IN THE EARLY DAYS:
In the early eighties I also recorded many Live Tapes and Demo Tapes in practice spaces, basements, garages and at clubs like the Tree Cafe, Geno’s and shows that I put together like the Headcheese Wingdings – all day local band events for Headcheese Magazine. Copies survive as cassettes in a box in my basement – truly now basement tapes. Some of the local iconic performers in that box of tapes: The Walkers, The Ultraviolets, The Whigs, Steel Cow, Joshua Russell, My Three Sons, The Holy Bones featuring Darien Brahms & Manny Verzosa, Active Culture, Soul Pilgrim, Bebe Buell and the MetalBilly Man Maus, The Moondawgs, Los Flamingos, The Lonely Heart Symposium, Dorothy Scott Band and so many others – wherever I could hang a microphone.
I also organized and sponsored various Concerts in the Park – a series of events in downtown Portland over the 1980’s and 1990’s bringing music to the Old Port on Saturday evenings. I brought some of the first concerts to the Maine State Pier with co-organizers Russell Turner (Raoul’s Roadside Attraction / State Theatre) and Joe DeGeorge for the Whale Wall Market in a free weekend early evening event we put on for a couple of summer seasons. The city now leases this incredible space to large scale concert organizers and brings national touring acts to the city.