Around May of 1978, I got a call from Joe Rizzuto. We both attended the Community College of the Finger Lakes in Canandaigua, NY, and I hadn’t heard from him for nearly a year. He said he and his brothers were building a house in the woods north of Rome and were planning a multi-day party and I should come and bring my guitar. We’d played together at school and I was impressed with Joe as a bass player, so I said “I’ll be there.” The next morning I got a ride to the Thruway and held up a sign that just said “Rome.” It wasn’t a great trip, but I made it by dusk and Joe picked me up at the Thruway exit.
I met so many people that week, many that became life-long friends, and we jammed and jammed. A lot of musicians floated in and out during the course of the next few days, but only a few stood out, the most talented, and the most fun. Joe’s family allowed me to stay the summer in exchange for working on the house and garage and we played music constantly in the living room. By fall, one by one, all of us decided not to go back to college and instead start a rock and roll band. Cliche yes, but true.
Joe was our bass player, I sang and played guitar (mostly lead.) Tom Smith was an excellent drummer and singer and Rick E. Lewis, who had actually gone to school for music. We named the band “Open End.”
Musically, we were all over the place, but we were having fun so it really didn’t matter. (See the band’s song list)
Rick and I were both perfectionists, so we didn’t think we were ready to gig, but Joe’s brother Gary had other ideas. With a cassette of one of our practice sessions (and unbeknownst to us) he booked our first gig at Griffiss Airforce Base in Rome. It meant some cash, so we cobbled together a PA and off we went. When we arrived — long hair and faded jeans — we had to pass through security. Griffis Air Force Base at the time, was still a functioning B-52 “Stratofortress” nuclear armed airbase. After some raised eyebrows and additional scrutiny, they directed us to our “gig.” Where else, but in a B-52 hanger, the most cavernous place you could imagine playing in. A test tap on Tom’s snare echoed for about a minute. We knew immediately it wasn’t going to sound good, but hell, it was a paying gig!
After that we started getting bar gigs. On a visit home to Henrietta, NY, I told a talented keyboardist friend about the band and asked if he’d like to join us. His nickname was Moog (as in the synthesizer brand) and he didn’t hesitate. For added sonic diversity, I had played saxophone in middle school and a friend, a fellow who now goes by stage name Midnight Mike, found out I played sax, and gave me an alto sax, which we quickly added in. Then came the gift of a flute from our light man, Mike Parker, which was easy to learn because the fingerings were the same as a saxophone. Jethro Tull covers were soon added to our repertoire!
We were interested in original music from the beginning and our first set of originals ended up being as ridiculously diverse as our cover playlist was. “NYPD” was a blues song, “The Door” borrowed shades of Genesis, “Reggae Payday” was (surprise) Reggae, “Video Games” was pretty much punk, and “The Hollywood Strut” was straight up Rock and Roll. Oh, and not to be outdone by  “Freebird,” we had our own super-long jam song called “That Latin Thing.”
We played a gig at 4-Acres in Utica and Mr. B, the owner liked us. That was good, because we were barely managing to eat when he gave us Wednesday nights for a whole summer. That saved us from probably breaking up and also helped us develop a loyal fan base in the area, which ended up including one of the owners of the local classic rock station WOUR. He was building a mobile broadcast / recording studio in a old school bus and we were going to get to help break it in. They were also making a record called “The Rock of Central New York Album” and asked us to be on it. 
The place was packed the night we played and when everything was ready, we told the crowd that our song, “The Door,” was going on the album, and that they were on it too.
I remember vividly riding in the cargo area in the back of Tom’s parent’s station wagon when we heard ourselves on the radio for the first time. There’s something magical about being on the airwaves, coming through the car radio. A surreal moment I’ll never forget.
Later that year we made our first 45 RPM record, “Video Games,” by Rick E. Lewis. Mr. B. let us take over 4-Acres on afternoon and we filmed our first “music video” with super 8 film. We edited it up by hand to the song and had a lot of laughs. It didn’t transfer to video very well in this only copy left, but here’s a link anyway.
By the time our single was out we were doing pretty well and playing most weekends at clubs, colleges and high schools.

A huge highlight of 1980, was when we were invited to do a live broadcast on WOUR on July 11, 1980, from the Casa Bogie in Rome, our hometown. It seems crazy to think now, but that’s what happened. A local band playing live on the radio for 45 minutes straight in a packed bar. Beside our records it also produced the best live tapes we have of the band, thanks to my good friend Brian Hoehn, who recorded the radio broadcast at home.
We were a little “out there” and occasionally did little skits to intro certain songs. The one we did that night was a take-off on “Star Wars” as an intro to a to a cover of a song called “Rocket Roll” by “FM,” a Canadian band we had warmed up for earlier in the year. If you haven’t heard them, look them up, they’re good! 
On June 6, 1981 we played our last gig at Lake Placid High School. There was no animosity to the split, in fact, I don’t really remember exactly why we broke up at all. But, that was it and it was a good run.
Check our “Songs” page for the handful of recordings still available.