page_title: Eric Bloom
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Eric Bloom / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Publicity photo for the group "The Lost and Found", pre-cursor group to Blue Oyster Cult. From left: Peter Haviland, Jeff Hayes, John Trivers, Eric Bloom, George Faust
context_page_description: Eric Jay Bloom is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist, guitar and keyboard/synthesizer player for the long-running band Blue Öyster Cult, with work on more than 20 albums. Much of his lyrical content relates to his lifelong interest in science fiction.
context_section_description: A native New Yorker, Bloom was born in Brooklyn, the youngest of three children, and grew up in Queens. His mother was a housewife, active in local charities and family life. His father ran a picture frame and print company in Manhattan.
  Bloom attended JHS 216 (George J. Ryan Junior High School), and then moved on to Woodmere Academy and Cheshire Academy in Connecticut. It was there that he purchased his first guitar, a $52 Harmony full-bodied electric.
  After graduating from Cheshire Academy in 1962, he went to Spain for the summer, studying at Menendez Pelayo University in Santander, before starting college in the fall.
  Bloom, known as "Manny" Bloom in college, attended Hobart College in Geneva, New York, studying modern languages. In 1964 he left early to work for a family car-importing company, but he returned a year later, partially out of concerns that if he was not in school, he would be picked up in the Vietnam draft.  
  In college, Bloom was involved with the casual forming of a couple of short-term bands for playing at local venues. One of these was Rick and the Ravons (Bloom being Rick).  He also organized music for various fraternity parties. For one of them, he hired a band that later asked him to join.  They renamed it as Lost and Found, with whom he performed off and on for a few years. The band was composed of George Faust on guitar, John Trivers on bass, Peter Haviland on lead guitar, Jeff Hayes as drummer, and Bloom singing.
  In 1963, Bloom was also exposed to the music of Wilmer and the Dukes, who made a profound impression on him. He attended over 100 of their performances, and he and his band Lost and Found opened for them when they came to play at Hobart. Other major influences were James Brown, and Ronnie James Dio.
  In Bloom's senior year, he was encouraged by his friends to join their Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He also found himself volunteering to do sound engineering at local college events (such as a performance by Iron Butterfly), simply because he could not stand how bad the sound was.  It was through his efforts that the college finally updated to a better sound system, after he graduated in 1967 (receiving a BA in modern languages).
caption: The group "Lost and Found", 1966. From left: Peter Haviland, Jeff Hayes, John Trivers, Bloom, and George Faust
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