RIVET-History - A Work in Progress (some dates may be a bit off)

1991 - Steve Page went to see GWAR at Deep Ellum Live in Dallas, TX. Before the show starts, for a laugh, he yelled to the crowd, "I'm a guitar player looking to put a band together. Anyone play bass, sing or drums?". A few guys replied. One of them was Mark Ehr, a bass player who would go on to play in several well known bands in Dallas.

Over the next few months, the guys jammed and then convinced Mark's friend, Jason Hapka, a local guitar whiz, to join the band, still without a name. Drummer auditions were next and a few guys tried out, but one stuck out, Mikkee. Having the same ambitions and musical tastes (ex. White Zombie, Pantera, Sepultura, etc.), he was a natural fit (he had groove). It was Jason who came up with the name, SKWEE-G (squeegee), because he had one hanging on his wall at home. Why? We still don't know, but it was a cool name. It was Steve's fault that they came up with the chosen spelling, after spending the better part of a day finding different ways to spell the name.

1992 - The member shuffle begins. The band auditions Philip Osborne as vocalist. Philip was a gifted guitar player who had jammed with Steve in the past and he had a very good singing voice as well. Somehow in that addition, Phillip also replaced Mark on bass and traded his guitar gear for bass gear. The band performed their first show as SKWEE-G at The Basement in Dallas, TX, followed by shows at On The Rocks, Dallas City Limits and more.

Somewhere after 1992, but before 1995 - Phillip was asked to leave the band and bass player, Derek James was hired as front man/bass player. Derek had played in several bands and toured the US. He had also been in charge of vocal duties on a lot of the covers his band, Double Cross, had added to their live set. His Hetfield-esque vocal approach was a natural fit for the band.

Sometime around 95 or 96 - The band was in a bit of turmoil, as the two guitar players had different ideas of where the band should go. Jason was asked to leave the band. (insert argument here where Steve asked then crew-guy Jeff what he thought about the band having one guitar player) ---inside joke... Also, during this time, Derek and Steve worked together at a video company in Dallas, where two guys nick-named the Metal Militia (for showing up to work with finger-less gloves and metal shirts) were also hired. Moving to Dallas from Amarillo, TX, with their band, Excessive Force, Kevin Kerr and Mark Halford, became friends with the guys in SKWEE-G. Over the years, their paths crossed many times, in clubs, rehearsal spaces and in respect for each other's talent. Mark and Kevin were hard-working, talented players. They were back then. They are now.

1998 - The band meets nationally syndicated radio duo, Lex and Terry and gives them a CD on an early weekend morning. The next week, the band is thrown into intro rotation. - huge thanks to Howie Icenhower, the show's producer. SKWEE-G, then wrote a new intro song for the show and made several on-air appearances, including bringing the most gear ever in Q102's (DFW) history, into the studio to play live on the air. SKWEE-G, at that point, was outselling bands like Tripping Daisy at local DFW music outlets. SKWEE-G picked up an endorsement with BC Rich Guitars during this time. The guys still have their axes and play them live often. Check out this news clipping of The Basement's closing from the Dallas Observer, featuring SKWEE-G's name on the top of the marquee.

Somewhere around this time, Lex and Terry and the entire Q102 station were pulled off the air. Lex and Terry returned to Jacksonville, Florida, where their show originated and the band was invited to play "Bitch Brawl" at the Moroccan Shrine Temple in Jax. The 3,000 seat, sold out event, was a huge success. The band played the River City Brewing Company the night before to a sold out crowd and sold over $3,000 in CDs at a CD Warehouse signing party the day before, netting over $7k in profit for the trip to Florida.

2001 - SKWEE-G was invited to play Quakecon in Mesquite, TX, a video game convention that is based around the game Quake by id Software (the band are all gamers). Watch a video of the band playing, "BFG 9000".

2002 - SKWEE-G is invited back to Jacksonville to play "Babes with Brains", a contest put on by Lex and Terry at the Florida Theater, with guests Bruce Baum and singer Ashley Turba. See a video of the opening to the show at the Florida Theater.

Watch video of the guys on the air with Lex and Terry the day after the show.

After the show, upon return to Dallas, Derek does not load back into the studio. Derek needed some time off and he and the band went separate ways. Derek, a few years later, joined Madden Syndrome and later And Then There Were Three as front man/bassist.

Watch the video the band made for the song WATTEVR.

2002 - Later... The band searched for a bass player, but first went to Ben's Half Yard House for some half-yard beers. Lots of them. In this time, it was decided that it would be best to start a new band, since the frontman was gone. That was the end of SKWEE-G, until one reunion show a few years later. Recently, it has been decided that writing a few new SKWEE-G songs and playing some shows would be a good idea (info from 11-2010). Here's a video of "Zsycho Babble" from SKWEE-G being used on Gene Simmons Family Jewels.

Lodi, a bass player from Amarillo, ran into the band at their rehearsal building. After a number of auditions with several bass players, Lodi is added to the new band. Searching for a new name, Steve called Lex and Terry and the owner of their fan club also called in with some suggestions. One of those, RIVETHEAD, stuck and the guys trademarked the name immediately. The band played its first gig at The Rock in Deep Ellum, Dallas, TX, shortly followed by Trees in Deep Ellum.

2002-2003 - The band recorded and released its first demo with Steve as fill-in singer. The game-plan at this point was to provide potential singers with the three recorded songs and see who could do a better job than Steve at vocals, which became the competition to "Stump Steve". While a lot of talent came through the door, no one really fit. The potential candidates were asked to write their own lyrics or sing the songs their own way, each singer just did what was deemed a copycat version of what Steve had already written and recorded. The competition is still on and it's not that Steve is that good, it's just that no one has won it yet. The first demo was followed by 2 more. When put together, these demos were called, "Phase 3" - a collection of 3 demo sessions recorded at Sirens Studios, Luminous Sound and Deep Ellum Studios.

2005 - The band parted ways with original drummer, Mikkee and Mark Halford, Steve's old co-worker is hired. "SPR Factor" a 5 song EP, is recorded at Deep Ellum Studios, and the band continued to play clubs in Texas and Oklahoma.

2006 - Kevin Kerr, Mark's old band-mate was added to the band as 2nd guitar player. During this time, Lodi left the band to join a band in Abilene called Negative 263. Randy Salazar was hired to fill his shoes. "RIVETHEAD", the self-titled full-length album was recorded at Nomad Studios in Carrollton, TX. JT Longoria, known for his work with King Diamond and Izzy Stradlin, was behind the board as engineer and producer. Before the album was released, Randy left the band for personal reasons. Sometime after the album's release, the song, "Difference" was added to the on-air rotation on XM Radio, Squizz. Hear the audio of the listeners voting RIVETHEAD into rotation. After the release of "RIVETHEAD", the band convinced SKWEE-G bass player, Derek James, to join the band. Of course, it was a on a fill-in basis and he still doesn't know that he's really in the band. One of these days, he'll get the gig.

2007 - RIVETHEAD was named in one category on the Grammy Awards entry ballot.

2008 - "The 13th Step" was released. RIVETHEAD was named in several categories on the Grammy Awards entry ballot. In 2008, RIVETHEAD agreed to record an album with a finalist of a popular television show. Part of the agreement was to play a series of shows in California. By the time the band reaches California, the particular artist's manager cancelled all but a rehearsal and one live show. The manager then refused to pay the band and the band was forced to sue the manager for non-payment. RIVETHEAD wins the suit, but the coward of a manager has still not paid a penny of the money owed. The band signs a contract during this time to have a video played on America's Got Talent, but the video did not get played on TV.

2009 - RIVETHEAD was named in several categories on the Grammy Awards entry ballot. RIVETHEAD wins, "Best Industrial Song" at the Just Plain Folks Awards in Nashville, TN. The band continues to play shows all over Texas and Oklahoma. "Sexy Back" received massive amounts of airplay on XM, Squizz. RIVETHEAD was voted as one of the top ten Dallas bands and was a finalist to play Ozzfest in Dallas.

2010 - "Zero Gravity" and "All Your Covers Belong to Us" were released. "Sexy Back" and "Toxic" received a warm welcome on Sirius/XM, Octane during "Strip Club" weekend. By 2010, the band had gained industry attention and to date, the band has sold CDs and mp3s all over the world and has had music played on satellite, terrestrial and internet radio and on: MTV, VH1, VH1 Classic, National Geographic, TLC/Discovery, at Dallas Stars games and more. RIVETHEAD, has opened for: Powerman 5000, Crossfade, Green Jelly, Pyschostick, Saliva, The Burden Brothers, Trivium, Mushroomhead, Earshot, Divide the Day, and more. Zero percent help from labels and One hundred percent self-financed, the band's 7th album is in pre-production and IT WILL ROCK!!!