Airhead Music

The approximately six months of weekly performances under the name "Live Music" served it's intended purpose well. Working the kinks out in front of an audience proved invaluable. The stage for the performance on July 4th,1976 was a flatbed truck at one end of 2nd street in Old Town, Eureka, CA. The view from the stage gave the impression that the several thousand people that filled the length of 2nd street were there to hear the band. Even though many were not familiar with Reggae, Airhead won over the crowd performing original songs as well as covers of Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Toots and The Maytals. The band was hired on the spot to play the following weekend in one of the more popular clubs in town.

Airhead proceeded to play the local clubs as many as four nights a week. The students at Humboldt State University were also very supportive. This photo in the HSU newspaper "The Lumberjack" from the mid 1970's shows Airhead turning the HSU Quad into an "outdoor festival atmosphere". And again in the early 1980's. The band also went on short tours to towns within a hundred miles from the studio and began producing their own shows in the local halls. The first long road trip was to a club in Vancouver, British Columbia called Rohan's. Arriving at Rohan's the band was surprised to see a large television truck parked outside and multiple tv cameras inside. The show was also going to be broadcast live over the radio. It was a very unique performance, albiet not a fond memory, in that it was the only time the band had to stop after beginning a song and start over again. Someone made a crucial error when making the set lists. Half the band started one song and the other half started another. Needless to say confussion ran surpreme. All in all the concert went well however as evidenced by the live radio broadcast leading to gigs in Bellingham and Seattle, WA. Airhead would go on to play in many cities and towns from Santa Cruz,CA in the South to Vancouver and Victoria, BC in the North, including San Francisco, Berkeley, Fairfax, Ukiah, Chico, Weaverville, Eugene, Corvallis, Bend, Portland, Seattle and Bellingham. In the late 1970's The Robert Cray Band was playing a lot of the same clubs and was very helpful introducing Airhead to some venues in Oregon. At this point the members of the Robert Cray Band were giving up their permanent homes as they were spending most of their time on the road. Airhead never did commit to the road to this extent! Throughout it's existence Airhead fostered a collaborative atmosphere with other bands producing many shows with multiple acts. Airhead played or rehearsed 4 to 6 nights a week. No one had day jobs.