Old Enough to Forget

Headpins were a blip on the musical landscape in the early '80s. They started as a huge blip, then a big blip, and then a blip, and then they were gone. Like all bands, there's always a story within the story, and it changes depending on who gets to narrate. I can't speak to any of that, so I won't. It's a bit weird to sit here behind a keyboard plonking away with nothing more than an opinion and memories, trying to describe what the album meant to me back in the day and the impact it had over the years. Spoiler: Headpins were never among my favourite bands, but they had more than enough stellar moments to be part of the conversation. They were just never at the table. So the impact was negligible. Awareness, though, that's something else entirely. I knew who they were. This is a horrible way to start, as it's definitely getting off on the wrong foot. I can recover from this, don't worry. I do this to myself all the time. I just pretend I missed a turn a...

Breakdown in Paradise was aptly titled. When Chilliwack signed to Mushroom Records, the little label that signed Heart and put out their first two records (although Heart would later write "Barracuda" as a diss track to their former label), their first two records for the label, Dreams, Dreams, Dreams and Lights in the Valley would go platinum in Canada. After Mushroom Records head Shelly Siegel died in '79 the label started to flounder, and Chilliwack kept plugging away hoping for the best. When the album finally dropped in December of 1979 the label no longer seemed to be capable of marketing or pushing singles to radio. There must have been some word of mouth, no doubt, as I remember the album and I liked "Communication Breakdown" and always thought it was a hit. There were enough copies printed that it's not a hard album to find. Who knows how many copies, maybe the record keeping sucked and the album actually did better than what was reported on the ...

Opus X was a pretty big deal here in Canada when this came out in '82. While Chilliwack had been around for over a decade and was Bill Henderson's band, it was as a power trio that the band had its greatest commercial success. Starting with Wanna Be a Star in 1981 that featured the irritating but oddly cool "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)," the band had managed to crack into the lucrative US market. The single would crack the Billboard top 40, peaking at number 22. Opus X a year later was supposed to drive the wedge in even further and break the band wide open. You know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. I could tell you more about the rabbits, but I really should try and stay on topic. While the lead single "Whatcha Gonna Do" did really well here at home, it didn't perform as well as hoped in the US market, stalling literally just outside the top 40 at 41. The album was a big hit here, selling over 100,000 copies, and Bill Henderson...

Back in '82 Headpins sounded a bit (a lot) like an aggressive offshoot of the band Chilliwack. Chilliwack had been around a long time - but really seemed to take things to another level as a trio comprised of Bill Henderson, Brian MacLeod and Ab Bryant. This line-up was at the top of their game. Brian's blistering guitar added a swagger to the band's sound, most notably on Wanna Be a Star and Opus X that was also released in '82. Whereas Chilliwack was very much Bill Henderson's band, Headpins were the manifestation of Brian "Too Loud" MacLeod. It was his band, although on the album the only credit listed is for Darby Mills as vocalist. Who knows how all this came about. Maybe Brian felt the need to stretch out a little more, so he started Headpins as a side gig to unleash his hard rock side. To that end he eventually discovered a young Darby Mills who would handle the vocals, and the band dropped Turn It Loud in 1982. It was an album that got people...

Funny how you can know a name but not know anything about the artist. Shari Ulrich is one of those artists who just skirted on the fringes of real success here in Canada. That sort of reads as a dismissive shot, but it's not. Many years ago I was a camp counsellor for a couple of summers, and one of my fellow "shapers of future minds" was Rick Scott's son, who was incredibly funny and we had a hoot over those two summer camps. Anyway, I can't remember how it came up that he was Rick's son, most likely because I fancied myself a songwriter who could sing about food and animals ... yeah, whatever you're conjuring in your mind's eye, it's even worse. Why am I telling you this? I have no idea, but it's one of those things that came to mind when I was sitting here listening to One Step Ahead . Regardless, Shari was a member of the Pied Pumpkin, which was apparently a biggish deal in the early '70s, and then she, along with Valdy, was a member of...