Maledon: I grew up in Rochester, Michigan, about 10 miles from Auburn Heights (which no longer exists). I now live in Auburn Hills, which includes all of Auburn Heights. There were seven children in my family. We had an old upright piano, which many of us learned to play. Not sure when I started, possibly around 10 years old. When I was 12, the Beatles hit. I then decided I wanted to play guitar. My parents bought me an acoustic when I was 13. A couple years later I got my first electric; I believe it was a Crestwood or similar. I played it in my first band in 1966. Soon I got a Gem combo organ (which I believe was made by Vox), and switched to that.

Allen: I was an early export from Long Island. My family moved west for my father to attend engineering school in Detroit. We lived in Royal Oak until I was ten and then moved to Rochester

Maledon: The next year I got Framus bass guitar, and the next year a Fender Precision bass. This is what I played when we started Anvil. I had seen Ted Burris at school, and knew he played guitar. He approached me one day and asked if I would like to start a band. I agreed. I asked a neighbor, Paul Manning to join us. I had played with him in a previous band, Staff of Life. The three of us practiced at my house. I asked a friend at school if he knew any keyboard players. He introduced us to Brian Walton, who joined the band with his Farfisa Organ. Next we found Richard Allen, a drummer still in junior high. (We were all in high school). He joined the band, and Anvil was complete. We played our fist job at Rochester High School January 30, 1970. My first concert was the Rolling Stones show at Cobo Arena in Detroit in September or October 1965. Satisfaction was a hit, and Get Off of My Cloud had just been released.

Allen: I began playing drums at age nine after getting kicked out of piano lessons and played through elementary school, West Junior High, and Rochester High school bands. I was taught to play traditional right-handed grip and switched to matched grip soon after I got my first drum kit from Federal’s Department Store. From those early days, I became a drummer first and everything else a distant second. I constantly tried putting bands together through elementary and junior high, but accomplished players were few and far between. So I primarily practiced to records in my living room.

Allen’s first kit: A Hy/Lo from Federal's dept. store. The Set came in one box that featured a 12in. cymbal, bass, rack, and snare. Allen used his first snare drum as a floor tom, and the hi-hat didn't even come till next Xmas!

Maledon: I believe it was $3.50 for the best seats. I hated it. Girls were screaming constantly, I couldn't tell which song they were playing at times. I couldn't see them because everyone kept standing up. I thought the concert was a waste of money. I didn't go to another big concert till 1970 when I saw the Who. They played both the Tommy and Live at Leeds LPs. I could hear them and see them at times. Much better than the Stones concert. For local bands, we went to Silverbell Ski Lodge, near Lake Orion, the Loft in Lakeville, the Factory Ballroom in Pontiac, the Chicago Underground in Warren, and many others. We saw Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, SRC, the Rationals and many other local bands who had records out, but were not national stars yet. I would go with Ted and/or Paul to these shows. We had always included originals when we played out.

I saw an ad in a Detroit newspaper for a recording studio and talked to the others. We made an appointment and on March 7, 1970 went to Northwest Sound Studios in Detroit. We recorded seven songs, five of which we had played live: "Wrong Road", "Laurie Please Remember Me", "Can't Stop Loving You Baby", "What Will You Do" and "My Woman." The last two songs we learned at Paul's house that morning before we left for the studio: "When I Woke Up" and "Good Night." It was not a good experience. The engineer had MS, and used to back of his hands to turn knobs, He also was very hard to understand. We were not allowed to use amplifiers; we plugged the guitar and bass directly into the recording mixer. The organ amplifier had to be used, because Brian had a Leslie speaker. We were not happy with the recording obviously.

Allen: On a Friday night in the fall of 1969, I met Ted Burris backstage at West junior high. He was scouting out the drummer playing the dance that night, and I was hanging with a friend who had lent the band his bass rig. The school principal kicked most of us backstage extras out, and I was saying I didn’t have a ride home. Ted offered, and on the way I talked myself into an audition with his band, Anvil, held at Bob Maledon’s house the next day. Despite being a snot-nosed fourteen-year-old kid, I passed the audition.

Allen: One of our first gigs was at an after-game dance at Rochester High on January 20, 1970. I still have a cassette recording from that one. From there, we mainly played school dances, a few hayrides, and even the Blue Sky drive-in. I think that, in the beginning, Paul and Bob just put up with me because I learned songs quickly and kept good time. Eventually, I earned my place in the band, and we all contributed equally. The first album we cut was done by Julian G Skinner, who suffered from cerebral palsy and was very hard to understand. It was dirty and cramped and I remember the organ amplifier set up in the bathroom. Each acetate was hand-cut, so no two are alike. I believe there are a total of six in existence. They sound terrible, and the signal fades every time it is played. I still have my copy, though I haven’t heard it in over thirty years.

Anvil at upland hills circa: January of 1970.

Maledon: We had him make an acetate record for each of us to listen to, and we kept the original master tape. It was recorded in mono (one track). We didn't want anyone to hear it. The band broke up a year later. My song writing was improving. I had Paul help me on some songs. I suggested to Ted we record an album. (NOT at Northwest again). We didn't have much money. We thought about going to another studio, and then take the tape to different record companies and see if anyone was interested. I then got the idea to record it ourselves and use our money to have records pressed at a local plant. This way we could be sure our record would be released. We borrowed my sister's 2 track tape recorder and bought two $5 mixers from Radio Shack. We used whatever microphones we could find. Unfortunately, we didn't know the difference between lo-z and hi-z.

Anvil: Ted Burris and Allen circa: 1970.

Allen: Toward the end of the session, we were hungry, tired, and a little giddy. We were recording something I knew only as the Horny song and laughing. Our friend, Dave VanderVan, who had come along to help with hauling equipment gets on a microphone and says, “Straighten up, Richard!” It ended up on the record. In 1971, I was a sophomore, Brian Walton was a senior, and Ted and Paul had graduated. Bob and Ted decided we should record an album, and the band name was changed to BOA. We recorded at the Tupperware warehouse in Auburn Hills. I didn’t have my driver’s license yet and had to be driven to the sessions by my parents. I don’t remember how long the recording actually took. Microphone channels were limited, and the drums suffered terribly because of it. No bass drum or snare drum mics. I think one cheap mic was used as an overhead. No one could accuse us of knowing what we were doing.

Maledon: We didn't understand why some of the mics were only half as loud as the others. We recorded everything live, including singing; there were no overdubs. This was all done at a Tupperware warehouse in Auburn Heights, on Sundays, when they were not using it. We recorded ten songs. When we were done, Paul did not like it. He didn't want his name, or face on the album. Ted put a disguise on him for the group photo, and we called him C. Hook. We decided not to use the name Anvil, as the music we recorded was in a different style. Paul used to go around to people and tell them to bite the one-eyed Boa. That's where the name came from. I took the tape to Archer, a local pressing plant, NOT a record company. They informed me it was too long to fit on one LP. We had to omit one song. They pressed 200 copies that cost us about $2 each, including blank white album jackets.

Anvil: Rich Allen, Bob Maledon and Brian Walton.

Allen: Snakefield records was Bob’s creation. So far as the record being a monster… It offered us bragging rights, and the songs were decent, but the overall quality of the product was less than amazing. Paul Manning left the band and that changed the dynamic. I found our new guitarist, Gary Cummis, at Oakland University while delivering pizzas. We readjusted our format, became Brass Anvil, and played as a rock horn band. That lasted a short time before Bob and I created the new Boa as a nine-piece brass band. Brian Walton and Ted Burris were out, and we added Paul Stanulis on keys and his old bandmates, Mark Dennis on guitar and Ed Swan on vocals. My old buddy Brian Pearson played bass and trombone, Randy Syracuse played sax, and Kim Knust and Loren Epler played trumpet.

Maledon: We had no label name, so Ted suggested Snakefield Records. He drew a mascot that we used in the photo. We had a friend take a picture of us with a regular camera, maybe a Kodak instamatic. Definitely not 35 mm. It was in color. I searched for a printing company who could put our picture on the front of our album jackets, and a song list on the back. Most companies couldn't do the job. When I found one who could, the cost of a color photo was extremely high. We had to settle for black and white. The small photo we took looked terrible when it was blown up to album size, but there was nothing we could do. We had the records shrink-wrapped, and I took them to different stores. Most of them said leave copies on consignment; they would pay us if any sold.

Allen: This nine-piece Boa played mostly high school dances throughout 1972 until internal squabbles, backstabbing, and inflated egos got the better of us. I left the band, and that was the end of Boa. The 1973 version of the band was called Morpheus. Half the lineup changed, adding Robbie Roll on guitar and Casey Last on bass. We continued to play school dances until the end of that school year, when the flame finally flickered and died. That was the last time I worked with any of those players. Upon graduation, I played in bands full-time, from a cheesy top forty Italian stallion wannabe, to the Butt Brothers, Moose and da Sharks, Grams, Roxwell, Sass, Pendragon, the Atomics, Rockestra, and many more. I was always happiest in bands built on creativity and withered when playing top forty.

Boa during the Wrong Road recording sessions.

Maledon: I then went to local radio stations and left a copy. When even had an appointment with Rosalie Trombly at CKLW. As far as I know, none of the local stations ever played anything from it. We were not a band at the time, so we did not go out and promote the LP. We sold it to schoolmates, friends and relatives. Paul was in another band at the time. Richard, Brian and myself decided to continue the band. We replaced Ted and Paul, and added three horn players. Brian left for college and was replaced by another organist. We kept the name Boa, and played out for a year or two… We played some songs from the Wrong Road LP during our performances, along with a few new originals, and many covers. I have been in many bands since Anvil/Boa, as have Ted and Richard.

Allen: I married in 1984, went back to school in ’85 for electronics, and made a living repairing medical equipment while still playing on the weekends. The last band I played in was Roxius, which morphed into Rock Anthem. That lasted from about 2013 to 2017. The band featured Chris Marshall from my Pendragon days, Denis Ikeler from Sass, and eventually my old friend, Barry George, on bass. After multiple personnel changes, the band finally fell apart, ending my musical career ended on a high note.

Boa performing live a brass section after the record was released.

Maledon: I was in Northridge, a rock and country band in the 90s. I told them about the Wrong Road LP and we decided to do the same thing. We went to a recording studio and recorded the songs on a 24 track tape machine. By this time, there were no LPs being sold. We had "Anything Goes" CDs pressed and cassettes duplicated. We even used a 35 mm camera for the photos. I again took the CDs to stores, and we sold them live when we performed. I did get some local airplay this time. Two Detroit stations and one in Mt. Pleasant played cuts from the CD. Today, I no longer perform in bands. I still write songs, and record them digitally. Many of them are on YouTube. This includes some Anvil/Boa songs.

Allen: I married in 1984, went back to school in ’85 for electronics and made a living repairing medical equipment while still playing on the weekends. The last band I played in was Roxius, which morphed into Rock Anthem. That lasted from about 2013 to 2017. The band featured Chris Marshall from my Pendragon days, Denis Ikeler from Sass, and eventually my old friend, Barry George, on bass. After multiple personnel changes, the band finally fell apart, ending my musical career ended on a high note. Since moving permanently to Southwest Florida, I have channeled my creativity into writing novels and short stories. I write under the name Richard Drummer and have three books on Amazon to date, with more to come. I still talk to Ted often and Bob on occasion. Being a drummer is what defined me my entire life. I was better at playing than anything else, so it was difficult to let that story end. Thankfully, writing has recharged me, and I’m having nearly as much fun as gigging. The best part? I don’t have to pack up a drum kit, mics, and lights when I’m done for the day. That part of my previous life I will never miss…

Bob Maledon & Richard Allen - The Story of Boa

Fidde Rognås - Shaggy

Paolo Siani Genova - Nuova Idea & The Psycheground Group