A Star is Born in the back of my �71 Fury
February 12, 2004
Some of Rich�s fans from the Nixon Clocks days, the Dharma Sons days, the Affordable Floors days or even the Distractions days know Rich very well up on stage. This is the story of how it all got started long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. I will tell the details of his first band with me, the Jets, later, but this story is about the first time we were on stage together. In late summer 1985, Rich, Shawn, and I enlisted 3 guys to complete our band Ise (pronounced ice). Shawn played in the school band with one of the guys, Drew and convinced him to meet with us. The 3 other guys (Drew � Bass, John � Lead Guitar, and Rob � Keyboards) had been playing together for a while too, but they needed a drummer. We used Shawn as bait to hook them into our band�we said that we were a package deal and if you wanted a drummer you had to take us all (thanks Shawn). All the other guys in the band were more qualified at their instruments than Rich and I. We had been only playing our instruments for about 2 or 3 months.
Following one practice, they realized that Rich and I couldn�t play, but at least Rich could sing, so they didn�t let Rich play keyboards and stuck me at rhythm guitar where I couldn�t do any damage. I know it sounds like they were bossy, and they were (sorry Drew and John), but we didn�t care, we were just ecstatic to finally be in a �real� band. Plus it was nice to have the direction that we needed to get this band going. Another good reason to have these guys in the band was they were from the �good part of town�, Roslyn Farms. For those of you that aren�t aware of this area out side of Pittsburgh, it is a small, but a pretty up-scale community. So we thought that it would be good to get together with these guys because they could afford all the equipment we needed to be rock stars and they surely did. Side bar for those of you that don�t play instruments: musical equipment can be a bit pricey, so you always have to pick the cheapest instrument going (guitar) and stick people like Rich and Shawn with the expensive gear (drums and keyboards).
After practicing for about 3 or 4 months, it was time to book a gig. I don�t remember who had the connection, but we got our big break to play at both the Junior and Senior High Christmas Dances at Carlynton (home of Bill Cowher). We started to put songs together for about a half an hour set. This set included songs such as �Tequila�, �Cold as Ice�, �One Thing Leads to Another�, and �Moving in Stereo�, which I sang. We were very excited and practiced every week for months. We also worked on our attire just as hard. You have to remember that this was the 80s and it was just as important to look good as it was to play good to be a rock star otherwise bands like the Flock of Seagulls or Poison would have never made it to the top like they did. We gathered up all the day-glow and Don Johnson jackets we could find. I even remember wearing a pair of those gloves with the fingers cut out so I could at least touch the frets of my guitar and look �most excellent� at the same time.
Now that we got all the details like fashion and set list arranged, it was time to get to the show. At the time, I drove a 1971 Plymouth Fury III, which is a barge with wheels. Rich used to say that I could put the front nine of a regulation-sized golf course on the hood and the back nine would fit on the trunk. The car was huge, but you could fit like 18 people in the thing. Plus without the luxury of things like seat belts and a working radio we didn�t seem too arrogant arriving to the show in this car. One other defect of this car was the defrosters and Pittsburgh in December necessitates this extravagance. This forced us to make a pit-stop at K-mart to get some defroster-in-a-can so that Rich could do the honor while I drove us and all of Shawn�s drum equipment to the performance. So we all get out of the car and Shawn decided that his fingers were too long or something because he proceeded to slam the door shut on 2 or 3 of them. As I stated before, Shawn was the drummer and he needed to use his hands so we were all shocked when we saw him fall to the icy ground and roll around writhing in pain. Once we were done looking around on the asphalt for any missing appendages just in case, we ran into the store for the defroster and some bandages. By the time we got back, Shawn was doing better and because nothing was severed he insisted that the show would go on�what a trooper. This was our big glitch and the rest trip to the dance extravaganza went very smooth.
We played our two sets (one on Friday night and one Saturday night) and everyone was surprised at how good we did on stage. The entire band was on queue and Rich sang well and even impressed one of our fans enough to woo her as his first girlfriend, but that is a story for later. We were all instant idols at school. We got approached by everyone showering us with complements. I even remember walking out of the bathroom after finishing my business at hand and a girl stopping me stating that �Moving in Stereo is my favorite song by the Cars�. All I could say was �Thanks�. Ahhh, our first taste of stardom�I know why Rich and Shawn continued to chase that dream.
After the Saturday night concert, we all went back to Shawn�s house (this is where we would practice) and stayed up all night recalling each detail of the musical mastery and sharing stories of the starry-eyed girls. Rich, Shawn and I even had some sloe gin fizzes (what a girly drink) and the others had their choice of poisons to celebrate (don�t worry, Mr. and Mrs. Cray were there to keep us contained). We found something else out that night�John turns into a crazy man when he drinks. I don�t remember ever seeing Rich more content as if he had found his calling. I was just happy that I found a new way to pick-up girls. |
