Young Band Getting Noticed
INTERNATIONAL AWARD: Red Alert won the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Battle of the High School Bands Competition. Showing a $1,000 check presented to Broken Arrow High School by Bob Saied of Saied Music Company is new singing sensation Christy Hanewinkel. Christy’s brother and band member Hank Hanewinkel III and B.A. High School Principal Bob Armstrong are also present to celebrate the success. Hundreds of bands competed for the title, sponsored by the International Music Products Association.
On June 27, 2003, 14-year-old Hank Hanewinkel III, and his little sister, eight-year-old Christy E. Hanewinkel, talked their parents into driving them to Oklahoma City from Broken Arrow to see the White Stripes, a popular band.
Hank had been playing drums since he was in diapers and guitar for several years, but Christy wasn’t motivated until she saw Meg White pound the drum kit that night.
Within three and a half weeks, Hank taught Christy to play 20 White Stripes songs and talked his father Hank Charles into recording them at his Valcour Sound studio. Things happened fairly quickly after that, and the band Red Stripes was born.
Radio airplay was heard on the 104.5 FM Edge Home Grown show and on Rogers State University 91.3 FM, a station with a diverse sound and large listenership.
Davit Souders of Diabolical Productions booked Red Stripes to open for the Starlight Mints in Tulsa and play Freakers Ball at Cains Ballroom. They received huge ovations at both shows and also in Oklahoma City at the Opolis (owned by the Starlight Mints).
The Daily Oklahoman did a cover story on Red Stripes and they were on the Oklahoma City Channel 9 news at 6 and 10 that evening.
All this led to a Spot Award Rising Star nomination in 2004, which they won from the Tulsa World. The night of the awards they performed a medley that left the sold out Cains crowd on their feet for a long ovation.
In 2005 they played exciting shows all over Oklahoma including an opening slot for national act Silvertide at Cains. They played to a packed house at Lemmons club in St. Louis and later in August they met the White Stripes. Jack and Meg White were suitably impressed.
Having performed as the Red Stripes and knowing a cover band can only go so far, they changed their name to the Red Alert and released an all-original album in December 2005.
In February 2006, they won the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Battle of the Bands at Cains Ballroom. This led to them being chosen National Battle of the Bands winners.
They played the Warped Tour in Dallas in July and in August three shows in St. Louis including a network TV appearance on “Show Me St. Louis.”
For the second year in a row, Christy performed at the Tulsa PAC in the HOPE Divas benefit show wowing the crowd.
At this time they are nominated for three Spot Music Awards: Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, and Best Rock Act. They are also working on songs for a new CD. They recently played in Tulsa Freakers Ball at Cains Ballroom.
Updated 11-24-2006
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