HARD REIGN:
A
Biography by Mike Laureanno
During the spring of 1978 Mike Laureanno and
Chris Riley, seniors at Bishop Connolly High School in Fall River, MA,
would steal away during their free - and sometimes not free - periods
to play guitar and practice two-part harmonies. With Chris on lead
guitar and vocals and Mike on rhythm guitar and piano, they soon
established themselves as a soft-rock acoustic duo. Chris, who could
sound like James Taylor or Dan Fogelberg, played a bluesy electric
guitar while Mike harmonized and either strummed his acoustic or
pounded on his worn out Fender Rhodes piano. Chris coined the duo
“Orion”, and in the summer of 1978 Orion performed their first show in
Middletown, RI at a club called Bojangles. Orion developed a small
loyal following performing regularly at Bojangles and Jakes in Fall
River, MA and Abraham Manchester’s in
Adamsville, RI. As 1978 drew to a
close, the duo realized they needed to add a third harmony and bass
guitar to the act. Enter stage right - Danny Perry.
Danny
Perry was also from Fall River and even lived on the same street as
Mike. They were good friends and over the years had jammed together.
In fact, Mike’s first musical public performance occurred in July of
1977 at the Brick Market Place in Newport, RI, busking alongside
Danny. Together they nervously sang their entire eight song repertoire
- over and over - and to their amazement they earned a whopping $40
from appreciative tourists. Danny came from a musical family, his
father Vid, a professional trumpet player was the leader of the Venus
De Milo house band for years. Danny, a jack-of-trades musician, was
equally adept at singing and playing Fender Jazz Bass, acoustic
guitar, piano and flute. The addition of Danny was an exponential
improvement to the sound, attitude and popularity of the group.
Besides his musical talents, Danny influenced the group’s song set to
include edgier artists like Bob Dylan and Patty Smith. Danny also
encouraged the group to write original songs and most famously Danny
renamed the group from “Orion” to “Hard Reign” - using a play on words
from the famous Bob Dylan song “Hard Rain”.
Hard Reign rehearsed during the spring of
1979 and that summer performed regularly at Bojangles, the Newport
Tavern, Courtney’s, and Andy’s on the beach in Westport, MA. Their
following was growing and their sound was tight and texturally rich
with brilliant three part harmonies. A couple of interesting things
happened that summer. One night while the band was singing the CSN&Y
classic “Find the Cost of Freedom”, a drunk approached the group
mid-song brandishing a bowie knife saying “You wouldn’t be singing
that if you’d been there”. Luckily, in the nick of time, the club
owner removed the man and his knife. They never sang that song again!
On another night while performing at the Newport Tavern, both Danny
and Chris met two beautiful young women named Erin and Shelley. Some
guys get all the luck. The Perry’s (Danny and Erin) and the Riley’s
(Chris and Shelley) will be celebrating their 27th year of wedded
bliss.
In
December of 1979, Chris and Danny decided to leave Hard Reign
amicably. In order to keep Hard Reign alive, Mike enlisted his younger
brother Frank as front man on lead guitar and vocals. Frank, only 17
years old, had just finished playing two years with the acclaimed Fall
River rock band "Satellite".
Frank’s searing guitar solos and outstanding tenor vocal would be the
centerpiece of Hard Reign. Auditions for a bass player yielded no
keepers until Scott Botelho, from Somerset, MA arrived and stunned
everyone with his ability to play glorious running bass lines while
nailing delicate harmonies. Scott,
in turn, through members of the local rock group “Sayne”, introduced
drummer Scott “Ollie” Oliver to the band. Ollie, also from Somerset,
MA, was studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and was
hired without an audition. Both new members injected vitality and
their musical influences balanced the group. Scott Botelho, an Air
Force brat, with his Texas and Southern rock roots and Ollie with his
“New Wave” influences tempered Mike’s mellower soft-rock leanings.
Still, occasionally the boys would tease Mike, like when he brought to
the group his original song “Last Dance” and Ollie asked “Hey, who
wrote this, Barry Manilow?”
During
the first few months of 1980, Hard Reign was performing every Thursday
night at the Golden Dream in Tiverton, RI to an average of eighty
fans. It was truly a family affair with Mike’s parents, Frank and Jean
Laureanno (a.k.a. Mr. & Mrs. Scove), collecting money at the door.
They were also the first couple to break the ice and boogie on the
dance floor. Alex Quintin, Frank’s best friend, recorded many of these
shows on his Tascam reel-to-reel tape deck. One night, Ollie was sick
so Mike’s younger brother Tommy, barely 16 years old, filled in
admirably on the drums. Some of these nostalgic recordings have
recently been rediscovered and will available for sale during the
reunion concert,
along with other “live” and original studio works.
In
February of 1980, while partying at the popular Westport, MA night
club Alhambras, Mike met Jim Cooney. Jim, a Westport native, had just
graduated with a degree in history and journalism from UMASS
Dartmouth. Jim and Mike became fast friends and immediately they were
writing songs with Jim penning the lyrics and Mike the score. Jim’s
background in journalism allowed him to generate exciting press
releases and publicize the band in ways not previously possible. Jim’s
talents soon extended beyond his role of Hard Reign public relations
manager as he began to book engagements for the band at local
colleges. Jim enlisted the help of his younger brother Danny Cooney,
who at the time was a student of the Swain School of Design in New
Bedford, MA. Danny, a talented artist and photographer, became Hard
Reign’s official photographer and design artist. In addition to Dan’s
innovative conceptual graphic art design for the band’s first album
“Ears for Music”, it was his creative inspiration to dress the band up
in regal attire and photograph them in gothic style at Salve Regina
College in Newport, RI. Dan’s photograph remains the band’s official
promo shot.
During
the winter of 1980, Alex Quintin graciously funded the first Hard
Reign original recording, a 45 rpm with two songs written by Mike
(“Pretty Baby” and “Help Us if you Can”). The 45 received local
airplay by WALE in Fall River and WBRU in Providence and raised the
stock of the band. By early 1981 the band was tighter than ever and
playing to enthusiastic college audiences as well as larger rock
venues. In particular while at residence at G. Flaggs in Riverside, RI
in April 1981, Mike recorded the band on his trusty Pioneer 4 track
reel-to-reel tape deck. Several live performances from these shows
survived and are available at the reunion concert. During that
summer, local RI radio station WPJB (JB 105) launched a contest for
“Southern New England’s Best Rock”. One hundred bands competed for the
selected twelve spots on the album. Hard Reign’s song “Back to You”,
written by Jim and Mike, was chosen as one of the winners. The song
typified the best elements of the band; Scott’s hypnotic running bass,
Ollie’s syncopated drums and Frank’s lightning solos. One newspaper
reviewer described it as “The Braga Bridge Beat” and thought it
sounded like something Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple) might write.
In September of 1981, Hard Reign was
interviewed by Rhode Island columnist, Bob Kerr, for an article in the
Providence Journal. The review came out just days before the band was
to appear at the prestigious rock club in Boston called The Channel.
Capitalizing on the success of the
JB105 album, the band had hoped to
break out of the local rock scene and establish themselves as
contenders in the big league. It was not to be. Communications between
the Channel’s booking agent and Hard Reign ended sourly when the band
called to confirm the date and were told, “Who are you?” As Bob Kerr
wrote in his article,” If reality falls a little short of
expectations, Hard Reign will still keep playing”. And so they
did. A succession of college dates including Bentley and Bridgewater
State buoyed the band’s morale when another break occurred. Ollie knew
a rock promoter named Scott Somers who promised to book the band at
established rock clubs up and down the east coast beginning in January
1982. Somer Thyme Productions created a slick promotional press
package and the band celebrated its future by performing at a New
Year’s Eve party for friends and fans at the F.O.E. in Fall River.
January 1982 opened with a series of cancelled dates. The
Somer-Tyme-Production-New-England-Coast-Tour never manifested, at
least not in the sense of a tour, for the band never traveled further
than to play a string of dismal dates at The King’s Inn in Dartmouth,
MA. To replace lost income, Mike performed an act of artistic heresy
and took a day-job at American Dryer in Fall River. Spending his day
spot-welding in the mill sapped his energy and inspiration and after a
month he quit. Mike then took to moonlighting solo on Wednesday nights
at Jakes. There was no comparison between the economics of a solo act
versus the band, and little by little he extended his moonlighting
from once a week to twice a week, then thrice. With fewer
performances, the band lost its momentum. The inertial wind-down
culminated with Hard Reign performing its last show at Jakes on June
19th, 1982. Frank went on to play in a rock band called
"Chaser" and took a day job at Holsum Bakery in Fall River. Mike
continued his solo act while completing his degree in electrical
engineering at UMASS Dartmouth. Scott played in an acoustic duo while
completing his master’s degree in mathematics at UMASS Dartmouth.
Ollie played in a New Wave rock band before going back to school to
become a licensed pipe-fitter.
