A million years ago . . .
Don met Jon Saxon at Houston’s High School For The Performing And Visual Arts. Witzend was the first “serious” working band they were in. Witzend’s first gig was at the Mad Money Club on South Gessner near Harwin in Houston. The strip center is still there, but the view as you walked out the front door is not. There was nothing but open fields to the West of Gessner in 1976. During this era Don, Jon and Rusty made an appearance on a local TV (Channel 39) variety show and performed two songs.
Witzend consisted of Don Price- guitar and vocals, Jon Saxon- bass, guitar and vocals, Rusty Speck- lead vocals, guitar and keyboards, Curtis Riker- guitar and vocals. Curtis came up with the band name (after a Wally Wood fanzine.) Drummers- now THERE is the bane of our existence.
Our first drummer was John Feehan…then Mark Kenner, then Mike McWilliams. Each leaving for their own reasons seemingly JUST as we “got going.” Curtis Riker left to join Really Red. The band’s name was changed to Crash Street Kids. We all took turns singing lead vocals on certain songs, and back-ups on others.
CSK was a cover band with three or four originals put into a four set night performing at area rock clubs (ie; On The Border, where The Runaways opened for The Ramones). One of the more memorable gigs was opening night for Phil Hicks’s “Paradise Island” then renamed “Rock Island” then renamed "The Island”, on Main Street Houston, Texas. The other band Phil Hicks booked that evening was a cover band with Bart Wittrock on guitar. Bart, as of this writing, is still owner of Rockin’ Robin music store.
Tailspin still has two guitars he bought from Rockin’ Robins- A 1964 SG Jr. and a late 60’s fretless Ampeg Bass.
After a hiatus of moving to New Jersey to conquer the East Coast music scene Donny came to his senses and moved back to Texas in 1980. The Deadliners was an offshoot of a Cover band called Castle… Tailspin met Robert Dibrell in Castle when they advertised looking for a keyboard player.
Having just bought a Wurlitzer electric piano from Steve Ames of Rampart Street Recording Studio, Tailspin decided the way to really learn keyboards was to join a cover band in order to force himself to learn keys. It didn’t take long for Robert and Don to decide they could do more interesting music so they formed the Deadliners, with Mike McWilliams (he’s back, but not for long) on drums and Bobby Nelson on guitar.
Donny spent about 2/3s of his time on guitar and the rest on keyboards, which now included a Roland VK-1 organ. We also played The Island. The drummer flaked AGAIN and the Deadliners blew up.
Then Jon Saxon of The Broadcasters invited Donny to join the band in 1981 following their opening for REM at The Island (Jon receiving compliments from Sandy Stewart in attendance). A slew of gigs (headlining and opening) followed because The Broadcasters actually had an effective manager, promotions graphic artist and additional support from Kent Morrison.
Broadcasters
The Broadcasters were Jon Saxon on guitar and lead vocal, Kevin “Red” McKinney on drums, Keith Glaser on bass and Tailspin Donny replacing the band’s original 2nd guitar player, David Goldstein. Shows followed at The Island, Joe Starr’s Omni, Escape, Echo Beach, and other new wave clubs.
Other honorable mentions are opening for touring bands Bad Brains, D-Day, The Contractions, The Lift, etc. Interviews in Public News and radio appearances on KPFT and KTRU’s S&M Show followed.
The Broadcasters played a ”transformation” set at a video recorded Echo Beach show where the first half was played with original rhythm section of “Red” & Keith, and the second half with Mike & Rick Huey (of The Chameleons fame). The Broadcasters continued on with a new line up and eventually became XLR8.
Red, Keith, and Don went on to form Solid Waste Division, with Kent Morrison adding vocals to the smorgasbord of instruments and drum machines, layered to make up this band’s unique sound. This was from about 1982-83.
Solid Waste Division
Likewise playing the Omni and the Island (on the infamous night of the KKK Houston Police Department raid.) Other appearances at The Art Bar, on Montrose and Chuck Roast’s Q&A party helped to keep things interesting.
For some reason our girlfriends never saw the humor in being dubbed “The Solid Waste Dancers.” Go figure! Then Donny went and did something dumb and broke his back on May 12, 1983.
After laying low and recuperating for a while Donny was recruited by Robert Dibrell to help with his project “Little Doll.” Little Doll was actually named by Boy George when he saw Pinky, one of the three Spraggins Sisters. Pinky, Gail and Becky Spraggins were the vocal powerhouse behind Little Doll.
Gigs at Fitzgerald’s and Rockefeller’s, Axiom, the Red Lion and other venues followed, because LD had an effective Agent, in the form of Mama Spraggins, the sisters' Mom!
They had performed with Johnny Cash and other notables before they recruited Robert Dibrell to work up their New Wave act. This went from about 1986-1988 when Robert got married and his bride put a stop to his musical aspirations for the time being.
Then the various bands of the 90’s started emerging, starting with Last Guys on Earth, with Patrick Guy and a series of other drummers. The best thing to come out of that period, other than gigs at Mary Janes on Washington, and The Scout Bar in Kemah, was meeting Chuck Fielding, who initially was our recording engineer. Then he decided he dug our chops and he joined the band.
The original tunes from this period have continued to fuel various projects over the years. In the late 90’s things fell apart again and Robert and Tailspin decided they needed to get Jon Saxon out of retirement so they formed what was at first called Amish Death Squad. With the addition of Bria Tavakoli on vocals lightning struck! Successful shows followed at The Engine Room.
Then Bria broke our heart when she announced she had been accepted into the Master of Journalism Program at Columbia University, NY, NY. But then we figured out we could play New York City, so we did. Our first show, still as Amish Death Squad, was in Dec. 2001 at the Acme Underground. The WTC was still a smoking ruin.
Bria decided a band with Death Squad in the name wasn’t where she needed to be, so she renamed us HoneyHut! Subsequent shows followed at the Continental Club in NYC, as well as the C-note, and Central Park’s bandstand! Additionally we played Seattle and Austin, at the Red Eyed Fly and Room 710, and once in a blue moon in Houston at Fitzgerald’s again.
As Robert and Donny had time to kill in between HoneyHut shows a new and upcoming singer named Lori Sebastian came into our lives. The band “ASS” was short-lived, but played some very successful shows at The Engine Room and The Continental Club in Houston. Martin Hristov played drums. We became football widows, because Lori had season tickets for the Texans.
That left Robert and Donny to go through a series of drummers and band names, such as Last Men on Earth, Minor Cult Superstars, Pop Quiz, and Instant Losers as they played wherever they could- including the C-Note in New York City and The Continental Club, the Last Concert Café, Woodrow’s, Dan Electro’s Guitar Bar, Fitzgerald’s, Big John’s Ice House, etc. in Houston. Matthew Vaughn and Merlin Hampton were the drummers of note during many of these shows.
Instant Losers
Island Reunion show and other interesting events have seen revivals of the Broadcasters and Solid Waste Division at Walter’s on Main Street, before it went the way of the world. Seeing the need for a solo outlet in between pandemics and absentee drummers, Tailspin discovered the joys of playing his original tunes at places like The Mucky Duck, The Old Quarters and BrewzBrothers in Galveston.
And dipping into his checkered past, he has been hitting the Open Mics at the Big Easy, just to keep his chops up and his name in the game as well as reuniting with Robert Dibrell and Merlin Hampton for shows at BingStock, near Lake Buchanan outside of Austin, The International Pop Overthrow, in Arlington, Texas, and Theatre Suburbia in Houston. When he could make it, Matthew Vaughn has hosted us in Dallas at Six Springs, as well as performing at BingStock. “It’s a Great Life if you don’t weaken!”