The Night Shift

[pro70z28]

I haven't had much time for posting the last few days. Just saw your post WC. Sorry to hear about your Dad's problems. You, your Dad & your family are in my prayers John.

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, Gary. It's been a tough month for Ray, but he's going home tomorrow. I went down to the Mainland Medical Center today with Debby and spent the afternoon. He's worked hard, he can go 150 feet in his walker at one sprint. The house in Galveston is being modified to accommodate his situation until he gets better in a few months. Everybody's telling him do this, don't do that, he's getting tired of hearing it. I have confidence that he will pull though like the champ he is. Thanks again for the prayers and good thoughts for him.

I just saw a new picture on the Pee Wee Bowen Band website. It's from Saturday night in Beaumont, Texas, on the Louisiana border. We played at the Jefferson Theatre downtown...I took pictures of the place and will post them soon. It is an absolutely fabulous, beautiful theatre...built in 1927 with an Egyptian/Greek neo-classical-art deco theme...unbelievable detail and beauty in there. Had a blast playing there, too. Here's the pic of the band...
L-R Dale, Ricky, Ron, Clem, Pee Wee, Loren, Big Bad John, Jeff, and Sylvester...Cheers, WC1

[Billy Mac]

Howdy.

The Cat threatened to scratch my eyes out if'n I didn't stop in and say that^......So I figgered I'd say it here.

Hope all is well with everyone in the Cat House.....even Good Vibes

[WildcatOne]

Great to hear from Billy Mac! It's been good. I'm getting my taxes ready to file for this year's music. By January 1, I will have played 122 shows with the Pee Wee Bowen Band in 2007. We're booked all the way into 2009. Our holiday season schedule is mostly parties, and they pay great coin and it's always fun. We're getting 3 grand for New Year's Eve at Bojangles on NASA Rd 1. Those are the highlights. We stay out there in the clubs to keep our exposure up so folks'll book us for their party, and that's how it keeps going. I got a pair of "Pee Wee Bowen" Men's Spectator Shoes, those shoes are on the business card. They're the black-and-white ones on the left:
http://www.blair.com/webapp/wcs/stores/ ... &langId=-1
I've been utilized more and more as a vocalist with the band, and I've enjoyed it very much. Pee Wee loves my voice and he likes to take breaks and go out into the crowd and party with everybody. It works out good for everybody, ya know. We played Biker Weekend in Galveston a couple of weeks ago at Club 21 and it was a MADHOUSE...20,000 Bikers...we got some gigs out of that weekend, too. But as much of a Merry-Go-Round as it's been, some gigs stand out. Herby's funeral was beautiful. We ended the ceremony with "When The Saints Go Marching In" and the whole place (it was packed) got up and did a snake dance through the whole funeral parlour while we played that song as Dixieland as I've ever heard it done...Pee Wee turned our sadness into a beautiful joy. I cut a picture of Herby out of the prayer card I picked up and glued it onto the headstock of my guitar. Herby will be there at every gig the band plays as long as I'm in it...Next weekend we'll play the Bert Wills benefit down at Cruiser's Ice House in Santa Fe, then the holiday season starts up in earnest...looking forward to it...Cheers, WC1

[WildcatOne]

Oh yeah, and Bob K's dragster!

Johnny B and the Wildcats, Downtown Houston at the Superfeast Thursday at 1PM, followed by BLASTULA, Nick Bockelman's Hardcore Metal band...Cheers, WC1

[WildcatOne]

Here is Blastula, Downtown Houston at the Super Feast, Thanksgiving Day, 2007.
L-R: Roland Zech, guitar; TJ Holcomb, vocals; Alex Pop, bass; Nick Bockelman, drums; Micah Zech, guitar. Cheers, WC1

Here's another shot they did: "Busted!"
I Photoshopped the cops in it...

[Gator]

Thanks, Gary. It's been a tough month for Ray, but he's going home tomorrow. I went down to the Mainland Medical Center today with Debby and spent the afternoon. He's worked hard, he can go 150 feet in his walker at one sprint. The house in Galveston is being modified to accommodate his situation until he gets better in a few months. Everybody's telling him do this, don't do that, he's getting tired of hearing it. I have confidence that he will pull though like the champ he is. Thanks again for the prayers and good thoughts for him.

I just saw a new picture on the Pee Wee Bowen Band website. It's from Saturday night in Beaumont, Texas, on the Louisiana border. We played at the Jefferson Theatre downtown...I took pictures of the place and will post them soon. It is an absolutely fabulous, beautiful theatre...built in 1927 with an Egyptian/Greek neo-classical-art deco theme...unbelievable detail and beauty in there. Had a blast playing there, too. Here's the pic of the band...
L-R Dale, Ricky, Ron, Clem, Pee Wee, Loren, Big Bad John, Jeff, and Sylvester...Cheers, WC1

Classy looking band !!!!
You fit in like a glove.......

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, 'Gate...December is a VERY big month for us...we have around 10 shows this month and another 10 next month. Each one pays big, and at this point, the 9-piece Pee Wee Bowen Band is on a roll. Thursday night we played on the Starfleet Yacht down at the Marina...great gig, but the load-in and load-out was a nightmare...I also got Vertigo up there. I'm saying "up there" because it was upstairs. This ship uses 4 computer-controlled swiveling propellers under it instead of the traditional one or two propellers and a rudder. We moved sideways away from the dock, then forward. The ship made several 180-degree turns and I'd look oustide and the landscape was moving in a different direction than the one my body was telling me it was...I got...dizzy...not seasick, but if that would have kept up for another day, I probably would have...I never could find a balance while that was going on. We blasted that party's socks off and they loved it. I took a day of vacation yesterday and we drove over to Beaumont and played the City of Beaumont's annual Christmas block party in old town. The mayor, city council, police and fire chiefs and all city employees were there. It was a grueling gig...5 consecutive sets, from 6-11 PM...and we socked it to 'em...What amazed me later was that I realized we still had 2 full sets of music left over...Debby was with me for this. I guess I could say I showed her off to the band...I just bring her in, turn her loose and she creates her special magic with these big, tough guys and brings out their best qualities no matter how hard they might be to find. Her beauty and personality take over...every time I turned around, she was surrounded by men, all vying for a moment with her and she was the life of the party on the South side of the block, no doubt about it. She made her way through the whole place and introduced herself to everybody and guys were dancing with her and just falling in love with her, same as I did (and still do every day). But I'd get my stuff set onstage, tune up, leave the stage, walk over and she would latch onto me unless I was leaving her alone, and I did that about half the time. If you love somebody, set them free...she had a special glow about her last night. Yes, the band was very good and we earned the dough they dished out. We got hired back for next year's Christmas block party. But I have to say this was Debby's night to shine, and shine she did. We stayed at the Holiday Inn down the street, and today we went downtown to have a great lunch at the Spindletop Cafe. Most of downtown Beaumont is a ghost town now, due to Hurricane Rita, but it is still a pleasant place, and we had a great meal at the cafe. Then on the way home, we drove down South of town to Lamar University and visited the Spindletop Monument, which stands on the exact spot where the greatest gusher of all time blasted blasted up on January 10, 1901. All this stuff was inscribed on the base of the monument, which is built to the height that the gusher reached (about 120 feet high). That oil well and the oil field that grew around it changed the course of civilization. That's not an overstatement; it was the beginning of the modern oil industry, right there...so we enjoyed that little visit. Now, there's nothing there but a field and a museum that consists of a real-life recreation of the original Gladys City, which was right next to the oilfied there, and grew into the city of Beaumont. We ran across a Dunkin' Donuts shop, which Houston no longer has...we raided it for 18 donuts...a dozen mixed varieties for the boys, and a half-dozen plain Dunkin' Donuts for us...rare find...we all LOVE those Donuts and they've vanished from here. We got Shipley's and Krispy Kreme here, but we sure miss Dunkin'...gonna be a great breakfast tomorrow! Anyway, Pee Wee pulled me aside and told me that the band has never been this good. We have all the right people in it and we're all working together fantastically...apparently full band harmony has never been happening for Pee Wee. It would be easy to say, Hey, this guy is doing this or this guy is saying or playing that and I don't like it, but I'm just not a whiner, I'm a team player and I leave my ego at home. It's all good. We're booked all the way into 2009...Pee Wee went up on the price and nobody balked...he said folks can't get enough of this music, and he's absolutely right...it's amazing to me that I'm playing in a band of this stature. Pee Wee told me after the yacht gig was over, he stopped by Bojangles and a local band was playing. Pee Wee was there to talk some business with the manager, but he said he met the guitar player and he asked Pee Wee how I was doing, he said everybody knows me and they all like me as a person and as a musician, Pee Wee said well John's doing great...this guy was Lynn...and he told Pee Wee, everybody wants to play in your band, man...John did good and we're happy for him...Pee Wee wanted me to know how highly Lynn spoke of me. That made my night. Well, back to the Olivia Newton-John show on PBS, which has brought a tear to my eye 3 times so far...I admit to being a closet ONJ and ELO fan...ABBA, too...couldn't resist that music...Cheers, WC1

[Rapid Randy Baker]

WC, I sure enjoy reading your posts,,,sounds like a great time.

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, Rapid...last week a guy gave each of us a DVD that he shot of us at 3 different shows. I watched it last night, One at a fundraiser for the VFW in Santa Fe, one from a show we did at Bojangles last month, and one from Lone Star. I have 3 comments. One, I'm old, and it shows. Two, I play better than I thought I do. And Three, he should have retitled this DVD The John Bockelman Band with special guest Pee Wee Bowen. It's mostly me...not hardly ANY Pee Wee! Pee Wee is the star of the show, it's his band, this is music that he developed and my gig is to back him up and do a song when he takes a break...the guy got it all backwards...maybe he thinks I'm Pee Wee or something...(at the gig in Beaumont, everybody was asking Debby if she's Pee Wee's wife...) nice gesture, but I was hoping it would have all those terrific songs Pee Wee does on it, and it doesn't...What's up with that?...jeez...WC1