HiFi originally began as a band called Rags that broke up and reformed as HiFi seemingly overnight. I had met Joe Gemperline during one of Apple's gigs and he told me about a band he was playing in with his brother Bill (see Zakk) and a guitarist named Donny Eubank. I was so dismayed after the breakup of Apple that I actually considered playing rhythm guitar again when the job was offered to me by Joe. I got together with Joe, Bill and Donny to jam and after a few practice sessions, Joe got into a major argument with his brother. Bill got pissed and quit the band immediately. As a result of this weirdness, I switched to bass again and became the bass player. We promptly changed the name of the band from Rags to HiFi.

HiFi was a very interesting band. Donnie Eubank, who had been playing around town about as long as I had, had a very different taste in music than myself. In a word, he was a "beer drinker, hell raiser" type of guy. The songs he liked were mostly by southern rockers like Skynyrd and ZZ Top and Midwest rockers like Bob Seger. At first, I simply played along to these uninspiring tunes as Donnie ran the show. Eventually, Joe and I suggested some more interesting songs that were emerging from the New Wave sector like the Cars' Just What I Needed, and Let The Good Times Roll. The addition of tunes like this were the band's only relief from the southern boogie/blues madness!

We played a few gigs but Joe soon left the band to go away to college. I then suggested Jeff Porter to play drums and this welcome addition really added fuel to the fire and the band started taking shape. We added some of the songs that Jeff and I had already worked up in Apple to the set list and the overall sound of HiFi was much more accessible. In fact, we became a pretty darn decent top 40 dance band eventually.

I felt like I had sold my soul while in HiFi because although we were playing like crazy all over the place, we were not playing any originals to speak of. We were in essence a lounge/dance band playing such venues as the Green Gables in Gallopolis, the Holiday Inn(!) and Peter O's in Portsmouth, and the Holiday Inn(!) in Pt. Pleasant West Virgina. We even had a sound man plus a pyrotechnics expert (yes, we used flashpots, no less!) We had a booking agent whom I never have met to this day who was just a voice on the phone who would ask if we could play at the Do-Drop-Inn in Bumf**#, W.Va. at a moment's notice. We never turned down a gig and we had played more clubs than you could count on both hands over a six month period. Many were the times when our mysterious booking agent would call to tell us about a gig 150 miles away on a Thursday morning and we'd be packing up the gear into my dad's old Ford pickup the next day to travel to god only knew where to play a three-nighter in the hills of West Virginia. All this time we kept adding more and more songs that were playing on the radio at the time to satisfy the audience's tastes.

But in all honesty, I had no real complaints about any of this. My place of employment, Goodyear Atomic, had gone on strike and I was living off the money we were making in HiFi. I was so happy to be making a living at what I loved to do(well, sort of, if ya know what I mean) that when the strike was over, I actually decided to quit Goodyear and play music full time exclusively.

Ironically, HiFi and the big bucks were to disappear not long after my departure from Goodyear as I decided to become not just a musician but a starving artist in a band called The Retros...

1978-1980

 HIFI

(original incarnation)(left to right) S.W, Joe Gemperline, Donnie Eubank

HIFI

(the lounge band)

(left to right) S.W, Jeff Porter, Donnie Eubank