Parousia 1988: Patt Connolly (vocals/flute), Robert Lowden (guitars), Bill Simms (keyboards) and Gerry Cannizzaro (drums)
Thanksgiving Day 1988, tonight would have been our sixth show at Madame Wong’s West and our last show with keyboardist, Bill (Frank) Simms. What happened? One night at a recent rehearsal, Bill blew up and proclaimed “I am not your trained monkey!” and left the room…
Bill Simms: “Not Your Trained Monkey!”
I didn’t blame him for losing it; we had a lot of pressure on all of us. Six days ago, we performed at the Whiskey a-Go-Go on the Sunset Strip and every note had to be perfect. Every movement and sound was scrutinized… it was a huge difference from the laid-back days at the Chamber in Buffalo NY where we controlled the venue. Even after Bill decided to part ways, he was always there to help us with lights, sound, moving equipment and just being a friendly face in the crowd.
So, it being Thursday, a holiday and the next day Friday (vacation day), we were expecting a decent sized crowd and were looking forward to playing the show. During the day, it being Thanksgiving and all, we gathered around with kith and kin (?) and cooked a bird… no, it wasn’t one of Claude’s Conures who are known for their loud and harsh calls, (and at 4:30 am that isn’t a good thing) it was a traditional Turkey!
We had a new friend from the Buffalo area joining us, Jason Roberts who had recently moved to Los Angeles to start his career as a sound engineer. He landed a job with Eric Scheda at RUSK studios in Hollywood, just up the street from our apartment on Las Palmas. Eric was also joining us that day for the feast, as were Bill, Patt, Claude and myself. Of course, we had to have some sort of celebratory libation with dinner and this year it was a moderately priced bottle of Cook’s Champagne.
The bottle had an actual cork, which for this reason, you will not see today. When Patt opened the bottle with a corkscrew, the pressure built up in the neck of the bottle which shattered in his hand, giving it a nasty laceration and cutting a major tendon. I’ll let Patt tell the details of the story but suffice to say… we were not doing any shows tonight or any night for at least a month! Instead of driving to the gig to play to a packed house, we went to the hospital to sit in a packed waiting room, UGH! Oh fate, why art thou so cruel??? Was it the non-existent curse of Madame Wong? You decide…
Parousia with Bill Simms: May 1984 – November 1988