The Reactions (4)

Garage rock band formed by four eighth-graders from tiny Rolla, Missouri. The group formed with a triple-guitar lineup of Tom Williams, Ken Giddens, and Charlie Daniells, while Mike Gibbs played a lonely snare and cymbal combo. In May 1966, they played their first gig at a party celebrating the end of the school year. Ray Hollingsworth was added to bass in August and Giddens left the band in March 1967. They played mostly covers at school dances, sock hops, private parties, wedding receptions, and the military officers clubs in nearby Fort Leonard Wood. They soon headed to Kansas City Municipal Auditorium to compete for a Missouri state Battle of the Bands. They didn't win but responded by heading underground to record at Cavern Studios (2) in Independence, Missouri on May 30, 1968. Cavern pressed 250 copies of "In My Grave" with vocals by Hollingsworth backed with "Love is a Funny Thing" with Williams on vocals on the Rock Records label. Gibbs soon quit the group and was replaced by Bruce Pompe. By the fall they'd changed their name to Stonehenge Riot and incorporated more brass, expanding to a quartet with Jon Goin on guitar and trumpet. With the existential thread of graduation, the band began to split apart and take their separate paths to adulthood. High school reunions brought the Reactions back to perform together in 1990 and 2005. Hollingsworth passed away in 2009.