The Seeds of Doom...A Side Project...The Shaboo All-Stars

It was almost Christmas, 1978..,and my twin brother, who had screwed up the earlier band project...approached me and told me he wanted to play the club on New Years Eve that year, which was only ten days away...as an opening act for James Cotton. His idea was that we would do one set only, and he claimed his motive was purely that he missed performing. He asked me to be a part of the group for that gig...and that he had a drummer and a sax player already lined up. He wanted me to play keyboards, and he asked if I could get Charles to play bass and Mark to play guitar, and the final member of the group would be my older brother, Mark, who was also a very capable lead singer...and since the three of us hadn't been in a band together since that first very successful band we had all participated in while I was still in high school...I thought it would be fun...and nostalgic. I also thought it would be a good way for the three of us in Avalanche to get in a little "playing time" in front of an audience, which was already close to being a 1600 person sell-out. We would be doing traditional R&B, and it was only a set...so I told him I thought we'd be able to do it. He also said if it went over well, then we might be able to get some other gigs from it, too. The days went by quickly. We didn't even meet to practice until the night of the show, four hours before we were to hit the stage, to be exact. The first hour was just a big debate and an argument, and we still didn't have one song down yet. I stood up, exasperrated, and said either I be allowed to assume the role of Musical Director right then and there...or I was out of there..because it was only three hours before showtime, and I wasn't going to embarrass myself. Everyone agreed, and 2 hours later, with 60 mins. to spare...we had a set finished. We went onstage that night... and we went over like gangbusters, and The Shaboo All Stars...featuring the name of the club, rather than any particular musician or musicians... was born. We played about six gigs with that personnel before my twin brother decided he didn't need me or my guys anymore, or my brother Mark, either...and we were replaced by other musicians my twin brother had met through being one of the club's owners. To this day, he refuses to acknowledge that those initial gigs ever happened...I've never fully understood his motive for doing that, but I believe he wanted to take all the credit for creating that band. That felt really petty...and today, that band still exists and is quite successful, and my role in creating it and working in for years, and contributing greatly to its growth and development...still goes unacknowledged...but there was a much greater consequence for me to deal with as a result of my efforts in the creation of that group...because that band of his...eventually became a disaster for mine...