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I’m flying home from Tampa, FL to the cold, grey and snowy weather of Cleveland, OH…or as I like to call it, C-Town…and thought it would be a good time to post something.

We just finished a wonderful 4-day run of concerts at Busch Gardens, performing 3 shows a day for a total of 12. It’s always one of the tour dates I look forward to each year for many reasons: 1 - It’s always in February, which means I get a brake from the cold weather. 2 – I’m actually at one place for 5 days…lots of times I’m not even home for that many days. 3. The Noonatics come from all parts of the world and converge on Busch Gardens for the entire 4 days…and that makes the week even more fun. They even made dolls of Peter and each of us Hermits. Below are some pics from the 4 days.

“Busch Gardens”

“Peter and the Herman’s Hermits dolls”

“Peter, myself and mini-me”

Local update: I’ll be performing around town a lot from the end of February through March. The “Cover Girls” will be doing a reunion in the end of February with the original line-up….we haven’t performed together since 2003. The “Cover Girls” were/are: Debi Lewin, Jennifer Lee, Billy Sullivan and myself. I’ll also be singing “That 80s Band” for a few shows in March. “Spina, Sullivan & Hudak” will be doing a reunion show on St. Patrick’s Day and “The Cleveland Boys” will be performing a couple days later. As usual, Billy and I will be holding down our Thursdays at the Mad Cactus and actually making most of them over the next couple of months.

On a lighter note: A lot of people have been talking about and sometimes making fun of the Tea Party Patriots…a new political movement. Well, the one that I find hysterical is the movement that call themselves “Progressives”…now there’s a true oxymoron…and heavy on the last 2 syllables. Why you ask; lets just go back to when the movement really began in America, around 1880. Just putting 1880 and the word “progress” in the same sentence makes me snicker. And now lets add in Presidents that were “Progressives”…Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft. Not real memorable guys, huh? And now lets go to some of today’s “Progressives” core values….a lot of them date back to the Roman Empire…just before it crumbled!! So, unless “failure” is “progress”, they should either change their name or their beliefs…otherwise they will just be viewed comically.

Talk to ya soon!!!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable New Years Eve celebration. I spent mine in Newport News, VA and we had a blast as a large group of Noonatics journeyed to Virginia to ring in the New Year with Peter and his band of Hermits.

I’ve been on the road for 2 weeks and right now I’m stuck in Chicago tryin’ to get home because the C-Town airport had a power outage. So I thought I’d drag out my Mac and write this blog.

Being home for 3 full weeks made this Christmas season a special one. I was able to spend some quality time with family and friends. And then on New Years day I flew to Las Vegas and celebrated Christmas with Kellie for a week.

The Akron Agora reunion was a blast….so many bands from the 80’s reuniting to play a few songs. Though “Love Affair” did not perform as a band, Wes Coolbaugh and I did go up and do an impromptu version of “Whole Lotta Love” and then with the rest of his old band “Elysian Field”, we performed our 1980 hit “Mama Sez”. Thank you Chris, Pat, Diane & Bob for performing it with us. If you’d like to hear our performance that night, visit my Facebook page, go to my wall, and keep paging down through older posts until you find the 2 songs. Below are a couple of pics from that night.

“Singin’ “Whole Lotta Love”"

“Wes & I doing our 1980 hit “Mama Sez” w Bob on bass”

I have to say though, the best part of this holiday season was the surprise 90^th birthday party for my Dad. My Mom arranged everything and my Dad was completely surprised. I’m truly blessed to have such wonderful parents. With that, I’ll close with a pic of my parents and I at the party just after my Dad blew out the birthday candles. Cheers!!!

“with Mom & Dad”

December started out with a weekend of shows in Oregon with the “Teen Idols”. And for those of you just dropping in for one of my blogs the “Teen Idols” are Peter Noone, Micky Dolenz and Mark Lindsay. And they put on 2 killer shows full of music, mayhem and laughs. On my way home I made a stop in Las Vegas to visit with Kellie for a few days. Now I’m back in C-Town for three weeks to enjoy the Christmas holidays before I head back out on the road.

I believe I’m going to call this Christmas “A Retro 80’s Christmas”. Why you ask? Well, to start things off, the premier Cleveland all-girl rock band from the 80’s “Lipstick” stopped by The Mad Cactus on Thursday to say hello. Though the band folded almost 20yrs ago, they were getting together for the Christmas holidays. Below is a picture of me hangin’ with them.

“with Lipstick. Jett, Donna, Linda & Kithy”

The next night I was invited to a reunion party of another 80’s band, “Quest”. I had not seen them all together in over 20 years. In 1986 I produced their single “All In Your Heart” up in Canada at The Metalworks, a recording studio owned by the Canadian band “Triumph”. Below is a picture of us together at the studio in ’86 and below that is a picture of us together last week at the party. We didn’t age too much, huh?!?

“with Quest in Canada 1986. myself, Dave, Jude, Bill, Bryant & Steve on the bottom.”

“with Quest 2009. myself, Dave, Bill, Bryant & Steve on the bottom.”

To continue with the 80’s theme, this Friday I’ll be sitting in on keys with the “New Century Beatniks” which has 2 of my former “Love Affair” band mates (Mike Hudak & John Zdravecky) in it. And of course, “Love Affair” was together in the 80’s. Then on Saturday, I’ll be a guest lead vocalist for “That 80s Band”. That one is kinda self-explanatory but it is lead by former “Love Affair” band mate (Wes Coolbaugh). And it doesn’t end there…because on December 23 I will be stopping at the Akron Agora reunion. That was a very popular club and concert hall from the 1980s. Some bands are reuniting to perform and others are just stopping by to say hello. Since “Love Affair” held their all-time attendance record there, I will stop by and will probably sing a song.

Anyways, have a very Merry Christmas and, if I don’t post another blog soon, have a wonderful New Year!!

Since this is a Thanksgiving blog I want to take a moment and thank everyone; my friends, family, fans & Noonatics for all your birthday wishes a couple of weeks ago. It made my birthday this year a special one…I am truly blessed. I’d also like to thank all of you that continue to stop by at my “myspace” page and listen to my music. Though the site has only been up since the summer of 2007 you’ve already listened to my songs over 79,000 times. And lastly, I’d like to thank Helen Marketti for the wonderful article she wrote on me in this month’s issue of the North Coast Voice Magazine. You can read it by going to: www.northcoastvoice.com. If you visit there after Nov 18 you’ll have to click “archives” at the top right and find Volume 9 Issue 20. Once you click that issue you’ll find the article on page 8 and 9.

After being on the road almost the entire month of October it was nice to be home in C-Town for 2 ½ weeks. But now I’m ready to get back on the road.

While in town I donated my talents for the benefit show called Joshua’s Jam. A number of bands and artists from around town also donated their talents. While I was there I ran into my old friend, Fred Flory from the band “Cleveland Rocks”. “Me & Fred hangin’ out at Joshua’s Jam”

You probably better remember him as the lead singer from the band “Captured”. The night afterwards I performed with “That 80s Band” as their special guest singer for the night. The band is incredible and I had a blast!!!

Reminder: Spina, Sullivan & Hudak will be doing our reunion show at the Mad Cactus on November 25….the night before Thanksgiving. We start at 9:00pm and as usual, it will be total musical mayhem. Hope to see ya there!!!

October has been crazy, we’ve been on the road touring almost the entire month. I believe I’ve only been home in C-Town for five days the entire month…and three of those days I was gigging around town. Right now I’m backstage at The Aud in Rochester, NY waiting to take the stage. The Rascals are about to begin, The Turtles will be next and then we will take the stage to close the show. And it will be a blast!!!!

The past two nights we were in Niagara Falls, Canada performing at The Fallsview Casino. Both nights were sold out and, as always, Peter was incredible!! I love performing there…the venue, the production staff, the security staff, everyone that has anything to do with the Fallsview are the absolute best!!!

“Niagara Falls from my hotel room”

Two weeks ago we were up in Onamia, MN with The Teen Idols. Peter Noone, Micky Dolenz and Mark Lindsay on stage together at the same for the entire show is one fun-filled, hilarious time…you never know what’s gonna happen next. Kinda like a rock-n-roll Rat Pack. Below are a couple of pics from that show.

“Mark, Micky & Peter”

“Mark, Peter & Micky”

Local update: I told you before about Wes’ new project, “That 80s Band”. You really should check them out; they are great. And who knows, when I’m off the road, you just might find me up on stage with them sitting in and singing some 80s songs.

“That 80s Band”

Mark this down on your calendars; Spina, Sullivan & Hudak will be doing another reunion show at The Mad Cactus on Wednesday, November 25…the eve of Thanksgiving. Expect total musical mayhem. Happy Halloween…eat lots and lots of candy.

Wow, this has to be the shortest summer I can remember! And it went by so fast…except for watching Cleveland Indians baseball…that was slow and very painful. But autumn, which is my favorite season, is upon us. And boy is it going to be a busy one!!!! I’ll be traveling through many states over the next 2 months, racking up those frequent flyer miles. I’m in Las Vegas right now and I’ll be in Seattle, WA on Tuesday.

Last night we were in Stafford, TX for another “Teen Idols” show. And what a great show it was!!! For those of you who don’t know, the Teen Idols are: Peter Noone, Micky Dolenz, and Mark Lindsay. The three of them tore up the stage and brought the house down last night. The Hermits along with Wayne Avers (Mickys’ guitarist) is the Teen Idols band and we rocked the house. Here are a few pics from last nights show.

“The Teen Idols at soundcheck.”

“Peter, Micky & Mark take the stage!”

“Everyone singing along to Henry The VIII”

Due to our busy tour schedule you won’t see me playing many dates in C-town over the next month and a half. Billy and I won’t even be back at The Mad Cactus until October 15. Hope to see you all somewhere along the road.

I can’t believe its already August…this summer sure is flying by!! I just got back from Connecticut where we performed at the Mohegan Sun Casino. We always have a great time there. Once again, I ran into my good friend Lou Christie who had just finished performing there. The day of our show the Noonatics were having a luncheon to celebrate Peter’s 45 years in show business. Peter, Billy and myself stopped by to say “hello”. It’s always fun hangin’ with the Noonatics.

“Hangin’ with the Noonatics”

CD update: I wanted to let you know that my solo CD “Sometimes, When I’m Alone” is now available on iTunes and Amazon mp3 for downloads. Also, last fall I cut a licensing deal with Retrospect Records who re-released all three Love Affair albums on CD. They also re-released the 1992 album SPINA & SULLIVAN “12×8x2” on CD. To get to the site go to: www.retrospectrecords.com Of course, all these are still available on my website but for those of you that do not use PayPal you have other options.

Two weeks ago, in what seemed like the entire musical community of Cleveland, came out to support fellow musician Alan Greene at Cebars. His wife had just passed away. It was truly an emotional musical experience. Below is a picture from that evening when Eric Carmen and myself joined Alan onstage and sang some songs by The Who. It was very bright in that dark bar.

“Eric Carmen, Paul Christensen, myself & Danny Powers”

Before I sign off I was wondering…how’s the “hope and change” been working out for you??? Are you choking on it yet?

Wednesday I’m off to Vegas for seven days of R & R. See ya when I get back.

I hope everyone had a wild and fun 4th of July weekend. We sure did…performing in Springfield, OR on the 4th and then flying to Chicago, IL for a show on the 5th. Needless to say, I’ve seen enough firework displays to last me until next year.

A couple of weeks ago while in C-Town I stopped out to see ex-Love Affair band mate Wes Coolbaugh’s new band “That 80’s Band”. They rocked the house. They invited me up on stage to sing a couple of songs….I had a blast.
Below is a pic of me on stage singing with them. That’s Diane on keys and Pete on drums.

“on stage with That 80’s Band”

As you all know, I travel a lot and I must say for all the traveling I do, as long as I avoid O’Hare (the WORST airport in the world), it is usually a pain-free experience. Sure, there’s the occasional flight delay and every now & then there’s a TSA agent that doesn’t speak very good English, but other than that…it’s all good. My girlfriend Kellie on the other hand has had nothing but problems. Mechanical problems, missed connections, weather problems (a snow storm in Las Vegas?!)…you name it…it’s happened to her. Kinda like the movie “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”….only worse!! The last straw final came while she was performing her show on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean heading towards Israel. The ship’s engines caught on fire. After they towed the ship back to Egypt the next day Kellie decided on a different mode of transportation for her return back to the states. And I just happen to have a picture of her traveling home.

“Kellie traveling from Egypt back to Las Vegas”

I just arrived back home from a week of concerts with Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone. We performed 6 shows in 5 days in 5 different states. And we had a blast!!!!! There are even videos of some of the performances on YouTube. Jimmy Greenspoon of Three Dog Night came to our Alexandria, VA show. That was a thrill for me personally considering that the first live concert I ever saw was Three Dog Night at Public Hall when I was in the 9th grade.

“backstage with Jimmy Greenspoon”

Our last date of this run was in Suffern, NY where the Noonatics had a “Brigade.” I know…. you’re wondering, what’s a “Brigade?” That’s when Noonatics come from far & wide, this time as far west as California and as far east as England, to spread the musical word of Herman’s Hermits to the masses. The Brigade was put together by Mo but Jana stole it from her and banished Mo to Siberia to spread the musical word all by herself without the help of the Brigade. Below is a picture of me hangin’ with the Brigade before the show.

“with Jana’s Brigade”

Local update: Billy & I will be making all of our Mad Cactus Thursdays in July. Billy will miss the July 16th date but I’ll still be there with Jeff Varga filling in for Billy. Stop in and say hello!!

I head back out on the road this Friday so have a safe & fun 4th of July.

Summer in C-Town is always a wonderful time of the year but I’m usually on the road so I don’t get a chance to experience much of it. Since returning from Toronto a week ago, I’ve been able to enjoy a rare 2-week break from touring. That’s the longest I’ve been home during the month of June in years!! So, I’ve been performing some dates locally, recording, soaking up the sun and seeing some of my friends perform.

This Tuesday I’ll be lending my talents on keys and vocals to Steve Jochum as he headlines a concert at Cain Park to debut his new CD “Sky”. And this Thursday Steve returns the favor as he joins me at The Mad Cactus filling in for Billy Sullivan. Speaking of The Mad Cactus, Billy and I will be there for most of the Thursday nights over the next couple of months. And we always have a good time…lots of our friends in the music biz stop in and sometimes even join us for a few songs.

“Debi Lewin (The Divas, That 80’s Band) sitting in.”

This Friday Billy and I will be performing at the Coe Lake Gazebo from 7:30pm to 9:00pm as part of their summertime concert series. After that, I’ll be heading back out on the road with Peter Noone where we will be doing five shows in five different states in 6 days (Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Florida & New York). Hope to see ya at one of the shows!!!!