The PNW Bands News
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2008
3.30.08 The Plugs notified the Web Slave that they have reformed and are back gigging again after nearly 25 years!.
3.18.08 From Norm Peterson: I finished up my first "solo" CD and it is now for sale at CD Baby.I hope to have a CD release party soon but don't have a date set. I recorded this music at my home studio. Ten songs are original and two covers. Response has been real good so far. It comes with a nice 8 page booklet with cool photos. It is available at www.cdbaby.com/cd/normpeterson. You can also visit my 2 websites www.myspace.com/normswwworld and www.normanpeterson.com Norm Peterson
1.1.08 Happy New Year. The year started with a PNW Bands Bang! There were over 10 million hits on the site in 2007 and almost 40 million hits since the site started. If you keep coming to see the site, I'll keep updating so you will have more to see. I may have slowed down a little bit because of my deployment to Afghanistan, but I keep at it whenever I can. Sammy, The Web Slave
2007
12.23.07 Billy McPherson, that incredible talent who started his career with the Regents of Tacoma fell ill and was in a coma for a few days. He is awake now and slowly recovering. Your best wishes and prayers for a speedy recovery will be most welcomed. Sammy... The Web Slave
9.8.07 Sammy, the Web Slave will be slowing down a little in updates because he will be back in the Army effective tomorrow and heading out to Afghanistan. Keep sending the information. When he gets a reliable connection, he will continue posting those updates.
9.7.07 We changed the guest book a little. Now there is an entry where you can indicate to whom you are sending the message
5.27.07 The following from Fred Wilhelm is provided as a matter of interest to the musicians and fans:
To my friends,
Many of you were good enough to lend your names to the letter I wrote regarding the potential decimation of Internet Radio that would result from the imposition of impossibly high royalty rates by the Copyright Royalty Board back in March. That letter got some widespread coverage on the Web, and every member of the House Judiciary Committee got a copy. I don't think it was a coincidence that shortly after the letter circulated that the Internet Radio Equality Act was introduced to roll back the CRB rates.
Your letter made a difference, and in this day and age, knowing that Congress is listening is kind of refreshing and unusual.
Those of you who know me well know that I wouldn't be picking this fight at all if I didn't think it was the right thing to do for artists. At first blush, suggesting that artists stand to gain from a lower royalty rate doesn't seem to make sense. It is only when you look closer, and you see that very few stations are going to be able to afford the new royalties at all. With fewer stations on the Internet to play your music, you are going to get less airplay. Less airplay means less royalties, even at a higher rate, because, to be frank, the stations that survive aren't going to be the ones playing a lot of your music. That's why I don't think the rates are good for artists, and a lot of people agree with me.
You may have read this week about how SoundExchange has "offered" small commercial webcasters a "subsidy" on the new high rates. Actually, what they've done is issued a press release saying that is what they are doing. The problem is that this "offer" has some strings attached; in order to keep the low rate, the stations who agree not only must limit the amount of revenue they can make (which I don't have a big problem with), but must also limit the number of people who can listen to the station (which I do have a really big problem with). As of yet, no one knows what those revenue and listener caps are, because SoundExchange hasn't actually talked to anyone about them yet.
The real audience for the announcement was the House Judiciary Committee, as SoundExchange wants those Representatives to think they are being reasonable. When you dig deeper, you discover that the "offer" is really aimed at a handful of the tens of thousands of Internet stations. The college stations, the hobbyists, the non-profits like NPR are not included in this deal.
The reaction to the "offer" from webcasters, large and small, has been to reject it, strongly, for the reasons I have mentioned. The only entities that have supported it are the ones who supported the CRB rates before. It hasn't changed anyone else's mind. I expect there to be hearings in the House Judiciary Committee sometime in the month of June.
Meanwhile, the battle continues on another front.
Some of the webcasters, including NPR, have filed an appeal of the CRB rates in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. Part of the appeal is a request for a judicial stay of the new rates until the appeal is completed. I do not know if the appeal will ultimately be successful, but I do believe that it is very likely that the court will not permit the high rates to go into effect until they have completed their review. The way things work, the District Court may issue the stay in the expectation that Congress will take the opportunity to resolve the matter by legislation.
And that is where we all have a part to play in the court case.
The webcasters have applied for the emergency stay of the rates, and have asked that artists, webcasters and just plain listeners join them in asking for the stay. The declaration form they are using follows my letter. If you agree with the goal, and the method, let me know, and I will see that your name is added to the declaration that is filed this week. For privacy sake, if you do not wish to have your address used, let me know, and I will simply substitute "c/o Fred Wilhelms" and my address.
Thanks for all your help, and thanks for taking the time to read this.
Fred Wilhelms
mailto:fred.wilhelms@gmail.com
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUITDigital Media Association, et al.
v.
Copyright Royalty Board.DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENT ARTISTS
IN SUPPORT OF MOTION OF APPELLANTS
FOR AN EMERGENCY
STAY PENDING APPEAL1. The undersigned persons, all of whom are over 18 years of age, are involved in the independent music industry. We include songwriters, performers, listeners, and other people who enjoy independent music.
2. We make this declaration in support of the Appellants' Motion for an Emergency Stay Pending Appeal. We are concerned that a decision by the Copyright Royalty Board has drastically increased royalty rates for webcasters and that, if the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go silent.
3. Independent artists rely heavily on Internet radio for exposure and the ability to reach millions of music fans. Internet radio affords many groups an opportunity to be heard by a community thirsty for new and innovative music. Many, many independent bands and songwriters would have virtually no outlet without Internet radio. Webcasting is also essential for record sales and touring, because without the exposure provided by online radio, listeners will not purchase albums or attend concerts.
4. Terrestrial and satellite radio are dominated by large commercial concerns and are not an adequate outlet for independent music. Terrestrial and satellite radio are overwhelmingly devoted to mainstream music, not independent music.
5. We are part of a grassroots movement, and we are insulted by any suggestion that we simply a cover for corporate webcasters. We have a strong interest in the health and vitality of the independent music community, and we are concerned that the increase in royalty rates will close the door for many independent artists. Listening audiences will be deprived of their choice in music. The Internet should be free from government control and interference.
6. The undersigned artists hereby declare under the penalty of perjury that the foregoing testimony is true and correct to the best of their knowledge, information and belief.
Executed this ____ day of May, 2007.
[Name and address]
[Name and address]
[Name and address]
Additional persons wishing to join this statement:
5.13.07 PNW Bands has a new feature. Just like I really need extra work... Click on the "Reunions" button to go to a new page index that will feature recent reunions of the old bands and musicians. If you have news about and present or past reunions of the old bands, venues and or musicians, send me the information and I'll make those pages. Sammy "The Web Slave"
5.5.07 Who would have thought that this site, pieced together by the Web Slave with input by the band members and their friends, would have become as popular as it has. The bands and the people are not forgotten after all these years. This is dramatically reflected by the over THIRTY-TWO MILLION hits (32,716,061) since its creation in 2001 as an offshoot of The Regents website. This is amazing for a site that sells nothing, charges nothing and doesn't even offer porn :-)
5.1.07 The guest book entries for TheRegents.net/PNWBands.com has been backed up. All entries from inception through the end of 2006 are now on their own pages, accessible at http://pnwbands.com/guestbk.htm This will make it much easier to read, and to search for lost friends who have written in.
4.15.07 I, the Web Slave, have nearly completed backing up the PNWBands.com Guest Book. When you now go to The Guest Book you will find individual years backed up and available as web pages, making it searchable too, if you are looking for particular information on bands and people that persons have entered into the guest book.
4.15.07 The total of bands represented at PNWBands.com just hit 2,200 with the addition of The Phase Six
4.12.07 The following is provided as a matter of interest to the musicians and fans:
Subject: A personal request from Fred WilhelmsTo my friends,
Even though I am sending the same letter to many of you, this is a personal request from me to you.
All of you are signed up with SoundExchange, who sends you a check every quarter for Internet webcast royalties. It isn't a whole lot of money yet, but it has been growing steadily as more and more of these stations go online.
Back in 2002, the Library of Congress, which oversees Internet broadcast royalties, announced a decision which set the rates so high that Congress had to intervene and pass a law to bring them down to earth. It was the right decision, as the lower rates allowed Internet radio to thrive, and those SoundExchange checks started climbing, too.
To be completely frank with all of you, your music isn't being played on the biggest webcasting stations, except maybe for one or two cuts on some Oldies stations. Where your music, old and new, is being heard the most, is on small, non-commercial stations many of which are run by fans. The law that set the lower rates for these stations expired last year. The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), the new tribunal set up in the Library of Congress to set the rates, held months of hearings and heard from dozens of witnesses before announcing new rates last month.
The proposed CRB rates sound like good news for you, because the royalties climb very quickly, and, as artists, you get half of the revenue. The problem is, those rates are so high they are going to drive many of those small non-commercial and fan stations out of business. A small non-commercial station that averages about 500 listeners will owe royalties for 2007 of over $70,000. You can figure out for yourselves how many of those fan stations can afford that kind of fee
In defending the new rates, SoundExchange has actually said that there might be "too many" Internet radio stations. John Simson, the Executive Director, has wondered out loud if artists are better served by a lot of stations with a few listeners or a few stations with a lot of listeners.
You and I know the answer to that. Think of how often you get heard on those "few" AM and FM stations now. If anyone is going to hear you, it is going to be on those little stations, and, as far as I am concerned, the more the merrier.
Simson has also found three artists to speak out in favor of the new rates. Since then, he has repeatedly used those three to state that artists "across the country" are in favor of the new rates.
Despite what he says, it is my opinion that the new royalty rates pose a major problem for you and for all artists. If there are fewer stations playing your music, there will less in royalty payments due you. More importantly, there will be fewer people hearing your music, old and new, and less of a reason to buy your CDs, and less of a reason to come see you perform in person. That isn't good news.
Some of you know that I am already not a big fan of SoundExchange because I think they've done a really bad job of finding veteran artists to pay. Some of you are getting this request from me because I reached out to you last year when SoundExchange threatened to take your money if you didn't register. I am not opposing these rates because SoundExchange is in favor of them. I am opposing them because I don't think they are in the best interest of any recording artists, and because your voices are so much better than mine when the issue is what is good for artists.
I want to post the following letter in as many places online as I can. I have been promised that it will be circulated through a number of well known outlets. In brief, it says you don't approve of the new rates, and that you encourage everyone to write to their Senators and Congress people to act to prevent them from taking effect. If you agree with me, let me know, and I will add your name to the letter. If you agree with what I have written, you should write to your representatives as well and let them know what you think as citizens and voters.
Let me know what you think over the next couple days. If you can think of any artists who might want to join in, please feel free to pass this message along.
Fred
Here's the letter:
We are recording artists.
Among us, we have quite a number of gold and platinum records and almost too many awards to count. Some of us have been recording for nearly 50 years. Many of us are recording today, but you wouldn't know it from AM or FM radio. At best, you might hear one or two of our old songs every once in a while on some Oldies station. You never hear our new stuff.
So we LOVE Internet radio. There are Internet stations that play our older stuff, which is great. Even better, there are Internet stations that play our new songs, and people who have heard them tell us we sound better than ever. Those stations are often run by fans who love the music as much as we do. They aren't in it to make money; they want to share what they love, and they are even willing to pay royalties out of their own pocket to webcast our music.
Now, many of those Internet stations that we love are in danger of being turned off forever.
In March, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) of the Library of Congress announced a set of new royalty rates for Internet radio stations. Instead of giving these stations an option to pay a percentage of what they made from advertising, or setting up a single amount for non-commercial and hobbyist stations to pay, the CRB established high rates that will drive all but the biggest stations off the 'Net.
We think that what's going to be left will sound like regular AM and FM radio. That means you won't be hearing us much on the Internet (which means, anywhere at all) unless these rates are changed.
SoundExchange, the organization that collects those royalties and pays them out to us, is saying it thinks there are too many Internet stations, and that maybe the ones that can't make money should be "weeded out" for the good of the artists. We don't understand how having fewer stations playing music can be good for artists. The more stations there are, the more music, and more artists, will be heard. That's just logical. It's also what really is good for the artists.
The idea of "weeding out" stations that don't make enough money to pay the royalties is just ridiculous. A station that has to sell advertising to make enough to pay the royalties is going to have to increase its audience so that it can charge more for commercials. That means it's going to have play music thousands of people will tune into more of the time. That means it will sound like regular radio. Another regular radio channel not only won't do us any good, it will do us harm.
Don't get us wrong. We like to be paid for our music. Internet stations should pay a reasonable fee for playing our music. Big commercial stations should pay what a big commercial station can afford, small commercial stations should pay what they can afford, and college, non-commercial, and hobbyist stations should pay a reasonable fee, too. That's a fair solution: They get to play our music. We get heard, and we get paid. Those stations keep broadcasting, which means they keep paying the fees, and we keep getting paid. That sounds like everyone wins.
These fees should all go through SoundExchange, too, because if they do, we get our share. That's the law. Under the new system, the label can take the Internet license fees directly, and they don't have to pay the artists anything. Our experience is that if they don't have to pay us, they won't.
We already have heard about some radio services negotiating directly with the labels, and that isn't good news for artists. SoundExchange has quoted some artists who are defending the high royalty rates, but we suspect those artists don't know the whole story.
In 2002, the Library of Congress announced royalty rates that threatened to kill Internet radio before it began. It literally took an act of Congress to replace those rates with something more reasonable and logical. The result was a structure that allowed Internet radio to grow and prosper, and that got many of us paid the first royalty checks we'd seen in a long, long time.
So it is time you let your voice be heard. Call, write, and email your Senators and Congressperson. Links to find their addresses can be found below. Let them know you think the new CRB royalty rates will be a disaster for Internet radio, for its audiences and for the artists.
Join us. Together we can save Internet radio now for all of us, now and for future generations of webcasters, audiences, and artists.
CALL, WRITE AND EMAIL YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVE:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
4.5.07 The traffic (visitors) to Pacific Northwest Bands dot com set a new milestone in March. There were over ONE MILLION hits in the month of March 2007... a record for the website.
Sammy Carlson, The Web Slave1.1.07 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We started the New year with 2,102 northwest bands represented on the site. We have been at this for EIGHT years now and the project just keeps growing because you keep writing in with more information. As long as the information and photos keep coming in, I'll keep making these pages for you.
Sammy Carlson, The Web Slave2006
12.17.06 It has been a little while since adding anything to the news page. There are a couple new announcements regarding the "News" page. First, we will start concentrating on news about NW events, the NW musicians, their bands and reunions. Starting January 1, 2007, that is exactly what will be posted here. We will also start posting the latest updates and additions on the main NW Tributes index page instead of in the decade indexes.
6.24.06 We just hit another milestone with TWO THOUSAND (2,000) band pages. We can recall when we thought that perhaps the number of bands and musicians from the 54 to 79 era would end at perhaps page 1,000. It is still growing strong.
6.23.06 The Regents, Wailers, Rock n Roll Magic and many other bands will be gathering the first weekend in August for a weekend-long music gathering to show our appreciation to our fans and the support over the years. The event is FREE!... and will take place the weekend of 4, 5 and 6 August just South of Tacoma and Fort Lewis, Washington. Information about the event, band and activities are at Rock Out - Camp Out 2006, http://pnwbands.com/rockoutcampout06.html
4.17.06 - CURTIS SALGADO TO UNDERGO TREATMENT FOR LIVER CANCER
PORTLAND, OR- Singer Curtis Salgado has been diagnosed with liver cancer and has begun preparations for treatment according to his longtime friend and manager Shane Tappendorf.2.7.06 - We just hit another mark with 1,900 band pages recently and are now getting over 800,000 hits per month.Salgado who is battling a chronic liver condition will receive treatments next month with the hope of a liver transplant surgery in the future.
"I am fortunate to be under the care of an incredible team of doctors and nurses and am inspired by the courageous people that have faced this fight before me," the 52-year-old performer said from his home this week. I am also extremely grateful for the overwhelming support from my family and friends."
A concert performance in Spokane, WA has been rescheduled for June 3rd and doctors are confident that Curtis and his band will be able to continue to perform this year.
The singer-songwriter and harmonica idol was raised in Eugene, OR where he is best known as the inspiration for John Belushi‚s character of Joliet Jake in the Blues Brothers as well as his six year involvement with the Robert Cray Band. Salgado went on to become a member of the Grammy Award winning band Roomful of Blues and enjoyed a short stint as vocalist for Santana. The former Handy Award nominee has currently been working in Nashville, TN on new material for his next album as a follow-up to his last three critically acclaimed CDs for Shanachie Entertainment.
In the Pacific Northwest, Salgado is also highly respected for his 17 year commitment to sobriety and for his continued dedication and countless speaking engagements in educating young people on the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse.
A special account has been created for donations to help Salgado with medical costs and an all-star benefit concert is also being planned.
Donations can be made for the "Curtis Salgado Fund" at any US Bank or can be mailed to:
US Bancorp
2550 NW 188th Avenue
Hillsboro, OR 97124.2005
10.2.05 - We just hit another mark with 1,800 band pages and are averaging over 600,000 hits per month.
5.29.05 - Our Web Slave, Sammy, will be slowing down on new and updated band pages for a couple of weeks until he is finished processing back into the Army starting on Sunday the 29th of May. Yes, somebody found something useful for him to do besides making band pages and called him back to duty after 18 years of retirement from the US Army.
4.24.05 - We added a new feature. If you are listed on this site and have recordings available, send the "Web Slave" a 100x100 pixel image of the recording cover and a link where people can go buy your music and it will be added to the new page at http://pnwbands.com/theirmusic.html
4.1.05 - We finally went over the 1/2 million hits in a month mark for March 2005, with 501,332 page hits.
1.22.05 - WOW, in only five months we added 130 new band pages. Keep submitting band information and we will keep adding them.
2004
8.21.04 - We have finally and completely removed the NW Band tribute pages from TheRegents.net and placed them all at PNWBands.com. This freed up nearly 100 meg of space on TheRegents.net so we can place more sound clips that will play on PNWBands.com.
8.18.04 - Another milestone today for Pacific Northwest Bands. We are now at 1,500 band pages with the addition of Shelley and the Curves.
8.15.04 - The gathering for 2004 had to be scrubbed, but watch for 2005 at the City of Forks!
4.19.04 - We are having to move the Mountain Music 2004 Musician Family Reunion to a new venue. Apparently the Mason County Government wants to stick their hands out for $$$ for us to have a legal reunion. We are looking for a more hospitable venue, particularly we have no budget other than what we saved out of our pockets the past several months and through generous offers for equipment and other goodies. Do you know of a place that can handle all of us with little or no trouble???
2.27.04 - There will be a reunion of the NW musicians and their families the weekend of 14 and 15 August 2004 at Camp Cushman, Washington. We will have two days of entertainment and fun. If you were a NW musician from the time period of this web site and would like to come as an individual, with your old band, or even with your new band, check out the information page at Mountain Music 2004. Contact our webmaster@pnwbands.com if you want to perform or just want more information. No one gets paid for this other than us having a whole lot of fun that weekend. Musicians bring something for the pot luck table if you want to join us for the feed bag. Band and sound equipment will be supplied. The public can come watch us too, but they are on their own for food. We are working with the USO to make it an event to support them through voluntary donations.
2.26.04 - Our webmaster has fallen way behind again on the new and updated band pages. He has a 12 hour per day day job and another band which takes up a little of his time. He had three family funerals to attend on the other side of the USA in January, so during that time he was gone over 3,000 e-mails stacked up that he is working on feverishly to catch up on. Please be patient if you submitted anything since December 2003 and it hasn't appeared yet. He is now down to only about 600 more to go through. He's also been busy eBaying some of his stuff to pay for the trip to the NW in the Summer.
2.25.04 - We added up more page hits for January. There were a lot of ties for various positions and some new surprises. Results are posted in the Top 25
1.4.04 - We added up more page hits for November, December and for the entire year of 2003. Results are posted in the Top 25 most visited Pages. City Zu was the most visited band page during November and The Regents of Tacoma was the most frequently visited band page for December.
1.3.04 - Happy New Year! Starting in 2004, the Pacific Northwest Band tribute pages will only be added to or updated on PNWBands.com and not on TheRegents.net. The Regents.net will eventually go back to just being the Regents of Tacoma website and all the tribute pages will be featured only on Pacific Northwest Bands.
2003
12.31.03 - There was a total of more than FOUR MILLION page hits during 2003. To be exact, it was 4,007,204
12.31.03 - I updated my software to Office XP and am now having some compatibility problems with my WebTrends tracking software so it might be a little while before I get the Top 25 page updated for November and December.
12.27.03 - We are finally adding up the page hits for the Top 25 most visited Pages. The July figures are in and The Bootmen had the most frequently band page for the month of July 2003
10.19.03 - NW Music History Exhibit
The Shoreline Historical Museum in Shoreline, WA will hold an exhibit on NW Music in Southwest King County. It will open on Saturday, February 21, 2004 at 6:00 pm, and run through June, 2004. They still need to find musicians who lived, still live, or now live, in the area from 85th N. in Seattle to 205th in Shoreline. They are especially looking for musicians who graduated from Shoreline and Shorecrest High Schools, or went to school at any of the Shoreline School District Jr. High or Elementary Schools.If you know where any of these musicians might be, please contact the museum at
749-N. 175th St
Shoreline, WA 98133
or contact the museum director, Vicki Stiles at: (206) 542-7111 or by
E- Mail shm@shorelinehistoricalmuseum.org
8.17.03 - Want to see the Regents at their first public gig in Tacoma since the 60's? We WILL be performing as a band at the 1,000 Guitar Louie Louie Fest at Cheney Stadium on Sunday, the 24th of August. See you there!8.17.03 - Our webmaster will be taking two weeks off between August 23rd and September 6th to perform at the 1,000 Guitar Louie Fest and at another fest over Labor Day Weekend. That is why he may not be answering e-mail during that time.
8.17.03 - W32.Blaster.Worm Strikes PNWBands
The Blaster Worm snuck into our Webmaster's computer through a Microsoft Windows vulnerability. It is all clean now... so clean that we lost all our e-mail traffic and address books. We wiped the drive clean and started all over.
If you sent an e-mail to our Webmaster or Sam Carlson before the 14th of August and he has not replied yet, please send your e-mail again.
Hey Microsoft!!! Do you understand the concept of "Do it right the first time"? You are making an Apple-Mac look better all the time.
7.29.03 - It is with sadness that we announce another Northwest Musician, Joe Gurr of Boss Tweed, died yesterday (July 28, 2003) of a heart attack in Hazelhurst, Wisconsin at the age of 52. He will be honored at a reunion of Boss Tweed as part of the celebration for the new Raymond High School building on August 2nd, 2003.
7.28.03 - It is with profound sadness that we announce another Northwest Musician, Karl Peters, passed away on July 10th, 2003. A memorial will be held in his honor on August 10th starting at 3 P.M. Contact Sean Peters for more information.
6.28.03 - Announcing: 1,000 guitar Louie Louie Fest in Tacoma, Sunday, August 24th, 2003 at Cheney Stadium. Go to the 1,000 Guitar website for more information on how you can attend or even participate! This is a fund raiser for a music program for the Boys and Girls Club
6.8.03 - Announcing: The 2nd annual "FRIENDS OF TERRY BAILEY MEMORIAL JAM SESSION AND FUND RAISER FOR CANCER"
WHERE: THE CLOUD NINE located at 5431 So. Tacoma Way in Tacoma, WA.
WHEN: Sunday, July 20, 2003; starting at 3 PM
WHY: Terry managed to help others while he was fighting cancer. In fond remembrance, his friends want to help, too.
DONATIONS: A $5 donation --more or less-- will be gratefully accepted at the door. All donations will go to the MARY BRIDGE CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION CANCER TREATMENT PROGRAM. ** This program provides treatment, surgery, and a full range of support services for children ages birth through 18 with cancer. This program also includes the "Red Box" which allows children to choose a special toy or gift to take home following particularly difficult or painful procedures.
3.1.03 - FLASH!!! The Daily Flash is Back!!!! Check out their page at The Daily Flash for news and updates.
3.1.03 - The "Top 20" pages have become the "Top 25" We finally got around to posting the top 20 most visited band pages for 2002 and for January - February 2003. One band, Rock-Ola, skyrocketed into the Top 25 for the first time taking the #1 position for the most visited band page during February 2003.
2.15.03 - PNWBands.com is non-commercial and not for profit website, but we do have significant expenses to meet to keep the website going. If you you would like to make a non-tax deductible donation to help defray our operating costs, please click on the "PayPal" logo above. Donations (not tax deductible) to Help Keep the Website Running are Accepted Via PayPal
2.15.03 - A note from KJR's Norm Gregory about Steve West: Steve went in for more cancer surgery last week. I spoke to Sharon West (his wife since 1967) this morning and learned that a tumor, and half of his liver, was removed last Tuesday. It has been a slow and painful recovery but Sharon hopes he will be out of the hospital by the middle of next week. A satisfactory recovery is expected. They plan to head for "the beach" which, if you are familiar with Steve's Northwest history you know, means Gray's Harbor/Ocean Shores.
If you would like to send Steve a message please stop by kjrseattle.com/west.shtml
2002
12.3.02 - It is with profound regret that this message is one of deep sadness. Richard Dangel, our great and wonderful friend, sensational person, and one of the greatest guitar players in the world passed away. He was found by his close friend Charlotte on Tuesday evening after failing to answer his phone and door to his home. He celebrated his 60th birthday Sunday December 1, at the Swiss Club in Tacoma, performing with his Butter Bean band with members Michael Kinder and Buck Englund. Several musician friends attended the event to jam with Rich and wish him a happy birthday. The group was in top form that night, with Rich playing as amazingly as always, and as great as we have ever heard him. He will not only be sorely missed by his enormous family of musician friends, but by the world of music, his fans, and so many who have been inspired and have learned so much from this wonderfully talented man.
Kent Morrill and I feel blessed to have had Richard as our long and devoted friend. It’s been a long run, and always an honor to perform with Rich as a fellow fabulous Wailer. We are fortunate to have so many fond memories of Richard and of his impressive contribution to the world of music. He had so much more to offer. Rest in peace now Richard. We love you.
Buck Ormsby, Kent Morrill
The Fabulous Wailers
2315-10 No. Pearl St., #217
Tacoma, WA 9840612.1.02 - That all too familiar voice on every 60's Puget Sound teenager's music lifeline, Pat O'Day at KJR-Seattle recently published a memoir of his exciting career in radio and music. There is a link to Pat's website and to where you can purchase the book at our "History" page.
11.30.02 - The band page count is up to over 1,100 now. Our webmaster keeps asking himself when he is finally going to reach the end.
10.4.02 - In only 90 days since the band count hit 900, that count increased to 1000. This makes these pages a "Land of a Thousand Bands"! If you are waiting for your bands to magically appear, it doesn't happen that way. These pages are almost 100% built through information submissions by the band members themselves. Write to Sam, our webmaster, if you'd like your bands memorialized here.
9.5.02 - More sad news --- Fred Heiny of Good Blessing and Rosewood and Steele passed away September 5, 2002. There will be a memorial celebration of his life in Clallam Bay, WA at 3pm Saturday, September 14. For details contact his sister at aikitib1@attbi.com
7.12.02 - Tower of Power bassist Rocco Prestia, is having serious medical problems and needs immediate assistance. Please click on this picture of Rocco to get information on how you can help.
7.5.02 - Yet another milestone was hit today with 900 bands in the tribute pages. How many more are there to go? Will this website have to be renamed "Land of a Thousand Bands"?
6.8.02 - Last night we mirrored the entire series of the Northwest band tribute pages over to PNWBands.com You can still find them at TheRegents.net/nwtributes.html or just to got http://PNWBands.com.
4.24.02 - We received some very sad news today. The Regents guitar player, occasional front man and our friend, Terry Bailey, lost his battle with cancer on Saturday, 20 April 2002. Rest in Peace, Buddy. We miss you.
4.14.02 - Another milestone was hit today with 800 bands in the tribute pages. I think it is fitting that the 800th band page was one of Tiny Tony's bands, Red Beans n Rice. How many more are there to go?:
2001
12.26.01 - Another milestone was hit today. There are now 700 NW Bands in the tribute pages. How many more are there to go?:
10.26.01 - We have added a new site search capability using Google. Wherever you see the Google Logo in our site, click on it and it will allow you to search the Regents or PNWBands.com websites and not get a gazillion unrelated photos and pages.
Here, try it out! 10.11.01 - We added a new search engine powered by Google that will allow you to search the website for the bands you are looking for. The search engines are located at http://pnwbands.com/search.html
10.7.01 - Well, we finally reached 600 NW band pages as of today! Now to see if there are another 100 or more old NW bands our there. Please flood our webmaster with information and pics. He needs to keep busy.
9.14.01 - Please visit our memorial to the events of September 11th, 2001.
8.17.01 - The NW Band tribute pages added over 100 new band pages since February. The count is now up to 556 NW bands. When do ya think we'll break 600? Not too long ago we didn't think we'd ever break 200. About this time last year there were 143 band pages. We made a promise to add one new band per day, for two months, but didn't think it was possible for 12! SEND MORE BANDS!!!! :)
6.01.01 - The Pacific Northwest Bands tribute pages won another award as Bands of the Great Pacific Northwest. This time it is the Golden Web Award for 2001-2001. Many thanks to the Golden Web Award folks and to our initial web designer How We Were Designs.
5.25.01 - We found another lost member of the group, Sandy Faye, through her brother, Walt Rattenbury. Walt was a musician with the Enchanters, Titans, and Stingrays.
3.31.01 - The Pacific Northwest Bands website has won another award for excellence. Earlier, we were awarded the Legacy Choice Awards for the basic Regents Band website. Just today the website was awarded the Legacy Choice Award for the 1960's NW band pages.
3.11.01 - Pacific Northwest Bands started a new feature. If you are a NW musician looking for old band buddies, send us a note regarding who you are looking for. If you can help find these "missing" musicians, stop by at our "Where Are You?" page.
2.23.01 - The Northwest Band tribute pages succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. Within six months we managed to memorialize over 450 NW bands from the period 1954 to 1979. This feature was expanded and mirrored on a new website, Pacific Northwest Bands. In that website, we will expand the bands represented. For now, any gigging band from the Pacific Northwest that existed in WA, OR, BC, or ID between 1954 and 1979 was eligible to have a page to memorialize their band. Under the new website, we will continue to memorialize those bands, but will expand to allow NW bands to be represented from 1980 to present that had members who were in the earlier 1954 to 1979 bands. If you fit in this category, or know of bands that do, please start inundating our webmaster with information and photos for that new website.
2.10.01 - Sammy, our Webmaster, is finally catching up on the band tribute pages. The NW Band tribute pages are growing. Already, over 400 NW bands are 'memorialized'. If you have more band suggestions or information please send it our way. Some of the band information is incomplete, so please feel free to pitch in and complete the pages.
This original site design by: How We Were Designs
