For booking information, call:
Don MacDonald (302)
256-0507
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For booking information, call: |
| The Ongoing History of The Helixx Band |
| Where did all of this start? How did Helixx go from a bunch of talented individuals to the local stars they are today? The current Helixx line-up evolved from a number of inter-related bands from Delaware's musical past. Without trying to go into one of those "six degrees of separation" tales, we'll just let that story evolve naturally. Get yourself a cup of coffee, put your reading glasses on, and read on… |
| In The Beginning... |
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The roots of Helixx started with Rick Norman, our original guitarist, and a bunch of his co-workers while he was at Conectiv, a Delaware utility company. Through word-of-mouth, a bunch of musicians in the company found each other, and decided it would be fun to form a little once-a-week get-together group to "make some noise and shake some walls." It wasn't originally meant to be a live performing band. We were just going to make some noise, you know? A large group of musicians boiled down to two guitarists, a bass player named Joe Scheese, a keyboard player named Rob Sparre, and a singer named Christy Leiser.
But there was no drummer. Hmm… |
| Flash back... |
| Back in the 1989 - 1991 time frame, Rick had played in a couple of bands with a guy named Don MacDonald ('Mac' to his friends and family) on drums and golden throat. The first band was called "Prizoner". It featured a guy named Pete on bass and Mark Trent playing dual lead guitar with Rick... and Mac, of course. Prizoner had a short-but-moderately-successful life in the Delaware club circuit. And... it set a pattern of Rick and Mac working together... |
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| Left to right: Rick, Pete, Mac, Mark |
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| Prizoner broke up when Mark Trent went out to pursue his "rock star" dream. Rick and Mac joined (and took over) a band called "Night Watch". "Night Watch" got reformed with Rick, Mac, and two other guys named Marty Zeigler on keyboards and second guitar and Tom Fante on bass to eventually become known as "The Original Baby Buzzard Bar Band", or "The Buzzards" for short. (The band was named for a character in a Bugs Bunny cartoon called "Beaky".) The Buzzards also enjoyed a short-but-moderately-successful life in the clubs. (Some of you Helixx fans may recognize Tom - he's been at several Helixx gigs and has even come up to sing a song or two. And when his schedule permits, he's been providing Helixx with a fabulous light show.) |
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| Left to right: Rick, Mac, Tom, Marty |
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| Rick was the villain in the death of The Buzzards - he went off to pursue acting for a while in mid-1991. You can blame that on Holly - a little sweety of a "starving actress waiting tables" he met at one of the clubs the Buzzards played... The affair was hot, short and sweet, and so was Rick's acting career. |
| Flash forward again... |
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...to November of 1998. The little group of musicians from Conectiv needed a drummer, and of course Rick remembered Mac, but had long-since lost touch. How was he going to find Mac again? Well, the Universe smiled on our little band. One day, Rick was having lunch with a girlfriend in a Delaware brew house, and who would magically appear to wait on his table? Mac's sister, Diane! Whoa!! Double-Whoa! After a brief re-acquaintance, Diane gave Rick the phone number of the Claymont Fire Company, and suggested Rick try reaching Mac there. Kinda hard to believe that this was just a coincidence, huh?
Rick started leaving phone messages at the Fire House. At first, Mac didn't remember Rick by name, so he wondered who this guy was. Rick was persistent and kept calling. Finally Mac needed to find out who this joker was, and called Rick back. During the conversation, Rick said the magic word ("Prizoner") and it all came rushing back to Mac. Mac was invited to join this band of noise-makers. The first rumble of what would become Helixx took place on December 28, 1998 on the stage at the Claymont Fire Hall. Things clicked, and the decision was made to continue making noise, and the merry band moved its jam location to the music room in Rob's basement. After a few of the noise-making Wednesdays Rick and Mac floated the idea of going out and doing an occasional live gig (there's a surprise, eh?). It was at this point that Joe Scheese backed out. He wanted to just stay a jam band, due to family constraints. Hmm…, no bass player… It was around this time that the other guitarist quit/was fired. 'nuff said about that... Who can we get to play bass? Mac came to the rescue. Mac remembered Michael Treco, whom he'd played with for years in the wildly-successful and long-running band "Anheuser". Dozens and dozens of musicians had played in that band. Here's a picture of a particularly note-worthy Anheuser line-up, taken in 1981. Can you find the current Helixx members in this picture? (You know what ticks off this author? The Helixx members in this picture still have those nice, full heads of hair today like they had back when this picture was taken... unlike the author...) |
| Left to right: Joe W., Michael T., Michael B., John, Joe S., Keith, Mac, Benny |
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Mac obviously knew Michael could carry the responsibility of live playing, so Mac called Michael, and Michael agreed to come join the band. The early line-up was set.
The band, which had no name at this point, worked up one set of material, and got its first chance to play live through another friend of Mac's. Mac knew the guitarist in a local blues band known as "Blues Territory". Blues Territory had a gig at a now-defunct hole-in-the-wall bar in Wilmington known as 'Feasel's Café', and we got invited to do the opening set one Friday night in March of 1999. Now we had to come up with a name. Without going into how we arrived at this name (because your trusty author has a memory-fade), the band became "HammrJak". A friend of Christy's was a graphic designer, so Christy arranged for a logo to be designed. The one-set gig was a success, and we were invited back for another. We were off and running. We eventually got invited to do full gigs there, and started playing at other bars, too. Here are pictures of the early logo and line-up: |
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| Left to right: Michael, Rob, Rick, Christy, Mac |
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| After a few headlining gigs as Hammrjak, we decided the "HammrJak" name had to go. In the early-summer of 1999, we settled on "Helix". We started peforming under the "Helix" name and modified our old logo with the new name: |
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The original "Helix" gigged up through November of 1999, at which point the line-up changed. Rob announced he was leaving the band due partly to business constraints, and also to pursue different musical directions. It was at this point that Christy left the band too. So the remaining members, Rick, Mac and Michael, figured "No problem! We'll just find another keyboard player and female singer." We thought the keyboard player would be easy to find, and that a female singer would be more difficult. We were wrong…
Keyboard players were impossible to find! The short version is that we decided to move Mac out front, which he'd been wanting to do anyway. Mac's a multi-instrument guy, and besides drums, he also plays keyboards, guitar, and saxophone. Hmm… Maybe we just find another drummer, and Mac can take over keys and second guitar. Where are we going to find a drummer? While we were on the drummer hunt, the female singer issue resolved itself rather quickly and easily. Someone recommended a singer named Shelly Amadio to us. Shelly came to one audition, and that was that. Shelly integrated into the band's format quickly. In early-March of 2000 with Shelly on-board, we decided to get out again quickly before the Helix name faded away, so we invited Rob to do one more gig with us. We played one gig at The Park Restaurant with Mac on drums and Rob on keys, and introduced Shelly to our still relatively-small-but-loving fan base. We also took the opportunity to return the favor to "Blues Territory" by inviting them to share the bill with us. Blues Territory played two sets that night. Here's a picture of 'Helix, Version 1A'. Rob Sparre is off to your right out of the picture (in more ways than one) and Mac is indeed back behind everyone on drums. |
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| But that was a one-time thing, and we still needed a drummer! Enter the Anheuser connection again. Another former Anheuser member was drumming silently to himself in his basement - Joe Williams. Mac called Joe, Joe said 'yes' and showed up with his electronic drum set. The next evolution of Helix was born. This was around April of 2000. Here is a picture of the lineup that made Helixx famous: |
| Left to right: Mac, Rick, Shelly, Joe, Michael |
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| This line-up performed under the "Helix" name until some time in the year 2000, when an alert fan shared a piece of information with us. When we chose that name we didn't know that there was already a long-standing Canadian band called Helix. Someone finally brought that to our attention. Rather than come up with yet another name, since we were getting a good reputation around town as Helix, (and also because we were terrible at thinking up names), we decided to just add a second "x" to the name and "Helixx" was officially born. We had a new "Helixx" logo designed and took the next step in upgrading our professional image by having a banner made. Here's the logo that's become famous: |
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Helixx went on to perform in this line-up up through the end of 2003. We don't need to tell any of you how successful Helixx has become. We've carved out a powerful and prominent niche in the northern-Delaware music scene.
But life moving as life does, the line-up shifted again. Shelly got a fabulous, too-hard-to-turn-down job offer in down-state Delaware, which we all encouraged her to take. The commute would be just too much for her to do, counting weekly rehearsals and performances, so Shelly gave her notice in late 2003. Shelly's last official gig as a full-time Helixx member was our New Year's Bash at the Brandywine Hundred Fire Hall. Enter Sue Yeager. Sue had quite a musical resume, and quickly filled Shelly's formidable void. Sue was a member during the March 2004 sesssions as we cut the first edition of the Helixx CD. |
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But this, too, was not to last. Sue had to leave the band in the early summer of 2004 due to some health problems that required immediate attention. For most of the remainder of 2004, the Helixx line-up became:
Mac, Rick, Joe and Michael But that's not the end of the story. Shelly remains a member of Helixx in heart and spirit, and has made the trip back up north to join us at several gigs.Helixx has also been joined by "The Horny Horns". These boys are actually the horn section that normally plays with the band "Strangers" that includes our former sound technician, Mark Wallace. In December, 2004 Helixx was proud to announce the addition of Nikki Furdak as a full-time member as Helixx moved into 2005. |
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| On January 8, 2005, Helixx introduced our very own horn section to the world. A long, rigorous search led us to yet another Anheuser connection: John Pedicone. Yes, the same John standing in the infamous Anheuser picture further up the page. Then came the search for the perfect horn-mate, and after a few auditions and a lot of phone calls and inquiries, Larry Geiger showed he has what we were looking for. John and Larry worked hard on their own time before coming to active Helixx rehearsals, and the rest of the band worked hard too. |
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Helixx gigged through most of 2005 with the line-up of Rick, Mac, Joe, Michael, Nikki, John and Larry. But the winds of change blew across Helixx again. In early December of 2005, founding member Rick Norman left the band to pursue different musical directions, and Larry Geiger and John Pedicone took their leave as well. Helixx took the holidays off to take a well-deserved rest (Helixx played nearly 30 performances in 2005!), and to gather new members. In February, 2006, Helixx reemerged on the scene with new faces, new music, and the same old spirit and fun! Meet the new Helixx members: |
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| Helixx would like to thank everyone who loves the band - you make us who we are. We're looking forward to a long run into the future and we're glad you're all partying with us! |
(All page setup, text and photos Copyright © by Helixx, 2006)