I had just turned 15 when I joined my first band. I remember that day clearly. It was what Dr. Phil would call: A Defining Moment.
I was in the choir room at our school when our teacher brought in Two (long haired) Dudes along with two students from my school. One of the students, skinny with glasses and kinda odd (like me), was in my choir class – he was an amazing piano player. The other was a drummer in the school band. Kind of a weirdo- like me. He had this big mop of curls, a headband and this cool denim vest with Iron Maiden and Judas Priest patches (among others) on the back. I wondered what he was doing there because he certainly wasn’t the choir type. The Two Dudes, I recognized from around our small town; why they were there was beyond me.
They started telling us about this Starlight Theatre production, a semi-annual concert, held on a Friday and Saturday night, featuring local musicians. It was at the Cambie Hall, a local community hall built by members to hold weddings, dances and reunions. Everything was wood and the floors creaked.
Two Dudes were looking for musicians to participate.
My choir teacher looked at me. He suggested that I sing Against All Odds (the Phil Collins song that I’d moments ago sang at our school concert). Yeah. Good one.
Just the thought of that made me want to hide. Sure,it was one thing to sing for people who HAD to be there, like parents and other students. Then another Choir member suggested that she could accompany me on piano, as our Choir pianist said she wasn’t available. Okaaay.
Now, up until this point, my live performances had been in my room, our vehicles, and with the choir. Well, except the time a friend had dared me to dress up as Paul Stanley for a play we were in (Tom Sawyer) and sing Shandi at the dress rehearsal. Hey, as Paul, I could do anything. I got odd looks from the Director for my makeup, but…it was a dare and I was feeling badass.
Just a few months before, I did my very first choir solo…the opening verse to Flashdance with the choir joining in for the rest. Again…crapping in my pants.
Suddenly, I realized that the two students were now telling us how their ROCK band was going to be playing at Starlight. Huh? THAT was cool.
Wow. Being in a band was soooo cool! Again, I didn’t think much about it. I wasn’t one to put my hand up for much…I was very insecure (was? Hah).
I had no idea Two Dudes had been in the audience earlier.
The 4 met me outside after class and Two Dudes said they liked my solo and then: “Hey, we’d really like you to be a part of Starlight.”
“Okaaay.” I said, not sure what I was agreeing to (so glad I’m better at that now).
The drummer spoke up, “We’d uhhh, like you to uhhh, come and sing with our band.”
With pounding heart and sweaty palms I said YES! Before I could even understand the magnitude of it.
On the outside, I was cool…inside, I was jumping up and down clapping my hands, not yet realizing how this was going to change my life.
I was having a very difficult time at school. I’d just parted ways with my BFF of eight years and it was a baaad situation. Every day for months and months I dreaded going to school. It was a fight with my Mom every morning to get me to go.
This was a good reason to get out of bed.
It was also kind of a: HA HA, screw you. These guys want to be my friends. Guess I’m not such a loser after all!
The band was called Desiderata. I still don’t know what it means.
So the next day (or maybe that day, I can’t remember, it happened so fast), I helped my new drummer and keyboardist load speakers and mics and stands into the keyboardist’s POS car. Rehearsal was in his parent’s basement.
We listened to and talked about music like we’d been friends forever, as we waited for the lead guitarist; a big, gentle guy with the coolest black guitar EVER. It sounded exactly like the crunchy guitars on all my Dokken and Kiss albums! He and the jock rhythm guitarist both lived an hour away. The rhythm guitarist had longish blond curls, a headband, tight jeans, a shirt from The Who with cutoff sleeves, and a COOL GUITAR!
And WHAAAT? The keyboard player and the rhythm guitarist traded off bass duties. NO WAY!
From the second the lead guitarist plugged in and started wailing on that devilish looking guitar, I knew. I freaking KNEW that I was in the right place.
You know when the heaven opens up and the angels sing…well in this case the angels were singing Rock You Like a Hurricane…YES!
The band began to play a song and I just stared. They were young, but DAMN, they could play.
The keyboard player asked if I knew Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top. Of course I did. NOT.
I faked it all the way through. Faked knowing Satisfaction, Start Me Up, though I did know Let It Be by The Beatles. Fortunately the keyboardist was NOT going to give up singing lead on the Stones songs and I, at this point, was content to just sing backup.
The drummer wanted me to play tambourine. Nope. Not that I knew how to play it anyway…I was too cool for that.
We rehearsed for a while and apparently that was my audition because if I remember right, we headed off to dress rehearsal.
So the first gig for me was kind of a disaster.
My piano accompanist and I opened the show both nights. For some reason halfway through the song, she stopped playing- BOTH NIGHTS (oddly enough she knew it perfectly to play and sing for herself a few weeks later).
Not wanting to look like the totally green amateur I was, I just carried on a cappella.
I think that in itself won everyone over.
The band, now called LIVE WIRE (after Motley Crue’s song) was so pissed off at her, I got an earful about what they had just witnessed when I met them downstairs in the “green” room.
But I didn’t care. I was in a ROCK BAND!
Yeah! My band had my back.
But during our set, I forgot my cue for the first verse of Sharp Dressed Man. SHIT. I kept dancing, pretending that was how it was supposed to be. Screw first verses…who needed them anyway, and besides –
I WAS IN A ROCK BAND!
But despite these little hiccups, I knew…as soon as I stepped on that stage, the mic awkwardly in my hand (I looked like a star though, in fake leather pants, big hair, and rhinestone earrings), I KNEW that this was why I was put on this earth.
Live Wire became a staple at the Starlight Theatre for the next few years. We also played adult dances, school dances, community halls, parties, weddings, spaghetti dinners; and not just in our little town.
We also played at a worldwide exhibition (nope, not gonna date myself). We even entered a few Battle of the Bands…and lost. But we still had people rocking with us!
We played bars even though none of us were legal (3 of us were 15, one was 16 and one was 17) and we had to sit outside during intermissions.
We played wherever we could and more times than not we were well paid (how times have changed).
We started writing our own songs not too long after I joined.
Our set list reflected our varied influences…(Kiss, Benatar, Stones, Eagles, The Who, Van Halen, Scorpions, Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Heart, Journey, Doobie Brothers, Trooper, Bryan Adams, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac; our repertoire was a 2 inch thick binder).
We had a few changes of personnel, but the keyboard player and I remained anchors for two years until we all went our separate ways.
And every time a member left, it broke my heart. I wanted us to rule the world.
I’m still friends with the keyboard player. Our first lead guitarist and I wrote some really cool songs for my album Hidden Power, and we planned to write more, but it didn’t happen.
I will always and forever be grateful to them all and grateful to myself that I blasted through the terror and accepted their invitation.
Defining moment? You bet your ass.
P.S.
A bass player from one of the other bands that played that fateful night at the Starlight Theatre will be playing in my band when we storm the stage at the Sicamous Summer Stomp this summer (not far from the Cambie Hall, where I filmed my video MASTER and SLAVE)
Talk about full circle.
