1978 was full of ups and downs for the band. Harry Conrad had the boys playing top clubs and recording comical ditties. With the help of Mark Chalmers' brother Brian, who was art director at the scene magazine, the band was getting regular press. Brian was a great motivator for the band, always tossing out great ideas and doing great artwork for press releases. But all the playing was taking a toll on the band. Tony, Mark, Jim and Rich held down regular day jobs playing four nights a week and going to work daily was wearing the boys down. But they never complained. They were doing what they loved to do. After a long week of playing and working in July it all caught up with Tony. While he was driving home, after dropping his girlfriend off, after the gig at about 3:30 a.m. he dozed off at the wheel of his camaro and side swiped a telephone pole. Tony totaled the car but miraculously walked away without a scratch.

His parents begged him to give up playing fearing next time he wouldn't be as lucky, but Tony refused and the band played on. In the future Tony and Jim drove to gigs together. Having someone to talk to on the long drives home made it safer for the both of them.

That was not the end of totaled automobiles and very scary situations. All in all the band was doing great. Late that summer the boys got a call asking if they wanted to play a Wednesday night 'Toga Party' at the Cleveland Agora. Lefty, the local favorites who usually held down the gig were not available for that night. So Teaser was more than happy to fill in.

The Wednesday toga parties were inspired by National Lampoons Animal House, so toga parties were an event being that Cleveland State University was right around the corner. The kids turned out in flamboyant costumes and ready to party. Radio station WMMS's Jeff and Flash, the hottest DJ team in Ohio, hosted the night. The boys were ready to rise to the occasion, unlike Lefty. The Teaser boys all wore togas and got up on stage and whipped the packed club into a frenzy. Jim led the crowd in continuous chants of toga... toga...toga. After the first set Jeff and Flash greeted the band with approving bows, but the boys weren't done yet.

The third set opened with the boys in black face, Afro wigs and full tuxes looking like Otis Day and the Nights. They broke into all the popular tunes from the movie. Louie, Louie brought the house down but when they ended the night with Shout the place went nuts. Friends of the band joined them onstage dancing around and singing. Tony's best friend, Big Walt Gedeon, commenced to smashing beer cans on his head while the crowd danced and laughed and sang...what a gas that night was. Another in a long line of memorable nights, but even with the success of the evening it still did not solidify the band in a regular rotation at the club. The booking agency politics still dictated who the regular acts would be. And for the Otis Day and the Nights routine that would come back to haunt the band.

As the band moved into the fall season of 1978, they worked on their originals and played successful shows opening for national acts like the before mentioned agora show. With these successes Jerry Tyler felt it was time for the working members of the band to commit fully to the band and quit their day jobs. But it was those day jobs that provided security to the band with equipment loans in Tony and Marks names they weren't about to jeopardize their credit ratings and their comfortable lives. So a new friction began to creep in, Jerry and Harry versus the rest of the band. But they dealt with it and the boys pushed on. In October with Halloween just around the corner the band was sitting around the practice hall one night joking about dressing up for a Halloween gig. Saturday Night Live was featuring The Coneheads on a weekly basis and Tony jokingly suggested maybe we should dress up like The Coneheads for Halloween and play a gig. The band laughed and they agreed that would be fun. Then Harry walked in and the boys told him their thoughts and the floodgates opened. Within one day Harry created a media frenzy setting up a gig at the Cleveland Agora featuring the Conehead Band from France.

Headlining that night would be Jonah Koslen and his new band Breathless, but no one was to know the Coneheads were in reality Teaser. So Harry came up with a contest, guess who the Conehead Band is and win a prize.

And for three solid weeks the contest was promoted on radio and in the Scene Magazine. And then a week prior to Halloween, Harry announced to the band that he had booked a spot on the Afternoon Exchange, a popular television news program which aired nightly at 5:00 p.m. with popular news anchors Wilma Smith and the real Bob James. Now this caused some excitement, this sounded like a real gas and the band was really up for it, unfortunately no one knew it was Teaser they had booked as the Conehead Band from France and on the day before Halloween 1978 the boys found themselves in the studios of WEWS dressing room putting on makeup and homemade cones and costumes. It was a sight to see. What followed as the band opened up the show was one of the most bizarre scenes on Cleveland television. They littered the set with potato chips and beer cans as they consumed mass quantities. Jim as the leader, Mij Eromarap, was ranting and raving on how the conesheads were there to rock n roll. The camera crew was laughing out loud as a very calm Wilma Smith sat in the background.

* L-R (Mark, Jim, Rich, Tony and Jerry )

"Afternoon Exchange"

L-R (Jerry, Rich, Jim, Wilma Smith, The Real Bob James, Tony, Mark and Stax )

This was probably one of the most outrageous gimmicks Harry and the band ever pulled off, but it wasn't the last. The following night the band opened the show to a packed house at the Agora. The word had leaked out that it was Teaser so a winner was awarded the prize, which was fifty dollars cash, the set went off without a hitch. After the set the boys found themselves backstage still in makeup with a lot of local media and Jonah Koslin and his band. There was an air of friction in the room. Koslin was premiering his new band of local heavyweight musicians and had just released an album but all the Conehead hubbub had seemed to upstage the local hero. So no one was talking much to the boys and tension filled the air at that point. Tony looked at Jim and said "now I'm starting to feel like a real asshole". They vowed once again never to dress up again, but then Harry without consulting with the band went ahead and booked another opening gig with a touring recording act at Filthy McNastys a popular Kent club. But not as Teaser, but as Otis Night and the Days. He switched the name around from Otis Day and the Nights so that there wouldn't be any legal repercussions. The boys were lived but the damage was done and show went on . A large crowd showed up. Gabriel, a one hit wonder, was the headliner but the large crowd was there to see who they thought was the real act from animal house. When the boys hit the stage in their blackface and afro wigs they were pelted with boo's and obscene crowd jesters from the audience. They were mooned and objects were thrown, but they finished the set.

Once backstage the tension was so thick you would have needed a chain saw to cut through it. The once fun and exciting relationship with Harry was coming to an end some of the boys were threatening to quit. Tony found himself struggling to keep things together. With an upcoming trip to New York, Tony was able to calm everyone down and hold things together for the time being. The relationship with Harry was now damaged beyond repair. Sides were being formed. Jerry Tyler wanted to do all original music now more then ever, so he teamed up with Harry who had promised him he could take him to the next level.

Mark and Rich wanted to break loose from Harry and head down another road. The embarrassment of the Filthy McNasty show was too hard to swallow. They wanted to make a move immediately. Tony and Jim were faced with a major decision. With all this on everyone's mind winter was fast approaching and the band was booked two nights at a club called the Lost C, just north of Dayton. The band thought it would be a good idea to rent a winabago and make the five-hour drive together.

With Harry at the helm they headed to Dayton. The trip was a blast. The tension eased, everyone was joking and having a great time. Everything seemed fine for the time being. The boys got to the club just in time for a sound check. The crew had left early that morning so they had everything under control.

The club was a huge cavernous room with wooden floors and a high ceiling. It had that great concert hall sound and being that it was a small town just north of Dayton, the locals were excited to have a big city band in town. The first night was a fun gig the crowd was into it and the boys were tight and solid.

After the gig they had to decide on sleeping accommodations. The club provided a room in the back with three bunk beds, some torn up mattresses and filthy sheets. The band decided it would retire to the comforts of the winnabago and leave the backroom to the crew. That night turned out to be one of the coldest nights of the winter and Harry, in his haste, never filled the propane tanks in the vehicle so the boys nearly froze to death. That night Tony and Mark slept together in the same sleeping bag trying to generate some body heat. Jim woke up in tears, turned the engine on to get some heat generated, but their pompous egos would not allow them to go sleep with the crew in that dingy back room. So they toughed it out through the night only to find the crew the next morning in their underwear sweating from the heat of the backroom. Then on top of that, they found out there was an electrical hook up in the winnabago for heat. Cold, tired and hungry the boys made it through another weekend on the road. So with tension on the rise again, the band limped into Westfield, New York a few weeks later for what would be the bands last road trip with Harry Conrad and Jerry Tyler.

Next: Harry blows up and Jerry quits.

* Photos Courtesy of Brian Chalmers

Go to Bio Part VII