a. The Rhythm Section.
Bob Gelinas and Brian Kirk first met in 1980. Kindred spirits due to their love of comic books and music, the two began jamming together almost immediately. Their first professional gig together being in 1982 with the short lived "KGB", which featured Mike Boyd on guitar, who would later go on to form 80's fan favotites, "Blind Date". Over the years, Brian and Bob would play together in various combos, the last before the forming of Gumhead being "The Blood Moles", which also feature Dale Bass and Barry Gelinas on guitar.
Concurrently, Nik Simonik was honing his own chops as keyboardist with The Art Kritics.The band was formed in 1984 by Nik and drummer Bill Myers, and over its four year career was home to a wide variety of musicians, including George Meyers (bass), Todd Hartigan (guitar/bass), Kent Wood (guitar/bass), Mark Olier (guitar), and Kevin Newman (bass).The band was a local favorite, often performing at The Zone Art Center in Springfield, and released an album, "Duck and Cover", in 1987. The band folded in 1990, after which Nik and Bill began running "Metro Recording Studios", which finally closed its doors in 1992.
In the latter part of 1993, local comedian and show promoter Don Miltar began putting together a show to benefit the local Make A Wish foundation of Greater Springfield. Getting comdey acts was no problem for Don, who had been doing stand-up comedy in the area for years as the cross-dressing "Tammy Tutone". However, he also needed a band to warm up the crowd and introduce the acts. Don telephoned his old Zone Art Center cohort Nik Simonik with a request: "Can you put the Art Kritics back together?" Nik first contacted Todd Hartigan, who had been a guitarist with the Art Kritics in its final days. Nik then suggested that he would line up a drummer and Todd a bassist. When Nik approached Bill Myers, however, there was a setback, as Bill had other pursuits and wanted no part of an Art Kritics reunion. Fate then lent a hand, however, with a chance meeting of Nik with longtime friend Brian Kirk at a local watering hole. Nik now had his drummer. Todd, in the meantime, had lined up former Art Kritic Kent Wood to play bass. However, as rehearsals began, Kent found his schedule unable to accomodate, so Brian suggested the substitution of his long time collaberator Bob Gelinas as bassist.On June 5, 1994, the band made their debut as "Joe Blow and the So and So's". Over the next few months, the name changed from The Arthritics, to Fossil, and finally to Gumhead. The band began to make their presence known in the area with extensive touring at any place that would have them. By mid 1995, they had garnered a reputation as a band to be recond with. The end of 1995 dealt the band two blows from which they almost didn't recover. First, The Zone Art center, which had been the band's rehearsal studio since its inception, was closing. Second, Todd Hartigan, the band's co-founder, announced that he was leaving. Todd had been commuting from Boston to gig with the band, and the constant travelling, coupled with his upcoming nuptials, became too much. Todd played his last show with Gumhead in Enfield, Ct on November 5, 1995.