Weatherheads Band History

Bart Hyde had played with Ken in other bands, most recently, the Delineators. Ken called Bart and he came and played at a few rehersals before being dismissed by John because is style seemed more blues than rock or pop. "I cringe when I think of that decision now" says John, "later after the backing tracks were recorded I gave Bart and a couple of other guys a try but the parts that Bart created  sounded like they were written with the song originally. Particularly what he came up with for the song "Hightide". I expected him to put  some solos on it and that would be it but what he came up with took the track to a better place. I was stunned ".  Ken was less surprised since they’ d played together before  but all concerned knew that this was what the songs needed. 

 "Dancing On The Bomb Bay Doors" was released in August of 1996. The first song "Blue Ghosts On Fire" was included on the soundtrack for the movie "Friction".  The original line up played it’ s first gig in December 1995 at the Art Bar in downtown Seattle. This would be the only public gig for this line up as Ken is far more a blues/ R&B man. 

A chance meeting at a party led Mark Poffenbarger to become the new drummer and the band played around Seattle until early 1997 when both Joe and Mark left over the usuall musical differences" . 

After almost a year and a half of searching, hiring and firing different people John was fed up " I had to fire five different people in one year including a good friend of mine so I was at the end of my rope." 

Then one day Bart walked into a guitar repair shop and recognised the guy at the counter who turned out to be one Jim Santoro. When asked what the hell he was doing these days Jim said he wasn’ t in a band. Bart asked him to give Weatherheads a shot and he showed up after meeting with John and hearing the CD. " Jim walked in and had really done his homework " says John," he had harmonies learned and the bass parts down so there was little question that he was in."