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Throughout half of the seventies, all of the eighties and part of the nineties, I pretty much lived in a smelly van with three other musicians. We drove from town to town and logged over 200 one-nighters a year, playing blues and whatever nasty shit I could write on the back of a dunkin donuts napkin.

In the early eighties, the student body at the University of Delaware was full of musicians looking for somewhere to play. I would have to say that everyone who graduated from the University of Delaware in 1984 had a band. There was a rather large, rather tight group of future yuppies in Newark who lived in a rather dismal strip of shacks on Newark's Academy Street call Skid Row. This loosely organized bunch of assholes was headed up by a sinister little prick named Spike Forehand. Spike also booked all of the entertainment for The University of Delaware.

Whenever a bunch of students or locals got a band together who needed a place to try out their gnarl, they only had to call up Spike and say: "We want to play the Row". Automatic Party!!! Some of the bands sucked. Surprisingly, most were real good. To the disdain of my band members, a requirement of joining Rockett 88 was that, whenever we came off the road, we called Spike and did a freeby at "the Row". One of the first bands I heard at "Skid Row" was "The Boogie Boys" (Tommy Conwell, Brad Fish, Brian O'niel).

Photo by John Hagan

In 1982, my guitar player was a sort of burnt out older guy who had just come off the road with Edwin Starr (" War! What is it Good For?" "25 Miles To Go") He had some bad habits and was a little bit shakey. Every thing about him was rough. My biggest fear was that his amplifier would explode and kill somebody.

In October of 1982. I was booked to play my "First Friday of every month Gig" at Manhattan's "Dan Lynch". Dan Lynch was a hole in the wall in New York's East Village, but it was kind of a big deal. Lynch's played until 4:00 AM, so whatever musicians were playing in the city always ended up at Dan Lynch after the gig. I met and played with a lot of heavy hitters at "Dan Lynch" (Joan Osbourne, Bobby Bland, Big Jack Johnson, Earl King, John Hammond etc,etc). I was scared to death that my guitar player would spontaneously combust or die on stage at Lynch's and didn't know what to do.

Photo by Bob Natrin

I called the kid from the Boogie Boys and said, "This is the big time, New York City" meet me at the Seven-Eleven at 6:30 and you got a full time job. I told my guitar player we were meeting at 7:30. I'm not real proud of that, but it was the beginning of a career for the young Tommy Conwell, and the beginning of a friendship. My former guitar player died soon after that.

Tommy played in Rockett 88 for about two years. We spent some time together talking and listening to tunes. I was amazed that Tommy had the same taste in music as myself and my friends, who were all at least ten years older than T.C. I have had brilliant, brilliant guitar players come through my band, but I have to say that Tommy was the most musical person I ever met. He used to say " I got a lot of music in me Doc", and he did. He has more music in him now then he did in 1982.

Photo by Bob Natrin

Brad Fish forwarded these pics to me. They are more about Skid Row than about Tommy Conwell however, it was all one party. I can't explain it, you had to be in Newark in 1982 to understand. There have been a few casualties, but "The Row" is still together. These guys have worked to stay in touch and get together for the past 22 years. Most of the musicians pictured in these shots are still playing and doing quite well.

Oh yeah, Is Jim Teslar involved with this Site? If he is, let him know I said Hi. You know, Lenny Bruce once said, "There's nothing sadder than an old hipster." Lenny Bruce never saw an old Skate Rat.