It was the late 1970’s in a sleepy little town, on the coast of southern New Jersey.  On one side of Northfield, the three-guitar assault of Denny Haberkern, Tom Howard and Jeff Thinschmidt were playing gigs in the basement of drummer Rob Rando.  Their first gig as a quartet was June 9, 1978.  The occasion was a graduation party for Rob’s sister.  The band’s ambitious set list consisted of four songs, two of which were Beatles’ covers.  Due to a shortage of material, Jeff played some of his own material solo.  On the other side of Northfield, a young Matt Butler was holding down the bottom end of his own imaginary band on his newly received bass guitar.  The four-piece outfit from the Jackson Avenue basement needed a bass player to officially call themselves a “band” and seeing as there was only one known bass player in the area, a phone call was made, an audition was arranged, and the mighty Javelin was born.

 Taking their name from a model rocket propelled by an engine filled with gun powder and popularized by one of their fifth grade school teachers, Javelin took it upon their not as yet broad shoulders to deliver their suburban neighbors from the all-encompassing boredom that was South Jersey by turning their amps up to “11” and rocking out with all of the force that could be squeezed from their pre-teen bodies.

 And it was glorious indeed.  They played and sang with reckless abandon, as if their very existence depended on it.  Drum heads were split, amplifier speaker cones were shredded, fuses were blown, fingers were blistered, and it’s even rumored that the basement walls in the hallowed Rando Practice Facility have suffered structural damage resulting from the relentless assault waged by the band.  Damn, what a room the RPF was.  The vast music library and never ending supply of Doritos and 2-litre soda notwithstanding, that simple room had a vibe that was as magical as any room on the planet.  And it was in the RPF that the mighty Javelin unknowingly started on a path to conquer the world.  Sure, they also practiced in the living rooms of the other band members on occasion, but they always came back to the RPF (besides, after having to move the drum kit around a few times, it was mutually agreed that doing so on a regular basis really sucked).

 The band practiced tirelessly.  Their set list grew at an astonishing pace with songs by the Beatles (“Get Back” and “Hey Jude”), Cheap Trick (“Hello There”, “Surrender” and “I Want You To Want Me”), Chicago (“25 Or 6 To 4”), Deep Purple (“Smoke On The Water”), Foreigner (“Double Vision”), Kiss (“Deuce”, “Strutter”, “God Of Thunder” and “Beth”), Led Zepplin (“Stairway To Heaven” and “Livin’ Lovin’ Maid”), and Lynyrd Skynyrd (“Freebird” and “Sweet Home Alabama”) standing side by side with original songs crafted by Butler, Haberkern and Thinschmidt.

 

 

Band History—Part One