EUPHORIA - THE FIRST BAND

We had some great people in skilled positions, Perry Dreiman on drums, Ned Lovig on bass, Bob Charboneau on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, myself on lead guitar and background vocals, Paul Goveia on light show, Curtis Soward as manager, and Reid Ashby, who produced our first demo. (we did have a version of the band prior with Richard Wold on drums, who is also a good drummer, but we really didn’t get this band off the ground).

Perry Dreiman was 6’7” and only 17 at the time the band formed. Perry and I were the only classically trained musicians at the time and he would have me come over on our time off and work on music for his theory class, which I was humbly honored to be a part of. Perry has been a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for some time and I know they enjoy having him. He is by far and away the best drummer I have ever played with. Excuse me….it is an insult to call Perry a drummer. Perry is a musician and a percussionist. Even his playing at 17 is superior to all others I have played with. He is the only person I have ever played with that looked normal behind a 28” bass drum.

Ned Lovig is probably still one of my favorite bass players. He was very melodic and had a great sense of what he was doing. Ned was a natural, gifted musician and would do some interesting things. We had an original Song called Burn. In one spot Ned did a polyrhythm, while we were all doing triplets, Ned was doing quads. Ned turned me onto two groups back then, and we did obscure songs by them that were pretty good. They bands were ZZ Top (Tres Hombres is still my favorite album) and Peter Frampton (who’s lyrics confused me). We also had a cool instrumental that all of us wrote, that featured Perry on drums. The song was called Strawberry Jam, named for Ned’s girlfriend at the time. Ned and Perry were a formidable rhythm section indeed.

Bob Charboneau….what can I say about Bob? The voice of the band. Bob’s the reason why all the little girls went crazy. He had that look and a great voice. Because of Bob, we could do Zep, Bad Company, and Free. I remember a gig at Jerry’s Stop Sign in Berkeley. We did one of those songs I don’t like to play anymore…unless someone tips generously…Stairway to Heaven (the other two are Rock and Roll by Zep and Freebird by you all know who). The crowd got into an enormous circle and slow danced arm and arm…those are some of the cool things you remember. Bob sang with an incredible voice, played great rhythm guitar, and lead harmonies. On his rhythm playing, he had a feel that was somewhere between Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page (between the Jims). One obscure band Bob and I really liked was a band called Bee Bop Deluxe (I saw them 3 times).

Paul Goveia was an interesting character. He was introduced to the band by Ned. Paul was the second natural genius I had met. He could work on cars, build things, which is how his light show came into being. He told me once that his fingers were blistered for the first few gigs because he would change the lights at the speed I played guitar (I’ve always been kinda on the fast side). He did so many great light shows for us…both indoors and out. It saddened me to find out he was found in a chair in his house dead apparently from a drug overdose.

Curtis Soward was our manager and like another brother to me. I spent a lot of time at his house as well. The way I met Curtis’ parents was they came home after being out of town and into the middle of a party Curtis had going at his/their house and yes we were still allowed to party, music and all (at 20 I had gone through GOD’s one step program and didn’t drink or do drugs). His parents were some really great people. Most of the gigs we played were for the Skyline High crowd. Curtis was Mr. Popularity and once the party was on, he would pull out his 3 phone books, call everybody and their brother. The houses were always so packed, we had to rope off an area for the band to move and put on a show. After the band broke up, Curtis put on some shows with local talent like the Tommy D Band and Rubicon. Because of his way with people he met many famous people and had books with pictures of these rock stars and all. I know, because when he died (which hit me like two tons of bricks), his parents gave me those books. It’s hard to lose a brother….

Genius number three, Reid Ashby. Back in the day when most bands used PA’s that were two column speakers and a 4, 6, or 8 channeled powered mixer, I was visiting Reid. While we were talking, He was making a 200’ 16 or 24 channel snake, because the largest one at the time was only 100’. He was working of Freeway Studios at the time and that was where Y&T was doing a demo….there was one song on the demo called Mars Venus I wish Dave would find…I loved that song. Reid did our demo for us. First we did the music with the leads live at our studio in this cool basement at Perry’s parents house in Piedmont. We did all the vocals at Reid’s parent’s house up in the Oakland Hills. We were in the basement, where they had a lane to a bowling alley installed. Wild. Reid and I mixed it at some studio in Walnut Creek, which was my first experience as to how anal and time consuming mixing down is. Reid was so good he went on to do sound for a number of the popular underground clubs in San Francisco, CA, especially one called the Mabuhay Gardens, frequented by bands like the Dead Kennedys. Unfortunately, though I have heard more than one story, Reid was shot in the face and suffered, brain damage. Years later, I found out where he was and tried to talk to him. Sadly it was short, with very few words.

I was just a maniac, trying to play as wild and to the best I could play, and with these guys I was honored to play with and know all of the people listed above. Bob Charboneau aka Charby and I still stay in touch.