Entrevista a Bart Davenport

Bart Davenport (a quien unos cuantos asociarán a The Loved Ones y a sus grabaciones en solitario) ejerció de vocalista de los Birminghams, de Berkeley, California, durante el período en el que The Event estuvieron en activo. Como tal, entabló relación y compartió aventuras con los de San Diego, llegando a actuar en directo con ellos. La entrevista que sigue fue realizada en enero de 2005:

1) How and when did you meet up with The Event?

I think it was the Spring of 1988. I somehow received a letter (no Internet back then) from Ken Naylor. He was looking for gigs in Northern California. But I didn't get them a show right away and in fact, I met them later that summer because my band, The Birminghams, were on a bill with them in San Diego.

2) What was your personal relation with the members of The Event? Were they nice, friendly people? Who were you the closest with?

Yes. They were very nice. We hit it off instantly. I think Mike was probably the most out-going and definitely the funniest. And when he moved to Oakland, we started The Loved Ones which he played in with me for about five years. So I was definitely closest to Mike. Ben Wayne also played with me and (loved one) Xan McCurdy in 1996 and '97 in The Kinetics.

3) Do you have any funny, crazy anecdotes concerning those guys?

Well, I believe Mike once accepted the payment of one dollar for drinking an entire bottle of pancake syrup.

4) How were The Event live? Were they one of the tightest bands of the Californian sixties/Mod Scene?

Yes. They were always well rehearsed and had a great mix of obscure '60s covers and authentic sounding original tunes. They also dressed better than most of the other bands – which is half the reason to be up there in these kind of bands.

5) Did The Birminghams see The Event as rivals?

No. Not at all. Quite opposite. We were like comrades. Brothers. There was no rivalry at all. Their music was more classic Mod pop-art style. While we tended towards a more R&B, blues and garage based sound. The two bands were very complimentary.

6) Did The Birminghams often share the bill with The Event?

Yes. We got them gigs in the Bay Area and they got us gigs in San Diego.

7) I know that you once sang with The Event (New Sounds annual festival / Sept 16, 1989 / Montezuma Hall, SDSU Campus, San Diego). What do you remember about that gig?

I remember Ken smashed a television with a sledge hammer on stage – ala The Move that night. Also that night, I saw a fantastic group led by (the Crawdaddys') Ron Silva. He had AJ Croce (Jim's son) on Vox organ and they played 'One By One' by The Blues Magoos. I think our drummer, Kelley, smashed up a rented drum set that night too. And Bart Mendoza refused to pay us. So I think we had to go and bug him at his day job the next day to get the $200 bucks!

Aclaración: Bart Mendoza desea añadir que "if I recall correctly, it wasn't refusal - the school (it was held at SDSU) didn't release our ticket money as agreed for a few days so we couldn't pay some of the bands until later, but everyone was paid".

Nota: Gracias a Scott Honnor por el scan del flyer de un scooter rally organizado en 1988 por la Positive Action Mod Society de San Diego. Conocido como Scott "evil eye" Saxon, Scotty fue en su momento el guitarrista de la banda neoyorquina The Defilers:

http://www.myspace.com/xxxthedefilersxxx