The Nocturnals were, Dave Scott on Vocals & Guitar, Kevin Andrew on Bass & Vocals, Kenny Vegas on Drums & Vocals, and your’s truly on Guitar and Vocals.
It was 1997, before I joined the band, I was working at MAE Music in Fort Lauderdale, Florida when Dave Scott came walking in. I had all ready known Dave for many years. As a matter of fact I had heard about Dave being a great guitar player even before I ever heard him play.
Years earlier, in my very short time at Miramar High School, just a few weeks, I had Dave in one of my 11th grade classes. It wasn’t until about a year later when I formed the band No Reazen that I got a chance to meet Dave and hear him play.
At the time in ’84 Dave was in a band called Cryer. I was 14 years old when Carl Bailey (other guitarist in No Reason) and I went to a club called The Treehouse in Hallandale, Florida to see them play. I was actually too young to get in. We had to listen from outside.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was some of the best playing I ever heard. I was like listening to Randy Rhoads. Dave also looked just like him. It also turned out that it was not Cryer that we heard that night but they had replaced their singer and changed the name of the band to Tuff Luck. I think it was their 1st show.
The guys I formed No Reason with, Carl Bailey, and Ronny Oakes went to high school with Dave and knew him pretty well. As a matter of fact, before Dave was in Cryer, he had a band with Ronnie Oakes (Drummer) called Invader with future Nocturnal Bassist Kevin Andrew.
Ronnie had cassette tapes of Invader. I would listen to them and be blown away by Daves playing. Needless to say, I was a big fan for years to come. I’d seen Tuff Luck many times all through the mid to late 80’s, into the 90’s and was always impressed.
Now that you have some back story we’re back to when Dave came into MAE. We were talking and he’d mentioned that he had a new band called The Nocturnals. They were a three piece band with him on guitar and lead vocals. He had Kevin Andrew (formerly of Invader) on Bass, and Kenny Vegas (former Bassist of Tuff Luck) on the drums.
At this time in ’97 there wasn’t really much guitar rock music going on. We were talking about that fact and Dave said to me that guitar was coming back. He also said to me that the band was working with Bill Aucoin. Bill had originally managed bands such as Kiss, Billy Idol, and Bill Squier. That was impressive.
Dave said to me that they were auditioning guitar players to fill out the sound. He asked me If I wanted to try out. At the time I was doing my own thing. I had a project called BooKoo Karma. I was singing and playing guitar too as a three piece band. This was a great opportunity and I had to give it a shot.
Shortly after, I took a trip to Dave’s house to have a listen to their latest demo that they had made called “Picture Frame Serenade.” I also got to meet Cheryl who was Dave’s girlfriend at the time and who is now his lovely wife.
The music was brilliant. It had elements of alternative, mixed with some new wave, along with the heavy guitar riffs and great guitar solo’s that I’d come to love from Dave. My job would be to come up with another element of sound that I can enhance the music with. The band already had one great guitarist in Dave, I had to bring something else.
I started off learning about 3 songs a week. We would have a weekly rehearsal incorporating some of the ideas I would add to the songs. I didn’t have to play exactly what was on the record. They wanted to hear another approach, which was great. After about 3 weeks and three rehearsals we had about 9 or 10 songs in the can.
I wasn’t even in the band yet. Apparently they were still trying out people. That was totally ok with me. I felt that it was such an honor for the opportunity to audition for a great band that also included a guitarist that I had idolized and who was so inspiring to me years before then.
I’ll never forget there was one night when we were all at a party at Bill and his partner Romans house. Everyone was having a great time like we always did. They were all in the pool that night and I wanted to go in too but I didn’t have my bathing suit. I decided to strip down to my underwear and dive in. Shortly after that I was given the word that I was in the band.
I always joked that it wasn’t the hard work of learning, writing and rehearsing with the band for 3 weeks that got me the gig, but it was diving in the pool in my underwear that did it.
I believe that it was around August of that year ’97 when I had my first gig with them. It was a The Button South in Hallandale, Florida. The Button is a legendary venue that I had played many times with my old band No Reazen, and seen Tuff Luck play many times.
We would go on playing gig after gig all over South Florida developing our sound and look. Remember, we were working with Bill Aucoin who was relentless in driving home the fact that we needed to be different and stand out. Bill was a great man. He loved talking about his days with KISS and for us all being KISS fans it was like being in heaven.
After about a year, the band was pretty close to securing a record deal. We had a producer lined up to make the record too. It wasn’t just any producer, it was the legendary Jack Douglas. Jack produced all the classic Aerosmith and John Lennon albums to name a few.
We had a few rehearsals while Jack was there listening and advising. I remember Dave once asked Jack “what is the thread that will tie all of our songs together?” We had an albums worth of tunes but many of them were a bit different from each other. Jack replied saying that you will be the thread, referring to Daves voice.
Unfortunately due to record company issues, the album was never made. We continued to play around town for another year or so eventually changing the name of the band to Elephant Orange.
I’ll always look back on those days as being some of the most special times in my life. I met, and worked with some very talented people. I wouldn’t trade those great experiences for anything. Still to this day we’re all great friends and I will always cherish them.
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