The Story of X-Raves ...as told by Wade Mathias The beginning... The Rave I probably don't need to remind you that most of what passed for rock music in the late '70s was something that had grown far afield of it's roots. It had become too self-absorbed, too grandiose, too boring, too corporate, and you couldn't dance to it. It was no fun... my babe... no fun. Our story really begins in the summer of '79, when a friend turned me on to Elvis Costello's third album Armed Forces (thank you Bill Black.) I was completely blown away. I remember my instant reaction was "It's back! Music as I remember it, is back!" You see, I longed for the days of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Yardbirds, The Who, The Doors, and all those other great bands that made the '60s my favorite period in the history of Rock and Roll. Specifically, they wrote songs that were to the point, had a lot of character and energy, had a great hook, and simple enough that any kid in his garage could try to play it. In September I got a call from a high school friend and former band mate, Kelly Miltier, who had just returned to Portsmouth after living for several years in San Diego. We decided to get together that afternoon to talk about all this exciting new music because suddenly, groups like The Police, The Cars, Talking Heads, and others were actually starting to sell some records... something was definitely going on. In addition, Kelly had always been one of the most artistically talented people I knew, with an unerring ability to spot trends. He had also paid close attention to the fashionable side of this "New Wave" as it was being called, as it emerged out of the East Village in New York City, London, and elsewhere. By the end of the day, we had decided to put together a new band that would bring this new music to our little neck of the woods, Tidewater (now called Hampton Roads), Virginia. We figured we could, single-handedly at first if need be, return dancing and fun to the local club scene. To do so, we needed to enlist the aid of some other musicians that would be open to the concept of breaking barriers, namely, be talented players and still not have to depend on the band for their income. After all, this was about having fun and not necessarily making tons of money. For our drummer, we contacted another former band mate, Alan Whitlow, who owned a plumbing business and we told him of our plan. Alan was completely unaware of New Wave at the time, but Kelly and I knew him to always play with lots of energy and passion. He agreed to give it a try and suggested a friend of his, Chuck Porter, to play keyboards. Rehearsals began a couple weeks later in an underground bomb shelter beneath Alan's parent's back yard. Alan's dad had it built during the Cuban Missile Crisis back in the 60's. To get down there, you had to muscle open the door, which was a massive steel plate that once served as a piece of armor on a battleship. It was a big, heavy thing that was set at a 45 degree angle, so you had to lift one side to make it swing open on it's hinges. Then you walked down a flight of concrete steps and turned 'round the corner into a small concrete room. In a previous band, called Islands, Alan, Kelly, and I covered the walls and ceiling in cardboard egg crates to deaden the sound. Now, you could play as loud as you wanted and it always sounded good. A pretty amazing place, really. We started out learning some songs by Elvis Costello, The Cars, The Police, Talking Heads and whatever else we could find that would fit the format. I sang most of the songs, followed by Alan, Kelly and Chuck. We were proud of our very musical approach and vocal harmonies. Kelly and I tried our hand at writing and we found we wrote well together, just tossing things back and forth, both knowing just enough music theory to be dangerous, but at least each song sounded complete. So, "Too Wrapped Up" quickly entered our repertoire. Sometime in October, Kelly and I went to Rogues in Va. Beach to see The Police. They were touring America for the first time on the strength of their single "Roxanne" ... the place was positively electric. From that moment on, we knew that our band was going to be a success. Tidewater was ready. We continued to rehearse and chose the name The Rave and began searching for a club that was receptive to trying something new. In November we heard that Friar Tuck's, across from Old Dominion University, was putting on "new music" acts. One night, Kelly and I went there to check the place out and to hear the local band The Daily Planet. With their hard edged sound, they rocked our socks off. Their repertoire included The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Iggy Pop, and the like and we suddenly felt like The Rave was in the lollipop league. As a result, we immediately began incorporating heavier music into our act. This trend was to continue throughout the remainder of band's existence. Harder and faster. About this time, we were approached by Billy (Bugs) Moran, another Portsmouth boy who had played Major League Baseball for a time, had gotten hurt, and was now looking for something to put some money into as an investment. He came to rehearsal one night and immediately wanted to manage the band, including (at Kelly's insistence) serve as road manager handling all the equipment. Although Billy didn't stay with us but for a few months, it did set an important precedent that the band never touched the equipment. It allowed us to pour our hearts out on stage without reservations or distractions. Also, Billy was the first to discover that we were basically unmanageable. Our first appearance actually came at a Christmas party at Angelo Mesisco's hair styling salon in Ghent, Norfolk. To our surprise, we went over much better than expected with everyone kept telling us "You are going to be a big success!" Many of them even came a few weeks later when we played Friar Tuck's. Within weeks, we developed a regular following who soon began wearing the "retro-mod" look associated with the music. And everybody danced! The place was absolutely packed with people soaking wet with sweat... the band, the crowd, everybody. It was glorious. On the breaks, we'd talk to the people we'd seen dancing and developed a rapport like a communal teamwork... we played, they danced, everybody had as much fun as possible. A splendid time was guaranteed for all. Special thanks to Artie Davies and Kathy Thompson at Angelo's for getting us into some decent haircuts. Me, especially! Once established in Norfolk and playing regularly Friar Tuck's and Cogan's Instant Art, we soon began looking to expand our horizons. We found a small club in Virginia Beach, The Cat's Meow off South Plaza Trail, that was booking New Wave acts. There, the band began to apply a conscious effort to staging and visuals. Kelly made an eerie kinetic art sign that used an aluminum grid, an electric fan, a sheet, and a black light. (In the right frame of mind, one could stare at it for hours!) We also developed some fabric "snakes" to twist around ourselves and other things on stage, made from the fashionable colors at the time of course - teal, magenta, and chartreuse. (Thanks to Carol Gibbs for the concept on that one.) We would also sometimes bring little black and white TVs, set them all about the stage and tweak the vertical hold adjustment until the pictures began to roll, which created a rather hypnotic effect. Sometimes we'd set them at different roll speeds or turn some of them on their sides. On any given night, we tried to provide our audience with the most "happening" event in Tidewater. One night at the Cat's Meow, we stopped the action right in the middle of a song so the crowd could watch Elvis Costello appearing on Saturday Night Live. By this time, Billy Moran had left us and we luckily met two guys that stepped up to the plate and helped us with the ever increasing logistics of presenting the band, Randy Holmes and Gene Rodriguez. On a personal note, Randy introduced me to computers at that time and has remained a good friend and mentor ever since. The band attracted the attention of Whisper Concerts, namely, booking agent Kathy Moore and their new young legal eagle, Bill Reed. Reed-o as we called him, spent a considerable amount of time with the band and tried to get us to actually see it as a business. Kathy, who couldn't tell one musical wave from the other, bless her heart, began trying to place the band in any and every club she could get us into. A few worked while many were dismal failures. We eventually had regular gigs at Tony's Hacienda, The Pequod, and finally The King's Head Inn, a landmark club near ODU. We played many, many nights at The King's Head, eventually doing two live radio broadcasts from there. If anyone had doubts about Tidewater developing a new music scene, an odd mishap brought the point home to us loud and clear.... It seems, Alan had been out partying with his friends when he fell and broke his collar bone. Now, a drummer with a broken collar bone is about as useful as balls on a priest. Kelly and I decided to find a substitute until Alan was ready to resume his duties behind the drum kit. Fortunately, we were able to "borrow" Mike Marer, from the band Tango Storm, who did a fine job filling in for the six weeks it took for Alan to recover. There was just one more problem. Alan sang about a third of the songs and we didn't have time to learn a bunch of new ones while teaching Mike the rest. Kelly came up with a solution. Using the old show biz adage that states "if you have something you want to hide, put it up front." So that's exactly what we did. We all went out and bought several sets of pajamas to perform in while Alan sat in a wheelchair with his arm in a sling, his microphone on a stand with a gooseneck adapter. Kelly, being Kelly, dressed in a green doctor's smock with a surgical mask around his neck and hanging down on his chest. Dr. Kelldare, we called him. He would go around on the breaks writing everyone bogus prescriptions for Quaaludes. Well anyway, we knew we had started something when, after two nights like this at Tony's Hacienda, people started showing up wearing their own pajamas. Six weeks later, when Alan had recovered and we returned to our regular lineup and stage apparel, pajama-clad dancers would stop us on the breaks and ask "what happened to the pajamas?" I'll have to admit, I've never found more comfortable stage wear. As a result, we continued to press the visual aspect of the band. Kelly and Alan developed a new backdrop... four free-standing 4' x 8' cardboard flats covered in brick contact paper. Kelly sprayed "The Rave" on one of them and when placed behind us, it looked like we were playing in an alleyway. About two months later,we made another sectioned backdrop that was a giant mural of the New York City skyline at sunset. It was a photograph taken from across the East River with the buildings silhouetted against a brilliant yellow sky. It conveyed a very cosmopolitan attitude that, I believe, the members of crowd wanted to feel about themselves. I know we certainly did! We had the opportunity to open some shows for the local appearances of Squeeze and later, Gang of Four. Both of whom we covered at the time. Also, Kelly and I continued to write and we produced a new song called "Just Stand" that was added to our repertoire.We all felt things were going even better than we could have ever imagined, but just around the bend there were changes coming... page 2