one could sing well enough. In 1981 Dark Spot entered the battle of the band competition in Fremantle with an original song penned by Duncan Andrews with Andrews on vocals and bass. It was well regarded that Diesel's lead guitar talents stole the show and won first prize for the band. In his mid-teens, Diesel (as Mark Lizotte) performed with The Kind and Close Action. The Kind had Diesel with Denise DeMarchi, Suze DeMarchi, Dean Denton, Gary Dunn, John 'Yak' Sherrit and Boyd Wilson. Close Action included Diesel on guitar, Bernie Bremond on saxophone, John Heussenstamm on guitar and Sherrit on drums. In 1983 he joined Innocent Bystanders, a Perth pub rock band, and they released a single, "Lebanon" in 1984 with the line-up of Diesel, John "Tatt" Dalzell on bass guitar, Brett Keyser on vocals, Cliff Kinneen on keyboards and Sherrit on drums. Innocent Bystanders travelled to Sydney to record their second single, "Dangerous", released in July 1986. They had attracted the attention of hard rockers, The Angels, and went on to record another single and an album, Don't Go Looking Back, which was released later in 1986, however, Diesel had already left the band. 1986–1991: Band: Johnny Diesel & the Injectors By June 1986, Diesel was back in Perth and had split from Innocent Bystanders leaving fellow member Ross Watson but taking Bremond, Dalzell and Sherritt, and they formed Johnny Diesel & the Injectors with George Dalstrom as a second guitarist. The band played a mixture of R&B, blues and Southern rock; they developed a local following in Perth but decided to relocate to Sydney in September 1987. Dalstrom left by the end of 1986. According to music journalist, Ed Nimmervoll, the name Johnny Diesel was either from Lizotte's days as a petrol dispenser or from a corruption of John Dalzell's name being misapplied to him as the lead singer. As explained by Lizotte, the real story is that the band's name was never meant to be permanent; it came about as the result of a casual joke concerning the band's bass player, John Dalzell. "John had one kid and another on the way," Mark explains. "A friend of ours used to refer to them as 'Johnny Diesel and his little injectors'; I thought it was funny. Then I got a call from the woman from the [Perth] venue where we were playing one night a week... 'You're