blog.richspina.com

September is here, summer is almost over and as I was flying home today I realized that I didn’t post a single blog in August. That’s because I was so busy I didn’t notice that the month had evaporated as we traveled through Nevada, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio.

We performed at Lock 3 Live in Akron and it was especially fun for me because it was in my hometown state. I even had to autograph a few of my old albums and 45’s. The girl that brought the 45 for me to sign wasn’t even born yet when it was originally released. So, needless to say, I was touched. Below is a pic of me showing Vance what a 45 record actually looked like as Billy looked on in amusement.

“Myself, Vance & Billy”

“autographing an old Richard & The Heartbeats single”

Speaking of albums…I am in the process of recording a new CD, which should be out around the beginning of next year. Haven’t decided on a title yet, but I’ll keep you updated on the progress. Right now, you can hear a couple of the new songs on www.RockandRollHeaven.net, an internet radio station. Also, I’d like to thank everyone that continues to visit my “MySpace” site to listen to my music. At the beginning of this month my songs finally reached over 100,000 plays. Thank you!!!

C-Town news….this Thursday, Sept 9, Debi Lewin & Jennifer Lee, (my cohorts in the Cover Girls), will be joining me at the Mad Cactus as my guest artists for the evening. It will be the last time we will be performing together because Debi is about to move to Florida. First, Billy moved…then LeBron abandoned us…now Debi…who will be the next person to leave C-Town? It will be a very loose & fun evening with the three of us just enjoying making music together for the last time.

Cheers!!!

Wow, I can’t believe how fast this summer is flying by….and it has been a busy summer. We’ve been zigzagging all over the country with lots of the shows being performed outdoors. Unfortunately, rain followed us to a lot of those shows. In Chicago it was actually pouring during the entire show. But because the fans refused to get out of the rain, we went up and performed…the show must go on!!! And it was a fab show!! Below is a pic from our soundcheck in New Jersey where the Noonatics were already finding their place hours before the show was to begin….even though it was raining cats & dogs at the time.

“True fans at soundcheck”

On July 9^th the first annual “Noonefest” took place in Jim Thorpe, PA. And what a grand time it was; hundreds of Noonatics gathered in one place for a full day and evening of music, mayhem and FUN. Below are a few pics from that evening.

“admiring the underwear that was thrown onstage to Peter”

“Noonatics spelling out HENRY”

In Colorado, Billy and I got to spend some time with our good friend Jeff LaQuatra. He teaches at the college there and is also one of the best classical guitarists around!

“Rich, Jeff LaQuatra & Billy hangin’ after the show”

C-Town notes: Even though I’ll be traveling a lot in August I will manage to squeeze in a few hometown shows…some by myself, some with drummer extraordinaire Donny Krueger and a special return of “Spina & Sullivan” on August 19^th at the Mad Cactus as new Chicago resident Billy returns to his hometown for some show. Also, we will be in Akron with Peter and the rest of the Hermits at Lock 3 on August 28. Come on out and watch Peter Noone weave is magic.

I’m up in the skies right now flying from El Paso, TX to Albany, NY for a Fourth Of July celebration concert. No Wi-Fi on this plane so I decided to take out my Mac and type a new blog.

It’s been a very busy summer so far and we’re having a blast!!! We’ve had great concerts and the Noonatics have been out in full force making all the shows that much more special for us Hermits!! I’m posting this pic that Cathy D took of me because Kellie says I don’t smile enough on stage.

“Seeeee, I’m smiling!”

And here’s another (though I don’t know who the photographer was)!!

“And laughing!!”

This next pic is to show proof that Vance DOES know his way around a computer. As we were waiting for our next flight, Vance decided to answer some email. Notice how intently he is studying the screen. Also notice the 2 smartphones right by his side in case he has to respond quickly to a new text.

“Vance getting techy!”

Before I go I want to wish everyone a happy Fourth Of July. I hope it’s warm & sunny, I hope you get to spend it with family & friends, and I hope you take a moment to honor the men & women that built this great country, and the service men & women (past & present) that have sacrificed so much so that we can live free and prosper in this great nation of ours. Happy Birthday America!!!

Wow, I just realized that it’s already June and I haven’t posted anything since April. That’s because May was one crazy month of traveling all over the country. It started on the last day of April in Nevada and then we proceeded to travel to Texas, Ontario, Maryland, Washington, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, New York, California, back to Nevada and Pennsylvania. Then, during the last week of May, Billy Sullivan and I did a flurry of dates in C-Town before he moved to Chicago.

Though most of the tour dates were “Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone” shows, we did manage to squeeze in a couple of “Teen Idols” shows. And in case you forgot, those shows are Mark Lindsay, Micky Dolenz and Peter Noone on stage at the same time, singing all their hits and having fun wisecracking with each other. If you never saw one of these shows, you missed a truly memorable evening…the best way to describe it is to imagine a 60’s Rock-n-Roll Rat Pack of music & mayhem. At the final “Teen Idols” show in Las Vegas, Desi Arnaz Jr and Billy Hinsche of “Dino, Desi & Billy” fame stopped by to take in the show and say hello backstage afterwards. Below are some pics from these shows.

“The Teen Idols”

“Micky grooving with the Hermits “

“Mark, Peter & Micky”

“Richie, Desi & Billy backstage”

Before I leave I have to speak again about this supposed healthcare plan (not much about healthcare or fixing the problems of healthcare but A LOT about more taxes and more big government). Anyways, prior to the vote, the President absolutely stated that the cost of the plan would have to come in at a certain cost or he would not sign it. Also, a large number of the Dems in Congress said they would not vote for it if the costs were higher. Now, only 1 month after the signing of the healthcare bill, they’ve discovered that the cost is going to be 115 BILLION DOLLARS MORE!!! That’s no small error in accounting….it’s huge!! Isn’t there ANYBODY IN WASHINGTON that is capable of adding and subtracting? My point is; will they now repeal the bill since the cost is WAY OVER what the President said it would have to be UNDER. Because if they don’t repeal it, that would make the President and the Dems in Congress complete liars….correct?

I’m up at about 30,000ft flying to Las Vegas and after watching my third episode in a row of “The Wonder Years” it hit me that I hadn’t posted a blog in weeks. So, I thought I’d start typing away on my Mac, even though I can’t post it immediately because the plane I’m on doesn’t have Wi-Fi…what a drag!!

I love April…baseball season begins, the NBA play-offs starts and we make our yearly Hermitage to the Flower Power Stage at Epcot in sunny Disneyworld. Peter weaved is magic through nine shows in three days. And the Noonatics were there in full force to join in all the fun!!!! Below are some pics from the three days of shows.

“Peter put that hat on me….he loves flowers!!”

“Check out Dave’s wrist bands…..soooo 80’s!!!”

Back home in C-Town “The Cover Girls” did our reunion show at the place where it all started, Rick’s Café in Chagrin Falls, OH. And what a wonderful evening it was…a packed house and friends and fans that we haven’t seen in years. Even the hometown stars came out as members the The Raspberries, The James Gang & Beau Coup stopped by to take in the show. In late March I also performed another show with “That 80s Band” as their guest lead vocalist. What a great band…it’s an honor to sing with them. Here’s a few pics from my C-Town shows.

“The Cover Girls on stage at the Rick’s Cafe reunion.”

“Dennis Lewin of Beau Coup joined us for a song.”

“Singin’ with That 80s Band.”

Sad note: On March 17, Alex Chilton passed away. A true musical icon, some remember him as the lead singer of The Box Tops and some remember him from the legendary band “Big Star”; but I remember him as my friend. He was only 59 yrs old. RIP Alex.

That’s about all for now…..wow I’m finished and I still have an hour left before I land in Vegas…guess I’ll take in another episode of the Arnold family….see ya soon!!!!!

Spring is finally here and it couldn’t come a minute sooner. It was a cold, cold winter this year….even my travels to Florida, Nevada and California during January and February I dealt with cold weather. So much for global warming!!! And during this month of March madness I actually got to spend a rare 3 full weeks at home here in C-Town….and that was nice. It gave me a chance to do some recording, perform around town with a few different bands, see some friends perform & take care of some personal business. One of those performances was with “That 80s Band” as their guest lead vocalist. It was a great night; the place was packed, the band was rocking and the audience was going crazy. Well, as I was up on stage singing and taking it all in I realized that the entire audience was about 30 yrs younger than me….Ouch!!!!

For all you iPhone users out there….I know have my very own iPhone app that you can get at their app store. It has my music, pics, blogs, my calendar and lot’s more. Just go to the iTunes store and type my name.

Local update: The “Cover Girls” will finally do our reunion show tonight, (Wednesday March 24), at the historic Euclid Tavern. We start at 9:00pm. We also intend to do a couple more shows around town in April and May.

“The Cover Girls”

Also, if you’d like to see “Spina & Sullivan” on our madcap Thursdays at the Mad Cactus, you’d better do it soon because after May you will not be able to see us perform as Billy, (the Sullivan part of our duo) will be moving to Chicago in June.

Before I say goodbye I couldn’t leave without mentioning the most important thing that happened in March…and not in a positive way. I’m referring to the passing of the Health Care Bill. It proved that our House of Representatives on both sides of the aisle do not care about us. Though it’s called a Health Care Bill, it has very little to do with fixing health care, but a LOT to do with more taxes and way more government control over our lives. Once again, the American people lose. I’m sure Jefferson is rolling over in his grave!!

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!!!