TOM HALLEWELL PAPERS

Tom Hallewell was born in 1962 and moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1975. From 1981 to 1982, Hallewell produced My Degeneration and Rocky Mountain Fuse—two “zines” (self-published magazines) that contained interviews with local, national, and international bands; concert and album reviews; and columns written by Hallewell and others. Hallewell contributed to other zines, including Color Red and Colorado Music Magazine. He began using the moniker “Headbanger” as a byline in the Rocky Mountain Fuse.

In 1982, Hallewell began promoting local and national punk bands under the company title “Headbanger Presents.” In January 1983, he booked the Misfits at the Aztlan Theater, his first promotion of a nationally-known band. From 1982 to 1986, Hallewell booked many national punk and alternative bands, such as the Big Boys, Discharge, the Adicts, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (D.R.I), Corrosion of Conformity, Sonic Youth, Hüsker Dü, and T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty). He promoted concerts for many local bands, including Child Abuse, the Frantix, and Happy World. Denver music venues at the time included The Dust Bowl (772 Santa Fe Drive), Kennedy’s (2389 Broadway), the Turnverein (1570 Clarkson Street), and the Packing House (Packing House Road), as well as various warehouses and basements. Hallewell also played with bands Slaughter Haus 5, the Butcherz, and Technicolor Fascista during this period.

Beginning in 1985, Hallewell staged a few concerts at One Stop Recycling (5148 Thompson Court), a Denver junkyard. Crash Worship, Einsturzende Neubauten, and Gerechtigkeits Liga, experimental industrial bands that used found objects for musical instruments, played at these concerts. Einsturzende Neubauten’s 1985 performance at One Stop was featured in a three-page article in People Magazine.

Hallewell toured with the band Psychic TV during their 1986, 1988, and 1990 US tours, and with the band Crash Worship in 1996. The 1986 tour with Psychic TV led to Hallewell’s involvement with Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY), a London-based collective for sharing information on art, magic and the occult. Hallewell was the head of the group’s North American network from 1986 to 1991. During this time, he networked with members around the country, gathering and disseminating artwork and zines. Hallewell collected his own writing and the writing of others in zines, which he published and distributed under titles such as CCT and Broadcast. He also wrote several articles for other publications under various pen names including “Coyote 2” and “Coyote 12.”

In the 1990s, Hallewell played with the musical group Iron Age Orchestra (I.A.O.), an outgrowth of his earlier band, Technicolor Fascista. I.A.O. scavenged scrap metal for use in concerts staged in Lower Downtown Denver. I.A.O. also played indoor concerts in coordination with the instrumental band Hound.

In 1997, Hallewell and Stephanie Mullen (writer of the national goth-industrial zine Grimoire) began booking and promoting goth concerts in the Denver area. Tom Hallewell left Denver in 1998. As of 2015, he lives in Washington, D.C.