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.