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...

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...