On March 26th 2014, I had the honour to be present at Band From Utopia’s sound check in De Boerderij, Zoetermeer. It was a dream come true. Several days prior, I interviewed Robert (Bobby) Martin over the phone (as I was working for a internet radio station, Maxazine, to write something about the band – as a huge Zappa fan, this was too, an absolute honour. After the interview, Robert told me I could be there at the sound check. And that was something like nothing else I had ever experienced!
I got to meet, and talk to, all my heroes: Chad Wackerman, Albert Wing, Robert (Bobby) Martin, Ed Mann, Ray White, Arthur Barrow. I brought my (vinyl) copy of Them Or Us and they all signed it. It’s been hanging on the wall of The Yellow Hippo Studios ever since. I look at it every day, and think of that amazing evening. For not only was I present at the sound check, the concert that evening was superb! I even managed to get my hands on a huge announcement poster (which is now hanging in my living room).
When the sad news of Ed Mann’s passing reached me, looking at the poster and the album, looking at the signed album on my wall made me sad. For not only was I present at the 2014 sound check … I also had the privilege to meet these amazing musicians again, in the years that followed. And not only that! For less than a year after this sound check, I was playing keyboards at Zappanale with ZAPPATiKA – joined on stage by Ed Mann, Denny Walley, Jeff Hollie, Craig Twister Steward and Ike Willis. A memory I have visited every day since.
Ed Mann passed away on May 31st …. and now, on July 2nd, I, in silence had to say goodbye to Tom Fowler.
What all can happen in just 10 years. In one year. In a day. My signed copy of Them of Us is, of course, still on my wall in my studio and I see their autographs several times a day. And although it makes me very sad looking at them and reminiscing the moment these autographs were given to me, I feel blessed for having known them, that our paths crossed because of the music and life of Frank Zappa.
No greater honour could have befallen me.
Life, and music goes on. We live, enjoy, party, go nuts, do stupid things, celebrate, grieve, laugh and cry … and at the center of all that, there is music.
And that’s what holds it all together.
But it hurts still, when a friend exits the stage for the last time.
Thank you, for all things beautiful, Ed Mann and Tom Fowler. May you rest in peace.
