Welcome

“Wellington Park” 

Was a rock band from Victoria, British Columbia,  Canada. 

Primarily recording original rock and roll music.

Started in 2012 by Andy Olexa and Brad Blanchard.

"Wellington Park"'s final line up was Andy Olexa and Mike Sharp.

In 1997, Andy (bass/guitar/vocals/keyboards) moved to Victoria BC Canada. He had been with many bands in the Vancouver BC area (Kryterion, Bluelaw to name a few), playing mostly classic rock stuff but dabbling in writing his own material. Initially, he wanted to step away from music but kept on writing originals. He got the rock and roll bug back and in 2010, joined “the WEEDS” with Michael Turgeon (drums/vocals), Kieth Kennedy (guitar/vocals) and Ed Gsheil (guitar/vocals). 

During this time, he met Brad Blanchard (vocals/guitar/bass). Brad was from Leamington, Ontario. His family moving west to Victoria, BC to start a new life in 2009. In Ontario, Brad played in a couple local rock bands (Bad Influence, Generations). When Brad was situated in Victoria he joined a classic rock band called “Cappuccino Monkeys” with Dave Kidd (guitar/vocals), Terry Hogan (bass), and Kerry Hiltz (drums). They played in some of the clubs around Victoria for years. 

In 2012, the “Cappuccino Monkeys” needed a bass player for a gig because Terry was on vacation. Through mutual friends, Andy was asked to fill in. In the midst of one of their after practice meetings Andy asked Brad, who realized his musical skill, if he'd like to lay some guitar and vocal tracks down on an original song he was working on. Brad thought it might be 

interesting and said yes. As they were recording they both though it would be fun to record a whole release. Andy had some songs in his suitcase and Brad wrote a couple also. After starting the project they felt they had to call it something. Throwing out many names they agreed on “Wellington Park”, so “Wellington Park” was formed. Their first release was “Reinventing the Wheel” with a whopping 18 songs and was released December of 2012.

In 2013, Brad Blanchard and Andy Olexa wanted to get back into recording again. This time they brought in a drummer, his name, Hartmut Goetze, who played with Andy 25 years before in "Bluelaw". The only problem, Brad and Andy lived in Victoria and Hart lived  in New Westminster, BC, a fair distance apart. Thank god for the internet, Andy would create a demo of the songs, 

send it too Hart in an email then Hart would do his drums and send it back. Worked like a charm. This project named "Middle of Somewhere" had 11 new songs and a cover was released in January of 2014.

While on down time, in 2014, Brad decided he wanted to step away from the original project and get back together with Dave Kidd and Terry Hogan to restart the “Cappuccino Monkeys”. In the process they met Mike Sharp, a Victoria drummer. Mike played in many bands (Red Eye Express, Diamond Eagle, Syzygy Blue to name a few) and frequented the local jam nights, he had been around and knew many musicians.Around the middle of 2014, Brad and Andy were chatting over coffee and thought it would fun to record again. The “Monkeys’s” bass player had left and they asked Andy to join. They decided to rerecord some of their older songs and record some new ones as “Wellington Park” in respect of the “Cappuccino Monkeys” name. In this time Dave Kidd 

left so it was just Brad, Mike and Andy. Released in 2015, “Cascadia” was born, 10 songs, 5 old 5 new. They played a couple gigs around Victoria to promote it with an infusion of covers.

In September 2015, Brad, Mike and Andy were discussing on what to do for the next project. The idea was thrown out about doing something conceptual, but not sure what. More ideas were bantered about and the concept of war came up. But not just war in the military sense, all forms 

of war, military, family, psychological, any forms. That opened the project up. Everyone had a finger in this project, Everyone wrote, everyone sang and all had an influence in the concept. “Suite: War” (a play on words) was released in 2016 with 10 tracks.

As 2016 got underway, Brad decided he wanted to get back into a cover band and returned with Dave Kidd to start the “Howlin’ Geckos”. They met Chris Homuth (bass/guitar/vocals) and Mike returned to drum. Without Brad, in March 2016 Mike and Andy got together to discuss a new project. Now without a vocalist and guitarist, Mike and Andy thought of bringing in some talented friends to add some different textures to the songs and Mike added his voice to a couple of the songs. The musicians asked were glad to have a part in the project. Niki Neff (Jukebox Junkies), Scott Sutherland (Jukebox Junkies), Michael Turgeon (the WEEDS), Steve Lalonde (Syzygy Blue), John Varga, Scott Peterson, Jon Mack and even Brad came back to lay some tracks to some of the songs. From April to October 2016, these talented musicians came in and did their tracks, except John Varga who did his guitar parts in his home in Delta BC and emailed it. They came up with 

"Collaboratoria" because it was a "collaboration" of musicians from "Victoria". "Collaboratoria" with 22 tracks was released on November 11, 2016.

April 2017, Mike and Andy got together and started writing new songs for a new project based on Collaboratoria. Friends helping out again on the songs to add their texture. Mike, who was still playing the “Howlin’ Geckos” rocking gigs around town and “Syzygy Blue”, was happy to keep “Wellington Park” going. Of the 11 songs on this release they collaborated on 7 songs (Andy writing 2 and the other with Brad Blanchard). With help from John Varga (guitar), 

Michael Turgeon (vocals (The WEEDS)) and Brad Blanchard (vocals, guitar (Howlin’ Geckos)). 

Tectonic Symphonic was released in 2018.

February 2019, Andy had some more songs written. But this recording he wanted to keep the sound consistent through the whole release so Andy and Mike set to record. This time, they got the vocalist Michael Turgeon to sing every song, and he brought in a couple of his originals also. 15 songs were recorded, 13 original and 2 covers with a Christmas song also. The release would be called "Sharp Objects". The songs were finished towards the end of 2019 but, because of the Covid lockdowns released in April 2020.

Now, with everything going on the world the band dissolved. It was a long run, 8 years of Wellington Park. On to the future. Thanks to everyone interested and listening to the music because that's all you have in the end.