This is a semi-detailed account of the history of the band that I've kept over time. If you don't want to sit here and read it, you can download it by clicking here. If this is too long for you to sit and read, go back to the history page. Disclaimer: This is not meant to offend anyone, but it might. Without further ado, I present the history of Royal Blue.

Skip Straight to the 1999 entries with these links...

January 1999 February 1999 March 1999 April 1999 May 1999 June 1999 July 1999 August 1999

July 2000

Band Journal


1/16/97-Band formed consisting of TJ, Adam S., Joe, and Sparky; temporarily named "Casas de Montañas"; performance date set for March 8; First song,"Tangerine," is learned.

1/18/97-We practice "Tangerine" and write our first original, as just an instrumental.

1/19/97-We do "Tangerine" very well and the original doesn't sound bad at all.


1/26/97-By now we've learned "Why don't we do it in the road," "Cats in the Cradle," "Need somebody to love," and "Sex type thing"; we feel confident and have moved the date up to February 15; At this point we are confident in the songs we have and believe that we are ready to play soon.

1/26/97-Nothing gets done at practice; We have a hockey practice instead of a band practice; plus, we sound horrible.

2/02/97-The performance date is moved to February 21.

2/09/97-Performance date has been changed to indefinitely; Band is nameless and we have started to change our play list because we aren't happy with our current songs; we also are looking for a temporary name because we're not sure we want "Tintagil" just yet.

2/17/97-We are only satisfied with 2 of the songs("Tangerine" and "The Original") that we have; fortunately we have picked out a number of songs which we are willing to do.

3/02/97-We play"The Original" and "Tangerine" well; we started jamming and came up with a new song; also, we started playing "Foxy Lady" and "I'm a believer";Good practice.

3/15/97-"Foxy Lady" sounds OK, but we are too loud and can't really decide who's going to play what; We start playing "Rock and Roll," but again, we are way too loud; Performance date set for April 19 and again on April 26, but on the 26 we will open for another band,"62 cents"; Our long term goal is to make 'battle' and win.

3/16/97-It is agreed that we are officially "Tintagil"; songs sound pretty good, but "Foxy Lady" and "Rock and Roll" are too loud; plus, we decided that we're going to wait on those songs anyway; we start "Satisfaction"; it sounds good all together besides the fact that Adam can't sing it and doesn't even know how the whole song goes.

3/22/97-"Satisfaction" sounds good; Tangerine's okay; we make a tape

3/23/97-We continue the tape; Also, by now, we play Inna Godda davida and D'yer Ma'ker.

3/24/97-Adam's in Vegas; we practice a little; drums are now at Sparky's

3/25/97-Spring Break; Just me and Sparky, we practice a little.

3/26/97-Spring Break; Just me and Sparky, we learn a song or two.

3/27/97-Spring Break; Just me and Sparky, we practice a little.

3/28/97-Spring Break; Just me and Sparky, we practice a little.

4/01/97-We play for a few people at Sparky's to get more cymbals; Gag-me.

4/04/97-We practice back at Adam's w/o Joe and write a new song, "A Piece of My Heart"; several other song ideas purposed.

4/05/97-We practice, and write a new song, "Sadman's Ballad";Joe shows up late; We also record the new songs and a little blues thing, too.

4/06/97-We don't really practice because we are putting up 'soundproofing'.

4/10/97-We practice w/o Joe and write a new song.

4/11/97-We practice w/o Joe; good practice.

4/12/97-We practice w/o Joe; we write a new song and we play for Adam's uncle and his girlfriend; we do well; we also talk about our set for the 26th.

4/13/97-Joe showed up, still sounding bad though; we're pretty sure about our set; we also accept a gig for 5/31.

4/18/97-62 cents came to hear us; we impressed them; They played and blew us away; Joe came late.

4/19/97-Practice was sort of bad, but the game of lock-out was fun.

4/20/97-We go through the whole set; sounds pretty good.

4/25/97-We practice okay.

4/26/97-We play and kick butt; 62 cents is definitely not a dollar.

5/03/97-We learn "Swallowed";okay practice.

5/04/97-We practice and I get things thrown at me.

4-8 practices between 5/04/97 and 6/23/97; none of which really matter

6/20/97-We practice; try learning "Dream On", but it's not looking too good.

6/23/97-First 4 track recording; Sadman's Ballad laid down but needs to be redone. We learn "Paint it Black"; "Dream On" attempted again.

6/29/97-Sadman's Ballad 'finished' recording; sounds okay, took Sparky 11 takes; overall, could be better.

6/30/97-Sadman's Ballad is played on 750 AM at 12:45 PM thanks to Adam's uncle Mark.

7/08/97-We learned "American Woman" and have been discussing a possible outdoor concert soon; We bring out some song ideas.

7/11/97-We've relocated to Sparky's and practice; Current set includes Sadman's Ballad, Paint it Black, You ain't seen nothin' yet and American Woman; We are officially Tintagil as was announced on the radio; Joe has been a frequent no show; 62 cents broke up and we'd like to grab their keyboardist and maybe out of necessity their bassist; Adam's uncle would like that; but Joe actually came to this practice.

7/28/97-Something sounds off; Joe's bass was totally out of tune on 3 of his strings; we didn't actually make it through any songs, but a lot of important talking, posed a lot of important questions, and still have to answer many of those questions; we're trying to decide on set songs; original vs. cover.

10/4/97-We move back to Adam's house; Joe states that he likes the band and enjoys playing in the band; we learn "Dancing Days" and then get interrupted rather rudely.

10/11/97-We learn "Rock and Roll All Night" and "Hey, You've got to hide your love away"; It is obvious that Joe has been practicing because he sounds great; Sparky hasn't lost his touch either; Adam's vocals are almost back to where they were 3 months ago and I think that he will be even better; my playing is definitely more fluid and skilled; this is a pretty good practice because we do a lot of jamming and everyone has fun.

10/11/97-We attempt 'Born to be Wild'; Dukich visited; no progress as usual; 2 recorded jams with Bob.

11/14/97-Joe hints at not wanting to play for people and doesn't practice with us at all; not to say we practiced much ourselves; band appears to be slowly crumbling into pieces; jammed with Bob

12/05/97-We practice and decide on a few songs to learn.

12/12/97-"Just what I Needed" learned; best practice since June.

12/27/97- Whether or not today can be considered a practice or not is debatable; we all came to practice however by the end of the night we were at Bob's playing pool; it is quite obvious that there is little desire to even have a band; the many problems consist of lack of practice, lack of desire, and, even worse, lack of good excuses; it is not clear where the drive behind the band has gone but it is gone; whether the band will forge its way into the next year or not is doubtful; at this point, our practices are few and far between and there is little to suggest any change; it was planned more than a month ago to have several practices over the winter break, however the break is halfway done and we've only had one gathering with or possibly without the intent to practice.

12/31/97- Pretty good practice; a few original ideas brought out; learned "Saturday Night's Alright for fighting."

1/11/98 - Band goals discussed; "Back in the U.S.S.R." learned; decision to use tapes to decide on cover songs to play is approved; Sundays are set as a consistent practice day.

1/16/98 - This is an original day; we record about an hour's worth of practice; as usual, main problem with many originals is the lack of words; I brought out one song against my wishes because I like to write words before introducing the song to the band; on a side note, the band is now officially one year old, whew!, who would have thought.

1/19/98 - We listen to the tapes of cover songs and 11 songs are picked out of 23 suggestions; let it be noted as well that Sparky opted to not make a tape and to bring CD's instead, even after several reminders pertaining to the tape; although we picked out the songs, we were missing several things necessary for learning the songs and, therefore, practiced our 2 song set.

2/01/98 - Over a week since the last practice; We practiced "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Just What I Needed;" sounds okay; Sparky lugged his entire new drum set over to Adam's and set up in a record 45 minutes; Joe got there in time to help us pack up.

2/13/98 - We practiced the same two songs as last practice and have eliminated many of the songs off of our tape list and Joe started out the practice by saying "So, when were you guys going to tell me that we are supposed to play at the CEC thing?"; we decided that we would like to try "Born to be Wild" again; the CEC fundraiser is scheduled for March 6; it is not for sure that we will be playing there.

2/16/98 - Some serious band discussion took place while we were waiting for Joe to get there; we decide to put "American Woman" on a back burner and stop playing "Paint it Black" altogether; Once Joe arrived, we learned "Born to be Wild" and "Pinball Wizard", making this best practice in about 2 months and considered the best ever by Adam.

2/22/98 - We started the process of learning "Sharp Dressed Man"; Crier photographers came and took pictures of us and need to know the name of our band for the article; one of the photographers said that we sounded good; not to long later we decided that we might need to come up with a name; considering that the band is over a year old and that we don't even have a name yet isn't surprising; the fact that we've only played in front of people once isn't surprising either; Joe showed up halfway through practice, which again, isn't surprising; Even though he is excused this time, what about the other dozen or so times...; We had to drop "Pinball Wizard " for now because another band playing at the CEC thing is playing it; we don't know for sure whether we will be playing there or not.

2/25/98 - We learned "Jumpin Jack Flash" and it has become one of our most energetic songs; "Back in the U.S.S.R." sounded much better than usual; band name is now officially "Royal Blue."

2/28/98 - "Sharp Dressed Man" dropped due to learning problems; we practice our set and it sounds pretty good; Joe has definitely been practicing; Adam's voice sounds great; Sparky's timing was very good; a very sharp and concise practice on the day of Turnabout.

3/01/98 - Torie and Bob are used as our test audience; they believe that we are ready to play; practice was good and the songs had more energy than usual.

3/04/98 - Last practice before Friday's performance; Jeff and Adam Brown listened to us; we started off slow and had no togetherness; after a little warm-up, however, we sounded better than we've ever sounded; we even had some fun when Jeff, Brown, and Bob sang a few songs.

3/06/98 - The performance night; set-up and sound check wasn't very efficient or productive; we could not hear ourselves on stage but the audience definitely had no problem hearing us; we played with the most energy ever and sounded very good; we were off a little bit in the usual spots, but no one seemed to notice; other bands were impressed, some shocked, by our very musical set; it was said that we sounded much better than people had expected; "Hot Commodities" did a great job of clearing the place out; "Madhatters" brought everyone back plus more and sounded very good considering the small amount of work that they did on their set; "Groovatron" was, to say the least, disappointing; a very fun night in general, and we kicked butt.

3/08/98 - We watch the video of ourselves taped by Adam's uncle Steve; it was pretty darn good; we learned "Let it Ride" and have pretty much decided on what songs we are keeping; we're thinking about some songs, but nothing is definite yet; everyone seems to be looking forward to next practice; the band isn't considered as much of a task anymore as it is fun now; hopefully that mood will continue into the future.

3/14/98 - Joe decided not to come to practice because he "doesn't want to waste his Saturday night on band practice"; the rest of the band including myself were infuriated; Joe has again placed himself in a problematic situation; on the other hand, we learned "Hey Joe" and it sounds good; we discuss again our goals as a band and they are as follows: To play 2-3 more 'gigs' before summer, to play monthly over the summer, to write some more originals, and to make a name for ourselves and break out of the typical 'Munster band' stereotype.

3/15/98 - We chose to not invite Joe to this practice; the anger towards Joe did not scatter over night, but actually tripled; serious thought is being given to this situation; right now, Joe either gives some dedication to the band or he should return the bass to Adam so we can start looking for someone else; this problem with Joe is one that has constantly been recurring; he has been playing bass for over a year and has made minimal progress; he is not, however, without ability; as we have seen, when Joe chooses to do so, he can sound better and he can play songs well; on the downside he can't figure out a bassline by himself and can't even follow the simple chords played by a guitarist; we don't ask for slap-pop solos and we try to pick songs with reasonable basslines, but it has come to the point where we as a band are being held back from progress due to a conscious decision of one member to not practice, show up, or even give some effort to learn the simplest of basics; all that it would take is a "Hey, TJ" or "Hey, Adam" and a request for what can be done to improve these skills; instead, Joe chooses to coast through the band; he does just enough to get by when it counts, but when there is no performance planned, there tends to be no Joe; Adam, Sparky, and I learned "Champagne Supernova" by Oasis; the fact that Joe doesn't like Oasis is just too damn bad.

4/03/98 - Having been almost 3 weeks since the last practice, a much needed rekindling of the band is long overdue; this spring break hasn't gone completely to waste; we all did some soul-searching and decided that it would be best for the band to replace Joe; so, this practice will not include Joe, but it shall include Greg Bugyis, who truly puts Joe to shame; we haven't gotten rid of Joe but is an extremely strong intention; Joe is on his way out the door, we just haven't yelled any obscenities and slammed the door quite yet.

4/05/98 - We play "Santeria" and it sounds great; we continue the process of teaching Greg the songs; he's a fast learner; On a high and low note, yesterday, Joe announced his resignation from the band; we would like to say that his absence will be felt by all members, seeing as how he was such a great guy to have around and was always quick with a joke; however, his lack of progress and his 'attitude' made him excess baggage on this road to who knows where; we bid farewell to Joe as the bassist for Royal Blue and we extend a warm welcome to Greg as the new one.

4/10/98 - Today is more of a fun day than a practice day, however, enough running through the songs warrant its being called a practice; we play a few songs and decide on a few more to learn, but we more or less jam with Ibarra and Wallace; Wallace brings over his monstrous hundred watt bass amp and uses a distortion pedal with it; Jon brings over his new 30 watt Crate and has enough reverb on all of the time to make Adam and I cringe; we sound okay, nothing special.

4/13/98 - We practice today for about two hours and we sound alright; we've basically gotten Greg caught up on everything he needs to know and we're about ready to move on and start learning some other songs; it might just be me, but I think that Adam is trying to avoid "American Woman"; did I mention that last practice Sparky had his whole drum set over?; its huge and sounds good; Greg has a 50 watt Crate bass amp and a Washburn bass; hopefully Adam will be getting a new amp so that his old one can move to P.A. since he refuses to buy one.

5/25/98 - We practice for the first time in over 5 weeks; Adam has a new amp and his old one has moved to P.A.; it sounds good, and now we can hear the vocals; the practice turns out to be a pleasant surprise in the way that we sound great considering the amount of time off; list of songs to learn is made.

5/30/98 - We practice and our set of '8' sounds good; it should be 9 except Adam is having some sort of lead singer's complex and doesn't think he can sing "American Woman" and believes that it is too much of a strain; little does he remember of the times when we could practice that song 5 times in one practice and have no dead singers afterwards; some other things have become apparent, mainly being the fact that since we had that long band vacation, that we were not ready to play any of the early summer shows, not to mention that we weren't invited either.

6/10/98 - We learn "All Day and All of the Night" and "Tush"; Adam keeps trying too hard on vocals with "Tush" but otherwise a good practice.

6/18/98 - It takes us about 3 ½ hours to warm up; Uncle Steve was there; "D'yer M'ker" picked out.

6/26/98 - "Every Thing about you" picked out; practice was sort of boring because we do all songs very well with the exception of Adam's inferiority complex about singing naturally on "Tush".

6/30/98 - Another practice of going through the motions; Adam is still having problems with "Tush" but they are problems that he is creating for himself; we are really feeling a need to play somewhere and there is talk of a summer battle.

7/20/98 - We get together but some situation causes to not be able to practice.

7/22/98 - We practice and basically go through the motions; we have set the goal to have an album by next year; summer battle is happening alright, however, without us.

8/12/98 - We get together with the intent of recording Sadman's Ballad but encounter numerous problems due to things like a broken mic, lack of channels on our mixer, and the absence of drum mics all hindered our process; nonetheless, we recorded an almost passing version of the song minus the lead guitar and the bass which were to be over dubbed; we did not add them because of the unexpected distortion on the drums and lead vocals which proved unsatisfactory upon playing the tape; Adam's amp has also been sent in for repairs and will hopefully be back soon; as to the upcoming events of the band, we are not sure; school will be starting soon and we have no plans for songs, practices, or shows.

9/22/98 - We practice for the first time in a while; Adam's amp is back and we've also obtained a gig; we're supposed to play at a graduation party for one of Adam's cousins; this practice goes through the whole set once and then moves outside to go listen to songs in Greg's car; we then vote after Greg leaves and pick out about ten songs.

9/25/98 - Practice as usual; we go through the set and then work on a song or two; we talk about what songs we've picked out and what we will be learning for the next practice.

9/29/98 - Again, we practice the set and talk about what we will be learning next; after Greg and Adam leave Sparky and I hang around to put together tapes with the songs on them.

10/2/98 - Today we practice for the show on the 11th; we practice a few of the songs and try "Purple Haze"; it got good reviews from Mrs. Samara, but we saw right past her motherly support and realized that it sounded O.K. at best; after Greg left, we ran through "Flagpole Sitta" about 5 or 6 times and it sounded pretty good for the first run- throughs.

10/6/98 - We practice only a couple old songs before we delve into "Flagpole Sitta" with Greg this time; it sounded pretty good; "Purple Haze", however, still could use some work; over all, it's looking decent as far as how we will play.

10/8/98 - We quick run through 3 songs and then learn "Magic Carpet Ride"; sounds great for first time; we played it 5 or 6 times; high energy and fun practice; quick and concise; we're definitely ready.

10/9/98 - We have a test audience sit through the entire set; we ask for comments after each song; "Tush" and "Santeria" were highly praised; the rest of the set sounded good with the exception of Sparky stopping a little short on "Jumpin' Jack Flash", a rough start into "Magic Carpet Ride", and disapproval from the test audience concerning "Let it Ride"; the only other occurrence was that Greg got mic-jitters and opted to not do any backup vocals and that Adam was a little crowd rusty and seemed nervous as well; we tore down all the equipment and got it ready for moving.

10/11/98 - We play at the graduation thing for Adam's cousin; After a record setting set-up, we do our warm up song "All Day and All of the Night"; crowd response was alright; After we began playing our set, the crowd showed much enthusiasm with our songs; In addition to dancing, many were also singing along; We were, however, interrupted by an Arabian musician who had a time schedule to keep to; we resumed our set after the Arabian guy used his strange eastern music to persuade the crowd to leave when he finished; when we resumed, the remaining crowd was even more enthralled by our set, and actually persuaded us to do a two song encore; all in all, a great night, rewarded by great food.

10/16/98 - This practice was a goal discussing practice regarding battle tryouts and what the band would be doing over the next few weeks.

11/17/98 - This was a much needed refresher practice over our current songs.

12/02/98; 12/08/98 - These two practices were for talking about battle tryout songs.

01/01/99 - Happy new year; We practice because we really need to.

01/04/99 - Serious talking about battle tryouts because they are only a month away.

01/07/99 - We learn "Good" today and it sounds, well, iffy to say the best.

01/12/99;01/14/99;01/22/99;01/25/99;01/27/99 - These 5 practices are all pretty much the same with the exception of the one that Tabion came to at which the phrase "Not very tight" was associated with "Santeria"; all of these practices are the tryout songs over and over.

02/01/99 - Three days till tryouts, slight nervousness is present, we have a real rough practice that Anne came to. Torie came late with snacks.

02/02/99 - Two days till tryouts, not very nervous; we still don't sound our best, but everything should work out.

02/04/99 - We tryout, the song that was selected was Born to be Wild, which was our ace; we played 4th and sounded great; we made it in with no difficulty along with Groovatron, Madhatters, Surly Joe, and Untitled.

02/08/99 - We begin the process of learning Rock and Roll and Paranoid; Paranoid comes rather easily on the first day, Rock and Roll gets postponed so that we can all work on it individually.

02/10/99 - We start the task of constant repetition until battle gets here.

02/15/99 - We've pretty much got Paranoid nailed, but Rock and Roll is still a tad rough.

02/17/99 - Rock and Roll is slowly making progress, we add a stop in the middle of Good.

02/22/99 - Rock and Roll gets hit one of the times, the others were just plain bad; we discuss t- shirt stuff.

02/24/99 - Rock and Roll was so-so today, everything else is sounding good, with the exception of Tush because Adam is having "problems" again.

03/01/99 -Overall its sounding pretty good, battle will be fun; we had Arianne and some others listen to practice today.

03/03/99 - Trouble strikes at today's practice when, at the end, Adam and Sparky have a mild confrontation about "Hot for Teacher", a song which has been decided against doing due to time restraints; Sparky was extremely upset about this decision and Adam tried to explain the reasoning to him while Greg and I stayed out of it.

03/08/99 - We practice; it is the week of battle; the T-shirts were handed out today and they look pretty good; some people come to be a test audience.

03/09/99 - We revise Tush today because of Adam's deficiencies as a singer; everything is sounding pretty good; Today is one of the longest practices we've ever had.

03/10/99 - We test out all of our songs again on some people, we were pretty good.

03/11/99 - Adam is very much against having this practice because he is a wuss; Bob and Joe are there since they are the roadies, and we sound pretty good, we only go through the set once.

03/12/99 - Munster High School 1999 Battle of the Bands - The lineup was Groovatron, Royal Blue (us), Untitled, Madhatters, and Surly Joe; We played and the audience sang along with some of our songs; we couldn't hear ourselves on stage due to incompetent sound management by the auditorium staff, but other than that it was fun; the overall mix for us wasn't very good either, and the lights were overdone; in the middle of Born to be Wild, the lights died and we only had spotlights on us; it was a fun show; we didn't place due for unknown reasons, but we sure as hell sounded good; we weren't by any means professionals, but the judging was poor.

03/24/99 - We took a week and a half off; we've relocated to Sparky's in preparation for Spring Break; we play some oldies but goodies at this practice; very reminiscent of previous band days when practices were all about having fun.

03/26/99 - We practice and wing "Ain't Talkin' bout love", which was pretty fun; we also work on two originals and decide on songs that we plan to learn for a possible show on May 22.

04/02/99 - Spring Break; Adam is out of town, so Sparky, Greg and I practice; we don't get much done, it was too nice of a day for anything to get accomplished; we did attempt to jam on Sweet Child O Mine, sounded ok.

04/09/99 - We practice and this time try Sweet Child O Mine as a band; We talk about possibilities of gigging with some other band.

04/16/99 - This practice became an original day; we have several originals in the works, however, they're starting to blend together; we are only using the keys of A and E right now, and I mentioned my slight dismay; hopefully a light of inspiration will shine on someone and we will be able to break from our rut.

05/05/99 - After finding out that we have a 3 hour gig to learn music for, we refresh ourselves with some of our older songs and have a huge list making gala; Adam expresses much concern about the whole three hour thing and I agree with him to an extent; however, we really need to make a name for ourselves and this could present the perfect opportunity to do so.

05/13/99 - We start learning It's all been done, What it's like and Pinball Wizard; we have lined up Enemy Calypso to open for us so we don't have to play for so long.

05/17/99 - Practice is now in Chapel A at my house; we practice the newer songs in the set and then go our separate ways; everyone seems to like my house due to it's party potential.

05/18/99 - Sparky shows up really late cause he got off of work fairly late; we learn Smokin in the Boy's Room and practice the newer ones and after Sparky leaves, Greg, Adam, and I learn Jailhouse Rock; not too bad sounding, but we still wish that we had more time to learn the songs.

05/19/99 - Sparky shows up really late and Greg couldn't make it; we learn White Wedding and go over a bit of Jailhouse Rock; one of the shortest practices in history.

05/20/99 - Last practice date before the show; we have people coming over for a little "Wake the Dead" party at my house; we tried learning Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2, but things didn't pan out as expected; overall, the set sounds decent enough to pass; the party was fun too, but not many people showed up; on a bad note, however, Adam chose to be difficult and proclaimed that he didn't want to run through the entire set on the grounds that he wouldn't recover for the show; I immediately vocalized my objection and was silently supported by Sparky; I had made it very clear that we were going to run through the whole set list at this practice because we had not previously done so; the roadie and former-roadie tried unsuccessfully to start a fight between Adam and I; I tried to make a joke and shake things off and we ended up going through most of the set.

05/22/99 - The show; the location got moved from one part of the park to another, no big deal; We set up in decent time and had only minor problems; Enemy Calypso did a pretty good job, but the crowd seemed a tad rough; We started playing and overall crowd response was good, but not many people were dancing; it was a little chilly which could've explained the crowd size and participation; we played well, and probably lasted about an hour and a half or so; We ended up playing two songs that weren't on the set list, but who cares; Adam and Sparky were getting mad at me for trying to talk to the crowd; we could've gone for much longer had we just got the crowd involved a bit more.

06/07/99 - We have relocated back to Adam's house; we briefly rehearse some of our songs, and then talk about song ideas for some possible shows later this month; we then run through the rest of the songs which we didn't practice and then talk about songs over pizza.

06/15/99 - We practice School's out without Greg; sounds 'decent' according to Adam's mom; we discuss available practice times for the rest of the week.

06/16/99 - We practice ABC; whether it is any good is highly doubtful, but we're gonna try and work the kinks out quickly; we have just over a week till Lesley's grad party.

06/23/99 - We have stopped doing ABC and run through the whole set tonight minus the two surprise songs, which have yet to be learned; after Sparky leaves, Adam, Greg and I work on an original.

06/24/99 - The special songs are learned today for Lesley's party, unfortunately we don't have the music to one of the songs; both sound pretty decent.

06/25/99 - Last practice before the show and we just run through some little stuff; the cool thing is that Greg bought a tape with one of the secret songs on it so that we could do the whole thing for Lesley; the whole thing isn't sounding too bad; we came up with the set list; we divided the show into two halves, blatantly stacking the second half with our better songs; hopefully the crowd will appreciate our planning; also, an official band record has been surpassed: our set list for this show will have 23 songs, an all-time high.

06/26/99 - We play the party after a decent setup in the humid heat; we ended up cutting our first half of the set because of threatening weather; luckily, we packed up just in time and missed the rain; the crowd was really rough, nobody wanted to get up and dance, but somehow, people said that they enjoyed it; we got $160 for playing that show.

06/27/99 - Sparky's grad party goes well; the crowd seemed to enjoy seeing me jump off of the PA cabinets; this show is much more fun than Lesley's because the audience seems to have a better time.

07/10/99 - Adam's grad party is a blast; the show was later in the day, and actually during the darkness of night, which definitely helped the crowd's enjoyment; we had a cut-down set, but still played requests for the audience; the show went very well considering that we had not practiced for 2 weeks; we sounded better than usual on almost all of the songs; everyone seemed to have fun, including us; I again backed up my reputation as "Air Anthony" by leaping off of various objects at various heights; we had some small lighting and again rented the PA from Enemy Calypso, officially emptying the band account; talk about summer battle between Adam and I occurs, but no decision is reached.

07/18/99 - We have a practice which was originally intended to be used as a recording session to make a good recording of Sadman's Ballad; however, we opt not to do this based on the number of available microphones; we also intended to do the photo shoot, but that as well did not pan out; instead, we did some fine tuning on Sadman's Ballad and jammed on several other old original ideas; no new songs were written, but discussion occurred about band goals; no resolution is arrived at about what the band's short-term future is going to look like, but the rather pointed discussion took several random and wild turns; on a necessary disciplinary note, Sparky has yet to submit a band bio and equipment listing for the official web page but also was caught dozing off during the oh-so-important band discussion.

08/02/99 - Sparky is out of town, but we decided to get together anyway to try and finish some originals; although we only added a few lines to one of the originals, we had a fun practice while recording "lounge" versions of some of our regular songs.

07/24/00 - We prepare for the official recording of Sadman's Ballad; several other original ideas are brought forth, presumably to accompany the release of Sadman's; Greg was unable to attend.

07/26/00 - Another day of running through Sadman's as well as two other new songs; things are taking shape quite well and the songs are sounding really good.