By Tim Leeds
The Headpins show at Shamrocks Bar & Casino has been moved to Monday, March 19, due to excessive interest and excitement in Billings.
Bernie Aubin said Monday that the show in Billings, scheduled for March 23, had already sold out. June Erickson, owner of Pardi Gras in Havre, said yesterday there was such a demand from the band's fans in Billings that the Headpins had to schedule another show there, on the March 24 date originally scheduled for Havre. Erickson has been arranging the band's now 10-day tour of Idaho, North Dakota and Montana. Havre is now the first date of the tour.
Aubin said they are looking forward to doing the show in Shamrocks.
"Yeah, it'll be great, no doubt about it," he said. "We like it small, sometimes."
He said the band had a great time playing in Havre on New Year's Eve, and the response by the fans was great. He said that was how the latest tour got started.
"Back by popular demand Right now I'm quite blown away by how it's going. When we played Havre, that's what triggered it all," he said.
Aubin said when the tickets went on sale for the show in Lewiston, Idaho, scheduled for March 15, all 500 tickets sold out in two days.
The Headpins are scheduled to start playing at Shamrocks on March 19 at 9 p.m., Erickson said. She said Stuart McKay and Lori Curley will be reunited as Groove House to open the show, starting at about 7:30 p.m. in what is planned to be a tribute to Led Zeppelin and Heart. McKay will also be working on the technical side for the Headpins.
The Headpins are just coming off of a tour of Canada that started in February. Aubin said they are also planning to work on a new CD, although that wouldn't happen until next fall, he said.
"We're trying to find the right direction this time," he said, "compete with what's out there."
The Headpins' first album, "Turn It Loud," was released in 1983. Aubin said that album went gold in Alberta, Canada, alone in one week's sales.
The band started out in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1980. Founding members were Aubin on drums, guitarist Brian "Too Loud" MacLeod, Darby Mills on vocals and Ab Bryant on bass guitar. They toured and put out a total of three albums, and one greatest hits album, in the 80s. The band opened for some of the biggest names in hard rock and roll at the time, including KISS, ZZ Top, Loverboy, Alice Cooper, 38 Special, Foreigner, Def Leppard, Lynrd Skynrd, Nazareth, Eddie Money and Heart.
The Headpins had a hard rock style that fit in well in the 1980s. MacLeod's screaming guitar and Mills' range and style competed for the listener's attention, with Bryant and Aubin laying a steady and melodic rhythm section behind them. Many of their songs, such as "Turn It Loud" and "Don't It Make Ya Feel" were heard regularly on rock radio stations and are still favorites of their fans.
Founding guitarist MacLeod died of cancer in 1992. Aubin said they reformed the band 1994, with Vic Nickiforek on guitars, Mills on vocals and himself on bass. Bryant returned to take over the bass in 1998, forming the current band. That lineup played the New Year's Eve show in Havre, and is returning to the states for this month's tour.
