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...