The WhiteWall Gentlemen

Last Friday was amazing.  Last Friday is the type of night that may never happen again.  It was spontaneous.  It was fun.  And everything happened as if in a dream.  When Dena and I got home, she looked at me and said, "Wow, did that really just happen?"

The "WhiteWall Gentlemen" played about 25 songs at a local restaurant in a nearby town last Friday.  The people dining loved the music.  They were clapping to the beat, dancing, singing along with guys.  People were staying for hours just to hear the music. A man gave me his business card and said he wanted to get in touch with me to book the guys for some events.  The manager called two high-profile record execs and asked them to come to the next gig on February 25th; something he said he has never done before. They agreed to come. Tips were big.  The night was a huge success.  The WhiteWall Gentlemen have the potential and the "it" factor to go places.

But the music is only half of the equation the band needs to be successful.

I have never been in a band.  I can't sing and I can't play one note of any song on any instrument.  However, I have been on athletic teams in high school and college and I have been married for nearly 25 years.  My point is that the Gentlemen need to view the band as a team, as a relationship. The guys are in the "honeymoon" stage of their relationship.  If they want to make it, they need to prepare for the good, the bad, and the ugly.  They will need to communicate with each other like they have never communicated before.  They need to be honest with each other while being respectful.  They need to appreciate each other for who they are and the talents each member brings to the band.  Each guy should have an equal voice.  If they learn to put the other guys before themselves, they can make it work.  There will be "ups" and "downs".  There will be arguments.  There will be times that things couldn't seem better. Through it all, make sure you are each other's biggest fans.

And it will be a long road.  Mozart started writing music at six.  He didn't produce his greatest works until he had been composing for twenty years.  The Beatles got a gig in Hamburg and played there five times between 1960 and 1962.  On the first trip, they played 106 nights straight, five hours or more each night.  On their second trip, they played 92 times.  On their third trip, they played 48 times, for a total of 172 hours on stage. The last two Hamburg gigs, in November and December of 1962, involved 90 hours of performing.  All told, they performed for 270 nights in just over a year and a half.  By the time they had their first burst of success in 1964, the Beatle's had performed live an estimated 1200 times.

So keep playin' Gentlemen.  You have started a good thing but success comes in the journey and making it work for the long road.  Experience all the journey has to offer and, most of all, have fun. 

We love you and believe in you.