Most bands these days are revisiting their "glory days" by resurrecting the bands of their youth, no mater how popular they were. I shall spare you the reunion gig. Not only because I have no interest in repeating history but because the characters involved are all so different today , not necessarily grown up but let's just say we have different perspectives on life today that would create conflict beyond what it could withstand.
In 1988 my best friend had died of a cocaine induced heart attack while he was away with the PCC College band but it didn't keep me from partaking in the evil substance. I was a huge pot head and like to smoke a little coke on my weed. My other friend was a dealer so it was always an arms distance away. I had been playing bass for a couple of years and was really looking to join a band but all my friends were into Death/Speed Metal. I had jammed a couple of times in garages in the neighborhood but nothing really significant enough to make it a regular thing.
I used to spend a lot of time going to my friend George's house to hang out, do drugs and listen to music. George was an extremely talented guitar player and I never would have thought he would ever want to take the time to jam with me so I never asked. I just would watch him play and try to steal licks, by the way is how I really learned to play. We listened to a lot of Prog, Jazz and Fusion. John Blakely had just moved in and he was the resident punker when we were in High School. John brought in the punk rock influence that I had an early experience with when I was 12 when Lino Lousy of Crankshaft introduced me to the genre. George and I would stay up till the morning hours and I finally got the balls to try and jam along. We recorded several 4 track tunes and I wrote my first song "The Mick Karn Song" after seeing the Japan bassist perform with David Torn and Bill Bruford at the Hollywood Palace. The songs we wrote were all instrumental with silly titles like "Children With No Faces" or Slash Boogie".
Jon Abbinante, a friend of mine since elementary school and the local teen drunk before he moved to Lancaster for work, had moved back into the neighborhood. He was a security guard for the construction site next to the apartments George lived at. Jon was a gifted drummer who I saw play a gig at our Junior High in 7th grade. He was also an alcoholic and had drifted into homelessness after being booted by his mom at 18. Jon was back and he said his nickname was now Blade. We invited him over to party and he was a riot, a natural comedian and just plain crazy. A fun guy to be around. We talked about the three of us jamming at the Hully Gully rehearsal studios for fun. Jason White, a member of the bands Chainsaw Blues and The Fingers heard us talking and wanted in on the jam. He was a drummer but said he would sing and Jon could use his set. We all agreed set up the jam and made plans to meet at the studio.
Jam day came and we all made it to the Hully Gully on time except for George. We set up our equipment minus the guitar rig and jammed some bass,drum, vocal tunes. Somehow Jon wound up on the microphone and Jason took his place behind his kit and we spontaneously wrote a bunch of songs with verses, choruses, bridges and full sets of lyrics which Jon had a knack for creating on the spot. In fact we all seemed to share the ability on our respective instruments. 2 hours and 45 minutes later George finally showed up and we wrote a bitchin song called "Jesus Saves". It was all captured on cassette and as we listened to the playback Jon said "We're Blade World!" More time was booked at the Hully Gully for the next week and a band was born!
