Heavyn:
Bob Gilbert — lead guitar
Greg Joseph — bass guitar
Dave Ellefson — keyboards
Rick Moll — drums
Producer — Mike Finnin
Engineer — Jerry Cell
There’s not much in the way of ephemera on Detroit’s Heavyn, in fact, everything we’ve discovered regarding the band is included in this overview.
According to The Detroit News in their September 1, 1971 issue, the band appeared at the Dearborn Youth Center’s “Battle of the Bands” in July. In the article, Heavyn’s manager, Mike Finnin, states the band was together for three months at that point — which places their formation around May 1971.
In addition to winning the Dearborn contest, the band opened shows for the earliest stage of Frijid Pink (formerly known as the Detroit Vibrations). Two of the band’s other known shows were opening a January 30, 1972, appearance by Capitol Records’ SRC, and a February 13, 1972, appearance by Tee Garden and Van Winkle, both at the Lincoln Park Theatre in Lincoln Park, Michigan.
During the month of April 1972, ads placed in Ohio’s Mansfield News Journal (available at Newspapers.com), indicate Heavyn booked dates at W.J’s Club in Mansfield.
The single mentioned by Mike Finnin in The Detroit News, “Two Man Blues” b/w “Children of the Wood” was, in fact, released on his vanity-press, Long Knight Records. It was recorded at PRSD/Pioneer Recording Studios in Detroit owned and operated by Gary Rubin and Alan Sussman. Through the studio, the duo ran their own imprints: Pioneer, Gold, and Tru-Soul. Pioneer recorded several sides with Ann Arbor-based jazz trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, the Detroit Vibrations — on their way to coming Frijid Pink — as well as the Rationals (released on their manager Jeep Holland’s own A-Square).
While Heavyn’s lone single carries Pioneer’s catalog number of PRSD-2188 and Long Knight’s LK-101, the runout codes “A4KS-3959” and “A4KS-3960” indicate it’s an RCA custom pressing (A = 1971, 4= band supplied tapes to RCA, who then cut the lacquers, K= 45 rpm, S= Stereo).
It is rumored Heavyn broke up sometime in 1972, as the bands’ Bob Gilbert, Greg Joseph, and Dave Ellefson were (temporarily) absorbed into the ranks of Frijid Pink. This roster rehearsed, as well as possibly toured, between the release of the Rick Stevers-led band’s second album, Defrosted (1970) — when lead guitarist Gary Ray Thompson and lead singer Tom Beaudry (aka Kelly Green) left the band — and their third album, Earth Omen (1972).
However, based on the March 1974 Heavyn flyer we’ve discovered, the band most likely absorbed into Frijid Pink in late 1974, after their fourth and final album released in March 1974, All Pink Inside, on Fantasy Records. (On Frijid Pink’s Wikipedia, page, only Bob “Bobby G” Gilbert is noted as a one-time member; it doesn’t state the time frame of his membership.)
If anyone knows anything about Heavyn’s fellow Dearborn-based bands Shelter, Stockton, Sanch Panza, Internal Combustion, Menagerie, and Iliad (mentioned in the press clipping) — or can offer more information on the career of Heavyn and their connections to Frijid Pink — let us know.
Our thanks to Mike Delbusso of the Splatt Gallery Rock Art Gallery of Walled Lake, Michigan, for the images. 45 rpm and Pioneer Recording Studio advertisement images courtesy of Discogs.
You can learn more about Frijid Pink with an exclusive interview as founder-drummer Rick Stevers sat down with R.D Francis at It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine.
Article written by R.D Francis.