At the beginning of 1979, I was at ICC and beginning to question what to do with my life. I was 19 and a music major BUT, I wasn't really cut out for that. I began to question what I was going to do about earning a living and wondered if it was better for me to quit school and just get a job. Looking back 40 years, this was the beginning of a series of mistakes that were made that I wish I could correct. We all take a path, and this was the fork in the road where I zigged when I probably should have zagged. I eventually did quit school in February and took a full time job at Bergners in downtown Peoria. This led to me moving out of my parents home in September and leaving my beloved ORANGE ROOM for the first time. Many adventures were to come but not before the tale of The ONE STEP BEYOND DISCO.
The one thing that was beginning to look good was our band, Maiden Cane, was starting to take off. I had met Marty Stanfill through my association with Sunfield and Roger Baysinger. Roger had set up an audition for me to become the second guitarist and singer. I passed the audition with a killer version of Riding The Storm Out by REO and was in. At some point, Bill and Tina, the married leaders of the band, had found this guy called Marty Stanfill. My memory is foggy at the exact meeting or circumstances, but as I remember, Roger was out and Marty was in. Bill Switched from lead guitar to bass guitar and Marty was the new lead guitarist. Maybe Roger can shed more light on this transition.
This was not to last long.....as there was a power struggle from the beginning between the married couple and Marty. I was a young kid and found myself in alliance with Marty. He became my mentor in a lot of ways and he began to groom me as the "new Rock God" as he put it. LOL I was in awe of him. At that time, legal drinking age was 19 and Marty frequented many nigh spots regularly, so he usually asked me to go with him. It was during this period, that I really began to learn how to drink.
Marty and I would go to the Kollisium one night, and perhaps, Nashville North another. He introduced me to many of the Rock elite at the time, calling me the New Rock God. This was all going on at the same time I was going to school. Things were beginning to get in the way of education.
Marty finally decided to leave and of course I went with him as did Denny Propst who had joined on drums. Denny made great faces when the married duo fought their domestic battles. Jim Keifer decided to come back into Martys wake and yet another version of Maiden Cane was born. This foursome began to play regularly but went though various drummers. As I recall, Denny left to play with The Kittens.... Enter Mark Moretto! Mark played with us for a time and I recall college parties and backstage conversations. It comes in flashes though. There was a lot going on in this period.
Before Mark left, Eddie Booe had joined us and we were a solid act. Those were fun days but Jim and Marty fought like vikings so there was some friction at times. I brought in Darin Bloomfield when Mark moved on and was excited to play with my old friend again. We did some recording with this group.... two of Marty's songs, Sleeper and Seems So Wrong. Good tunes that we played live in all our shows. But the show at Bloomington's ONE STEP BEYOND DISCO was one of the strangest.
It was the dead of Winter and I was going to school every morning and playing late at night... a week long engagement...back when there was a music scene. There had been terrible snow and ice storms that year. Perhaps you've heard of the "blizzard of 79"? One night the truck I was in did several 360 spins down the hill before the rest area on 74 between Morton and Bloomington only to get stuck in a snow bank. That was one cold and snowy winter!!!
ONE STEP BEYOND was located outside of Bloomington
and it was one of many clubs cashing in on the latest dance craze influenced by Disco and Saturday Night Fever!!! Lighted dance floors, DJ's and mirrored balls co existed with live rock music in those days. We hated disco but loved the dancing and the women. On the very last night of our engagement, a Saturday, it was snowing hard. We played til 1:00 am and told the owner, we'd have to come back next week for our gear because of the storm. I didn't handle the business side of things back then as I was the junior member, but Jim told me that the owner was VERY UPSET that we could not get our gear out that night!!!!
After paying us, he told the band to move all our gear into a back room which we did. I remember making Jim laugh with my impersonation of a cookoo bird, leaning back on a dolly while I was pulled in and out of the room.....the door opening and closing with me yelling COOKOO COOKOO very loudly!!!! With the gear loaded, we left in our cars. The truck would come back when the roads were better another day.
About 6:30 in the morning, I was sleeping soundly in my ORANGE ROOM when the phone rang. My dad answered it in their bedroom and told me to come across the hall and get on ...."its someone in your band". It was Jim and here blurted out, " SOMEONE BURNT THE CLUB DOWN LAST
NIGHT WITH OUR EQUIPMENT IN IT" !!!!!! Oh shit I thought. I had my Les Paul, but my Marshall Amp was there as well as the rest of our stuff. Jim continued that the cops had called him and foul play was thought to have surrounded this fire.
The owner's alibi was that he had walked across the street for coffee around 3:30 after cleaning the dance floor with what turned out to be combustable fluid. What was weird was that, he always had a coffee pot brewing in his office at all times. Why was he needing coffee at 3:30 am?
Why clean the floor then? Combustable fluid? And why was he so adamant about us getting our gear out that night? It was also interesting that the back room was the only room that did not burn to the ground. Coincidences? I think not!!!
After getting our equipment later the next day, our lights had some smoke damage but most of our stuff was saved! This club owner...who shall remain nameless built another club a few years later and it was lost in another unexplainable fire! Hmmmm?
I was 19 and had been learning how the real world turned and burned. I would leave the ORANGE ROOM later in the year, but for now....I was safe in my room.
The Journal Star article and a Pic from that engagement. 1/29/79
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