This was my first serious band since Javelin. It featured Wayne Camp on vocals, Craig Koons on guitar, Joe Lamaina on drums and me on bass. We started out playing cover tunes (hair-metal bands of the day: Motley Crue, Ratt, Ozzy, Kiss) and had one original song, Little Killer.This was the first band I was in that recorded at a recording studio; not once, but twice. Our first time in the studio was this place in Pleasantville, NJ, that used to be a church. We recorded "Smokin' in the Boy's Room", "Little Killer", "Rock and Roll All Night" and "Helter Skelter". This being our first time in the studio, we were pretty much at the mercy of the guys at the mixing board. All in all, it was a good experience.
Our second time in the studio was probably a year later. Our manager, Mike Turron, found a guy in Northfield who actually built a recording studio onto the back of his house. He really went all out with it too. I remember the first time we went there, walking around, amazed at how the walls just soaked up sound so there was no echo. This was nothing like the church. We re-recorded "Little Killer" along with four other originals: "Get Ready", "Just Call Me", "Lucky 7" and the blues inspired "We Like It Hot." The owner of the studio was still learning the art of mixing, as were we, so it still didn't sound great. I would work with him several more times over the years though, and each time got better.
In addition to recording, we managed to do a lot of playing out. Our first real gig was openning for local heavy metal band Sacred Sword at Blondie's night club. Craig was still in high-school at the time, so we actually had to get his mom to sign a paper giving him permission to play in a bar. Since this was the first time I had played in front of a crowd in a long time, I can still remember how much my hands were shaking through the entire performance. I still don't know how I managed to work my way through it.
We played a lot of gigs as a band: we played at The Omni when it first openned, we played 3 gigs at the bar at the base of the Somers Point-Longport bridge, we played several parties and city events throughout south Jersey, and we even sponsored a show in Stone Harbor that drew a pretty good crowd. We had t-shirts made up that sold pretty well at shows, too. Enough that we actually had to have a second printing 'cause we ran out of the first batch.
Our last show as a band was a self sponsored booze-cruise in Brigantine Harbor. We weren't allowed to stay in the harbor because we were too loud, so they took us out on the ocean where the waves caused the boat to rock back and forth, knocking our equipment over. It was a very good show, though. The evening took a tragic turn when one of our roadies was killed in a hit-and-run accident while walking down the road sometime after the show was over. It also happened to be my birthday.
