and it was to rave reviews. 3 more shows at Blackthorn over the next 8 months were enough to gain exposure to start branching out to other clubs in the NY area, most notably Long Island where the tribute band music scene was booming. In October 2014 it was decided that Paul was not fitting in with the direction that the band was headed, so in came veteran axeman Eddie Campbell .

   Gigs started up right away in November 2014 without missing a beat. Victim of Changes was quickly gaining a reputation of being the best Judas Priest tribute in the Tri-State area, concentrating on the 70’s hits, with a blend of the 80’s staples, and plenty of rare tracks… some of which Judas Priest themselves have never played live. “If you closed your eyes you’d think you were listening to the record” was one of the recurring compliments we would hear, and we pride ourselves on delivering the most accurate reproduction of the music out there. We spent the next 2 years gigging all over the Tri-State area, honing our skills, and adding to our set production, which now consisted of lasers, smoke geysers, strobes, scrims and backdrops. In January 2017 our singer John announced that he no longer wanted to sing for Victim of Changes… so, with shows booked, we quickly scrambled to find a replacement singer. We knew exactly where we were going first, and that was frontman Tommy Girardi who had currently left his Priest cover band and knew he would be an instant fit.

    The new Victim of Changes unit played its first gig with Tommy leading the band in March 2017, right then it was obvious that not only can this guy sing and perform on stage, but his energety and positive interaction with the crowd had brought the band to a new level.