It was gray. It was overcast. But that didn’t stop us. The four of us loaded into my Scion tC and headed to Orcas Island via a ferry from Anacortes. Chris’ sister Tina and her husband Kevin and I got up and were out the door at 6:00 AM. I was the taskmaster. We had a ferry to catch and we weren’t going to miss it.

Tina and Kevin came to visit us for the week. They flew in from South Carolina on Saturday morning and were staying with us until the following Saturday. Our grand plan was to drive and ferry to Orcas, spend the night at the Outlook Inn an then head on to Victoria, BC for two days and head home to Seattle on Wednesday. Continue Reading > > >

I almost forgot about this show. Shows what a little digging in my slide archives and a little Internet searching will do. The show was REM opening for The English Beat at Fountain Casino, Aberdeen, NJ in 1983. I saw the slides before me and I knew I was there, I also had some vague recollection that REM ‘might’ have played but all these years later it was a bit foggy.

As I was scanning the first batch of 12 slides, images of Dave Wakeling, check. Images of Rankin Roger, check. Even one of the keyboard player. All well and good. So while these are scanning I’m racking my brain to figure out where this show was at. I Googled “English Beat shows 1983″ got hits but no real detail. Then I figured I’d try “REM English Beat 1983 NJ.” Bingo! Sometimes you just have to admire how some people out there record every detail of bands they love. The hit came from an REM fan page listing show dates for REM in 1983. REM opening for The English Beat at Fountain Casino, Aberdeen, NJ, April 24, 1983. Amazing! Continue Reading > > >

I’ve been a busy man these past few days. I’ve been scanning a lot of slides. As you can see in my previous few posts. It’s funny, I almost forgot I had these photos. When I dug out my slide pages from my closet, there they were.

It seems there’s been a lot going on in my head since I saw Springsteen at Key Arena last week. Like I mentioned in my previous posts about my friend Gary Croslin aka Junior Smoots. In trying to “refresh” my memory I was trying to see if there were any other websites that might have info about him or members of the band. That’s how I stumbled onto a website for The Upstage Club. The Upstage was a club on the Asbury Park Circuit that many a musician had passed through, including Bruce, my friend Gary and scores of other musicians. In the forums of the website was a post for another club in Asbury called Mrs Jay’s. Mrs Jay’s was the place I first saw Gary & the Smoots band play. Continue Reading > > >

Update:Added more photos 04/22/2009

Back in 1978 I was attending CW Post Center of Long Island University. I was a communications major. I aspired to be a radio DJ like my radio heros Vince Scelsa & Dave Herman from WNEW FM in New York. There were other reason that brought me back to school … and yes Bruce was one of them.

I also experienced a friend dying from carbon monoxide poisoning because he was too drunk to get into his house. He slept in his car with the motor running so he’d stay warm … and never woke up. But I certainly did! I didn’t want my legacy to be one of drinking and drugging in some backwater town in the Jersey pine barrens. Continue Reading > > >

UPDATE: Junior Smoots @ The Fast Lane … NOT Junior Smoots @ The Harbor Inn … D’oh! Thanks to Bruce St. Laurent (Smoots Sound guy) for pointing out what should have been obvious to me.
These are live shots I took of Junior Smoots And The Disturbers at the Harbor Inn in Brielle, NJ Fast Lane, Asbury Park, NJ. The photos were taken one night in August of 1982. I would imagine it was the Harbor Inn. If anyone knows differently leave a comment below. Or just leave a comment for the hell of it. Continue Reading > > >

I couldn’t sleep this morning. Woke up at 4:30 AM. Tried to sleep more … just couldn’t. So I got up. What did I do? I finished the Photo Gallery on my blog. Of course! Well … finished for now. There is still one section still under construction … Photo Art. This one is going to need a bit of scanning & Photoshop cleanup. But it’s doable.   Having years & years of negatives and slides, I have my work cut out for me. But I like the new Gallery look, and I’m sure I’ll tweak it more. But It’s back to where it was before. Now I must get more “stuff” uploaded. Time to make some breakfast & get to work.