It all started in the spring of 1984 when Mike Connell was in his second year of law school and his younger brother David was in his last semester of college, both at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Mike had started playing the guitar and writing songs and David was struggling to learn to play bass. Once in a week they'd get together and practise with a friend of theirs, the drummer John Schultz.
Since none of the guys felt they were good enough at singing, John's friend Doug MacMillan, who was at that time a swimmer at the East Carolina University, joined them. They were playing together all summer, but when they didn't seem to improve much they decided to get a new drummer, Peele Wimberley from the locally well known band Johnny Quest.
 Doug, George, Mike, David, Peele. |
John left the band and became a movie director. He was the one that directed Bandwagon, a movie in which Doug MacMillan plays the manager of a band seeking fame and fortune, and he also directed the video "Get A Gun" for the Connells.
In September of 1984 the band gave their first real show at the Cafe Deja Vu in Raleigh. Everyone except Mike lived in Raleigh, he had returned to Chapel Hill for his final year of law school. David lived in his grandmother's house (the grandmother wasn't living there) and they used her garage as their practise space.
They did some more shows in the Cameron Village Underground and since it was so close, directly across the street from the Connells grand mother's house, some of the members would actually walk to the shows, carrying their equipment. That ended when George Huntley, childhood friend of David and Mike, joined - he wasn't only good at singing, playing the guitar and writing songs, he also had a VW van!
A one-album deal with the British record company Demon, owned by Elvis Costello, resulted in the Connells first album, "Darker Days". It was released independently in USA in 1986 and it was later rereleased by TVT.
In the spring/summer of 1986 the Connells signed with TVT Records and recorded "Boylan Heights" with producer Mitch Easter. The record was released in the fall. They also signed with a professional booking agent and could now actually afford to sometimes get a motel room when they were on tour...
Since then there has been 6 more albums - read about them in the cds section!
In the summer of 1989 Doug, George and Peele was doing a little side project together with Dana Kletter, Jeb Barlow and Mike Carter. They called themselves The April Fools and recorded several Burt Bacharach songs. An album was going to be released, but the rumor is that TVT said no.
In 1991 the band got their 6th member, Steve Potak on piano, organ and keyboards.
In 1993 the band became international stars with the smash hit "'74-'75" from the album "Ring". It was a top 20 hit in 13 countries and the band was touring Europe for the very first time.
In 1996 George Huntley released his first solo album, "Brainjunk".
In early 1997 the band had to cancel some shows because the singer Doug MacMillan suffered from diverticulitis, you can read more about that on the lineup page.