Equalites
(eek-ual-ights)
History of The Equalites, Part Three
With Adam miraculously
on the mend,the band closed out 1994 by sharing a Thanksgiving bill
at Pearl St with
the up and coming band Morgan Heritage and the well known DJ Eek-A-Mouse.
They also put in a short set at the Iron Horse for the "Homegrown
Harvest" CD release party.
1995 continued the busy roadwork with shows at Mikara's in Springfield
MA where they opened for Yellowman and Buju Banton, The Euro Club in
Provincetown MA, The Waterfront in Holyoke, the good ol' Bay State in
'Hamp and Pearl
St in Northampton MA where they shared the
bill in a rare Western Mass appearance by Africa's biggest reggae star,
Lucky Dube!
1996 kicked off with a first gig at a new venue, The Metro in Northampton
MA. Boat's good friend Cinamon Blair joined the band on vocals that night
-- a foretaste of things to come! Though the band gigged successfully
from Portland ME to Provincetown MA and had the pleasure of talking with
and opening for the great Toots Hibbert of the Maytals at Mikara's, 1996
saw the group struggle to fulfill some dates with guest musicians such
as Luke Ehrlich [I-Tones, Loose Caboose] and Nori Ikegami [One People,
loose Caboose]. The pressures of running a band with little to no outside
support were starting to take a toll! Once again a break seemed in order,
and this one would
last 16 monthe as band members were active in a wide variety of personal
and musical pursuits.
At
the end of 1997 an offer to play a monhtly residency at the Fat Cat Club
in Springfield MA spurred a reunion and a brief and lively version of
the EQ's with Michael Miller on bass and Jamaican vocalist
[One Love, Hot like Fire] played well recieved gigs at Fat Cat's in January
and the Bay State on Bob Marley's birthday (Feb 6). Unfortunately, due
to management change, the residency at the Fat Cat fell through, but
the reunion seeds had been planted and when Adam returned from a long
planned
trip to India, plans began to finish the long germinating live album
from'92 and to reunite that line-up to promote it! Slowly the band began
to work
again, opening for
the Wailers and the Itals, and working on new original and cover songs.
In late 1999, Kim Zombik, who had been fronting the hugely popular funk
band Stash, which by this time included Dave Noonan on drums, returned
for two shows at the People's Pint in Greenfield MA, where the EQ's debuted
their live CD release "Out at the Inn" on November
27...seven years to the day after the original recording attempt at Pearl
St! Finally, with herculean extra effort on the cover, mastering and
manufacturing by Dave Noonan, Boo, Adam and the great Jim Hemingway,
the CD became a reality in the waning days of the century!
After Kim's brief return, the six-man Equalites set about gigging in
earnest to promote the new CD. Great reviews poured in for "Out
at the Inn" from local, national and international publications.
The band built a nice local circuit of small clubs like the Amherst Brewing
Co, People's Pint and the Bay St in Northampton and they opened yet again
for the rootsy Itals at the Iron Horse. They also had the pleasure of
playing The Amherst Earth Day and Extravaganja Festivals, The Taste of
Northampton and Edward & Leslie Smith's wild wedding party up in
Shutesbury! New originals like "She Makes a Riddim", "Where
Was I?" and "Blues All the World" were incorporated into
the shows.
In 2001, Ernie B's Reggae, the largest distributor of reggae music in
the world, picked up the band's two CD's for distribution, which made
them available from Poland to New Zealand to HMV in Tokyo, as well as
across the USA! Live shows that year included a pair of two -nighters
at the Muse on Nantucket MA and an incendiary August show with Burning
Spear at Pearl St in Northampton.
The Harp in Amherst became the home of ecstatic Equalites evenings in
early '02 and the band made a long awaited return to the Western Front
in Cambridge in April. A concert for the Lawn Chair Concert Series in
Holyoke on July 27 turned out to be the last for the long-standing line-up
of Adam, Dave, Boats, Joe, Boo and Ed which had been intact more or less
since the beggining if 1993.
In late summer of 2002 Cinamon Blair performed once again with the
EQs at the Charlemont Reggae Festival. Ground was broken on an exciting
new collaboration with Cinamon's vocals and dynamic stage prescence
added to the mix.
This
turned out to be the first of several line-up changes to come over the
next two years. Adam bowed out
in Oct '02 and joe left in
Feb '03. A foundation player like Adam could only have been replaced
by someone with a wealth of experience and Michael Miller came to
the band with hundreds of gigs with Loose Caboose, New Horizon, Dredi,
Reggae Vision, AND The Equalites on his resume! When Joe left the
band
had to revert to a more
stripped-down guitar oriented sound. As luck
would have it, in early 2004 multi-instumentalist Peter Nabut enjoyed
a show at the band's new haunt, Bishop's Lounge in Northhampton.
Peter had played with many World, Reggae and Jam bands in upstate New
York
including Natty Bumpo, Crucial Groove and The Bonedippers. Peter
joined The Equalites and began adding his multi-keyboard sound at the
Amherst
Extavaganja Festival on April 24.
Yet
another monumental change occurred in mid-2004 when David Noonan
decided to move on to other opportunities in music performance and
education. After nearly two decades of great innovative roots-rock
drumming, Dave played his parting gig on September 25 2004 at the
Bishop's
Lounge.
Once
again the band was fortunate to find an experienced player in Phillipe
Simone, a veteran of the Boston and New York reggae scenes
who ha dplayed with Zion initation, Abdul Baki, African Roots, I
Vibes [with original EQ Tony Beckwith] and the Danny Tucker Band.
In
early 2005 the band opened for Jimmy Cliff at Pearl St and recorded
basic tracks for a new CD to be released later in '05 or early '06.
The
current EQ line-up is:
Boats: vocal & guitar
Cinamon: vocal & percussion
Boo: percussion & vocal
Ed: guitar
Mike: bass
Peter: keyboards
Phillipe: drums
| History Of The Equalites | |
 |
In The Beginning Part 1 |
 |
History of The Equalites Part2 |
 |
History of The Equalites Part 3 |
vocals & percussion
drum kit
Keyboards
bass guitar