Monday, September 29, 2008
Dirty Dan from The Boyzz & Tommy Holland of House of Holland @ The Brat Stop Sat. Sept 27th
Category: Music
It was my pleasure (as always) to team up with Goldie of Rock Art Chicago as we headed over the state border for the first time for a double shoot & double-header of awesome rock'n music! We headed up to The Brat Stop for a very memorable night of music featuring Dirty Dan Buck from the Boyzz & Tommy Holland of House of Holland. When this show was announced I don't think a lot of people understood the history in the making of this evening.
These are two bands that I have been educated about by my friends over the years. I have had the great pleasure to get to know & meet several of the members over the years. I don't think the history web behind these two legends has ever been fully documented & portrayed accurately in the music scene over the years. It's been described as "formally of" and "used to be". No coverage of the story or history behind it. It's kind of funny because here I am a youngster per say, who never had the opportunity to see these guys back in the day other than video footage & stories being passed along. But I find the story & history they made to be remarkable & fascinating. I could go on for pages & hours with the history & time line of all this. I'm going to be accurate but also try to keep it simple as possible! Are you ready!? Cuz this one can be a wild, crazy, insane rock n roll roller coaster to try to follow!
The Boyzz from Illinoizz were a "Biker" rock n roll band formed back in the 70's. The line up included Dirty Dan Buck (vocals), Mike Tafoya (guitar), Anatole (Tony) Halinkovich (keys), Dave Angel (bass), Kent Cooper (drums), & Gil Pini (guitar). They released the album "Too Wild To Tame" in 1978 for CBS-distributed Epic Records that included such hits as, Too Wild to Tame, Shady Lady, Back to Kansas & Lean 'N' Mean. They toured & performed with national acts such as Aerosmith, The J Geils Band, Meatloaf, UFO, Cheap Trick and REO Speedwagon. When I saw video footage of this band I was shocked! I have never seen it's equal! Dan was litterly hanging & swinging from the rafters of the venue! Back then keys, organs or pianos were not light! They were big heavy boxes. Anatole (Tony) Halinkovich would literally rock the keys! The entire box would rock back & forth! Towards the end of the set the entire thing would topple over! You though The Who smashing guitars was insane! You never saw The Boyzz on stage!
This is where the wild webbing began and the story unfolded! There was a 2nd Boyzz album in the works that got shelved, and shortly after Dirty Dan Buck and guitarist Gil Pini left to form another band called Dirt's Raiders. While the rest of "The Boyzz" morphed replacing Dirty Dan with vocalist Tommy Holland (of Steppenwolf) and down the road finding a new drummer, Steve Riley (of W.A.S.P. and L.A. Guns). The new line-up was renamed "The B'zz". After only being together for 6 months the band went on to be the only unsigned band to ever appear on American Bandstand. After which they signed with Epic & released the record "Get Up". The B'zz eventually disbanded and Tommy Holland went on to the Chicago metal band "Holland" in 1984 with Michael Angelo Batio. Holland only released one record for Atlantic in 1985 "Little Monsters". Their hit single "Wake Up The Neighborhood" was featured in the movie soundtrack "Girl Just Want To Have Fun". Holland after making a big impact on Chicago's Metal music scene decided to part ways in 1986. To the delight of their fans they reunited in 1992 and a re-recorded compilation of material from the Little Monsters sessions, "Wake Up the Neighbourhood" was released. They reunited again briefly in 2002 for a berief mini tour of the Midwest. Tommy went on to be a radio personality in the early 2000's for the radio station WIIL. In 2007, Tommy formed a band called Rock County, which performed southern rock music. In April 2008 due to management issues the band collectively morphed themselves into "House of Holland". Now performing some of their previous original material from Rock County, a few Steppenwolf tunes, and of course plenty of Holland songs. Their line up consists of Tommy Holland - Lead Vocals, Vernon Voss - Lead Guitar, Bobby Fields - Drums/Vocals, & Eddie " Shredd " Morris - Bass/Vocals.
So where in the hell was Dirty Dan during all of this? Dirt's Raiders disbanded in 1983 and he went on a bit of a hiatus. He wrote some jingles, did some commercials, got married and started a family. Then in 1993 The Boyzz were back in town!! Dirty Dan, Gil Pini & Mike Tafoya got back together. It was a good three-year run together but in 1996 they once again parted ways. Mike Tafoya went on to do his own project "Tafoya's Lost Boyzz". Dan wasn't done & still had the Boyzz spirit in him too - literally! Dan has been performing ever since as "Dirty Dan Buck of the Boyzz" with his band "The Spirit of The Boyzz". The band now consists of Dirty Dan Buck - Vocals & Harp, John Abel – Guitar, David Barhydt – Guitar, Joe Gagliardo – Bass, Bob Blom – Keyboards, Wild Bill Glisson – Drums, and Jean Dalleska - Backup Vocals. It has been dually noted that Dan's other back up singer Traci Abel who is out on maternity leave is very much missed on stage!
Nobody would have thought that over 25 years later Dirty Dan & Tommy Holland would be performing together on the same stage!! There was even a special surprise guest appearance & performance by drummer Scot Kelly of Dirt's Raiders! It's a Rock N Roll soap opera of sorts. It was a trip & half for everybody there. How do you review a show like this? I felt it was more important to give an explanation as to the history that made this night such an important one. It was a great night full of many humorous, memorable moments. I was very glad to say I was there to witness & be a part of it! The bands were rock'n, the beer & whiskey were flowing, and the choppers & Harleys were parked outside. But above all a lot more friends & memories were added to the rock n roll legacy that continues after all these years!
