Niagara Falls Review Covers Go Jetter’s Story
The surviving members of Go Jetter, a band that formed in Chippawa 46 years ago, have revisited their recordings to finally finish their debut album decades after the 1983 death by suicide of singer Rob (Iggy) Morningstar, centre.
Chris Maxfield photo
A Niagara band finishes its debut album … 46 years later
Using isolated vocals of their deceased singer, Go Jetter re-recorded songs to produce the posthumous debut album “From the Word Go,” along with an eight-minute documentary on the emotional task of making it.
May 15, 2025
A former Niagara band has finished what it started 46 years ago. And along the way, paid tribute to a singer lost to suicide.
In 1979, Chippawa teens Chris Maxfield, Lloyd Peterson and Rob (Iggy) Morningstar — all attending Westlane Secondary School — formed a band called Go Jetter.
But they wanted to make it with no distractions, so they all packed up and moved to London, Ont. There, they hammered out the beginnings of a pop/punk debut album.
And it would collect dust for decades.
As Maxfield recalls, they were “living in a house and not paying rent.” So, they moved back to Chippawa and went their separate ways.
Maxfield and Peterson eventually moved to Winnipeg while Morningstar headed to Ohio and formed the popular post-punk band The F Models. And it was in Ohio that he died by suicide in 1983. He was 25.
His former bandmates were devastated. Go Jetter was finished before it ever started.
But last year, 45 years after their crude reel-to-reel recordings were shelved, Maxfield and Peterson — still living in Winnipeg — used an AI program to isolate Morningstar’s vocals. What if, they thought, they could re-record the album with their deceased friend?
They were soon in the studio again, revisiting songs they wrote as teenagers. It led to this year’s release of Go Jetter’s posthumous debut album, “From the Word Go,” along with an eight-minute documentary on the emotional task of making it.
Former Westlane Secondary School students Lloyd Peterson, left, and Chris Maxfield have revisited their band Go Jetter more than four decades after it formed.
“This project has really helped me process what happened (with Iggy),” says Maxfield. “I would have been 24 when Iggy took his own life and even in the early ’80s, we didn’t really address or talk about mental health and depression like we do these days.
“It’s been cathartic for me. We had time to relive those days and bring up a lot of memories.”
In the documentary, Peterson stressed the importance of recording in the spirit of the original 1979 sessions — no fancy effects or overdubs.
“It was like having the band back together,” he says. “I didn’t feel I’d ever get a chance to feel that feeling again. That was pretty special.”
Adds Maxfield: “We faithfully reproduced stuff. I was using, as much as possible, the same drum fills. Lloyd was redoing the guitar solos exactly like we did in ’79.”
The album features 10 songs from 1979 plus an all new track, “Minor Sins.” They meld Morningstar’s punk attitude with the prog rock preferences of Maxfield and Peterson, creating a catchy time capsule.
Maxfield was surprised how well the songs have held up.
“We wrote them and got them down just because they were good ideas. So when we listened back to them, yeah, for sure, they held up. It was part of the impetus to do this.”
Now that the project is complete, Maxfield says Go Jetter can be laid to rest properly. He doesn’t see them replacing Morningstar to play shows.
“It would be difficult to do. This project really is about Iggy. Our main goal has been about resurrecting this faithfully and getting it out into the world.”
He adds that Morningstar’s surviving brother and sister are “really pleased” with the project.
Decades after losing his friend, he finally feels a sense of closure.
“Hearing him laugh again was really important,” he says. “It was quite emotional.”
To hear the songs and watch the documentary, go to www.gojetter.ca and all streaming platforms.