Fall 1998 saw the most extensive tour yet in the history of the
Professors. On October 3, the Professors performed as a quartet
(Barrows, Radford, Romanenko, and Kubey) at an outdoor
halloween
party in Jackson Mills, New Jersey, hosted by Kevin Patten,
a good friend of Radford's brother-in-law, Gerard Stafford-Smith.
Patten and Stafford-Smith are members of the legendary band
THE GRATEFUL SHEDHEADS, who played
a set of Grateful Dead, Radiohead, and Alanis Morissette; well,
at least until the rain started coming down.
Watch a YouTube Playlist of the Grateful Shedheads
Sway (Mick Jagger/Keith Richards - The Rolling Stones)
Spirit of the Age (Robert Calvert/Dave Brock - Hawkwind)
Brainstorm (Nik Turner - Hawkwind)
** = debut song
SOME POST GIG THOUGHTS BY GARY - OCTOBER 4, 1998
Dear Profs:
I have been listening to the tape of yesterday's
gig at Kevin's, and we really didn't sound as bad as
I had orginally feared. The music was fine, and we
played with spirit and energy. Our main problems are
essentially technical: we messed up endings and
transitions. Once we are rolling, we're fine. But songs
with transitions, such as Treachery, Sway, and
Brainstorm, posed considerable difficulties for us;
we couldn't go smoothly from one part to another.
Talking with Marie, the set started out very strong.
Psychokiller, Accuse Me, and Dreading the Dawning went
very well. John did a wonderful job on vocals.
Next up came Treachery, and we hit the
first of our transition problems. Also, Treachery went
on way too long (but I have some thoughts about this).
Then we went into Waiting for the Big One which we
played very well. Marie's sister, Terry, made special
mention of this song and liked it very much.
Suspicious Minds was a big hit, but we couldn't end it!
However, it won't take much practice to put this
right. Five Years was OK too, but John and Nick
bailed on the backing vocals. Help!
Sway was a mess. I don't know what happened there.
Spirit of the Age was good and but we totally lost
our way at the end of Brainstorm. Me and Nick were
playing the F - G- Am sequence while John was still
playing the A - C- B sequence. Not a pretty result. I
think this is why I felt so bummed out at the end.
On the whole, we did pretty well. And when Jerry's
band started playing, I must admit I felt a whole lot
better! We probably should have done a shorter set.
We played over an hour, and we missed out three
numbers! Given that we didn't have Jennifer with us,
we could have focused on those numbers we did best.
And it is clear from this set just how much Jennifer
adds to the Professors. You left a big hole there,
Jen. And as much as John and I tried to fill it, it is
clear we need a bona fide singer to lead the band.
Both Kevin and Jerry came up to me and told me how
much they enjoyed our performance. The girl singer
from the Grateful Shedheads was also raving to me about
how great we were! Hmmm.... It was hard to compete with
the bonfire and the marshmallows, but I would say as
many people watched us as watched Jerry's band. So,
looking back and after listening to the tape, I'm
feeling very upbeat as to our performance. It has
been a very good learning experience and has shown us
just what we need to work on in preparation for the
MCIS and Kenny's gigs. If we're going to mess up in
front of a live audience, better that we do it at Kevin's
than at the Hyatt, no?
This page last updated January 4, 2022 by
Gary Radford.
Many thanks to Kurt
Wagner, Marie Radford, and Jon Oliver.