Background
Originally known as the TimeAtions, the band adopted the name Head East on August 6, 1969, at the suggestion of the band's roadie, Baxter Forrest Twilight. In a 2011 interview, founding member Steve Huston claimed that soon after sunrise one morning in 1969, Baxter Twilight woke the band members in their communal home/practice facility. Having been up all night sitting in the front yard consuming acid, the roadie said that when the sun rose, it turned into a giant talking head and told him the band's new name should be "Head East". After thinking on it briefly, the band liked the unusual nature of it and has kept the name. [1] However, other members of the band dispute Huston's story about the naming.
Head East recorded and produced their first album, Flat as a Pancake , [2] in 1974 at Golden Voice Recording Studio in South Pekin, Illinois. Released on their own record label, Pyramid Records, all 5,000 records and 500 eight-tracks produced were sold. [3] Several midwest album rock radio stations, chief among them KSHE 95, St. Louis and KY-102 in Kansas City and others, began airing songs from the album as well. With those sales, and the song "Never Been Any Reason" on radio, A&M was impressed enough to sign the band and re-release the album in 1975. [4] The album reached gold status by 1978 and would remain their most popular album, spawning another hit in the song "Love Me Tonight", which peaked at number 54.
The band followed with the albums Get Yourself Up and Gettin' Lucky, released in 1976 and 1977 respectively. [2] Neither album achieved the success of their debut album. However, their fourth album simply titled Head East (1978) produced another hit with the band's cover of former Argent singer Russ Ballard's "Since You Been Gone", [2] which peaked at number 46.
In 1979, the band released the double-LP Head East Live!, [2] and A Different Kind of Crazy. The former peaked at number 96 on the US Hot 100 charts. The band also performed on the soundtrack to the comic anthology film J-Men Forever . [3] [4] Head East also performed at the Culver Academies Graduation party in 1979, which in the prior years had been headlined by Styx and Quicksilver.
In March 1980, bassist Dan Birney and guitarist Mike Somerville left the band, while singer John Schlitt was fired due to drug dependency. [5] He would later recover, become a born-again Christian and reappear as the lead singer of the Contemporary Christian Music band Petra.
Remaining members Boyd and Huston hired bassist Mark Boatman, guitarist Tony Gross, and former drummer and singer Dan Odum (during Huston's absence) to record their following album titled U.S. 1, released in October 1980. [2] The album was their last to reach the charts and last recorded release on A&M. [2]
Membership fluctuated as the band continued with little success, releasing albums on small labels. In 1982, they released Onward and Upward on Allegiance Records, with Odum leaving the band the following year. Steve Huston himself departed the band around this time and by the early 1990s had become a recording studio engineer based in Indianola, Iowa. His departure from Head East left Boyd as the only original member. Following a six-year hiatus from releasing new material, the band reappeared with the album Choice of Weapons (1988) on Dark Heart Records, featuring bassist Kurt Hansen (who had first joined the band in 1983) taking on primary lead vocal duties. Choice of Weapons remains the last Head East studio album consisting of new original material, with subsequent albums featuring re-issued, remixed studio and live performances of the more successful material. Meanwhile, the band continued touring, performing in venues around the Midwest, with new vocalist/rhythm guitarist Randy Rickman joining shortly after the Choice of Weapons album and serving as co-lead vocalist with Hansen. [6] Guitarist Somerville would also return to the line-up from 1994 to 2003.
In 1999, a live album titled Concert Classics Vol. 7 was released. The album featured songs from two shows at Denver's Rainbow Music Hall. The first five tracks are from a 1980 show featuring the original personnel, while the last 10 tracks are from a 1981 show featuring the latter line-up. The band continues to tour to this day, playing 30 to 40 shows each year. [3]
The band's original guitarist and songwriter Mike Somerville (born Michael A. Somerville on August 15, 1952, in Peoria, Illinois) died on February 28, 2020, at age 67. [7] [8]
Co-founder, songwriter and original drummer Steve Huston died July 25, 2023 in Harris County, Texas at age 73. [9]
