NO WAY (Norwich, CT)

Poster photo courtesy of Bill Kane. (Click to enlarge.)

The short-lived and oddly named No Way dropped two singles simultaneously in late 1970 — both sounding as if the years 1968-1970 didn't even exist. No Way consisted of Norwich Free Academy students Bob Homiski (Stratocaster, harmony vocals), his cousin Bill Kane (Telecaster, lead vocals), John Hayes (drums) and Mike Wodopian (bass).

According to Bill Kane: “The band was forced to break up when my cousin, Bob Homiski, was drafted as a senior in high school during the Vietnam war. He wrote most of the songs and sang the harmony with me on lead. I was still in high school when the songs hit the local radio stations, as he was a year older than me, so he was not around to do any of the promos we did at W.T. Grant department stores when the singles were released. The song “I Can't Stop Loving You” was the one played the most. I remember we sold out of the first production run at Grant‘s but without a band to promote and tour, our recording career essentially ended before our music ever got released.“

It's too bad, since "A Look She Couldn't Hide" is a fantastic, almost late-‘70s powerpop sounding track propelled by driving drum fills and fuzz guitar soloing which fades out right when the fun begins … hey, who was the brainiac in the engineering booth that day? (And kudos to Mr. Hayes, who, besides manning the drum kit also provided said lead guitar for the recording. He later went on to study at Juilliard.)

Bill reflects on the bands's seemingly out-of-time songwriting: “The music trend changed dramatically from pop to the Woodstock sound. We had over 100 original pop songs that were now basically obsolete. I remember a producer from Warner Brothers telling us that while we were very average vocally and instrumentally, had we come to them three years earlier we would have made a lot of money because they could have easily sold our portfolio to established groups like the Monkees who were on TV and needed to crank out new material weekly.”

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NO WAY
Decisions, Decisions / A Look She Couldn't Hide
A-Hom Records (235 • CO 3492)
December 1970

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NO WAY
I Can't Stop Loving You (Until You Stop Loving Me) / A Kiss
A-Hom Records (236 • CO 3493)
December 1970