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Head East

 
Artist: Head East
 
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Group Members:

Steve Huston, Roger Boyd, Mike Somerville, John Schlitt, Dan Birney, Dan Odum, Tony Gross, Mark Boatman

Similar Artists:

REO Speedwagon, Supertramp, Boston, Petra, Jimi Jamison
  • Genres: Rock
  • Representative Albums: "20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Head East," "Head East," "Flat as a Pancake"
  • Representative Songs: "Never Been Any Reason," "Since You Been Gone," "Love Me Tonight"

Biography

Head East went through several lineups and musical approaches before consolidating in St. Louis in the early '70s as a hard rock quintet consisting of John Schlitt (vocals), Mike Somerville (guitar), Roger Boyd (keyboards), Dan Birney (bass), and Steve Huston (drums), all alumni of the University of Illinois. They recorded their debut album, Flat As a Pancake, independently and released it on their own Pyramid Records label in early 1975. When the track "Never Been Any Reason" began to attract radio attention, A&M Records signed the band and re-released Flat As a Pancake in June 1975. The singles "Never Been Any Reason" and "Love Me Tonight" became minor pop chart entries, and the album spent six months on the charts, eventually going gold. Get Yourself Up (April 1976) and Gettin' Lucky (March 1977) were less successful, but Head East (February 1978), spurred by the minor singles chart entry "Since You Been Gone," reached the upper half of the Top 100. The double-LP Head East Live! (January 1979) also peaked in the Top 100, as did A Different Kind of Crazy (October 1979), and the band performed on the soundtrack to the comic anthology film J-Men Forever! (1979), but at the end of the year Schlitt, Birney, and Somerville left the group. Boyd and Huston recruited Mark Boatman, Tony Gross, and Dan Odum to record U.S. 1 (October 1980), Head East's last album to reach the charts and last newly recorded release on A&M; it was a minor chart entry. After its commercial heyday, Boyd led the band in continued touring and recording for small labels. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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Wikipedia: Head East
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Head East
Origin South Central Illinois, USA
Genre(s) Hard rock
Years active 1969 - present
Label(s) A&M, Pyramid Records, Darkheart Records, Allegiance Records
Members
Roger Boyd
Steve Huston
Mark Oatman
Tony Gross
Dan Odum
Former members
John Schlitt
Mike Somerville
Dan Birney
Tim Day

Head East is a hard rock band originally from South Central Illinois, then Champaign, Illinois. The band was formed by vocalist John Schlitt, guitarist Mike Somerville, keyboardist Roger Boyd, bassist Dan Birney, and drummer Steve Huston. They met and formed the band while studying at the University of Illinois, Champaign. The band achieved success in the Midwest during the 1970s, but fell into obscurity in the following decades.

Contents

Background

Head East was formed in 1969 and played their first gig in Carbondale, Illinois.[1] They released their first album, Flat as a Pancake, in 1974 on their own record label (Pyramid Records) selling all 5,000 records and 500 eight-tracks produced. 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.[2]. 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 #54.

The band followed with the albums Get Yourself Up and Gettin' Lucky, released in 1976 and 1977 respectively. 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," which peaked at #46.

In 1979, the band released the double-LP Head East Live! and A Different Kind of Crazy. The former also peaked on the US Top 100 charts. The band also performed on the soundtrack to the comic anthology film J-Men Forever.[2][1]

In March of 1980, bassist Dan Birney and guitarist Mike Somerville left the band, while singer John Schlitt was fired due to a drug dependency.[3] He would later recover, become a born-again Christian and become the singer and the face of one of Contemporary Christian Music's all-time most successful bands, Petra. Schlitt was with Petra from 1985, until the band was retired in 2005.

Remaining members, Boyd and Huston, hired Mark Boatman, Tony Gross, and Dan Odum to record their following album titled U.S. 1, released in October 1980. The album was their last to reach the charts and last recorded release on A&M.

The band continued with little success, releasing albums on small labels. Some of them were Onward and Upward (1982) on Allegiance Records and Choice of Weapons (1988) on Dark Heart Records, among others. Tim Day, drummer from Daddy's Girl joined the band and toured from 99-01. They would still continue to play around, with guitarist Somerville returning from 1994 to 2003.

In 1999, a live album titled Live on Stage 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 lineup. The band continues to tour to this day, playing 30 to 40 shows each year.

The band's 1975 single, "Never Been Any Reason," was featured in the 2005 movie adaptation of Clive Cussler's novel, "Sahara".

Band members

Former members

  • Dan Piper - lead guitar - (1970 -1972)
  • Brad Flota - guitarist (1972 - 1973)
  • Mike Somerville - guitarist (1974 - 1980, 1994 - 2003)
  • Dan Birney - bassist (1974 - 1980)
  • John Schlitt - lead vocals (1974 - 1980)
  • Steve Riker - drums (1991 - 1994)
  • Tim Day - drums (1994 - 2001)
  • Tom Bryant - lead singer
  • Donnie Dobbins - drums

Discography

Albums

(Year: album - peak on Billboard's Pop Album chart)

  • 1974: Flat as a Pancake - (#126)
  • 1976: Get Yourself Up - (#161)
  • 1977: Gettin' Lucky - (#136)
  • 1978: Head East - (#78)
  • 1979: Head East Live! - (#96)
  • 1979: A Different Kind of Crazy - (#65)
  • 1980: U.S. 1 - (#137)
  • 1982: Onward and Upward - (none)
  • 1988: Choice of Weapons - (none)
  • 1999: Concert Classics Volume 7 - (none)
  • 2000: Live on Stage (edited version of Head East Live) - (none)
  • 2008: Head East Live 2008 - (none)

Singles

(Year: "side-A song" / "side-B song" - peak on Billboard's Hot 100)

  • 1975: "Never Been Any Reason" / "One Against The Other" - (#68)
  • 1975: "Love Me Tonight" / "Fly By Night Lady" - (#54)
  • 1976: "Fly By Night Lady" / "Separate Ways" - (none)
  • 1977: "Gettin' Lucky" / "Sands of Time" - (none)
  • 1978: "Since You Been Gone" / "Pictures" - (#46)
  • 1979: "Never Been Any Reason" / "I'm Feelin' Fine" - (none)
  • 1979: "Got To Be Real" / "Morning" - (none)
  • 1979: "Specialty" / "Morning" - (none)
  • 1980: "I Surrender" / "Out Of The Blue" - (none)

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Head East Band History. - Head East.
  2. ^ a b Head East > Biography. - Allmusic.
  3. ^ Biography. - John Schlitt.

See also

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Head East".  Read more

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