It
was also during these years I was working at Southwest that a band called
Relayer was performing and making an impression in the Wichita club scene.
During the day, I worked at Southwest and nights and weekends, the band played
practically anywhere we could. The weeks were sometimes so very long and I know
that they were some of the very toughest for Deb as she was home alone with the
kids.
To step back just a bit, I’ll return
to my first introduction to Mike Gleason.
It was at the first Joyland Music
Festival of Joy. Shamblin and I were working hard to make things run smoothly
on the different stages where local talent was performing. The picnic area was
teaming with people and the general atmosphere was very positive and exciting.
I had worked hard to book local
musical acts from church’s and ministries and from friends to fill the 3 stages
that were to host musical entertainment. After weeks of phone calls and
coordination, everything had come together and the entire event was under way.
Whenever possible, Shamblin and I
would go to listen to those that were performing. We were at the main stage on
Saturday afternoon when an act named Testament took the stage. He and I stayed
to listen and found ourselves knocked out.
The thing that initially grabbed our
attention was the presence of horns. One person had a trombone and another had
a trumpet. This was reminiscent of the 70’s horn bands that brought together a
powerful wind section and a rock rhythm section. We anticipated something out
of the ordinary when Testament began their set.
Mike was playing guitar at first and
singing. His writing was inspired and powerful, hardly typical of the 70’s
Jesus Movement music that was so commonplace. He then switched to piano for a
couple of songs. He then switched to trumpet for a finale that sounded more
like Chicago or Chase then any Christian rock band. This guy was definitely not
your ordinary Christian guy, he was gifted in an extraordinary way.
The crowd was on their feet as were
Shamblin and I, begging Testament for an encore. I could see right away that
they weren’t really prepared for an encore, but they were going to give it a
try.
The music was on standard staff
paper, I could see that Mike had scored out the arraignments and each musician
had to regroup and get their music back in place for the repeat of the Chicago
style finale. Once again, the crowd was on their feet and it was clear that we
had seen something very special. This was my first glimpse of Mike Gleason and
his writing and performing skills.
I mentioned earlier the first time I
was with Mike on stage and the difficulty separating from Shamblin and the
Friendly People. But it was due to what I had seen and heard at the Festival of
Joy that assured me that I wanted to be playing music with Mike.
The
evolution of Relayer was staged throughout the years between 1977 and 1981.
Early in our history, we played exclusively only original songs, mostly written
by Mike. Our attempts to get in front of an audience were mostly frustrating.
Few venues in Wichita were interested in a Christian rock band playing only
original material. Try as we may, the gigs were few and far between.
We did manage a very modest
following from the performances we did around Wichita. But as time went on it
became apparent to us that we would have to accommodate our potential audiences
and incorporate “cover songs” into the song list. Following is a chronology of
the band and it’s members
In the beginning the band was called
Avatar and consisted of:
Mike Gleason
– keyboards
Glenn Salter
– Guitar
Al Jones – Guitar
Wilmer
Atkinson– Bass
Dave
Chanowski – Drums
When we started out, Mike was
working at Southwest Paper Company. I was working for Steamatic, Al was an aeronautical
engineer at Cessna Aircraft and Wilmer was an electrical engineer at Boeing.
Glenn may have been at Wichita Band Instrument Co. then, but I’m not sure. His
wife Lee was working there I’m sure. We were certainly a diverse group of
characters but we created a unique musical blend that I’ve not heard before or
sense.
This line up did a mixture of
“orchestral rock” and jazz. I was switching off from drums to vibraphone during
the sets at this time. It was very odd and I’m sure confusing to an audience
that was trying to relate to what we were doing. We would go from a Gleason
original that was very much like Kansas or Yes in its style and arraignment, to
old jazz standards with me on vibes and no drummer. This band was almost
schizophrenic in its performances but those that heard us liked what was
offered.
Our opportunities to play and
perform were few. We played at Friends University concert hall for just a small
crowd and a few friends. We also played at a Christian Coffee house on east
Douglas for the people that gathered there on Weds nights. I think that we did
that gig at least a couple of times as this was the most progressive Christian
audience in the area.
The problem was that there was no
genre that we fit into for the audience to relate to. We were too raucous for
Christian audiences and those that enjoyed the jazz, and we were too obscure
for those that did enjoy the rock part of our repertoire as it stood. There was
no venue that knew what to classify us as and no audience that could relate to
our musical diversity.
We used the auditorium of the Waco
United Methodist Church for our rehearsal hall for a period of time. Mike and
Al both attended the church and the pastor was willing to let us the sanctuary
to rehearse in the evenings.
It was here that a humorous story
was born. Al had a quite dry and offbeat sense of humor. Being a few years
older than myself and older still then Mike, he had seen the Woodstock years
and some of the rebelliousness of American youth. He was quite the fan of the
Grateful Dead and early Bruce Springsteen when Mike and I knew almost nothing
about either of them.
Rehearsing in the church was
interesting partly because in summer when it was warm, we didn’t run the air
conditioning so as to not incur costs to the church. That meant that we opened
the sanctuary windows for fresh air. We were very much amplified and quite
noisy I’m sure. We had on several occasions, phone calls from neighbors near
the church asking just exactly what type of service was going on there that
would make enough noise to keep them awake.
But on one evening, we had been
rehearsing one of the trio numbers that only involved Al and Wilmer and myself.
It was very much like we were a band within a band. We needed a separate name.
What would be though was the question.
We took a break and ended up walking
into the church’s tiny library. Talking and just taking a breather allowed us
to rest some and mull over new ideas. Someone of the three of us happened to
look at the bookshelf and saw the binder of a book. The title was “At the Pace
of a Hen” the author was Benton. How the name actually took form I don’t know,
but from that book title, we became The Benton Hen Trio. Al would wear a
leather trench coat and hat and we would play our guitar, bass and vibes
numbers as The Benton Hen Trio. It’s sad that it only lasted a few months.
Al
and Wilmer left partly to do with Mike’s dominance over the material and partly
because of the direction of the band. Mike and Glenn and I all felt that we
need to move toward the more orchestral rock side and the other two couldn’t
see leaving the jazz influences behind. I believe that this was around 1979.
This was unfortunate because both were excellent musicians in their own rights.
The next
iteration the band was:
Mike Gleason
– keyboards
Glenn Salter
– Guitar
Randy Fields
– Bass
Dave
Chanowski – Drums
Randy Fields joined the band after a
couple of other bassists had auditioned and nothing had really gelled for us.
Randy was from a church that I had attended long ago, Midway Southern Baptist
Church. This was located on the old highway 81 south of Wichita nearly to
Haysville. I think that Randy heard about us from a friend in the church that
had come to an earlier Relayer performance and totally enjoyed us. Randy had
the technique needed for the very involved material Mike wrote and also the
feel for rock and roll that gave him the edge. It was a very natural fit and
Randy integrated into the group very quickly.
This
line up played only original material, 98% of which was Mike’s. Glenn provided
a few songs to the group, but his writing was average at best. Playing those
next to any of Mike’s was easily identifiable. This was the beginning of the
rift between the 2 composers.
We
still had so few places to perform at and struggled for a chance to be in front
of an audience. We did have the good fortune to play at the grand opening of
the Kansas Coliseum on the main stage. There were only 5 or 6 acts that were
invited to play that day for people touring the new facility. We were excited
to be a part of this big celebration. What we didn’t discover until after the
fact was that every other act that performed had been somehow connected to the
promoters of the event and their auditions were actually non-existent. Ours was the only demo tape that was
seriously considered for the opening.
This
line up of Relayer also recorded songs at High Fidelity Studios in the
Riverside area in Wichita for our first demo. Knowing that we would have to
have a tape to promote ourselves, we all pooled our resources and were able to
pay for about 20 hours of studio time. Those sessions resulted in 6 recorded
songs. All but one of these was a
Gleason original. We were quite green at studio work as this was our first
outing. We had little idea of how to make a clean and powerful studio recording
when our experience was only in live performance. Needless to say, this
earliest attempt at producing a demo was very rough, but it was a start.
As
soon as we had the finished product we began mailing them out to radio
stations, concert promoters, record labels and friends. We sent them to anyone
that might provide us an opportunity to perform and show what we could really
do musically.
This demo did mange to get us an
interview on KEYN radio in Wichita though. A local radio DJ named Jerry
Sherwood asked us to take part in a small feature he was doing on Sunday
mornings called, “Wichita: Talent Spotlight”. The songs recorded in HI-Fi were
used as background for interviews with each of us about the band, what we were
about, and what we saw as our future in the music scene both locally and
nationally. I expect that as many as 20 to 30 people in the Wichita area heard
that interview on that Sunday morning.
We
played a concert at Herman Hill Park that same afternoon. This was a popular
spot for local acts to get to perform in front of people for little of nothing
out of pocket. The park had a stage and electrical connections for amplifiers,
guitars and PA equipment .On the day we played when asked if anyone there had
heard the radio program, there was no response from the crowd. In our naivety
we thought that there would actually be someone in Wichita that would hear this
and take some action. It wasn’t to be this day.
We used this first demo as a way of
introducing ourselves and to send to Christian record labels. I believe that we
sent tapes to every label we knew of and were rejected by them all. At this
time popular Christian music was nothing like the material we were doing.
Gospel quartets and solo performers were still the mainstream. There were a few
notable exceptions that came out of the late 60’s and mid 70’s “Jesus
Movement”, but we were way out on the fringes of then current musical
offerings.
Out mixture of rock stylings and
orchestral arraignments was unheard of in the Christian music industry. Only
popular groups like Yes, Kansas, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and some lesser known
ones such as Genesis were doing the type of music that Relayer did. They had
very narrow audiences and we had to find a way to tap into that, but in the
Christian music field. There was no one in Christian music doing what we were
doing and so those people in promotions didn’t know what to do with us.
Every Christian recording label in
the country turned down our demo submissions. It was discouraging but not
devastating. We knew that we could do better and that there would be someone
that would recognize our potential.
A
year of so after doing the Hi-Fi recording, we drove to Anderson Indiana and
recorded for a week at the Gaither studios. This happened after a producer
named Chuck Thomas heard the tape and wanted an opportunity to produce a
recording with us. Chuck worked for a recording label in Chicago and also
remembered Mike from years ago when he lived in Wichita. Chuck contacted Mike
and asked if we would be interested in doing a recording in a professional
studio with him as producer. We immediately began arraigning for our trip to
Indiana.
Each
of us had to produce a portion of the finds needed to make this recording trip
a reality. Sarah, my oldest was with us and she and Deb stayed behind at home.
I believe I was the only member of the band that had children at this time.
Mike and Glenn were each married and Randy was single so I was the only one to
leave a wife and child behind to pursue this dream.
We
spent a week, five days, in the studio from 6 pm until around 7 am, as this was
time that was unused in a Christian recording studio. Chuck and an engineer
were the only ones in the facility besides us. Each of us learned valuable
skills about studio recording.
I
was challenged and excited about playing in a real drum booth. The process of
recording each instrument and then adding the next was new and exhilarating. We
worked hard all through the night and we were deadly serious about getting the
most out of this opportunity.
During
the days, after the recording sessions, we stayed at a friend’s place that was
a student at Anderson College in town. It was a typical college students place
with sparse furniture and little in the refrigerator other than condiments and
soda pop.
Those
sessions in Anderson resulted in 4 completed songs. We ended the week with a
concert at a local Anderson concert hall promoted by a local Christian radio
station.
Like
practically all of our concerts at that time, the crowd was light and somewhat
confused by our performance. Our hope was to recoup some of the expenses of the
trip by performing live. There wasn’t much of anything left after paying the
rental for the hall.
I
don’t recall making anything significant from that concert. Not to even mention
the fact that by Friday we were all exhausted from the recording schedule and
hardly in our best for performing.
All
things considered we gained some very valuable recording experience that week
in Anderson. We learned about concepts such as studio technique and performance
and effective preparation for the sessions. We learned how to capture a sound
that would make our music accessible and powerful to an uninitiated listener.
All of the material we recorded was Gleason written and that in itself became
an issue with Glenn who thought that he could write viable material for the
band.
One
of the things we discovered that week was that Glenn, who had no music theory
background, had no idea how to formulate an ad-lib guitar solo on the spot.
Glenn could copy about anything that he heard from a recording, but had no
idea, theory wise, what to do when confronted by a new set of chord changes.
Glenn was a very talented guitarist, but he lacked formal music training and
that was his weak spot, which became the Achilles’ Heal of Relayer.
The
guitar parts that ended up on the recording had to be written by Mike for Glenn
in the studio. When confronted with laying down a guitar solo, Glenn was just
wandering around on the fret board while the rhythm track played behind him. We
didn’t have time for him to experiment and find appropriate solos for the
recorded material once it became obvious that he had not adequately prepared
for this eventuality. This was a huge issue between Mike and Glenn and ended up
forcing this band to split over it
Within
weeks after the Anderson recording, the band broke up. The same conflict had
arisen between Mike and Glenn concerning musical backgrounds and writing skills
and they were no longer able to work together. Mike officially “quit” the band
and thus disbanded the group. Since he was the essence of Relayer, his leaving
left nothing for the rest of us to continue with. Mike and Randy stayed
together without really having anywhere to go or anything to accomplish, but
they had the tapes of the Anderson sessions in hand. It simply ended up that
Glenn and I were out of the band.
Over
the following weeks, I don’t really recall how long, I was lost without being
associated with Mike, Randy and Relayer. I felt like a part of my body had been
cut off. I discovered that inside me was a living, breathing being that was the
musician in my soul. It wasn’t easy to ignore and nearly impossible to turn
off.
Mike
called me out of the blue, one day, and asked if the three of us could get
together to talk. I was elated at the prospect of rejoining these guys that I
had such respect for. They came to my house and described the experience of
remixing the track from Anderson in another studio in Chicago with Chuck.
To
try and give the drums a fuller, “warmer” sound, they had played back only the
drums track into an empty studio. Mics were placed under a grand piano to
capture some room ambiance as if I were playing there live once again. The comment
that I recall from them was that while listening to the drums playing back,
separate from the rest of the band, there was never a doubt where I was within
the songs. The rhythm was perfect within each song and that they were more
impressed then with my playing than when we had originally recorded. It was at
this time that they discussed the future of Relayer. Chuck suggested that if
Mike really wanted to make a go of this, he would need a drummer of my caliber
and according to Chuck someone like myself would be hard to find.
They asked me then to rejoin them
and I gladly accepted. I was
re-incorporated into the band with Randy and Mike as Relayer and we were ready
then to proceed on, but we needed a guitar to fill out the instrumentation.
Regardless, we were back together as a group.
Performances
of note for this line-up, 1) The grand opening of the Kansas Coliseum on the
main stage; 2) Herman Hill park one week before the event later known as the
Herman Hill Riot.
As it ended up we found two
guitarists and a couple very fine ones at that.
Here is the next Relayer line up.
Mike Gleason
– keyboards
Steve Conrad
– Guitar
Dave Yoder -
Guitar
Randy Fields
– Bass
Dave
Chanowski – Drums
Steve and Dave had been in a band
together before this that played regularly at a club called Caesars Palace on
the west side of Wichita. I don’t recall their band name right now, nor do I
recall how we met. Steve was a dynamic vocalist and above average guitarist.
Dave Yoder was a viola player before turning to guitar and so he had brought
with him the fine technique that a violist uses in fingering. His solo work was
unparalleled and very creative.
This gave the band two powerful
vocal sounds in Mike and Steve and the additional instrumental punch of two
electric guitars. It was at this point in time that we began incorporating
cover tunes into the repertoire in addition to the originals that were a staple
of the band. We also made a concerted effort to book into the more popular
clubs in the city in order to expand our audience. Our musical focus was still
on original material but we now played music by other popular artists of that
time.
With this line up we played the
Tennessee Gin Mill in Wichita and the Tennessee Beer Mill right above it in
addition to the affore mentioned Caesars Palace also in Wichita. There was also
what had become a regular of ours in Newton, Legal Tender, where we were very
well liked and always could expect an excellent crowd. Club owner were willing
to take a chance on an unknown group lie us as long as we were playing some
material that people would recognize and dance to.
This 5-piece group did a recording
in Mike’s house with professional sound equipment that we purchased for the
live shows. For the first time we recorded material other than Mike’s. Steve
Conrad was also an accomplished composer, although without the formal,
classical training that Mike had. We successfully recorded 6 more tunes with a
slightly less than professional sound, but it was sufficient for us to use as a
demo.
This iteration of Relayer began
playing more often and in more places than then previous one. We had found some
acceptance in the crowds as we played more “cover material”. Our boundaries had
expanded and we began to really become a cohesive unit capable of nearly
anything we put our minds to collectively.
On one occasion we were invited to
perform at an outdoor event at Wichita’s 81 Speedway. This resulted in an
interesting coincidence for me some years later outside of the band. Our
reputation as excellent musicians and our live performance got us the
invitation to play with several other groups at what was billed as “Summer Jam
‘80” at the speedway. A local band with aspirations of “the big time” had put
together this concert on the track with several other groups as their warm up
acts.
I forget where we were in the line
up. I believe we did the lead in for the headliner that night. We played 5 or 6
songs in our 30 to 40 minute time slot. It was a mix of cover tunes and
original songs and the crowd response was good. Relayer performed that night
without a hitch. We were feeling accepted by the people of Wichita.
The headliners for this event were
known as “Easy Love” and they had over an exaggerated idea of their abilities
and their appeal to the public. They even arraigned for a limousine to deliver
them from one end of the track to the stage in an attempt to simulate their
being truly important and successful. I guess you can tell that I felt, as did
the majority of the crowd, it didn’t work. They just managed to look
ridiculous.
We watched this from the dirt track just off
stage. It was a comedy of errors as the roadies set up their equipment and
began tuning. They all acted as if they were preparing for Styx or Journey or
some other “big time” act in spite of the truth that they were just locals from
Wichita Ks. .
Prior to Easy Love taking the stage,
their roadies set up their instruments. Who knows who these guys were in real
life. They did their best to emulate the roadies and stagehands of real major
musical acts. For each instrument there was a roadie and they were tuning and
adjusting everything.
I recall the drum set that was
hoisted up on the back of this flatbed truck that was the stage. There was a
low hanging bank of lights right above the drum platform that was not a problem
for those of us having been their earlier. There was no shortage of headroom as
each of the previous drummers set up and tore down their kits. Unfortunately,
the drummer for Easy Love wanted to have his entire kit lifted up in place to
the truck with everything attached to his own platform.
What had not been anticipated was
the height of the cymbals and stands that were nailed or bolted to this
platform being taking up in one piece. As this crew muscled the whole set up to
the truck, the cymbals struck the lights hanging over the drum platform. The
unmistakable sound of cymbals crashing and falling was immediately evident to
the crowd. This motley crew then had to lower the heavy drum-set to the ground
and readjust the height that the cymbals stands were set to so as to clear the
lights hanging above. It was like watching the Keystone Cops trying to prepare
a stage for a rock band.
As this roadie crew saw the
approaching “stars” they began to try and hype the crowd into a frenzy for Easy
Love’s arrival. This was cute and a funny at best. The band exits their limo,
with scantily clothes girls on their arms and bottles of Jack Daniels in their
hands. They really gave it their all to look the part of real rock stars.
Taking the stage they took up their
instruments and began greeting the crowd, telling us that we were in for a rock
and roll show like we had never seen. Unfortunately, when they hit their first
chord to begin the show, everyone heard the awful discord of guitars that had
not been tuned to each other. It seems that the roadies had used tuners to tune
each guitar, but had not bothered to verify that they were in tune with each
other and the keyboards. It was really some comedic moments and an occasion
that I’ll never forget.
I don’t recall how long this
iteration of Relayer existed. It was a year or so if I remember correctly. I do
know that once again direction of the group and disagreements over writing
music caused the breakup. This time all that was left was Mike and I.
Aa had been the case before, Mike
had a vision of where the band was going and he was focused on being the
primary composer. Steve and Dave were not willing to let Mike take total
control and so the power struggle was under way.
Randy found an opportunity to go
with another local band playing more current music. Dave Yoder found it no
longer tolerable to play in clubs and didn’t want to continue to perform there.
Steve, I believe was experiencing marital problems that seemed to creep into
the realm that was the band’s domain.
Needless to say Mike and I started
over again. We looked at guitarist and bassists and auditioned several. We even
drove down to Ark City to jam with a chiropractor that played guitar and
synthesizer. None of these seemed the right fit.
The band evolved into the following.
Mike Gleason – keyboards
Kevin
Brown – Guitar
Steve
White – Bass
Dave
Chanowski – Drums
This
was the final version of Relayer and really the last. We, Mike and I, had
decided that our only way of getting into the music business was to move to
where the music business was. Chuck Thomas, in Chicago, had told us that if we
could get there he could get us studio work and get us started. We could then
support our families and start the band anew. This was the opportunity that we
had been looking for. We were determined to create the very best “cover band”
in the area and generate enough money to get ourselves out of town.
Kevin
and Steve had extensive experience playing professionally in the area and
brought their contacts within the club scene with them. They could get us in
places that we had been unable to get into before because their names with
other groups were familiar.
Along
with the new guitar and bass came a soundman and a light technician. Steve Sedek,
(known as DR for his love of Dr Doom of comic book fame), and Tom Wheeler our
new soundman were welcome additions to Relayer. .
For the first time, we had a pretty
professional set up and support. Our sound system was pretty close to “state of
the art”, with tri-amp’ed sound segregation and lots of effects and
equalization. The light show was pretty good. Nothing like a real big time
touring show, but certainly more impressive than anything we had used before.
The four of us worked very hard on
replicating the top hits of the time with lots attention to detail.
Instrumental parts were duplicated as closely as possible and we worked our
vocals hard so that there was nothing missing from really rich sounds from
bands like Styx and Journey.
Our break came when Kevin called a
friend of his that was a DJ at T-95. This was Greg Gann and he came to Mike’s
house to hear us for the first time. We
played from of our Styx and Bad Company for him. He immediately invited us to
play for T-95s rock night at Pogo's. This was really great and we were pumped
about it.
We practiced hard so as to make a
really good impression right away. The night came and we were setting up on the
stage at Pogo’s. Gregg did a DJ thing from the disco DJ booth. He would play
some music for the first hour or so and then he introduced us. This was the
first time that the radio station had brought live music to the rock and roll
night.
We open with “Rockin the Paradise”
by Styx. The lights were all out and spotlight was trained on Mike setting at
the piano. The opening, “Tonight’s the night we make history, honey you and I
And I’ll take any risk to hold back the hands
of time
And stay with
you here tonight.”
With the last
line. . .”Here at the Par – a – Dise!” the lights came up and the rest of the
band came in and it felt like an explosive moment. The crowd came alive and we “killed ‘em!” There have been few
other moments in my musical experience that equaled this one. It was absolutely
fabulous.
We started playing the rock and roll
nights monthly. Over time we were invited to open up for Chubby Checker and
another band named DVC. Their claim to fame was that their drummer was the
younger brother of Tommy Bolin. Bolin was famous for “Teaser” and “Post
Toastie” and later for joining “The James Gang” on their album “Bang!”and
playing on their hit, (Got this feelin’)Must Be Love .These guys were so
typical of what everyone imagines “rock stars” are like.
We began playing at the Tennessee
Gin Mill and Beer Mill as well as Backstage and we still got to play at Legal
Tender, the little bar we had played for all the way back to the early days of
the band. We had achieved our goal of being a really great cover band. Now it
was just a matter of waiting to save enough money to mover to Chicago.
But that was never to be. Mike had
made contact with Kerry Livgren some time before when he was looking to buy his
Yamaha electric grand piano. He got an address for Kerry through Terre Johnson,
our friend that had worked as a musical critic for the Wichita Eagle. Mike had
sent Kerry a tape of the original Relayer material and surprisingly received a
call back from Kerry.
Well, because of this initial
contact, Kerry contacted Mike again when Steve Walsh, the original lead singer
of Kansas, left and they need to replace him. Kerry asked mike if he was
interested in auditioning for duties on vocals, keyboard and writing. Well of course he was interested.
He was gracious enough to come and talk to me about it, saying that he didn’t
want to go if it would mean losing our friendship. Naturally I said no that he
should take the chance and maybe I could catch up later.
Kevin was another story however.
Relayer was playing at the Gin Mill when Mike came in to tell everybody that he
was going to Atlanta to audition for Kansas. Kevin was livid. He was furious.
He accused Mike of abandoning us and the opportunity that we all had. He called
him a quitter and a cheat.
We heard about an occasion that
Kevin said he was offered a chance to play with Chicago while in college. He
said that an agent that said he was looking for a replacement for the guitarist
that had died in the rock group Chicago approached him. He explanation was that
he was committed to completing his education and that quitting that would cheat
himself and his school.
I never really believed this story.
I couldn’t imagine having the opportunity to play with one of the greatest
touring rock groups in history and refusingjust to finish a college degree.
From that point on the tension in the band was apparent.
We finished our scheduled gigs from
that time. I wish I could remember where we played and when we preformed for
the last time. It was very probably in the Tennessee Gin Mill, but I don’t
recall. Mike completed his obligation to Relayer and began his process of going
to Atlanta to audition.
After that Kevin was determined to
prove to the work that Mike was not the focal point of the band and that
Relayer could continue on without him. I think that we played just a couple of
gigs as a 3 piece with marginal success. It wasn’t just that Mike was gone, but
we did lose a significant part of our repertoire without the keyboard.
I seem to recall Kevin asking people
everywhere we went about the sound of the band. He wanted to hear people say
that Relayer was just as good without Mike was it had been with him. The facts
were that we weren’t the same and certainly not as powerful. The band folded
shortly there after.
Kevin and I did try a couple of
other avenues to keep playing but I suppose that my devotion to Mike was
showing and Kevin couldn’t get around it.
We practiced briefly with some guys
that we had played with before to try and get a new group together. The guys
were horn players that were very good. I think that they were 2 trumpets and a
trombone and they were looking to play more. Ron Barnhart was one of the
trumpeters and he was quite good. Unfortunately, for Kevin and I, they and
their cohorts were really into the Little River Band and that was the core of
their interest. It never really gelled and Kevin and I parted ways.
This was in 1981 or 1982.