The Struggle to Keep Playing

After the second WCCC show at the club, we really had no gigs on the calendar, no record on the air, no record in the works (I was still paying off the studio debt from the record that had been banned) and ten people who were all looking to me to provide the solutions to our problem. I knew the only thing that would fix this was..more time..to make money, so we could get back into the studio...more patience from the guys in the band, while I worked on that...and the gigs I was sure my brother would soon be getting for us. He had been given exclusive control over the band's bookings more than a month earlier, and I was starting to wonder why he hadn't been able to tell us he had some dates booked. When I asked him about it, he just said he had a lot of feelers out, and was waiting for return calls. Although I wondered to myself why he would be having any problems getting us booked into places (after all, all he had to do was tell potential "buyers" how we had done in his and every other  club we had played in so far)...I kept that to myself, and decided to let him do it the way he thought it should be done, because I knew that this was his area of expertise, and I thought he was doing the best job he could. After all, we were brothers...and he knew what was at stake. But I knew we had to work somewhere..just to keep the guys from going crazy. There were a couple of very small local rooms that kept pestering me to bring the band into, and we all had friends in town that wanted to see the band, so I decided that if we went in with a small stage, and didn't advertise at all, outside of the local area...that it would be better than not playing, in fact, it could be fun. After asking my brother if he would be OK with me doing that, and having him agree, I booked the dates. The first was at a small biker bar near the University of Conn. It was a local watering hole we had all spent time at, so it was like playing in a friend's house. Even with only half of our stage gear, and a fraction of our PA, we were deafeningly loud...but the place was packed, and stayed packed all night, and nobody seemed to mind or care...it was what they expected...and it was almost like playing a party for a few close friends. It did nothing for us in a business sense, but it was really what everybody really needed...because we needed to keep playing.... 

A Skeptic Becomes an Admirer

The club had been like a second home for me for many years. I had spent countless hours and days there over the eight years it had been in business. I was close with everyone there, and everyone was close with me. I had met and become friends with many musicians who stopped to play there. And many of the musical opportunities that had occured in my life were a result not only my playing skills, but also as a result of the friendships and relationships I had developed  there. There were six owners, two were my brothers, and the other four were two brothers, their sister, and her ex-husband. It was a "family". I can remember spending about four hours one night, very late, three years earlier, talking with one of the owners, and laying out my "blueprint" for the band with him...exactly as I had envisioned it. I remember him telling me that.."it is a really tough business" and that  he wished me luck. He might as well have said "fat chance." Of course, I never even heard that, because to me, the plan was crystal clear. After we finished the gig that Saturday night, our third consecutive sold-out show... and we had all changed clothes, I wandered around the club, which also housed numerous apartments. I stopped in to see Gary, the owner whom I had shared my vision with three years earlier, and who lived at the club. We sat down around his kitchen table, doing some lines, and talking about the night. At one point, I found him just staring at me with a funny, kind of puzzled look on his face, and he had gotten very quiet. Then he took a breath and said to me..."you know Mike, when you first told me your plan for this band I thought you were crazy...but I'll be damned  if every single thing you told me would happen...hasn't happened...exactly the way said it would! The equipment, the records, the radio airplay, the crowds...I mean ...do you realize you have sold out this club twice in a row, in less than two months? Do you know how hard that is to do? Do you know how many great bands have come in here and have been unable to do that even once?  I just need to say to you that I am totally amazed...and that you were right, and I was wrong...and I'm glad that I was wrong...it's really fucking amazing!" I thought about that conversation, three years earlier...and I smiled, and thanked him...and we did some more cocaine...    

The Second "Big Show" Sellout

There was nothing I could do at that moment to change the situation that the banning of our second record from the air..due to lyrical content..had created. But the one thing I did know was that the public was unaware of all of that, and that our show at the club was still being heavily promoted by WCCC. This would be the first time we would be headlining at the club on a weekend. I expected a good crowd. What we ended up with was another totally sold out show. If it was possible for us to have done better drawing a crowd than we had for the first show..we did. The place was mobbed. We had played the club three times since we started appearing in public...twice on our own, and once as an opening act...and all three shows were sold out. That was not a common occurance at the club. There were a handful of bands that had done that, but all of them were nationally known bands, signed to major labels. We were as yet, unsigned...and unknown nationally...but we were making quite an splash in New England, especially in Connecticut...and selling out this club on three consecutive dates was huge. As before, the first 107 people to show up got free T-shirts, but this time the shirts were really elaborate...the station had gone all out. I felt a little bit better when I realized that they were still behind the band, they were just protecting themselves from what they perceived as a public image problem. The band had a super night, and it was obvious to me that as long as we could just keep playing, the band would keep getting better and better. Our stage show was becoming relaxed and it was starting to feel easy to do, and the band was becoming very matter-of-fact in its ability to keep taking it to a higher level every night. People were starting to mouth the lyrics to the songs they knew from the radio, and I remember thinking how cool it was that people knew our lyrics. I fully believed that we would overcome the setback we had experienced a few days earlier, and the guys were all playing like that wasn't even a question. The name said it all...Avalanche.. "an unstoppable natural force"....The audience was the best one yet, and we knew we were developing some very loyal fans already. After we were called back for two encores..after two long sets..we knew that as long as we kept coming up with stuff...there would be an audience for it. As we got back into the dressing room, the mood was very upbeat...we knew we had played our best gig yet...and we still had that momentum...  

The Brick Wall

After I left WCCC, I knew I had a major mess to deal with. I quickly set up appointments with some of the other radio stations. Within a few days, I became aware of the fact that none of the stations wanted to risk playing this song. We had hit a brick wall. And not one of them offered to just play the "B" side, which at least would have allowed us to keep our momentum, give the public a new Avalanche record, and give us the time we needed to pay off the studio bills, and record a different record. I never got an explanation as to why that was true...and I never asked. I guess the stations just weren't excited enough about the B side to add it to their playlists. And paying off the studio bills was taking longer than I wanted, because I still had to pay salaries, and cover the costs of keeping the band and crew "happy"...even though now, we were rarely playing out.  No bookings were happening through my brother...and so there was the added frustration from that to deal with too. And I owed the studio a lot of money for recording sessions that were now, pointless. I was still making a lot of money...but I was spending it a lot faster than I was able to make it. I called the studio, and explained what was happening, and asked if it was possible to stop the pressing of the new batch of records. I was grateful when I got the call back saying that the pressing plant hadn't started that process yet, and it had been cancelled. At least I wouldn't have to pay for two thousand records that could be used as targets for skeet shooting, for all they were worth now. I dreaded having to tell the guys what was happening...since everyone had been totally pumped up about this new record...but there was no getting around it. After I broke the news to the guys at a band meeting I called at my house, everyone was really quiet...and the disappointment and doubt about what to do about this was really evident. This was one of those times I had to assume responsibility as the band-leader, but this time, for the first time, I had to admit a major miscalculation. Although I felt I had been a victim of circumstance, I still had to own it...and it was up to me to "fix" it, too...but I wasn't really sure how to do that. I knew it was going to take some time to generate the funds I needed to get us back into the studio, so all I could do was to encourage everybody to just shake it off. That was a lot easier said than done. But we had a huge show coming up in a few days, and so I tried my best to get everyone to just focus on what was right in front of us...the next gig. The best thing we could do...was to try to continue to be the best we could be...on stage.

Banned From The Air

The next show we were scheduled to do was the WCCC Big Show, that I had booked a month earlier. I had managed to get some acetates of the newly mastered recordings, and since I had already been told I could count on major airplay support from a number of the stations that had played the first single...I thought it was time to let the Program Directors from those stations get a preview of the record they would be playing soon. I went to WCCC first, since I had developed a good relationship with their Program Director, after all, he had come to the recording sessions, and we were about to do another "Big Show" for the station...to follow up on a very successful first one. I was excited to let him hear the finished product, because he had loved what he had heard before any vocal tracks had been done. I made the appointment to see him at the station about a week before our scheduled concert date at the club. I got into his office, and we talked for a while about the night of the session, and how well things had turned out on this record. Then I played him the acetate. And I knew instantly that something was wrong...he had a strange look on his face. When it was over he looked at me and said..."Mike..there is no way I'm putting this on the air"....and I thought he was joking. He wasn't. After I regained my composure, I asked him why. He told me that the lyrics were too controversial, that I had named certain government agencies by name, and that the lyrics were just too hot to handle. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I pointed out that I had invited him to the sessions, and that he had loved the record...and I had gone forward with manufacturing based on that...and all he said was that it was too bad he hadn't heard the lyrics that night, or he would have told me this stuff then. I was devastated. This was going to kill our momentum. The public expected a follow up record...and it was overdue. A few years later, Don Henly came out with a song called "Smuggler's Blues" which basically said a lot of the same stuff this song did...but this was years earlier...and I wasn't Don Henly. Sometimes being "ahead of the wave" has its drawbacks...and this was definetely one of those times. I knew this could stop us dead in the water...and cripple the band...but there was nothing I could do about it.

Playing The Clubs

For the next few weeks, I did the best I could to get us booked into the major clubs in Conn. Booking any band was not something I had a great deal of experience with. Most of the bands I had been in had the booking handled by managers and booking agents. That was their job, not mine...and I had always been OK with letting those people do that. But I had so much at stake with Avalanche, and was so aware of my need to keep the band working...and moving forward, that I stepped up and did the best I could while waiting for a deal to materialize. In the beginning, it seemed very easy...all the major clubs wanted us in as quickly as we could get there...but the number of rooms in the state that were actually large enough to accomodate us could be counted on two hands...and we played pretty much all of them in the first three months...and sold out nearly all of them. The problem that we were facing was overexposure in the same rooms. Most club owners had bands come in on a rotation...once every two or three months at the most, because to appear more frequently then that would usually result in people getting burned out on a certain act, and then not coming back to see them at all...or at least a lot less often. It made perfect sense, but it eventually left me with a dilemma. Where do we go now? The logical choices were the many colleges and clubs in the two or three state area bordering Conn. I had no idea how to contact or work with those places, but my twin brother, as a club owner, had a lot of experience in dealing with the people who did. I thought that after the hell I had been in only a few years earlier, and how well the band was doing, it would not only be something he'd be willing to do to help us...but it would also be easy and profitable for him too. I was prepared to offer him 10% of whatever the band made from his bookings.  And since many total strangers had stepped up with a lot of help, and he being my twin brother, I never thought twice about asking him. He agreed to get involved, provided I was willing to give him exclusive booking control. He told me that he didn't want me to cross-book the band on the same day he may have booked us elsewhere. That made sense to me, so it was an easy choice. It also proved to be a disastrous one...because when all was said and done, we never got one gig as a result of that decision. At first, I just figured his lack of results was due to his having to lay some necessary groundwork, but after it had gone on for an inordinately long time, and was starting to really affect the band in a negative way...I found out that there was another reason why that was true.

Almost On The Road with Toto

After the Pat Travers date, it seemed like all I had to do was pick up the phone and call any club in Connecticut, and we would instantly get a booking there..and often, clubs would adjust their calendars to get us in quickly  because wherever we did play, we drew huge crowds, and club owners made a lot of money. We were good for their business...and they were good for ours. The only problem was that a lot of the venues available to us were just too small to accomodate our gear....and the crowds we were drawing. There were a few that were big enough though, and those were the ones we concentrated on. One gig that we didn't sell out, was a date at Toad's Place, the premier music club in New Haven. We were there for the first time, and it was a Wednesday night on short notice, without a lot of advance promotion. We drew a respectable crowd for the middle of the week...especially with only a couple of days of limited advertising, but what we found out later on  was that we were competing with a concert at a nearby college featuring a great new band "Toto", which had a huge hit on the air at that time.."Hold The Line"...their debut record. As we started our second set, all the guys from Toto walked into the club, and listened intently to our entire set. When we finished...Jeff Porcaro who was originally from Hartford, and Steve Luthaker, Toto's guitarist came up to talk.  They were very impressed with the band. We exchanged numbers, because they wanted us to be the opening act for their upcoming national tour, which was promoting their first album on Columbia Records. I couldn't believe the luck...what were the odds of a band like that being in the same club we were playing in New Haven on a Wednesday night? I remember having mental images of huge arenas as I went to sleep that night. Two days later, I got a call from Jeff, telling me that although he had done everything he could to make it happen, Columbia Records, and Toto's management had vetoed the idea of using us. They felt that we were too unknown nationally...and wouldn't be able to help fill the arenas by selling tickets outside of Conn. Toto was still trying to establish themselves as a band too, because they were doing the same thing we were...bucking the "conventional" thinking. They were all studio players...who people in the business didn't think could "pull it off" in live performance.That ended up being a groundless fear...but I couldn't say anything except..."thanks for trying"...and felt very disappointed as I hung up the phone.

Another Sold Out Show

 The Pat Travers Band was enjoying a hit record on the air all over the country when we shared the stage with them at the club. "Boom Boom..Out Go The Lights" was on the way up the charts, and to be opening for a band with this kind of visibility was a real opportunity for us. They were one of the bands that Annie was responsible for booking into various venues, and so, of course she was at the show. I think that she was there as much to see how we would do in that kind of situation...opening to a major headliner..as she was for Pat Travers. We knew this was an important date for us. This time, though, we were playing the club on a Friday night, and as an opening act, we would only be doing one set. This time, there were four songs that had to be on the list...the two from the new record needed to be included in the 60 min. set we were being allotted. By an hour before showtime, the club was totally overrun...packed with another sold-out crowd, and although I knew we couldn't take the credit for that, I knew that Avalanche being advertised on the bill had certainly contributed to that fact. I also realized that it didn't matter, because with a turnout like that, the energy in the room would just kick us in the ass, and the exposure we would get would just add to the momentum we were already enjoying. We hit the stage at 9:30PM, and we had a confidence as we got ready to start that was all-business. We  played very well that night, and the "new" songs were big crowd pleasers. It felt great to be called back for an encore... and we gave The Pat Travers Band a really good run for their money that night...and as the crowd left the club...many people were talking about...Avalanche. A week later, I got a call from Annie, telling me that I had a job if I wanted one...playing with Pat Travers as a keyboardist/guitarist. Although I remember thinking to myself that I wished I had gotten that offer three years ago, there was nothing to think about now. I told Annie "thanks, but no thanks...I already have a job," and I realized how far I had come... to be turning down a gig like that, for a band of my own that I felt had greater potential. And I was feeling very good about everything...   

An Avalanche of Confidence

It seemed as though every day that went by, we were doing things in this band that were just causing that momentum we were creating to grow. The first record had done better than we had expected..the gigs had gone incredibly well...we were being courted by an internationally respected booking and management agency...we were being scheduled on tour dates with hugely successful bands...and our second record on my label had been recorded and was being promised heavy airplay, as soon as it was released. And now, we were getting ready to do the first of those tour dates. And most of this had happened in a two month period following our first gig. I knew this wasn't overnight success, because I had been working on this project for over three years, and the band had been woodshedding for almost two years, but once we actually started to appear in public, the speed of our rise was almost "meteoric". I remember meeting the leader of NRBQ, a Connecticut band that had enjoyed a lot of national success, at the club one night, and as I was introduced to him, he shook my hand and said in a very respectful way..."well, well..the Avalanche himself.."and I remember being stunned that this guy had heard about me, but more importantly, he knew about the band. I think it was at that moment, that I realized we were creating a real buzz in the industry...and that we were going to make it. I felt very honored, and humbled. And everyone in the band was feeling the same way. We had a confidence in what we were doing now that showed on and off stage. It is very hard to describe...it was an awareness of being valid...of knowing that everytime we hit the stage we were representing ourselves and our music, and it was up to us to do it the very best we could to project that attitude of validity every night....every night had to be better than the previous one..and we were doing it very well...

Finishing the Record

After the radio guy had left, I was able to finish laying down all the vocal tracks that night. The recording unmixed sounded great. We left all the gear exactly where it was, because we had rented the studio for two consecutive days. We all went home that night feeling very good about ourselves, and the next night we were right back in the studio again, this time to record the "B" side. Because everything was still "dialed in" from the day before, we were able to get right into the playing, but due to the complexity of the song, we spent a few hours more than we had on the previous night before we had a final take we were happy with. The vocals also took longer, due to the three part harmonies (Charles wasn't used to singing), but by 3:00AM we had the entire recording process finished. We packed up the gear, and I made arrangements with Peter to be back again the next day, to begin the mixing process. Once we actually started the mixing, I realized we had far more control of the sound than in the old studio, and I made the decision to take as long as we needed to get the mix "right" on this record. Three days and 24 studio hours later we had our final mixes, and the next phase was mastering, which we could now do on-site. A couple of days later, I met with the owner of the studio to do that, and once we finished..I ordered the pressing of the first two thousand stereo copies. I owed the studio a lot of money, and gave them a big chunk of it on the spot, but there was still a big balance due... but they were so confident in the band, and the record... that they just told me to make regular payments to them. Once again, I was getting a lot of help from places I never expected to get it. People I had only recently met, doing whatever they could... to help us succeed. It felt great. All that was left now, was to wait the four weeks or so it would take for the records to arrive, which gave me time to talk to record stores, and to go back to all the radio stations to set up the release and airplay of the new single...and the concert with The Pat Travers Band was only about a week away...

The Recording Sessions

We entered the new studio to record our second single feeling very optimistic. This was a much nicer place, with much better tools, and we had the benefit of a new confidence in ourselves, our music, and the recording process. We had done this before. It was much more "familiar" territory. What we did have to adjust to was the larger new facility, recording with all of our stage gear, and the acoustic properties of the new room. That took a few hours. The band and the crew were there, as well as Peter, and a few close friends. When we recorded, we liked to be in "our element", so we scheduled our sessions from 8:00PM to 4:00AM...that way we could lock the studio doors, and basically have the place totally to ourselves. There was usually as much cocaine and pot as anyone might need, and if someone wanted to get high, they did. We had a very relaxed attitude in the studio...it made for better and more natural recordings. We spent the first three hours just "dialing in" to the room and getting levels set, so that when that was done, we would be able to just keep rolling tape...sometimes a few takes were necessary to get the basic tracks right. It was around 11:00PM when we actually started playing seriously, and at about midnight, the program director from WCCC showed up and was let in. We stopped, and spent a half an hour or so talking and getting high, and then we left him in the control room with Peter, and began laying down the music for the "A" side. It took about 90 minutes to get a track I was satisfied with, and it was sounding really good. As Peter set up the vocal mics, the guy from the station pulled me aside and told me he was really impressed. Since it was after 3:00AM, he told me he had to be at the station early, so he was leaving. He thanked me for including him in this process, and the last words he said to me before walking out the door were "looks like you've got a real winner with this one". As he left, I felt really confident that the second single was going to be a lot bigger than the first one had been. I just wished he would have stayed to hear the vocals too...and as it turned out, it was a disaster for us that he didn't...

The New Studio

The studio that we had recorded the first single at had been woefully inadequate for our needs. But in the seven months that had gone by, that studio had moved into a new and much larger facility. The main studio was at least six times bigger than the old place had been, and in every way, it was a much better situation for us. The old 16 Track board had been replaced with a brand new 24 Track mixing console. The recorders were new MCI 24 Track 2in. tape machines, capable of recording speeds of 30 inches of tape per second and had brand new recording heads (great for sound quality)...and auto-locating... and all the EQ's, compressors, and effects had been upgraded. There was a much better selection of vocal recording mics (we used our own mics on the instruments), and the main room was large enough for us to be able to bring in all of our stage gear...so the record would sound much closer to the way we were "live"... Plus, as a producer, I had gained some valuable experience and insight during the first sessions, and with all the new improvements at the studio, the record was certain to be a much higher quality recording. Peter was still there, and he had a number of months experience working with all the new tools, so the process of recording and mixing promised to be a much more enjoyable experience. The control room alone was almost as big as the main room in the old studio had been...it had excellent new studio monitors for the mixing process...and it was very comfortable...with light dimmers, couches, wall to wall carpeting...and a cozy vibe. It was a room I knew I'd be able to lots of spend hours in... and feel at home. The studio also now had Mastering equipment on-site, and it was even located on the outskirts of East Hartford, near a river...it was almost scenic. We had the benefit of a much better studio, and combined with Peter having worked with us before... and with the great rate we were getting to come back to record there, (our record had been good for the studio's business, too)....we were assured to have a much better final product. And it was also a much nicer place to invite "guests" to....which hopefully would mean we'd be taken even more seriously by the radio stations...

Selecting The Songs for the New Record

A few days before the next recording session, the band got together at my house to select the two songs we would be recording for the next record. The only thing I insisted on was..that a song be one of Mark's, and the other, one of mine. I also hoped that we could pick two songs from our repertoire that covered different musical territory from the first two songs. The band was very versatile. The music could vary greatly. And clearly, both the writers should both be showcased. What was obvious was..the musical "identity" of Avalanche music was unmistakeable, no matter what songs we decided on. We talked about it for a few hours, and batted a lot of ideas around. We ended up with a very short list of four songs. I had written a song about the politics of drug dealing, in which I plainly stated that drugs flowed into this country because the government had a hand in the business, and used the cash to fund black ops that Congress would never approve funding for. It was also hugely autobiographical as well, and related some of my New York City exploits. The name of the song was "You Just Can't Stop It".. and it was a heavy song...and because that title of it fit in so well with our name Avalanche, and with what was happening with the band at the time, we decided to go with that song as the "A" side... Mark had written another song, during our rehearsals, and we ended up collaborating on harmony guitar sections that showcased a different side of the band...it was very straight ahead rock, but featured double guitar harmonies, with a third harmony played by Charles on bass..it was very cool, and it also rocked. And it was the only song that featured three part vocal harmonies...something Annie had mentioned that her agency hoped to hear more of from us...it was called "It's the Way It Should Be"..and so we decided on that song as the "B" side... Now that we knew what we would be doing...we practiced those songs for a day or two, and went back into the studio...only this time it was a new and improved studio.  

The Material

One of the things about Avalanche's original music that created such an instantaneous appeal for the public, was the depth, quality, and honesty of the songs. The songwriting was simple, but sophisticated, and both Mark and I were writing the best material of our lives, both seperately, and collaboratively. Although we were coming up with huge amounts of music and lyrics, these were not "assembly line" songs. They were thoughtful, personal, sometimes political, and very often autobiographical, and much of what we were writing about in those songs expressed what a large segment of the population was feeling and experiencing...so it was very easy for the public to "identify" with the music. I know that Mark and I were both unwilling to settle for "filler" material, and that we both insisted on getting the musical and lyrical moods to "match up". We wanted every song to be powerful... I personally spent a great deal of my time on my lyrics. I still do. The trick is to say something that anyone can relate to...but in a way that says it differently than anyone else may have already said it...to be fresh, and truthful, without sounding arrogant or "preachy". Nobody ever heard one of our songs and said.."oh, that's the same thing that such and such a band just did".  Our material covered a lot of territory. We had songs about music, women, poverty, unemployment, war and peace, relationships, partying, drugs and drug dealing, addiction....in effect... the life that most people our age were "living"at that time. Love songs had a softer edge, drug songs had a heaviness, party songs were rambunctious...we really fine-tuned the writing process...and because we were writing about ourselves... when we sang them...there was the conviction in our voices that only comes from truly believing what you're saying. And it was very apparent. And it worked...

An Avalanche of Momentum

Within a couple of days of selling out the club, I started to get some interesting phone calls. The first one I got was from Annie in New York City.  A.T.I., it seemed, had already heard about our sold-out show, a feat at a venue that some very big bands they handled hadn't been able to do, even though many of those acts already had major recording deals. Annie told me that she wanted us to open up for The Pat Travers Band, at the club, in three weeks. That band had a hit on the radio, at that time, and it was expected to be another near sell-out. Of course, I agreed, and got the rest of the info from her and as I hung up the phone, I realized we were caught up in a momentum which was surprising even me. Things were happening very, very, fast..and it was all good. I called all the guys, and passed along the  news, and I had barely hung up the phone, when it rang again..and this time it was the Program Director at WCCC, congratulating me on the very successful gig we had just done. He also informed me that WCCC wanted to do another WCCC Big Show with us at the club in six weeks time..and he told me this time, the show would be promoted even more than the first one had been. And again, I  immediately agreed. He also told me that I might want to start thinking about getting the station the next single by then, so we could keep the momentum we had already established. I told him I'd get back to him about that.. I didn't want to tell him we hadn't recorded it yet, so, instead, I asked him if he wanted to be an invited guest at the studio session when we recorded it. He told me to call him when it happened...he'd love to come. As I hung up the phone, I realized that gigs were finding us, I wasn't having to beg for work, and the work we were getting was not the kind of work that new bands were usually offered. It was apparent that this plan of mine was working out better than I had imagined it would...or at least...a lot faster. And I also knew that we had to get back into the recording studio...and soon...so I got on the phone, called the studio, and set up the recording session for the following week...and started to think hard about the next single...and what two songs we should select from our repertoire to record next...

Avalanche Sells out the Club

We arrived at the club around 2:00PM the day of the show. Setting up the Avalanche gear was a two hour job, and we wanted to have the sound check done by 5:00PM at the latest, so that we could leave, get some dinner, and relax before the gig. I remember as we began the sound check, that one of the owners of the club had come down from the office, which was on the other side of the club, which was a very large building. Because we had been so loud, he had become curious about our stage set-up, and I remember seeing the look on his face as he saw our gear set up on the stage for the first time...it was like he realized, for the very first time, that we were not just another local band...and there was no mistaking the surprised look on his face as he listened to our sound check. Things went very smoothly, and we left the club around 5:00PM, as planned. When we returned there at 8:00PM...two hours before showtime...we had trouble finding a place to park. The parking lot was totally filled, and there were hundreds of people in line waiting for the doors to open. Bruce, Mark Brett, and I looked at each other and just started to laugh. This was unbelievable. It was a Tuesday night! When the Police had played on a Tuesday,(before "Roxanne") they drew 13 people! We walked through the crowd, knocked on the doors and were let in to get to the dressing rooms. We got to our rooms on the second floor and began writing up our set lists. This time, we didn't have to pick songs. These people were going to get two 90 min sets, which meant they'd get to hear most of our new material. Even people who had been at the show two days earlier were going to hear a different show tonight. By the time we hit the stage at 10:00PM...the club was sold out, and it was wall to wall packed. And there was no chance we wouldn't be really good that night. We had done this, just two days earlier...and here, at the club, we were in our element, and as we hit the stage for the first set, we had the crowd in our pocket again before we ever played a note..and all I can remember thinking was..."this is unbelievable"...

WCCC 106.9 FM and Avalanche

Obviously, all the airplay and support from Conn. radio stations was having a huge impact on the public. The radio station that did the most to help us, was also the biggest rock station in the state at the time, WCCC 106.9FM in Hartford. I had always listened to this station anyway, as they had always played what I thought was the best music of all the Connecticut stations. About three weeks before our debut, the Program Director for the station had called to tell me that the station wanted to do a major co-promotion with the club on July 5, featuring Avalanche. They did a lot of these...with up and coming national acts that they liked. Sometimes they worked out, and drew huge crowds...and sometimes...they didn't. They were called WCCC Big Shows, and usually, as part of the promotion, the first 107 people would get free T-Shirts with the band and station name on them. When I got the call, I had agreed to do the show immediately, because I knew we'd get a lot of exposure and radio airtime when the station promoted it, and I was grateful to have their help and support. After the debut, we had two days to rest and prepare for this...our first gig at the best club in New England, and my second home. It would also be our first indoor date, and with all the gear we used, it would be as big a production as any national act that had appeared there in the past. And everyone had appeared there..Journey, Aerosmith, Dire Straits, The Police, Count Basie, Miles Davis...the list was very long. And the club featured and showcased every musical genre. It was a club owned by musicians...and many bands who played there were often too successful to play clubs..but they came there anyway...because it was an oasis between New York and Boston...and  musicians knew about it, and loved playing there, and would tell other musicians about it. I think when the club and the station agreed to the co-promote, the club did so mainly out of friendship to me, more than anything else...and because it was a Tuesday night, the club normally wouldn't be very busy anyway, so we wouldn't hurt their business. We were  looking forward to playing ...we had all performed there before, while playing with many different groups, and it was a very comfortable place for us. After Avalanche's debut gig, the  buzz about the band was everywhere, including on the radio...and the owners of the club slowly began to realize that more people might show up for this show than they had originally thought...

Thoughts After the Show

After we had finished our set, and I had a chance to just take it all in...it was pretty overwhelming. I remember literally hunderds of people coming up to all of us to congratulate us. I knew we had done well, but after spending the past few years almost hiding from the world, I just wasn't prepared for so many people..suddenly wanting to get close to me. I mean it felt really good... but there was still a part of me that was scarred from how I had been treated after my Mom's murder, and during my heroin addiction, and I couldn't help but wonder why none of these people could see I was always the person they now saw. But I guess if I'm really honest about it, I really wasn't. I had gone from being a local celebrity, to a suspected psychotic murderer..to a junkie...to a person who had just done something extraordinarily difficult for anyone to accomplish. I guess the one part of the plan I had never devised..was how to deal with the feelings I would experience if the plan succeeded. All of that self-doubt, and insecurity was still in me...I was still wounded...and the disease of addiction was very much alive and well in me, because I was in denial of the fact that I had just substituted substances..which just fed those feelings. But all in all, I was very content. I felt I no longer had to justify my life or my existence to anyone..and that music was still the most powerful force in my life. Mark, Charles and Barry, and all of the crew had risen to the challenge, and had done their jobs remarkably well. There were no obvious mistakes, no technical glitches, no real problems at any time during the show. I realized it was only going to get better, as we all got more used to performing...and as using all the gear and working with each other became more of a routine. And it was amazing to know that the audiences loved the music before the music even started...the energy I felt from the crowd..and knowing that it was our music...created out of our collective efforts, and literally out of thin air...that was fueling that energy...is probably the greatest high I had ever experienced in my life. That night, after reflecting on, and savoring the day with the guys in the band and many of my friends from my inner circle...I slept very well.

Avalanche Hits the Stage....Finally!

That moment as Avalanche took the stage for the very first time I will  always remember, but to be honest, a lot of the specifics elude me. I do remember some of the thoughts and feelings clearly, though.The stage had been built specially, just for this day, and was at least four times larger than in other years. It was about seven feet above the ground, so as we all walked up the steps to take the stage...the panoramic view...and the "sea" of people was incredible. As I looked at all of our stage gear and PA, completely set up for the first time...even I was impressed. I got the same feeling I'd get when I went to a concert and saw lots of gear on the stage...and I knew that I was going to see a good show. The crew was waiting...and handed us the guitars, and smiled, and I remember Bruce, Mark, and Dave...saying something like "let's tear this place up!" It felt very comfortable, and familiar...and I knew we were among three thousand friends, and it was going to be alright. We checked the monitors, and the amps with a few chords, and Barry made sure the drums were comfortable, when the crowd heard those first few notes, the atmosphere became very electric...and it seemed like all of them moved closer to the stage. I still had a few doubts...but they weren't about how we would do...but rather what we had chosen to do. We had 35 extremely good all-original songs...tightly rehearsed, but at the most, we would get to do about 15 of them. Trying to select the songs for that gig was a challenge. The only two I knew had to be in the set were the two songs that the audience already knew. I don't have a clear memory of the set list, but I do remember that it was a non-stop assault, and that the audience response was very positive...and the one thing I remember the most was...that it ended sooner than I wanted it to. We played roughly a 90 minute set...we would have played longer, but there were no lights at this place, and we had to make sure we left ourselves enough daylight to pack up all that gear. When we were finished...and I walked back down the steps, I felt like I was somehow different...and I think everybody else in the group did too...and we knew...we were on our way....

A New Day Dawns

On the morning of July 2, the weather was sunny and clear. A good omen. We were playing at a place called Eagleville Speedway, in Eagleville, Conn. I woke up early, around 9:00AM, because I had to meet Peter Solak at the concert site. He was delivering a large bank of fusing circuits for the PA System. The PA was very large, nearly 5000 watts of power, and I was worried that we might damage the twenty JBL Concert Speakers or the twelve JBL High Frequency Horns..since this was the first time the entire system had ever been set up at one time. (in rehearsal, we could only use half the system). We knew that there would be "bugs" to work out on the first few gigs...but I wanted to be sure that blowing the PA system on the first gig wasn't one of them. By 11:00 AM the people started to arrive. Annie had come in the night before and had stayed with me. The band and crew were all there too, although we weren't scheduled to go on until late afternoon. I allowed all the bands playing that day to use our PA, but our special effects, our recording mics, and our stage gear were held back, so most of the mics for the bands came from the club. There were five bands playing that day, and the music started just before noon. By 3:00 PM, there were over 3000 people in attendance, and people were still coming in.  I knew we had a lot to do with the draw...The largest crowd ever for this event had been 700 people..the year before. I knew most of these people had come to see us. I couldn't help but think about how many bands ever pull a crowd of 3000 plus for their first gig? It felt really good. There were many people I had known over the years that had come to see the band, and I was pulled aside to "catch up" with people I hadn't seen for a while. Patti and Annie were both busy socializing too, because it was a party, and an annual event. The problem I had feared might happen with them became a non-issue. It seemed that they knew that I was there to work...and everybody else was there to just have a good time. As the hour approached...the band got together in a nearby house, changed into our stage clothes, did a few lines, and talked one last time about the set list..and then someone came in and said.."OK guys, this is it"...and we headed outside with emotions flying...   

The Final Rehearsal

On the afternoon of Friday, July 1, we finished our final rehearsal before playing our first concert as Avalanche. Everyone was pretty quiet when it ended...we knew we had done everything we could possibly do to be ready for this debut. I  looked around and surveyed what we had built, and what we had accomplished.....and thought about what the following day really represented. It represented nearly three years of very hard work for me...the building process had begun long before there was a band. It represented a return from the depths of Hell...a resurrection of my life. It represented thousands of hours of writing, playing, dealing, driving, and keeping my eye on the prize. As I looked at the $75,000.00 worth of state-of-the-art stage gear and PA, the twenty four flight cases all gleaming, numbered, and with AVALANCHE and the word "Fragile" emblazoned on each one, I thought about my life, and how close I had come to death, and realized...just how true that was...and just how lucky I had been to have survived...to see this day arrive. And I thought about how I wished my Mom could be here to see this. The next day would be validation...and a tribute to the dedication and loyalty of ten people, who dared to dream a dream, and against all odds...make it happen. I was very happy. And I was very proud of Charles, Mark, and Barry...and all the guys in our crew who plunged into this thing as if it was their dream too. And I know ...that was because it was. And I was proud of myself, too. I wasn't really nervous or worried. We were ready. There was really nothing more we could do to prepare for this gig. The only real unanswered question was whether or not we were as good as we thought we were...and only an audience can tell you that. But the record had been played four times a day for 13 weeks on eight stations...and the word was...that the crowd that was expected to show up for our debut was going to be huge. That is more than any band playing its first gig can hope for...a real audience...and I hoped our music would do our talking for us...

Making the Choice

With Avalanche's first gig just around the corner, the last thing I needed in my life was more stress. But whether I needed it or not...it was there... because the two women in my life at that moment, were in a tug of war for my time and my attention. It was a real problem for me. Although I didn't take my sexual relationship with Annie lightly, I had talked with her on several occasions about her expectations, her feelings, and whether our  relationship was an exclusive one. I was comfortable with the belief that she was honest with me when she told me that she saw other men, and that our weekends together were a combination of business, friendship, partying, and the fact that we both enjoyed each other sexually. Annie had spent a lot of time in Conn. working with her bands at the club, but she had also spent a lot of time and energy with me and my band, and I knew she had a lot at stake with me, personally...and professionally, as an agent. It was almost as if we were business partners as much as sexual partners. Patti, on the other hand, I was very infatuated with...she was in many ways like a fantasy in my life, and although we had very little in common other than sex and partying...I had gotten very uncomfortable when I thought about losing her. Now I was faced with this almost impossible dilemma, on the eve of the most important day of my life. I knew both of these women were going to be at the concert. And I wanted to make sure that neither felt slighted. I wrestled with my options for a few days. In the end there was only one choice that made sense to me...the whole day was about the band's future...and Annie was the one that could make a lot of things happen for the band, if she liked what she saw and heard that day. So in the end, there really was no choice for me. Annie would be with me anytime she felt like she needed to be. She knew dozens of other people who would also be at the show, and I knew I'd have some free time to spend with Patti, too...but on this day, Annie would have to come first...because the band had to come first. But I made the decision to make both women aware of the fact that the other would be there, and I might not be able to give either one of them my undivided attention. That was the best I could do...and I hoped it would be good enough.

Patti Again

For the few months before we played our first gig, I had been seeing more of Patti. I usually would see her during the week, when Annie was in New York, and Patti's schedule permitted. Being a very capable pharmacist, she worked a lot and her work schedule usually had her tied up on the weekends...which worked perfectly for me, because Annie was coming up on the weekends...sometimes to visit, and sometimes because her bands were at the club...and for a while there was no real conflict in me seeing both of them. Patti was pretty inexperienced with the lifestyle I had always lived, but it was exciting, and she was slowly being seduced by it, by me...and by cocaine. On the occasional weekends that Annie was tied up in New York, Patti would adjust her schedule so she could stay with me at the house, and the whirlwind I was living in meant she was living in it, too. She would also spend time with me there during the week too, since that was often when she had time off from her job. Patti had no experience with drugs, but being around me meant she was around them, and it wasn't long before she discovered that she really loved cocaine. We'd go to my house, drink some champagne, do cocaine for a few hours, and spend a lot of time making love...and the sex was good. I had never been with such a beautiful woman, and I was very taken with her.  What I didn't realize was just how taken Patti was..not only with me..but with cocaine. For her, I think it was an instantaneous addiction. I was so caught up in all the things that were going on in my life, that I guess I wasn't paying attention to that, and I was so used to using drugs, that I never thought about the fact that...she wasn't. I really regret that oversight today, because drugs were very destructive to Patti, and she has never fully recovered from them...and for a long time, I blamed myself. I'm not really clear how much Patti's desire to be with me at that time was about me...or my drugs...it was probably a little of both...but at the time I thought  it was about me. After the record was released, and our first gig was announced, Patti decided that she was going to be there, and she expected me to be with her on that day. I had no idea how I was going to pull that off, because Annie was definetely coming and expected the same thing...and the girls didn't like each other. I knew this could be a real problem for me...and I had to make a decision.

Annie and American Talent International

Between the record being released and being well received by the public, and the announcement that the band was finally going to start performing, we were starting to be noticed outside of Conn. This was the real deal...it was no longer a dream or a fantasy, and Annie started coming to Conn. every weekend, to stay appraised of our progress, and of course, to spend time with me. She told me that her superiors at the agency were really starting to pay attention now, and there was some major label interest, too. It was a little hard for me to believe... I had always thought this was exactly what would happen, but seeing it become a reality took some getting used to. Annie made some very helpful suggestions, and also told me that she might be able to get us on some dates with some of the other bands she handled, as an opening act, if we did well in live performance. The dates were all still a couple of months away, but I couldn't help being amazed at what I was being told...since we hadn't even performed in front of an audience yet. I knew some of the bands that she booked...Blue Oyster Cult, Derringer, AC/DC, Pat Travers, Molly Hatchet...were some of the best rock bands in the world. She told me that she would need to see how we did on our debut gig before she would make any recommendations to her superiors, but that I should be aware of how important this debut was. And of course, she would be there. I couldn't help but think to myself what a great friend and ally Annie had become to me, and how she was really going out on a limb for the band...and I realized that she had never been a part of my plan...but that things I had absolutely no role in consciously creating were falling into place to help support this band..and I was truly grateful for all her help. I felt very lucky...and very blessed to have found friends like that...only three years earlier I had been a hopeless junkie....but there was a problem brewing on the horizon for me...and I couldn't possibly know how quickly things could change...in the blink of an eye...and all of it because of an infatuation...

Taking Care of the Final Details

In the last six weeks before our first gig, I was putting in 18 hour days..every day. On top of all the last-minute equipment additions, and the daily rehearsals, I still had to take care of my customers and my business...that money had to keep coming in. The business never slowed down. And as the record got more airplay, and the success of the band seemed more and more likely... it seemed like all the women involved with the band were "jockeying" for position, too. Trying to keep it all together was definetely a challenge. We now had set the date for our first gig..it was going to be at a huge annual bandfest and party...that had gotten bigger and better...each successive year it had been held. It was put on by one of my friends who worked at the club, and was also a business contact. And we were going to be the "headliner"...the final band to hit the stage. We printed up a new batch of posters, but this time in addition to the words AVALANCHE IS COMING!...we also added the time, date, and location of this party. It was a Fourth of July event every year, and this year, it was falling on Saturday July 2,1979. We distributed the posters pretty much the same way we had with the first batch, but we had the added benefit of a record on the air, the public awareness of what "Avalanche" was...and a whole lot of word of mouth anticipation of the debut. Even the most die-hard skeptics who earlier on had said I was dreaming...had changed their tune. As I had said earlier, the record had changed the public's perception of us, as I had always known it would. We had always been motivated...but we were totally committed now. The date had been set...all the wheels were in motion...and we knew what we had to do.

Trying to Keep A Perspective

As April of 1979 ended, trying to stay focused on the work that still needed to be done was all I was thinking about. After the record had been played for a while on radio stations, all the problems I had been dealing with inside the band seemed to fade away. Everyone involved had total confidence in the project now, and we were all on a mission to make sure that we finished anything still undone. What surprised me were all the things I hadn't thought of at all, when we began this project...things that were becoming clearly necessary for us to do now...if we were to succeed. Even though we had been in serious rehearsals for well over a year, the public's apparent interest in the record made us aware of the fact that we now had an image to live up to that hadn't existed before. The public's perception and expectation of what we'd be like in performance had suddenly raised the bar for us, and we knew that we had to be better in concert than what the public expected, or else we'd lose that precious momentum. We begin intense five hour daily rehearsals, and we began rehearsing sets, as if on a concert stage. There were no retakes of songs...we would analyze our performances after we had played, to find out what areas were right, and what needed attention. We worked with the roadies on executing guitar switches, so they could get used to the pressure they would be under at a real show. They learned how to use strobe tuners, visually retuning very quickly...while very loud music was happening right next to them. We'd work on changing guitars on every song, so the show wouldn't have to stop for Mark and I to do tune-ups. We worked on presentation...on being so sure of ourselves that we made it look easy. This wouldn't have been possible without all the earlier work we had done...but now, it was beginning to be real...and we were only two months away from our live debut. We fine-tuned the vocals, worked on perfecting the mixes...and we still had to adjust to new equipment, as it arrived. Since most of this gear was so powerful, just learning how to control that much sound energy was a challenge...but everyone just dug in to do the work...and I was very proud of everyone. We were all operating like a well oiled machine...and all the cylinders were firing...

The House on McCall Road

In late 1977, I had moved into a really unique house. It was a 200 year old Dutch barn that had been completely renovated. The downstairs consisted of a new kitchen, dining room and master bedroom..and the "loft" was the main living area of the house, and a seperate section of the loft, adjacent to the living room had a second bedroom facing the back yard of the property...with sliding glass doors leading to a deck overlooking a brook. The loft also had a bathroom, and a large living room with huge picture windows in front, overlooking two acres of landscaped property with fieldstone walks, stone walls, fruit trees, a woodshed, and an old garage with a laundry in it. The house was set back about 250 ft. from the street, on a sharp corner, so people driving by had to watch the road, and could often "miss" the property. It was very private. The loft walls were curved, like an upside down boat hull, and inside, the loft walls had been finished in new hardwood oak flooring from floor to ceiling, and the entire loft was carpeted, with a fireplace set on a brick base. I bought new furniture for the upstairs, and an antique dining room set for the downstairs. It was a very cool place and I loved it. I was only paying $350.00 per month rent for it. Originally I shared it with a friend of mine, who also owned the bar I had met Patti in...but he was having personal problems with alcohol and cocaine, and a divorce he was going through. In less than six months, he was losing his bar due to his inability to pay bills, including the one he owed me, and so he moved out. After he had left, I asked Bruce, to move in. I had always preferred the second floor bedroom, off the loft area, and so when the Master bedroom became available...it went to Bruce. He was the perfect choice for a housemate...we were business partners...he worked in the band...he valued privacy as much as I did...and he never broke my rules. Money wasn't an issue for him, and another plus was...we partied the same way...hard. For all the Avalanche years, we lived there, and it was a great time. We became very close during that time, and the bond we developed survived many difficult years, and remains very strong, even today. At that time, I also got a puppy who was a Collie-Shepherd like Kilo had been, and because he had to black circles around his eyes...I named him Kayo...and the name stuck, even though the circles faded away by the time he was six months old. Unfortunately he wandered into an adjoining property, and was shot by the farmer who lived there. About four months after that happened, I replaced Kayo with another puppy, this one a pure white Samoyed Huskie and White German Shepherd cross. His name was Snooper, and I was really glad to have another very exceptional dog in my house and in my life. He too, was an amazing animal...incredibly beautiful, very smart, and very loyal...and he helped fill the hole in my heart that had been left when Kilo died. But I was destined to lose him a few years later, too...and although dogs brought great joy into my life...losing them also brought great pain and sadness, too. I'll talk more about that later. After three years of living on this beautiful estate, the landlords offered to sell me the entire property for $60,000.00...a steal...but I was unable to react to the offer, because the band was tying up my cash, not to mention the money I was spending on my escalating drug use. To this day, I regret not buying that property. It was just one of the many sacrifices I made for Avalanche, and to my addiction.   

Avalanche Hits the Airwaves

I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, as a musician who had gotten totally lost, and nearly died...only three years earlier...there was no greater joy in my life then the one I experienced that Wednesday afternoon in mid February of 1979, as I was driving back from picking up more new gear from the West Hartford music store I was buying everything from...and as I headed down the Interstate at rush hour...Avalanche's new single came on the radio. It was tuned to WCCC, the rock station I had always listened to...and they were playing Little Miss Sad Eyes during the afternoon commute! That was always the time that station played what it considered its hottest new releases..and I was listening to our band! I had to pull over. And just listen. To make sure I was really hearing it right. No drug I had ever done felt like this...I felt elated, euphoric, amazed, proud, disbelieving, and validated...all at the same time. The next day...the same thing happened again, only this time...a lot of the guys were listening for it...and the station played I'm Gonna Give My Love...what we had thought was the "B" side! When it was over, the DJ from the station said a few flattering words about the group...and that the song was perfect "highway" music...and I knew that I had, once again, taken the pulse of the public correctly. Within a week, a number of the stations we had talked to were playing one or both of the songs. We were averaging roughly four "plays" per day, per station. And people were calling up the stations requesting Avalanche...A week later, Nick surprised us all by showing up with a thousand bumper stickers that he had manufactured for the band in Boston (he was from Quincy, a Boston suburb)...with a picture of a rugged, "rocky" mountain range, and "icy" letters saying "Avalanche Will Rock You" super-imposed over the mountains...and that became the rough idea for what would become the band's logo. The public finally knew who we were, and requests for the songs began to really hit the stations, especially in Connecticut, and Springfield, Mass. The mental blueprint I had been following for over two and a half years was actually working out as planned...and we were still three and a half months away from our first public appearance...

The First Record is Released

We had finished the recording and mixing of the first Avalanche single in December of 1978, and the next month was a flurry of activity for me. I was going to have an artist create a label design for Golden Sun Records, but there were some very creative people working in Avalanche, and Skip, our sound engineer ended up coming up with a great label design. Meanwhile, I had to secure all the copyrights and publishing for the songs, and I had to finish the mastering process, and initiate the manufacture of the first 2000 singles. It was a lot of work..but it was also a labor of love. We also decided that it was time to start a promotional campaign to promote the band to the public. It was a really simple but very effective idea. We printed up hundreds of posters...and all that was printed on them, in bold print.. were the words: AVALANCHE IS COMING! We distributed them statewide..on telephone poles..on the sides of buildings..wherever we could nail them up. It was winter in Conn., and I'm sure many people who saw them, thought we were talking about an imminent weather threat. There was no mention of what "Avalanche" was...nobody knew that we were talking about a band..and it raised a lot of eyebrows, and created a lot of curiosity. And curiosity was exactly what we wanted...we wanted people talking and asking questions...we knew they would get their answer soon enough...and nothing works like word of mouth. The first shipment of records arrived at the studio in the second week in January of 1979. I was elated. I was looking at boxes of records, on my record label, featuring our band, and everything looked and sounded like it was supposed to (although I still felt the recording could have and should have been better). They were stereo 45's too, which also wasn't the normal thing. 45 RPM records were usually monophonic, but, again, we were not cutting any corners. The next week was spent with program directors from thirteen radio stations in Connecticut, Massachusettes, and Rhode Island. Not only did they all like the record, but I got guarantees in writing of intent to add the new Avalanche record to those stations' on-air playlists. The biggest rock stations in those states were all on board..WCCC, WHCN, WPLR, WAAF, WDRC, WICH, WILI, WERI, WHYN, WBCN...Hartford, New Haven, Norwich, New London, Westerly, R.I., Worcester and Boston, Mass...even a couple of New York stations agreed to play the record..and apparently, a few of them liked both sides. The record was officially released on January 24, 1979, my 27th birthday...and to this day...it was the best birthday present I ever got.

The Seeds of Doom...A Side Project...The Shaboo All-Stars

It was almost Christmas, 1978..,and my twin brother, who had screwed up the earlier band project...approached me and told me he wanted to play the club on New Years Eve that year, which was only ten days away...as an opening act for James Cotton. His idea was that we would do one set only, and he claimed his motive was purely that he missed performing. He asked me to be a part of the group for that gig...and that he had a drummer and a sax player already lined up. He wanted me to play keyboards, and he asked if I could get Charles to play bass and Mark to play guitar, and the final member of the group would be my older brother, Mark, who was also a very capable lead singer...and since the three of us hadn't been in a band together since that first very successful band we had all participated in while I was still in high school...I thought it would be fun...and nostalgic. I also thought it would be a good way for the three of us in Avalanche to get in a little "playing time" in front of an audience, which was already close to being a 1600 person sell-out. We would be doing traditional R&B, and it was only a set...so I told him I thought we'd be able to do it. He also said if it went over well, then we might be able to get some other gigs from it, too. The days went by quickly. We didn't even meet to practice until the night of the show, four hours before we were to hit the stage, to be exact. The first hour was just a big debate and an argument, and we still didn't have one song down yet. I stood up, exasperrated, and said either I be allowed to assume the role of Musical Director right then and there...or I was out of there..because it was only three hours before showtime, and I wasn't going to embarrass myself. Everyone agreed, and 2 hours later, with 60 mins. to spare...we had a set finished. We went onstage that night... and we went over like gangbusters, and The Shaboo All Stars...featuring the name of the club, rather than any particular musician or musicians... was born. We played about six gigs with that personnel before my twin brother decided he didn't need me or my guys anymore, or my brother Mark, either...and we were replaced by other musicians my twin brother had met through being one of the club's owners. To this day, he refuses to acknowledge that those initial gigs ever happened...I've never fully understood his motive for doing that, but I believe he wanted to take all the credit for creating that band. That felt really petty...and today, that band still exists and is quite successful, and my role in creating it and working in for years, and contributing greatly to its growth and development...still goes unacknowledged...but there was a much greater consequence for me to deal with as a result of my efforts in the creation of that group...because that band of his...eventually became a disaster for mine...

The Recording Studio

The studio where Peter was working at was small, and was totally inadequate to accomodate a band like ours, a band with huge amounts of gear, and very high standards. I think the ease in which I was able to just get in there quickly and cheaply had a lot to do with my decision, but it was a poor decision on my part. I chalk that up to lack of recording experience, and therefore, I guess I believed that it would "do". It was the first and last time I would "cut corners" with this band. The guy who owned the studio was an electronics wizard, who had designed his own board, and a lot of the electronics...and I guess the studio was OK for some situations, but it just didn't have the flexibility and control over the sound that we needed to make a really first rate recording, especially with our high volume levels and the need for state of the art effects. We did the best we could with what we had to work with...but we shouldn't have been in there. Today, I wish that Charles, with all his recording experience, had said something to me before we went in there to record ..but he never did, but would later complain about the inadequate facilities...and about how I was "running" things...it was just another time where I thought Charles' experience could  have helped us to realize our goals more effectively...but for whatever reason...he never opened his mouth or volunteered any of that experience...and it didn't get discussed. Maybe I was responsible for that, by creating the impression that these things were already decided...I know in my mind that I was in uncharted waters, and was making some guesses I would have welcomed some help with...but so many other things about this "blueprint" were not up for debate, that I may have been responsible for this...I'm looking back at it now...wondering...did these guys think that everything was inflexible? Did they think all things were set in stone? I really don't know the answer to that...but I do know that I made some mistakes, and it appears one of them was not talking more about this aspect of the plan...I needed some help from people with more experience in this area...but I didn't ask for it...and it wasn't offered.

The Essential Need for Momentum

I think part of the frustration that the guys were all feeling...especially Charles...was that we weren't playing out yet. By design, there were no gigs happening yet, in fact we were still almost seven months away from our first public appearance. There was no emotional reinforcement from audiences or fans, and all musicians need validation of what they do. And Charles was so used to playing in front of audiences regularly, and touring...that not doing that was creating an emotional void in his life. Everyone in the band could see the progress, and feel the momentum, but everyone was getting a little bit squirrely...we all wanted to perform. Keeping that "momentum" happening in the band was essential to keeping everyone committed to the project, and the truth was, the next part of the plan was about to happen. The band was about to go into the recording studio to record our first single. There was a guy who worked at the music store in Hartford that I was buying all the gear from, that had taken a real interest in this project, and he was a recording engineer at a recording studio in East Hartford. Because of his willingness to help the band, and get us better rates at the studio, I made the decision to record there. It wasn't the best studio, by any means, but it was very nice to have somebody else help me to make the process easier, because my hands were already very full. Peter Solak was a very capable engineer, and when we actually did the recording session, he was able to lock the studio doors...with only him and the band there, and we could not only spend hours undisturbed getting a feel for the studio, but also getting in the right "mood" to play...in complete safety and privacy. We selected one of my songs..."Little Miss Sad Eyes"...which was about Patti, as the "A" side, and a song that Mark had written, and I had arranged..."(I'm gonna) Give My Love"...as the "B" side. They were both very strong songs, and seemed like logical choices for our debut. The studio had severe limitations, but we were learning as we went. I had a mixing degree from the Recording Institute of America, but this was the first chance I had to utilize it. My inexperience, and the obvious limitations of the studio I had selected became apparent when the first single was finished. I wasn't satisfied with the finished product at all, but what I learned from that was...if it isn't right...don't cut corners...and don't settle...until it is.

Keeping the Band Happy

I guess I just need to say this..with the exception of Barry, we all had drug problems in this band. Barry got high, but always seemed to have a handle on it. The big problem for me was....I had the drugs.Whether I was willing to admit it, or whether the guys were willing to admit it, it often felt like there was some envy of that, a subtle, underlying resentment, because they had to ration their stuff, but I always had large quantities. And aside from my own drug problems, the main reason I always had the stuff was because it was the only reason we had been able to get where we were. It was the vehicle that was making everything possible. But it was becoming a Catch-22. I was very generous with everyone in the band and crew. Just keeping everyone "happy" was personally costing me over $1500.00 a week, and that did not include salaries, or the thousands of dollars worth of gear I was buying for everyone's benefit. Even as the financial demands on me grew, I refused to allow that to interfere with my plan or its timetable, so I just increased the amount of business I did...but it was getting exhausting. I had to generate well over $2500.00 per week, every week, just to keep that band going...and that was in 1978 dollars. On top of those stresses, I still was writing, rehearsing, picking up new gear, checking out studios, and forming my own publishing company and record label...Crystal Magic Music, and Golden Sun Records. I also had to play the role of peacekeeper and cheerleader, as well as trying to keep myself safe from legal consequences...and I was juggling the women in my life, too. I have learned in my recovery from addiction...that drugs, which at first had seemed like the solution to the stresses I was coping with, or the vehicle I had found to fund the things I was attempting in my life...in the end, actually became the problem. Most of the guys would take at least a portion of their salaries in drugs, which made it easier for me to pay them, but fueled some erratic behavior in all of us...By them doing that, it was also easier for me to continue spending more of the money that was coming in from my business on the gear and recording...and although I can't see how we could have done this thing any other way...I can also now see that there was a very real toll that the drugs started taking on all of us... 

The Band's "Other Women"

The other guys also had women they were involved with, too. And even though I knew I couldn't control the love lives of the guys..I wasn't going to let the loves in their lives determine what would happen in this band. And every one of these women had very strong opinions on what "should" be happening with the group. And the opinions went from one extreme to the other. Mark was married, and he and his wife had a young son. Mark was totally devoted to both of them, but as the band got closer and closer to becoming a reality, to me, it always felt like Mark's wife seemed  more and more insecure, and more threatened by our likely success, and by the groupies that would inevitably appear with it. It was a groundless fear, because Mark didn't even look at other women...but that didn't keep his wife, Josie, from perceiving the band as a threat to her world. I also think that she in some way believed that Mark's past drug problems, and the fear they might resurface, was a result of his friendship with me. Mark had been getting high since long before I became friends with him, and he made his own choices in that area. Although everyone in the band liked to party, and I certainly did the best I could to minimize the cost of drugs for everyone in it...Mark would have been doing what he had always done, regardless of my role in his life. But it was a source of friction between Josie and me, and I never felt that Josie wanted to see the band succeed. That was always my perception, and is pure speculation on my part...but that is how it felt to me. To this day, I still think she would prefer if Mark and I didn't interact with each other. Charles was living with a beautiful girl named Bonnie, as well as having a very close relationship with Nick, who he always described as his "manager"...although I always felt there was something much deeper happening there. I knew that what they did on their own time was none of my business, and I really didn't want to know...all I knew was when the three of them were together.. that was usually when Charles would come back to me with complaints about things that he hadn't had a problem with at all...a day or two earlier. And it usually amounted to Charles wanted more validation, or more control over aspects of the band that had already been clearly discussed and agreed upon. Charles wanted more money, and more drugs from me, and Bonnie and Nick fed his ego and encouraged him to make demands of me that Charles knew I couldn't meet. He would say he wanted more control over the repertoire, but never came up with one song he had written...so I didn't know how to satisfy that demand. He liked to point out what he saw as problems, or more accurately, what Bonnie or Nick perceived as problems, but he never offered any solutions. And in the end, he would always use those times to debate our "course"...as a way to spend a few hours getting high on cocaine I had, while I calmed him down. As time went on, I became aware of the fact that Charles had found a way to get high any time he felt like it...he would just find something to create a crisis over, even when there wasn't one. I couldn't understand it, most of the time...we were making amazing progress...a blind man could see it...and when Charles wasn't being influenced by Nick and Bonnie, Charles himself would be the first person to express how happy he was about the way things were going. But this was a problem...and having so much cocaine around all the time just made it easier for Charles to drink more, and he'd become agitated and belligerent unless he "straightened out" with some coke. Nick had a lot of coke too, but when Nick said "enough"...Charles just came to me, and if necessary, would throw a tantrum...and it was getting very unpleasant, and very expensive...

The Politics with the Women

At this time, there were three women who were directly involved with me, and therefore, affected the band... trying to work with that dynamic was very difficult..and not having had a lot of experience with intimate relationships, and the politics that went with them, I know that I probably could have done better in this area. In 1977, while I was seeing both Annie and Katherine, the singer I had worked with in the band right after my bout with Hepatitis, I met a strikingly beautiful 24yr. old girl at a local nightclub. I was very taken with Patti, and she with me, but I also liked my freedom, so we dated, but not exclusively. I had great friendships with Annie and Katherine too, and I liked the variety..and so did they.. and I think it had a lot to do with that whole time. But Patti didn't feel the same way. She wasn't a "flower child". She was a college educated registered pharmacist, who was very together and successful at 24. As we started to date more, she made it more and more clear that she wanted more of my time,which really meant she didn't like sharing me. I was very honest with her about who I was, what I was about, and how I enjoyed my freedom, and also how important Annie was becoming to the band's future. For a while, she understood, but as time went on, it became a contest between the two of them, to see who would "get me" on the weekends. Trying to juggle those two, without making either of them feel neglected became very tricky. I talked with Annie about it. I asked her if her  coming to Conn. more frequently was because her feelings towards me were changing..and if the kind of relationship we had in the past was still OK with her. She assured me that she had to be at the club on business very often anyway, and on weekends when that wasn't true, she just liked getting out of the city for a couple of days, and that she had many other friends there besides me, which was true.. And she reminded me that she still dated other people in New York. And I believed her. She seemed honest and sincere. But I didn't have a lot of experience in these matters..if I had, I might have wondered if she was just telling me what she thought I wanted to hear....I didn't.. and in a few months, I would find out what a huge mistake that was..

Our Crew

I need to say a few words here about the committment to the band, and the incredible work that was done by the Avalanche crew. They were all true believers...and spent hundreds of hours doing very difficult work...and the part they played was huge. This band was a family, and the crew was part of it. The guys in that crew...to this day, are some of my oldest and closest friends. These guys were all part of the "inner circle"...they not only helped me with my business, but they also learned whatever they needed to as roadies...and any one of them could have switched jobs...if necessary. Bruce, my partner and housemate, was very good with my guitars and amps, but ended up being a tech for Barry.  Another very close friend, Mark Brett, who I had known since high school, had become a roadie for The James Cotton Band, the band Charles had played with in Chicago before joining Avalanche, and when that happened, Mark decided to move back here too, after all, Connecticut was his home. Mark is also a very gifted photographer...and today does some of the finest photography of World-Class bands that I have ever seen. Today, I have often wished that he could have kept a photographic record of this band when it was together...but at that time, it was only a hobby...and he was really the head of the crew...so even if he had been as serious a photographer then as he is now, he probably wouldn't have had the time to do that, anyway. But his ability to capture incredible pictures of magical musical moments of great bands while they perform is remarkable...and has always made me wonder if he had been doing his photography then...what kind of pictures he might have taken of Avalanche...onstage, or behind the scenes. He was a first class roadie, with tour experience, and he did a lot to help "train" the other guys in the crew, who had no prior experience. He was Mark's personal guitar tech...as well as the most organized person in the crew.  David Clark was also a great asset...and he was my personal guitar tech, and a lifelong friend...and had spent years working at the Ovation Guitar factory in Connecticut. Brian LaFlamme, was a gentle giant who loved the music and the lifestyle, and Chris Cripe, better known as "Wheat", was my old girlfriend Carol's brother, and was one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet...and was a far cry from his half brother, the guy I suspected in my Mom's death. They were both in charge of trucks, inventory, security, and they did whatever  needed to be done if something unexpected arose when the band was actually on stage.. because all the other techs were committed, once a stage show actually began. Charles had a personal manager, Nick, who was also Charles' tech, and actually bought a lot of Charles stage amps. Nick liked to stir the pot...which sometimes created problems for me while I was trying to keep Charles happy...Nick could be a pain in the ass, and sometimes a disruptive influence...but he was essentially an ally, and definetely a part of the family. And Skip Weeks, the younger brother of Don, the man who had driven me to those clinics in Hartford over a year earlier, was our live sound engineer. We were all very good friends before we did this band...we were all just a bunch of hippies who had gone through Woodstock Nation together. We all loved being together...and we knew how to have a good time. Sadly, Brian was killed in a motorcycle accident a couple of years after the band got together. He is missed. He was a great guy, and a good friend. And I say to all the guys, here and now...thanks, for always believing.

Keeping Things "Under Wraps"

There were a lot of elements to the "blueprint" I was following that I believed were all essential, if we were to be successful in "taking the the world by storm"...and the idea of exploding onto the music scene... appearing out of nowhere, with a great band that nobody had a clue about was something I felt very strongly about. Rehearsals were closed and private. Only band members, crew, or very close friends even knew what we were attempting. And because of the incredible investment in gear, and because of how that gear was being purchased, it was really just another thing people in the "inner circle" accepted as necessary. There were a few exceptions...Annie, who worked in New York City for American Talent International as a booking agent, was starting to spend a lot more weekends in Conn. with me, and since I spent so much of my time with the band, she had a chance to witness what was happening...first hand. And she was impressed. She started talking to the people she worked with in the City, and I was told to give her regular updates and progress reports, because there was already some behind the scenes high level interest....from managers and labels. I told her I would do that, but it was still a ways off before anything  should be discussed seriously. We still had work to do....The owners of the Club (aside from my two brothers, there were four other owners) also knew, but they told me in no uncertain terms that they thought I was living in a fantasy world, and that I was just kidding myself. That didn't bother me at all, because neither they, nor anybody else, knew.... it was really almost accomplished already. They hadn't seen the gear, or heard the music...they hadn't been allowed to witness the flurry of activity... but one of our crew, Don's brother Skip, our live performance sound engineer, was also a sound man at the club...and that made people there... just a little bit curious. The one thing they were all surprised about was not only the caliber and skills of the people who had signed on...but the patience we were all showing to make sure that everything was exactly right. I was still just an ex-junkie dealer, and Mark and Barry were just "locals"...and that is how we were perceived, but people were slowly starting to pay attention. That perception of us would change very soon, however, because the band was about  to head into a Hartford recording studio to record our first single...and the record not only changed the way the world saw us, but it changed the way we saw ourselves...

Writing and Rehearsing

We spent the next fifteen months writing music and rehearsing. The whole process was incredible. On one day, I'd show up with a new song, and we'd work on it for a few days, getting the "bugs" out. Although I have always been a reasonably good player, one of my strongest skill as a musician has always been arranging and producing, and I was thriving on the work. At times, we would have disagreements about how the music should be arranged, but we had a method that worked...we would try all the options or ideas, and the "right" one would always become obvious...we could all hear when we had found it. The next week, Mark would walk in with a new song...or some ideas for a song, and we'd spend a few days learning it, or refining the arrangement.  He and I would "finish each others' sentences"...musically, that is. I'd "hear" a bridge that was missing in one of his songs, or he'd "hear" a chorus for one of mine. We had quite a few songs that were collaborative efforts, and together, we had no shortage of ideas. And it always seemed that no matter what we were working on, we brought out the best in each other. As the musical style of our writing gelled, all four of us became more attuned to each others' nuances, and the songs often came together in a day or two. We would rehearse them over and over again, because the playing had to become automatic, before the singers in the group would be able to focus on lyrics, vocal stylings, and harmonies...and still play their instrumental parts with the same intensity. And all the music was ours...it was euphoric to hear songs materialize out of thin air, and become finished products...and very good ones, at that. We were rapidly approaching our goal of three sets of all-original music, and I can only remember one cover song in our entire repertoire, and it was an old Deep Purple song called "Hush"...and even that was totally rearranged. As we got comfortable playing and singing the material, we began to focus on the details...the sound mixes, the flanges and the echoes...we had spent a lot of money to get those tools, and now, we were learning how to use them, and incorporating them into our music...it was all falling into place. We used eight Sennheiser microphones on Barry's drums alone. We were starting to sound like the bands we listened to on records... and we just kept practicing, because the next part of the plan was to record, and to get Avalanche on the radio airwaves..before we ever played a gig.

Avalanche is Born

Once we knew we had the lineup, getting to work was the only thing we thought about. I rented a nightclub that had closed down in the next town as our rehearsal hall. We would usually get there around 2:00 each afternoon, and we would often stay until nine or ten at night. And that was usually every day. That place became our base, and our world. I was still doing a lot of business, occasionally right out of that hall, but I wanted to keep the business away from the group, whenever possible. Since a lot of the crew  were also customers, that was a little tricky. But I was careful to make sure the band wouldn't be at risk because of what I was doing to finance it. The rule was...keep the business away from the rehearsals...so sometimes, I would leave for a few hours, or I'd get there a little later than the rest of the guys. And that was never a real problem because there was always plenty for all of us to do...and we were all highly motivated. And the work that needed to be done...was getting done. Amps were being customized. Sound systems were being wired. There were trips to New Jersey to pick up new flight cases, or trips to Hartford to pick up gear we had ordered. By this time, we already had over $60,000.00 worth of stage gear at the rehearsal hall, and we had more gear ordered...or about to be ordered. One day, Bruce's older brother...the guy with the big mouth...said something like..."this band is happening like an avalanche...and the instant I heard that...I knew we had our name. Webster's defines "Avalanche" as "an unstoppable natural force"...and between that, and the fact that we were also constantly around cocaine, the name was perfect. I still think it is one of the best names I have ever heard for a hard rock band...and so now...we really had an identity. And for the next month or so, the roadies made stencils, and spray painted "AVALANCHE" on over a dozen steel flight cases we already had. And there would be many more coming. All of them were numbered, inventoried, and color coded, because with all that gear, I wanted to be sure we didn't accidentally forget a case or two after a gig...that could potentially be a loss of thousands of dollars. I also put together a "Roadie Handbook" with all the wiring diagrams and amp settings we would be using onstage. By doing that, the crew could set up everything exactly the way each guy in the band wanted, and the dials would always be set to what each player had determined were their ideal settings...to get the sound and response that they wanted...night after night...so the sound onstage would always be exactly right...and the quality of our show would be very consistent. We were doing everything we could to take variables in sound out of the equation, and as time went on...the results of our efforts became more and more evident.