MIA...with a sold out crowd.

Getting together to rehearse the band with my brother actually there, was like trying to get a wild horse into a burning barn. He only came kicking and screaming. My brother has always hated rehearsal. I think it came from the early days when we were first starting out with bands, and he would have to sit around, sometimes for hours, waiting for the "players" to figure out their parts. And back then, I understood it. But this band was different. By the time he would be asked to come to a rehearsal, everything was done, just waiting for him to show up, so that he could sing a song once or twice for his benefit, not ours (our stuff was tight), and so we would all know what would be happening when we'd hit the stage. He would show up, sing a song, throw the microphone down, and say "this isn't right...fix it"...and storm out, without telling us what he didn't like, or how he'd like to see it change. That was a problem for us, because we didn't think there was any problem, and to start chopping up these arrangements by guessing about what he did or didn't like, made no sense. But we did the best we could to do that anyway, because we had built the entire show around him. After we had played out for a few months, and drew large crowds and started making some good money, he calmed down a bit, but I knew that he wasn't really happy with it. We had one venue that we consistently sold out and therefore played regularly, and this club bent over backwards to keep us happy. As New Year's Eve 1974/1975 approached, we were asked to play there, and the money was to be our biggest payday ever as a band. So, of course we agreed to play the gig. On New Year's Eve that year, the most important night of the year for musicians and clubs, we drew a sold out crowd. And they were all there to hear and see us. And when it was time to play, my brother was no where to be found. He never even showed up. It seemed he preferred the idea of hanging around his own nightclub that New Year's Eve a lot more, with James Montgomery playing there that night...even though he knew what that would mean for us. That night, our show did not go on...and that is a death notice for any band. And eventually, we made it official...and I was starting to get accustomed to failure. And it didn't feel very good.