Halyx: For Those About to Rock…at Disneyland!
Halyx? I’d never heard about this Disney-created rock band before. Had you?
Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records by Tim Hollis and Greg Ehrbar is an amazing look at the music of Disney and the creation and development of Walt Disney Records. It is filled with fascinating biographies of the singers and songwriters as well as descriptions of all of the released albums.
Halyx: Right…this looks nothing like a certain Hildebrandt Star Wars poster!
I was pleasantly surprised and intrigued to see mention of Halyx, a modern rock group that Disney created in the early 1980s. According to the authors, Disney was trying to branch out their stable of recording artists and wanted to enter the arena of rock.
The band played frequently at Disneyland and in the Los Angeles club scene. Bambi Moe (former A&R rep for Disneyland Records) states in Mouse Tracks:
They were fun. Lora’s husband Tom was the keyboardist, and his keyboard was built into a golf cart he drove around on stage as the headlights flashed up into the audience. Roger Freeland, who was over six feet tall, wore a Wookie-like costume and wildly played bass. Tony Caputo, the percussionist, had a gymnastic rope so he could do somersaults and things. And Bruce Gowdy was the handsome leading man, sort of a space-age rock-and-roll guitarist to our Princess Leia type, who was Lora. The response of the Disneyland crowd was so phenomenal, it was causing the park a problem because they did not want people to get up and dance—it wasn’t really allowed! Their sound was of the time, the sort of legitimate pop rock you would have heard on the radio, along the lines of Kim Carnes and Blondie.
Due to various changes with their recording company, Halyx was eventually dropped from the Elektra/Asylum/Warner Brothers label before their first recording could be released.
Sit back and enjoy this live recording from Disneyland!
Did you ever get to see Halyx perform at Disneyland?
I did see Halyx perform. I believe it was 1981. I was very impressed with the band and performance. I was living in Nebraska and had been visiting southern California and went to Disneyland with my girlfriend. I was a guitar player and had a band back in Lincoln. I knew more than a few musicians who left Nebraska for L.A. hoping to make it big. Halyx was one of several bands I saw when I was in California that actually discouraged me from moving there; too much competing talent!
Boy – Did I get to see Halyx. I am pretty sure it was the summer of ’82. I was into photography and when I saw the number of kids that were crazy about Halyx, I recognized an opportunity. I started taking a bunch of photos and coming back each Friday night with 8 x 10 glossies that I was selling to the kids. They started taking them to the group to get their autograph. The band wanted to know where they got the photos but no one would tell on me. The band showed some of the photos to their group and I eventually was contacted by people from the Studio to buy some of my photos. I still have a copy of the check that says Walt Disney Corporation on it. I was there the last night they played when Mike Post and the bigwigs were trying to sell the group. Apparently things didn’t go as planned as the entire show was shut down after that night. I still have an album of great photos from that time. On a side note, a few years later I was at Knott’s Berry Farm and I heard this very distinctive voice that caught my ear. Sure enough, it was Lora Mumford and she was with a different band. We went up and talked to her after the show and she was quite gracious. Good times.
Wow! What an amazing story. I would love to have seen them perform. They had to have been amazing. Thanks for sharing.
I would love to get a copy of some of the pics of me if you have any… Jeanette Clinger (Halix back up singer) here… Nice to meet you. Let me know. Would appreciate it!
Out of town right now. Will dig out the album and make copies for you when I return.
Wow! I was the lighting designer. I still have pictures from Halyx in my portfolio! So much fun!
I got our pals at imagineering to help us out on special effects too. They made us a really cool high powered beam light ( not a laser ) that attached to the guitar players guitar neck. He had a foot pedal to turn it off and on. During his solo he could blast people in the audience with that hi powered pencil beam of white light or spray it onto the mirror ball…
We had a white velour backdrop with tiny lights sewn in of the Halyx logo…
Lots of fog and smoke.. the band was great and the songs were all original and really great to cue lights to!
Great memories!
Brain–that is so cool! Thank you so much for leaving the comment about your experiences. Any photos you can share?
Sure. How do I post them or get them to you to post?
BRian–I will email you directly. Thanks!
Tom the keyboardist is my dad! Never saw the show, was not born hahaha
I found this post while looking for Halyx (didn’t know the name until today). Yeah, I saw them. I was a bass player in a band at the time and was dating a girl that worked at Disneyland. Remember when they had LIVE BANDS at Disneyland? We would go to the park just to make fun of the tourists and play video games in the Space Mountain Arcade. One night, a band actually appeared on the Space Mountain stage…what the…?!! A wookie…and a stormtrooper in a keyboard ship, and lasers on the guitars (and not the small laser pointer we have today but REALLY BIG lasers). But they were ROCKIN’ and killing it. I came back several times that summer just to watch them play…and then one day they were gone. Always looking for more info on them and their album (that never happened). Being a bass player, I felt REALLY SORRY for the wookie, it HAD to be hot in that suit under the lights, but he could rock that bass. As I recall, they played about 30-40 minutes and did several shows a night…only it was the same show every time. Now at least I know more about them.
Yes, I saw Halyx perform many times during the summer of 1981. From the first time I saw them on stage, I was blown away by their music, their costumes and the special effects. They were so great, I thought for sure it was only a matter of time before their first album would be out. Alas, it was not to be. The documentary brings back some fond memories of the band and also insight into what happened.