DEAR DIARY BY BARRY QUINN

November 20th 2004

I’m a lazy sod

What can I say I’m a lazy sod in keeping up with the site but here goes.

Well since the last diary in May there hasn’t been a ton of activity but enough to keep the fire burning.

There’s been a few shows in Florida but no major tour here or there, speaking of Florida.

This year was devastating for us living here, having four hurricanes come through , fortunately we were some of the lucky ones and survived with minimal damage .

We just had minor annoyances such as power outages and trees down , a lot of people were not so lucky and lost everything.

We / I learned a lot about giving to others this year , so when you think of giving to charities this year , please remember The Red Cross as they do an excellent job.

So where was I ?

...ah yes. playing.

Fast forward to October.

So here we had 3 good size shows booked for Florida and Darren and Dave were flying down and we were going to blow florida down with our own version of a Wholigan hurricane as the 2 canucks had never played here before.

Everything was pretty much hunky dory until the day of the first show, I was going to pick up the hosers from the airport at noonish ,

then come home and go to the gig (sounds simple right ?) wrong !

Just before I leave for the airport around 11, I find out Dave had encountered problems with airport security/immigration and had not got on the plane , but Darren did (Which I did not find out till later)

So here I am gig in hand in about 6-7 hours with no bassist and no drummer to my knowledge, I am absolutely phuuuuuureeeekin !

Turns out Darren made it but was unaware that Dave didn’t for a while.

I pick up Darren at the airport , and he was somewhat calm which for him is soooo out of the ordinary , I mean this is the same guy that smashes drums in parking lots for no reason except as a release

( the man is nuts! ) but that’s a story for another day .

Here we are a gig in a few hours and no bassist , which normally would be a good excuse to hit the bottle , but I somehow manage to escape that lunacy.

Where to find a fill in bassist , where oh where ?

I make frantic calls to everyone I know, including to one great guy Todd Plant from a doobie bros tribute called Black Water whom I had never met but he was scheduled to play at one of the same venues as us.

He gave me a list of names made a few calls and really helped out.

Eventually Chris Bacon had mentioned he knew a guy who knew a guy who had a friend who kindasortof knew someone that played bass.

We get in touch with this fella (names with held to protect the innocent) and we pick him up at his house on the beach and he listens & “learns” the songs in my car on the way to the gig !

Come the show we head up to the stage no rehearsal ...nothing !

We play a 90 minute show (I think) I was so stressed , we somehow pulled it off and even included a 2 man rendition of A QUICK ONE just Chris & I although Darren chimed in with some ‘you are forgivens’

I was so relieved the night was over.

That gig was over but we had 2 more gigs to go and we all knew that that line up was not going to cut it but we really didn’t know where to go from there.

Little did we know that there was someone in the crowd who was going to change all that.

The next day I recieve this email.....

My name's Mark Tinker. I live in ......, Florida (about 20 minutes north of Clearwater). I'm a musician as well (bassist, guitarist, drummer, and vocalist). I had just caught last night's show at the Dock of Bay Flashback fest in Safety Harbor. I don't know if you'll remember me, but I was the young man that was wearing the green Who shirt with the Bullseye target that you went up to with the mic during "Shakin' All Over." This was my first Wholigans shows. I've heard about how great of a tribute act you guys are and how close to the real deal you all are. I must say I was impressed with your "Keith" and "Pete." You do an excellent "Daltrey." However, I have some reservations about the bassist doing "John."

I don't want to be cocky about it but I need to be blunt. He was not that great. I don't know if it was his first gig or if he was just filling in for a regular bassist, but it just killed me to hear those famous bass parts (especially in Sparks) being butchered. And he just nearly ruined the fact that if you're all playing as "The Who" then every one should be that member. The three of you lots (Pete, Keith, and yourself) are very suited into the shoes of your principle role in the group. But the second I saw this guy moving about and acting like "rock god" as opposed to being the "Ox" or the "Quiet One", I nearly cringed.

Like I said, if he was just filling in or it was his first gig, then that's cool. Otherwise, if he's a permanent member then I say dump him. Which brings me to the point of this email. I feel that I could do the job. I feel I could do the job better than the geezer that you had last night. I know that may sound arrogant of me, but I think it's true. I've been a Who fan for a very long time, since I was a toddler actually. One of my parents' first concerts they went together was the Who opening up for Herman's Hermit at Curtis Hixon Hall, Tampa in the summer of 1967. My girlfriend and I's first date was to the play production of Tommy in Ybor City. I used to sit down in the music store I worked at the time with the bass and play along to my Who cds (usually, Tommy or Live at Leeds) to figure out John's bass parts.

I'm trying not to sound like I'm bragging but offering constructive criticism and letting you know that I'd be confident enough to step into the shoes of the late Entwistle. At any rate, if you do need someone to handle the role of John (in Florida or otherwise) then I'd be your man for the job. Thank you for taking the time to read this email. Keep the Who's music alive, you're doing a wonderful job.

Musically yours,

Mark Alan Tinker

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Well what a cocky little bastard I thought , but why not see if he’s worth his salt , what do we have to lose.

Quite often we have people say ‘I’m better than im ‘ give me a try, and I usually tell them to fuck off, but this time was different.

We were desperate , there was no way Dave was going to make it for the remaining shows, so....

I mail Mark back and tell him if his balls are that big he can play the gig the following Saturday if he thought he could pull it off.

He seemed confident but I’ve heard that confident tone before from many a Who wannabe.

Somehow a rehearsal never happened but ‘the kid’ had learned the songs at home, we show up at the gig with the set list all figured out.

We were supposed to play one 90+ minute show , but the opening band never showed so we played 3 x 45 minute sets to keep the night flowing.

We launch into I can’t Explain and damned if ‘the kid’ hadn’t learned it !

So I’m thinking alright so he winged that one, but the sob pulled off every song we did that night including ‘my wife’ HOLY COW !

...and to top it all off he looks like John circa 60’s.

Needless to say we kept him for the following gig at a fairly large outdoor show of which we have video and I’ll get that up as soon as I can.

Mark is in his early 20’s and is very knowledgeable in all aspects of music and even in his Who history.

He’s going to get a big head over this, but ‘the kid’ is good and so much so we’re bringing him to England in March.

Only problem is he makes us look like old farts on stage (which we are)

Alright enough of him, on to other stuff.

Photo’s of those shows are in our photo section mostly courtesy of Danielle who came down from Canada for the shows

(crazy who nut !)

________

We’ve had offers from Puerto Rico (a large 18,000 stadium), western Canada and even a possible show in Germany.

Speaking of Germany , our English agent just came back from a musical trade show there and there was a lot of interest in booking The Wholigans from industry people around the globe, so lets hope for more gigs worldwide soon.

_________

People have been asking me more and more about merchandise, and we will be setting up something on the site offering such in the coming months.

We are also gearing up to come back to the UK next March and looking forward to our 3rd tour there.

Depending on the final length of the tour you will see both Christopher Bacon and Bill Canell (from the New York tribute band ‘Who’s Next) splitting shows between them as both guys have family commitments and can’t play an entire tour without divorce proceedings.

I am very lucky in that respect as my ball n chain trouble n strife can’t wait till I tour to get me out of the house ;)

Rumours abound that the orrrible oo will be out there in 2005 with a new album (are they still called that..albums) and a tour, so that’s good news.

So if you don’t catch us on tour maybe we’ll meet at a Who gig.

WE ARE ALL WHOLIGANS

Barry