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Amber Prism |
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1982-1986 Covers Originals Scrap Metal/Diamonds and Black Leather
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This was
the first real band I was ever in. My best friend Danny met these older
guys (I forget how) and ended up playing with them as their drummer.
He invited me along to a few of their gigs and I found out that they were
all way older than us. Like in their 30's. There was Ed Ryan, the lead
guitarist/vocalist, Fred Rain, Lead Vocals (and tambourine Haha!), Rich
Sundberg, Rythym/lead guitar, Danny Montes, drums and assorted percussion
and myself on bass. I ended up playing for them when they asked me after
their other bass player got arrested for Acid and they had a gig coming
up. Our music was that of the hard rock and metal of the 60's, 70's and
80's. Ozzy, Scorpions, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, Montrose, etc I'll never forget my very first gig with them. It was in Covina California in a fairly large back yard. One of Ed's many 'aquaintances'. this guy wanted to have around maybe a hundred people. He printed flyers to put around the neighborhood area to advertise, kind of like a block party type thing. he was going to have a few kegs of beer, a barbecue, and us. And he was only asking for $2 a head to help offset the cost a little. He actually went to the police and asked about permits, and they said, "no don't need one for that amount of people." So cool, right? Well, what he didn't anticipate happening was that a few of the flyers got hijacked, made more copies of and got circulated (we heard anyway) as far away as Santa Monica Pier. None of us knew of this until after the fact, so we just hung out, partied, had a good time and went onstage to play as usual. I did notice that there was a really good turnout for this thing as I looked out over the crowd and put on my bass. I remember saying this to Danny as he sat down behind his kit too, but nether thought more of it than 'Cool! Lot of People!' So on we went and played for a couple of hours, give or take a half hour. Throughout the set, I kept noticing that the crowd wasn't getting any smaller. In fact it looked like it was getting bigger. But again, just thought 'cool, bigger turnout than we expected'. Little did I know. The very last song we played, in the middle of the first chorus, I happened to look up and all of a sudden it seemed, there was a helicopter hovering over us. It turned on it's spotlight on Ed right as he was going into a solo so in our not so sober state thought, "Oh frigging cool! Spotlight on Ed!" and kept playing. We were rocking out until the power got cut and we heard the helicopter "...perse now. I repeat. Please disperse now or you will be arrested for disturbing the peace. Please disperse now..." over and over. When we looked out over the crowd, they were starting to break up... with the help of a few dozen police with dogs. It turns out that the flyers that got copied and circulated? They brought close to a thousand people to this party. This guys entire block was wall to wall people at one point. They had to call in the LA county sheriff's office to help with the crowd control (the helicopter and the dog cops). We made the 11:00 news that night. I saw it with my own eyes and heard Ann Martin talk about "a block party gone bad in Covina." It was kind of surreal. Then we found out that the only reason the police came was because some guy took a crap on someone's lawn, and then the owner called the police. When the police arrived, they saw the crowd and freaked and called in the cavalry. Man what a night. For those who care, the songs on the left are in no particular order other than the first three are cover tunes and the rest are originals. I was 21 when this band dissolved.
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