In the beginning — sometime in early 1976 — The Godz was formed by Eric Moore, Glen Cataline, and Mark Chatfield in Columbus, Ohio.  Eric and Glen had been playing in local favorite band Sky King.  They met and befriended Mark, who was just out of high school and working at Whitey Lunzar Music.  After “jamming” together a couple of times, things just felt right.  Mike Adams (keyboards/guitar/vocals) and Hayward Law (drums) were soon recruited from the Parkersburg, West Virginia band Kingsley Fink.  That gave The Godz something few bands had — two drummers.

​

Rehearsals started at The Godz “Band House” on Summit Street, just

north of the OSU campus.  (Think Animal House, but much, much worse.) 

The band’s repertoire consisted of cover tunes, with a couple of

originals mixed in.  They played in clubs around central Ohio and West

Virginia and gained a formidable following.  Then tragedy struck in the

spring of 1976.  Mike and Hayward were killed in a car accident. 

​

Bob Hill, Eric and Glen’s bandmate in Sky King and Eric’s bandmate

in The Capital City Rockets, was brought in on guitar and vocals. 

At that point, The Godz abandoned the two-drummer concept and

remained a four-piece band.  More originals were being mixed in the

set as the band ventured to clubs in New York, Illinois, Michigan,

West Virginia, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and all over Ohio.  Somewhere

between local club owners getting tired of dealing with the band and

the band tiring of dealing with club owners, management was procured.  

The band began playing The Agora Ballroom in Columbus in more of a

concert setting.

​

The first shows drew modest crowds, but almost overnight, The Godz were selling out the room beyond capacity — (maybe because of their penchant for doing encores in bikini underwear and MC’s red sequined jockstrap….probably not….).  Most likely the fact that they were playing a brand of kick-ass rock & roll, the likes of which Columbus had never seen on a local level.  Lots of radio promotion from WCOL FM (even though the band had no recorded product) and an article in Creem Magazine created buzz in the music industry.

 

Record companies flew in to see The Godz’s Agora shows, and national acts (including Budgie from the U.K.) opened for the yet-unsigned band.  Don Ienner, VP of Millennium Records (a subsidiary of Casablanca Records and owned by Jimmy Ienner), offered the band a recording contract.  Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad fame was enlisted to produce, with Mark Stebbeds engineering.  The band was signed based on live performances, without ever doing a demo or even being in a studio.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

The band set off to “The Swamp” (GFR’s recording studio) in Michigan to record the first album in the summer of 1977.  The rest of the year was spent playing live dates until the debut album’s release, including shows with Iggy Pop and Mike Pinera.  The self titled first album was released to critical acclaim and a good amount of airplay (especially by Kid Leo at WMMS in Cleveland) in early 1978. 

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first official tour started in March of that year, with The Godz opening for Angel in St. Louis.  That tour, which included Blue Oyster Cult, The Babys, Judas Priest, Starz, Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow, REO Speedwagon, Hawkwind, Head East, Point Blank, and The Outlaws and others, lasted more than three months.

​

(It has been written in many articles and publications that The Godz opened for Kiss on the Love Gun Tour.  This is false.  The Godz never played with Kiss ever…….)

​

Summer of 1978 found the band at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York, to record what would become their second album, Nothing Is Sacred.  Due to internal politics, the band was left without a producer, so Eric Moore stepped in and produced.  The new album was released on Casablanca instead of Millennium, just as the disco craze was getting started.  The album charted briefly but quickly fell into oblivion with the exception of the die hard fans.  The band did some headlining shows later that year (Cheap Trick opened the Cleveland show) and toured with Triumph and Mahogany Rush in Texas in the winter of 1978.  Spot dates included playing a show with The Ramones in Chicago.  Various factors caused Bob and Glen to leave the band in early 1979.  Eric and Mark recruited local musicians Bob Catapano (guitar) and Rick Hall (drums).

 

Medium-size venues were booked, a demo was made, Casablanca passed and dropped the band.  That was pretty much the end of the band as it was.  Eric continued on through the next several decades with different band configurations, releasing I’ll Get You Rockin' in the ’80s.  Mark formed Rosie and eventually went to play guitar for Bob Seger, (audition courtesy of of old friends Don Brewer and Craig Frost).  Eric and Mark reunited in the late ’80s to play live dates and record Mongolians with Freddie Salem and Kevin Valentine.  Eric, Mark, and Glen reunited in 1994 to record The Godz Greatest Hits Live, with Eric Mauk replacing Bob Hill.  Mark once again reunited with the band in 2004 to perform at the Arrow Rock Festival in Sweden. 

 

Glen passed away in 2019, as well as  Eric (2019).  Bob Hill lives in Texas in an undisclosed location.  Mark reunites with Rosie now and then and still tours with Bob Seger.

​

That brings us to The Godz - Resurrected …

​

THE MUSIC REMAINS.

​