Open invite!

If you have any videos of yourself, or your band to share, please feel free to post it up here so we can all enjoy them.

John

Well here is an oldie. Possibly 1985 and about as live as you can get. This would be the board mix and who knows how many VHS dupes. I played an electronic kit. Real snare drum, cymbals, vocals and hair though.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L52gGTK_KyM[/ame]

Hey Squint always loved that song.. ( both versions ), did you record with Dan as well?

Cheers

I did record one album with Dan. Otherwise it was live gigs. As I recall the tour manager mixed FOH which was not his forte' so we tried to make it easy on him which is where the electronic kit came in. Good days.

Scott - EXCELLENT! Love the band. Yep...the hair is a dead give-away of the era! lol

Respect brother. I can't sing to save my life and no way could I play and sing at the same time. I know how hard that is, I've tried it. I either botch the drum part or the vocals when I've attempted it. So... big time respect for your talents brother. The sound quality on yours is ten times better than on mine. I'm going to try to clean up the sound on some of the videos I recovered, I'm just afraid of losing even more in the process. I will give it a shot though. I'm on a Mac with all the pro recording software any fool could want. Time to put it to good use!

Thanks for sharing the video, Scott! Cool tune, excellent band. You're a 'pocket-drummer' like me. (All about the groove!) I enjoyed your playing.

More please... post away guys. This is fun and I want to see and hear some of my VDF buds at work or at play on the drums. I'm so happy I found copies of these shows. It's all the photographic material I have of any of the bands I've been in, or worked with. I wonder where all the 'Band standing in front of a brick wall' photos are, that I participated in over the years! There are at least three of those floating around in space.

More Vids!

Thanks John. I was always a singer so it just kind of fell into place. The first band I started in (sixth grade no less), no one wanted to sing and I wanted a band bad enough that I decided I would do it. Necessity is a mother as we all know and it was worth it to me to have a band. The hard part for me was that, when my voice changed I ended up being a second bass (which is the really deep voice) and to sing rock and roll, one needed a tenor voice. Over the years I was able to develop that upper range and now have more of a Mickey Thomas style voice. Certainly not as good as his, but that range. Go figure.

If I were to analyze the singing while playing thing I would say that when you are doing both, you are, more often than not, concentrating on one and putting the other on auto pilot. Usually you are concentrating on the singing. By the time we were in high school I wanted to play a few Rush covers so I had to figure out how to play Neil's parts and sing Geddy's. That was a fun challenge. I would practice all sorts of odd things to develop that skill. Sometimes playing one song while singing another. I decided that learning to play "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" while singing it would be an interesting challenge as Paul Simon has a nifty way of flowing in and out of time with his melodies. It is like any other skill, you just work on it. I actually found singing back up with Dan to be rather demanding as there were tons of sustained "oohs" and "aahs" and to do that you have to control your core so as to not add a bunch of vibrato but still play like you mean it.

Here's one I did not too long ago, but the band is no longer. I was using a Rogers black diamond pearl kit, sounds best with headphones cranked up to 11.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1-6Us5R8q4&feature=player_detailpage[/ame]

Yarp! I've tried it man, it's like rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time! LOL Yes, it's an acquired skill, that's why I tipped my hat to you. I know the work that has to go into it. I lost out on a good gig with a band in the 80's only because I couldn't sing. They loved me as a drummer, but they needed that third voice for harmonies and I just couldn't deliver. Another cat who I can play rings around got the gig only because he had the pipes.

And yep, core control and breathing while you're playing (more important if you're singing,) has everything to do with how well you perform. Endurance too! I taught myself to breath deeply and regularly (from my diaphragm) while I'm playing and it helped to relax me and increase my endurance. Breathing is important no matter what you're doing.

Cool video. Thanks again for sharing it.

John

Great stuff, John! Love the outfits, what year was that? The sound is pretty good on it too, the drums come through loud and clear. Excellent cover band.

Seeing these videos makes me feel like I know you all a little better. So much fun to hear/listen to and to be able to add faces to the names.

Thanks for posting, John. Great tune, great band.

Some talented guys up in this VDF bee-atch!

Keep em coming please! More....

John

ok, so you asked for it john, here's me just playing.....

http://youtu.be/JmM2ZYalxH0