Heavyn: Lost Rockers from Dearborn, Michigan: A Sidebar to the History of Frijid Pink, Part 1
Their ‘lost from the grave’ 45-rpm ‘Two Man Blues’ b/w ‘Children of the Woods,’ 1971
Left to right: Bob Gilbert — lead guitar, Greg Joseph — bass guitar, Dave Ellefson — keyboards, Rick Moll — drums, Producer — Mike Finnin (third from left, center), Engineer — Jerry Cell (on the single). Each member handled lead vocals.
There’s no information or images on Heavyn’s fellow Dearborn-based bands noted in the article as competing: Shelter, Stockton, Sanch Panza, Internal Combustion, Menagerie, and Iliad.
According to The Detroit News on September 1, 1971, 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 released on his vanity-press, Long Knight Records — and the band never recorded for RCA Records, as sometimes rumored. The single 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 Records custom pressing (A = 1971, 4= band supplied tapes to RCA, who then cut the lacquers, K= 45 rpm, S= Stereo), thus the confusion that the band recorded for the label.
Image Left: Heaven with SRC at the Lincoln Park Theatre, January 1972.
Image Right: Heavyn opening for Frigid Pink at the Lincoln Park Theatre, September 29, 1971
Image Left: W.J’s Club, Walker Lake Road, Mansfield, Ohio.
Image Right: Heavyn and Fantasy Hill at the Lincoln Park Theatre, March 28, 1974.
It is rumored Heavyn broke up sometime in 1972, as the band’s 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 flyer, 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.)
A Former Member of Heavyn Fills in the Blanks in 2026
EJ Nolan-Nowinski was a former member of Heavyn — not mentioned in The Detroit News article from September 1971. Nowinski was previously the guitarist and lead vocalist in the seven-piece horn-based (think Blood, Sweat & Tears or Chicago) Menagerie, which appeared at the aforementioned “Battle of the Bands” contest — and lost to Heavyn.
“I joined Heavyn about a year later [after the contest] as a guitarist and singer. We actually had a pretty good run; we opened for Frijid Pink in their heyday, as they had the same manager as Heavyn. We did some recording with producer Vinnie Testa [of Frijid Pink fame] and were the studio band for Rockin’ Reggie Vincent, the co-writer of Alice Cooper’s ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ single. [Heavyn] appeared on Reggie’s single, ‘Angel With a Dirty Face’ [Vincent also recorded with Frijid Pink on their fourth — and then, final — album, 1974’s ‘All Pink Inside’].
“[Heavyn] actually got banned from playing at Benedictine High School [in Cleveland, Ohio] after we got the crowd too rowdy and they started breaking windows. We also got banned from Stouffer’s Northland Inn [in Southfield, Michigan] after playing for a Jewish Youth Group party; the kids got carried away, jumping on the hotel furniture and ripping paintings off the walls. We played live on Denny McLain’s television show [the ex-Detroit Tigers pitcher was a music enthusiast proficient on the organ who released two albums in the late 1960s on Capitol Records], and on a [local] late night rock show called ‘Saturday Night Rock,’ that shot at The Side Door Club on Telegraph Road [next to those giant whip-cream cans; the program aired on WWJ-TV Channel 4; now WDIV]. On that show, we opened for Virgin Dawn, featuring [bassist] Al Jacquez, formerly of Savage Grace.
Who remembers the “French Fried Ice Cream” at Stouffer’s?
Reminisce about Stouffer’s at Northland Mall: The Early Years Facebook and at the website, Eating the Road.
“At that time [of my membership], the lineup of Heavyn was Bob Gilbert on guitar and vocals (who later joined Frijid Pink), myself, Ed Nowinski (now on the IMDb as “E.J Nolan”), Jim Janisse on bass, and Glen Strange on drums. [That version of] the band broke up when Glen and Jim stole the band’s equipment, sold it, and kept the money!
“I have lived in Houston, Texas, since 1978 where I have set up and mixed the television broadcast audio for some two-thousand, live sports broadcasts including NBA basketball, NFL and college football, MLB baseball, Super Bowls and World Series, as well as hockey and soccer matches. I have written and produced jingles and custom music for thirteen [media] markets around the country. I’ve also appeared in several movies and television shows, including [the Texas-shot] ‘Glory Road’ and ‘Friday Night Lights.’ I currently own three School of Rock franchises in the Houston area with nearly 600 students.”
Who’s Reggie Vincent?
While there’s no images or audio of his single with Heavyn, you can explore the albums of Vincent’s solo career at the Discogs database.
There’s more on Reggie Vincent’s storied career — working with everyone from Bob Seger to Ted Nugent to KISS — enjoyed at The Original Glen Buxton, Sick Things UK, and the KISS tribute site, Axeology Extended — where you’ll learn about Vincent’s relationship/friendship with Peter Criss.
Who’s Vinnie Testa?
The late impresario’s storied production career — we lost him in 2021 — features releases through his Infinity Productions for Ampex, Avco Embassy, A&M, Liberty/United Artists, Mercury, and MGM Records, to name a few. There’s more on Testa’s influential career with Brian Berke’s extensive and informative essay at The MS Retailer.
One of Testa’s discoveries was Merchants of Dream, which issued the album Strange Night Voyage in 1968 on A&M Records— discussed at Progress Review.
END
CREDITS
Our thanks to Mike Delbusso of the Splatt Gallery Rock Art Gallery of Walled Lake, Michigan, for the Heavyn images. The 45 rpm single and Pioneer Recording Studio advertisement images are courtesy of Discogs. All other images, as noted.
