Steel mill

Steel Mill
Origin	New Jersey, US
Genres	Rock
Years active	1969–1971
Associated acts	Bruce Springsteen E Street Band
Past members	Bruce Springsteen Vini Lopez Danny Federici Vinnie Roslin Steve Van Zandt Robbin Thompson

Steel Mill was an early Bruce Springsteen band. Other members of the band included three future members of the E Street Band - Vini Lopez, Danny Federici and Steve Van Zandt. As well as playing on the Jersey Shore, Steel Mill also played regularly in Richmond, Virginia and played gigs in California and a festival in Nashville, Tennessee. They opened for acts such as Chicago, Boz Scaggs, Grand Funk Railroad, Roy Orbison, Ike & Tina Turner and Black Sabbath. Since 2004 Vini Lopez has led Steel Mill Retro which has performed and recorded original Springsteen songs from the Steel Mill era.

Three of the band's founding members, Bruce Springsteen, Vini Lopez and Vinnie Roslin met for the first time on April 22, 1966 at a battle of the bands competition at the Matawan-Keyport Roller Drome in Matawan, New Jersey. Roslin was one of the judges while Springsteen and Lopez competed in the competition with their respective bands, The Castiles and Sonny & The Starfires. However, before coming together to form Steel Mill, both Springsteen and Lopez went on to play in other bands. Springsteen formed Earth with fellow Ocean County College students, John Graham (bass) and Michael Burke (drums). They would later be joined by another former Castile, Bob Alfano (organ). Lopez, meanwhile, played with the Downtown Tangiers Band, which also included Bill Chinnock, Danny Federici and Garry Tallent, and then in Moment of Truth with Tallent, Federici and Ricky DeSarno (guitars).

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