APRIL FOOL was formed in 1988 by drummer Walt ‘Wiggy’ Kaye after a brief stint working with WORLD WAR III vocalist Tipa Sparrs. Kaye met guitarist Chris Rocus during his tenure with Sparrs and the pair began writing the first APRIL FOOL songs while auditioning bassists and vocalists. Kaye and Rocus were then joined by bassist Chris Mock and vocalist Dave Stradling. Within days of completing this line-up, APRIL FOOL entered Iris Sound Studio and recorded their first demo, produced by David Ivory, which was released on April Fool Productions in 1988. After the release, local mainstream rock radio began playing the song “Bad Boy Willie†and the band hit the Philadelphia and New Jersey area club circuit. Due to the airplay and steady rise in concert attendance, APRIL FOOL attracted the attention of the A&R department of the mighty Columbia / CBS label who were interested in hearing more material..
Strangely, it was at this time that Mock decided to quit the band and join rival rockers SIOUX CITY. Kaye rang up bassist Rob Lombardi who was known to the band from his work with THE END and BRAT. Lombardi accepted the invitation to join and APRIL FOOL was back in the clubs in less than a month. Unfortunately, Rocus was fighting for more control of the band and was fired at the end of 1988.
While the band was auditioning guitarists Columbia passed on the band as they already had signed BRITNY FOX, ROUGHHOUSE and HEAVENS EDGE, so Kaye and Lombardi joined vocalist Tipa Sparrs and guitarist Keith West for sessions that would end up being released as the vocalists SPARZ project.
Eventually, the guitarist slot was filled by George Smith. Smith had been playing in SENATE and was the perfect 80's ‘shredder’ who could write songs and knew his way around a stage. The band continued writing, rehearsing and revamping the music and the show while booking appearances for the spring of 1989. The new look APRIL FOOL were a hit right out of the box due to the streamlined music, energetic show and guitar / bass dueling solo’s by Lombardi and Smith reminiscent of what Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan did in the DAVID LEE ROTH band.. The band also had added dancers Shannon and Samantha Stiles to the act as the ‘Cover Girls’. Later when Shannon left to shoot a film in Los Angeles we had Erica Stern and later a girl named Margie as temporary fill ins.
The band then entered Galaxy Recording Studios with engineer Robert Leese (BRITNY FOX, TANGIER, IVORY TOWER) and began work on a full length album titled ‘Playin’ To Win’ which was produced by Lombardi and released in the fall of 1989 on RTL Productions. Only 1000 copies of ‘Playin’ To Win’ were initially pressed and sold out quickly, so the band had an additional 4000 pressed which again sold out. APRIL FOOL then began expanding their fan base by playing venues from New York City down through Baltimore, Maryland, while making regular appearances on New York City late night cable ‘Rock / Talk Show’ ‘TUCCI LIVE’ featuring actress Lynn Tucci as the host. Through the connection with Tucci, videos for the single releases of ‘Cover Girls’ in 1989 and ‘Next Time Around’ in 1990 were completed and began receiving video play regionally, as well as mainstream radio play for both songs on the east coast. This together with headlining venues such as The Empire Rock Club and The Galaxy and prime slots opening for BRITNY FOX, HEAVEN, BANG TANGO, ROUGHHOUSE and HEAVENS EDGE attracted the attention of manager Larry Mazer (CINDERELLA) who liked the band, but wanted to replace one of the members as a condition of signing APRIL FOOL.. Surprisingly, the band would not relent, and Mazer passed on the band.
It was now late 1990 and ‘Dizzy’ Dean Davidson had just quit BRITNY FOX and Stradling decided he’d be the perfect replacement. He quit APRIL FOOL, auditioned for BRITNY FOX, but obviously Tommy Paris got the job. This left the rest of the band searching for a new vocalist, which they found in Jay J. Regan who had been playing keyboards and singing in cover bands. Regan and the band began rehearsing and writing for a new release that never made it to a studio. With the arrival of a new vocalist, the audience began to dwindle as Regan was very different from Stradling. Plus, it was now 1991 and the onslaught of grunge. At this point Lombardi wanted to not only play bass, but front his own band. After a big blow up over a fixed bad competiton, Lombardi quit and went on to form THE RAGE. Remaining shows were played with former bassist Chris Mock temporarily filling in.
By 1992, Regan had quit to join the very successful band DEZIRE, leaving the door open for the return of Dave Stradling. That and the inclusion of bassist Joe Bisbing saw the band back out on the club circuit, but times had changed and the interest in APRIL FOOL had passed. Bisbing was drafted into RAZAMANAZ, which featured Michael Kelly Smith of BRITNY FOX. Smith jumped onto the cover band circuit.
Briefly in 1994, APRIL FOOL reunited featuring Kaye, Lombardi and Smith with new vocalist Jerry Mihalcik, but after a couple of months, and one live show, they disbanded for good with Smith forming the nationally popular SPLINTER and Lombardi eventually forming RED SKY and ROAD TRIP.
