May 3, 2004
Guest
Editorial


Rick Halberg

  Past Editorials
  Click here
  Links

 Home
 About Minonk
 Alumni
 Businesses
 Births
 Cemetery
 Chatter box
 City Hall
 Community Ctr
 Classified Ads
 Editorial
 Email
 Events
 Genealogy
 History
 Homepages
 Issues
 Library
 Lost & Found
 Map
 News
 Obituaries
 Photos
 Recipes
 Reference
 Satire
 Schools
 Search
 Sports
 Stories
 Trees
 Where are they?
 
History Links

 Home
 Buildings
 Businesses
 Coal mine
 Early Settlers
 Ethnic Groups
 Origins
 People
 Old Photos
 Sports
 Tragedies
 

The Musical Mecca Known as Minonk

I've been playing music most of my life, mostly due to the musical influences I had growing up in Minonk.

In my opinion, the 1960's and 70's were very exciting musical times. Not only was there an incredible amount of great music being produced, but performers were coming out of the woodwork. For my friends and I, it meant that you didn't have to be a mega-star like Elvis to be popular and get your music played on the radio. Many of these groups were coming out of towns across the country, and across the world, that were much like Minonk.

What brought it even closer to home was going out to 4th of July celebrations and other events and seeing groups that were FROM Minonk. Even at that young age, I thought it was incredibly cool to be performing music and entertaining people.

My first memories are of two Minonk groups, The Glory Stompers and The Rogues. I'm not sure about specific line-ups, but I know that some of the guys involved were Dave Reiter, Bob Hakes, Sam Thorp, Bill "Wilbur" Barr and Doug Emlen. Prior to that, I know that there were other groups from the area, including The Kommotions, featuring Steve Vogel on drums, The Road-Runners out of the Roanoke-Benson area, and The Viscount 5 from El Paso.

As the 70's got underway, my guitar-playing brother Randy Halberg started getting involved in local music. His first band was called "Alienation," and featured Randy on lead guitar, John Hattan on drums, Terry Manning on keyboards, Paul Hakes on bass, Tony Zywica on rhythm guitar, and Rick Jensen on lead vocals. After that, Randy was involved with a few other bands before settling into the Third Armored Division, with John Hattan on drums, Paul Hakes on bass and guitar, Steve Barr on lead vocals and Dick "Chick" Tjaden on bass and sax.

I would love for your readers to email what they know about bands out of Minonk, especially who was involved, what they played, any pictures if available, and any specific memories.

As for myself, I hold these performers personally responsible for my 20+ years in radio and my never-ending interest in popular music. I was even able to join those ranks as a later member of Third Armored Division, and a card-carrying member of the New Glory Stompers of the 80's and 90's. We've even made it into the new millennium! You may have heard some noise down on Maple Avenue lately on Sunday afternoons. It's just me playing bass, Scott Oncken on lead vocals, John Hattan (the best drummer ever to come out of Central Illinois), my brother Randy and Sister Groove's Dan Tuggle on dual lead guitars. Look for us out and about during Summer, 2004!


To reply to this editorial please send your comments to Your letter will be published in the email section. Viewers are welcome to submit a guest editorial.