Head East

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Head East
General information
Genre (s) Hard rock
founding 1968
Website www.head-east.com
Founding members
John Schlitt
Mike Somerville
Roger Boyd
Dan Birney
Steve Huston
Current occupation
Keyboard, vocals
 Roger Boyd
Bass, solo guitar, vocals
 Greg Manahan
Solo guitar, vocals
 Glen Bridger
Drums, vocals
 Eddy Jones
Lead vocals, bass
 Darren Walker
former members
singing
 John Schlitt
guitar
 Mike Somerville
guitar
 Dan Birney
guitar
 Tim Day

Head East is a hard rock band originally from South Central Illinois , later Champaign ( Illinois ). The band was formed by singer John Schlitt, guitarist Mike Somerville, keyboardist Roger Boyd, bassist Dan Birney, and drummer Steve Huston, who met while studying at the University of Illinois .

The group was particularly successful in the American Midwest during the 1970s, but fell into disuse over the next few decades. Her best-known song is If You Knew Me Better from 1979.

history

Head East was founded in 1968 and made its first appearance in Carbondale, Illinois. In 1974 the band released their first album, Flat as a Pancake , on their own record label Pyramid Records, selling every 5000 records and 500 8-track cassettes that had been made. Through this success and the song Never Been Any Reason , which was played on the radio, they were able to win A&M Records to re-release their album in 1975. It reached gold status in 1978 and remains the group's most successful album to this day. From the album comes the song Love Me Tonight , which reached number 54 in the US charts.

The band's next albums were Get Yourself Up and Gettin 'Lucky , released in 1976 and 1977. Neither of them matched the success of the debut album. For this, their fourth album, which was called Head East and was released in 1978, included the hit Since You Been Gone . The piece, a cover version of a song by Russ Ballard , reached number 46 on the US charts.

In 1979, Head East released the double- live album Head East Live! and A Different Kind of Crazy . The first-mentioned album reached the US Top 100 charts. They were also featured on the soundtrack to the film J-Men Forever .

In March 1980 bassist Dan Birney and guitarist Mike Somerville left the band, while singer John Schlitt was kicked out of the band due to his drug addiction. Schlitt got off drugs, turned to religion and joined the revival movement . In 1986 he joined the Christian rock band Petra as a singer . There he remained a member until its dissolution in 2005.

The remaining Head East members, Boyd and Huston, hired Mark Boatman, Tony Gross and Dan Odum to record the next album called US 1 , which was released in October 1980. It was the group's last album to hit the charts and was produced by A&M.

In the period that followed, the band had only minor successes and had their albums distributed by small record labels. These included Onward and Upward (1982) from Allegiance Records and Choice of Weapons (1988) from Dark Heart Records. Tim Day, drummer for the group Daddy's Girl, joined the band and toured with her from 1999 to 2001. She continued to perform, including again with guitarist Somerville, who returned to the band from 1994 to 2003.

In 1999 the live album Live on Stage was released. This was cut from two performances in the Rainbow Music Hall in Denver : The first five pieces come from a performance in 1980 with the original line-up, while the last ten pieces were created in 1981 with the later line-up. Head East is still touring today and gives around 30 to 40 concerts a year.

The band currently consists of Roger Boyd (keyboard, vocals), Greg Manahan (bass, solo guitar, vocals), Glen Bridger (solo guitar, vocals), Eddy Jones (drums, vocals) and Darren Walker (lead vocals, bass).

The 1975 song Never Been Any Reason was used for the 2005 feature film Sahara Desert Adventure .

Discography

Albums

  • 1974: Flat as a Pancake
  • 1976: Get Yourself Up
  • 1977: Gettin 'Lucky
  • 1978: Head East
  • 1979: Head East Live!
  • 1979: A Different Kind of Crazy
  • 1980: US 1
  • 1982: Onward and Upward
  • 1988: Choice of Weapons
  • 1999: Concert Classics Volume 7
  • 2008: Head East Live 2008

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]