Fayrewether Halloween Show

In 1984, some friends and I celebrated Halloween by attending a special show by local Cleveland heroes Fayrewether at the Phantasy Theater in Lakewood, Ohio. General Admission tickets were a mere four bucks and I knew that, if I got there early enough, I could get a nice close spot to see the show and shoot some photos of what was probably Cleveland's most visual rock band.

For anyone unfamiliar with Fayrewether, the band emerged in the mid 70s, spearheaded by the wonderfully theatrical Paul Fayrewether. They quickly became known as a prog(ressive) rock cover band with sets filled with songs by Genesis, Peter Gabriel solo, Jethro Tull, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, and David Bowie. Although the latter two aren't necessarily "prog", their music certainly lent itself to theatrical stage productions. Not content to remain purely a cover band, they also regularly mixed original music with songs of the aforementioned artists.

As a big fan of those artists, I became a Fayrewether fan in high school (1978-81) and saw them numerous times, mostly at Cleveland-area bars in the early 80s when I was old enough to get in. This 1984 Halloween extravaganza, though, was an ideal performance situation for a band with such a fantastic visual presence. Although they had done some touring in the midwest and opened for some bigger bands now, this was the pinnacle of their performances for me at the time. They did not let me down!

My ticket stub atop an early Fayrewether 7" single

 

The opener was a "band" called The Earthtones, which were actually life-size marionette-style puppets, most operated by ropes from above, although the "lead singer" was operated from within a large box disguised as a kind of throne. I remember many of us thought the music was actually coming from Fayrewether, either pre-recorded or backstage. I don't think we ever found out. The set (for the entire evening) was designed by Jim Henderson, who has designed costumes for Cleveland-area haunted houses and has also helped create many of the costumes that Paul Fayrewether wears during shows. Irrespective of the technical details, it's safe to say that The Earthtones definitely set the right mood for a Halloween show.

You should be able to click on any image in this post to enlarge it. Fair warning, though: I shot these on my trusty Minolta X-700 (a gift from my parents when I was in high school) and, because I knew this was going to be a low light situation with a lot of movement, I was shooting at a very high ISO with "fast" film in the camera. (Kodak CF 1000, according to the negative strips.) This is simply to say that the photos here -- scans from my original prints -- are pretty grainy. I'm pleased with what I've got, though, especially when you consider these are almost 40 year old photographs from a college kid who only knew enough about photography at the time to be dangerous.

Okay, I'll stop rambling and get on with the photos. I would like to give a very grateful shout-out to my younger self for writing song titles on the backs of most of my prints. After this much time, I might have remembered what a few of the songs being performed were, but not likely most of them. 

All I wrote down here was "opening song"

 

"Dance On A Volcano" (Genesis)

"Always" (a Fayrewether original?)

"Chi-Town Shuffle"

"Shock the Monkey" (Peter Gabriel)

"Love My Gun"

Gary Simmons (bass) and Paul Fayrewether

Jeff Hutton (keys) and Geoffrey Moore (guitar)

Gary Simmons (bass) and Kevin Hupp (drums)

"Aqualung" (Jethro Tull)

"Dodo / Lurker" (Genesis)

"Dodo / Lurker" (Genesis)

"Everything's O.K." (apocalyptic Fayrewether original)

"Supper's Ready" - flute intro to "Apocalypse in 9/8" (Genesis)

"Supper's Ready" - Finale: "The New Jerusalem" (Genesis)

Encore: Gary Simmons' bass intro to "I Go Swimming" (Peter Gabriel)

Encore: "I Go Swimming" (Peter Gabriel)

Encore: "I Go Swimming" (Peter Gabriel)

 One more ticket stub shot, this time on the back cover of Fayrewether's 7" single for "Everything's O.K." from 1981. Vince Broncaccio had been replaced by Kevin Hupp on drums in 1983 but, otherwise, pictured is the band we saw.