THANKS TO MICHELLE CLUGSTON AND JOE ROBINSON FOR VIDEO AND PICS
SHILEY ACRES KIX-BIO
As told by original founding member Ronnie Younkins.
"Kix was started by me and Donnie Purnell in Dec. of 1977 in Hagerstown, Maryland.
The first song we played together was Atomic Bombs. At first we played with two guys, a guitarist and drummer, from Pittsburg, PA. The first practices were at the Old Mill Inn, in Williamsport, MD, just outside of Hagerstown. However, since they lived so far away the rehearsals didn't work out. So we started rehearsing with Brian Forsythe, one of the best
guitarists around, whom I asked to join the new band. Soon after, we invited Donnie Spence to join us as a drummer. Unfortunately though we had to pick him up every day for rehearsals, since he didn't have a car
Steve Whiteman was added to the band after a couple of other lead singers (Terry Brady and Sam Smith) didn't work out for various reasons. Steve also played drums, so him and Donnie Spence, who also happened to be a good singer, would alternate drums and lead vocals. Early on though it became clear that Steve was the superiour vocalist: he sang all the hard songs.
We had met Steve at a show in Ridgely, WV. We had heard about him through the grapevine, and all went to see him play with his old band. During the break we took him out to the car and played him a cassette of our original songs. We asked him to join right then and there. A week later Steve moved to Hagerstown, to join what was then called "The Shooze."
After a while Donnie Spence didn't work out anymore, so we recruited Jimmy as the new drummer for "The Shooze." Jimmy Chalfant was well known in the area, he was Donnie Purnell's old bandmate and had played with him in all of his previous bands, "Fire and Rain", "Starship" and "Jax." I used to go see Donnie and Jimmy play in those bands. From the beginning I had envisioned this as the perfect line-up: Donnie (who I knew to write cool songs), Jimmy and Brian, all musicians I knew from around town and strongly respected."
They changed their name to "The Generators," when they realized there was another band out of Chicago, named "The Shooze." They began recording their first album on Atlantic Records in 1980 before eventually settling on "Kix."
The rest is history, as they say. www.kix-band.com
SUMMER JAM II KIX
CHECK OUT SUMMER JAM II WITH the KIX, AND SPECIAL GUESTS SO LOW, J FACTOR, THE ROADDUCKS, FREAKSHOW AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST BLACKMAIL
20 Shiley Acres/summer, 2013