The Music

Cirkus began life playing primarily Top 40 hits of the day, trying to emulate the success of a friend of Mason and Steve’s, Brent Kleinville of Razzmatazz, another popular local band. The songlist in the beginning began as all covers ranging from Andy Gibb to Kiss, and all points in between. By early 1979, it was quickly realized that the beginnings of what could be something special were in place and that the band should move into a slightly heavier area.

The songlist gradually changed from Top 40 to more adult oriented FM style music—although a couple of questionable tunes made their way into the songlist during this period, such as Donna Summer’s "Hot Stuff". Actually, it sounded relatively decent since we played it as heavily as possible (a la UFO), but somehow it just didn’t feel right espousing that "Disco SUCKS!" (and it still does) yet there we were playing obvious disco…hmmm. Covers were always chosen for their danceability, regardless of what they were. Everything had one thing in common—a pounding, steady, driving rhythm—even when we began venturing into original material.

One of the measuring sticks of any struggling band is how well their original music is received by the paying public. We were fortunate in that regard as the crowds seemed to like our stuff quite well—even if, while they were singing along, they sang the words as "I'm in Love" as opposed to "Not in Love." We never minded whether they got the words right or not as long as they were dancing and having a good time. With a style that lay somewhere between hard, heavy rock and power pop, Cirkus was one of the few bands in our area to successfully combine a night of cover tunes with snappy, danceable original songs. Yes, the public liked our stuff quite well.