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1998 Labor Day Reunion 
It's "the day after" and all I can say is Wow!
Everyone who attended the Iowa Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame (IRRHOF) celebration Sunday knows what I mean. Right now I'm mentally and physically exhausted. Elated and sad, satisfied and disappointed, proud, and finally now able to revel in my thoughts of all the old friends I saw and all the new friends I made. This was more than any of us could have expected. From the rehearsals last week, to the warm up at the Val Air Ballroom (Des Moines) Friday night, to the Iowa Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame party Saturday evening, to the actual induction ceremony and of course the gig Sunday night. We were as high as any group of "boys" could get.
I would love to sit here and type all the words about how easy it was to put all of this together. About how for seven days it was just smooth sailing musically and personally. In reality, for having nine people bottled up in a studio for a week, each one passionate about the music and the direction this whole thing should go, we got along surprisingly well. But it soon became evident that this is the real world. We laughed, we fought. We laughed, we yelled. We were up, we were down. Passions were high. And in the end we put on a show that we are all very proud of. Each member's contribution was so important I could not begin to think of any individual we could have done this without. Each was a piece of the puzzle that became the end result, which I hope most of you saw, on Sunday evening, September 6th, 1998.
It's neat now to look back at the entire week with all of the ups and downs, interventions and suggestions and think about how all of that work was done strictly to create the 45 minutes we were on stage in Okoboji. The whole week becomes an incredible capsule event, with a beginning, middle, end, and finally a postscript on the lake at 2am Monday morning. And it was one we all will remember for the rest of our lives.
And during that final Sunday afternoon and evening, how many times did I think, "Why are all these people here to see us?" In a way, we were supposed to entertain them, but it felt more like they were there for us, than us for them. We felt like kings and I kept thinking how wonderful it is to have people like Tom Tourville and John Senn of the IRRHOF dedicating all this time and effort to keeping this little part of our lives alive and healthy. It was a part that was barely breathing until we received a call from them last March. Then it surprisingly and quickly popped to life.
I guess it was never dead.
It's getting close to the time when all the work we've done over the last few months will begin to pay off. This will probably be the last update before the big gig. (But, hey! You never know.) Rehearsals start on Monday, August 31st with vocal rehearsals with Doug, Joey, Keith and me. On Tuesday, Johnny and Bucky will join in the fun. Following them will be Denny, Larry, and Steve. Of all the X Noblemen still alive only JB and Sue will be absent from this reunion and, along with Joe Kaiser, they will both be missed. We thank Doug for all his hard work in getting in touch with all of the old (and I do mean old) members.
As this reunion gets closer and closer I begin to get a bit more emotional. (Can you tell?) I am truly looking forward to this. I have had time to go over each song, find the keyboard sounds I'm going to use and work out the parts. I've had so much fun doing that, that I can't imagine what it will be like to actually play with my friends in the Notorious Noblemen again. As the time draws near, there has been more and more contact between all of us and we are all becoming closer and closer. We are getting to know each other again and our musical passions are beginning to come out. I'm sure those will show up in our performance Labor Day weekend. Through all of this I really feel that, just like in the 1960's, the fans have been our primary focus. In addition to seeing each other again, as a band we are excited about this reunion because of the reaction we hope to elicit from all of you.
After the Labor Day show I'm sure I will write volumes of text and post dozens of photos to this web site. (In fact after the reunion, I would like to add a new section to this site where each member can present their own thoughts on the reunion. I would also love it if any fans wish to send me their thoughts about the reunion for posting in this new section!) This site is not just going to fizzle into a pile of data dust. As long as there is band activity I will continue to update and refine this web page. So please stay tuned. It would be hard to think of all of this just going away. There has also been talk of the Notorious doing gigs after the Labor Day bash, and from what I understand, they are there if we want to do them. But I find it hard to believe that with all of us spread out over the country that we could put together a true representation of the band more than once. So if you want to see it, you're probably going to have only one chance.
So, this is it. Once in a lifetime. Understand? Be there!
-mac
PS. I believe the festivities start around 4pm on Sunday, September 6th at the Roof Garden Ballroom in Arnold's Park (Okoboji) Iowa with the Hall of Fame inductions. We will perform later that evening.
Updated by Mike McCormick (Mac) 7/3/98-
Well, three X Noblemen got together to play music for the first time in 20 years. (See photos of this get-together!) Last weekend, (June 27 and 28), Keith, Doug (BIG) and I began preliminary rehearsals in Des Moines for this summer's gig in Okoboji.
We worked on vocals and instruments mainly just preparing for when the entire band gets together the week before Labor Day. We pared the song list and set the keys to all the tunes. The song list is complete and to tell you the truth, we're all pretty excited about it. But are we gonna post it on this site? NO WAY!. We want it to be a surprise for all the Noblemen fans. Suffice it to say, you will be taken back to some of the best songs we ever did in all 3 eras, and you'll hear a few tunes that you've never heard us do before.
Big drove up from Kansas City and I drove down from the Twin Cities to meet at Keith's studio, Crystal Sound. I had not seen Keith in almost 20 years. But after a short, "wow, it's so great to see you", all 3 of us seemed to want to get down to business. And we played, talked, laughed, fought, ate, and drank until about 2AM Sunday morning. It was as if we had never been apart. We are all still very passionate about our music. This is good.
(As an aside, the weekend before this Big and Steve had come up to the Twin Cities to visit their mother who lives here. We found about a 2 hour window on Friday, June 19th to get together (At that time I had not seen Big for almost 20 years and I had not seen Steve for over 30 years!). We shared stories and photos for the entire time. We talked about old times and viewed a video made from a 8mm movie of the band that was shot in 1969. Most of the photos that are a part of both Big's and Steve's personal pages (yes, they're up now!) were taken that day.)
After rehearsing for about 4 hours we broke for supper. Keith took us to Des Moines' finest. A Mexican restaurant not far from his studio. Now normally this would have been the beginning of the end. You see, they had beer there. But we're all such wusses now that the only alcohol ingested at that place was a Margarita by Keith. But don't lose hope. After dinner we hit a local establishment right next to the studio (now I know why he put it there) for a pint of some of the finest micro brews the good old USA has to offer. (Well, BIG had a Bud Lite, but Keith had an Anchor Steam and I had a Red Hook ESB. I print this only so that Joey will know that he won't have to go through beer withdrawals while we rehearse there!)
After that it was back rehearsing until just after midnight. What a blast! Our voices were shot, and our fingers raw.
Following that we headed to Keith's house for a little TV. But as luck would have it, there was a storm a brewin' and the power went out for the rest of the night. This gave us a chance to reminisce until 2AM when we finally crashed.
The next morning was simply Keith dubbing tapes we had made the night before and talking about a biography for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We said our good-byes and took a few photos to wrap up the weekend (A special thanks to Julie, Keith's wife for all the hospitality and for putting up with us for the evening)
We are psyched for this summer's gig, and can't wait to see you all there!
-mac
Today a letter was sent to all X Noblemen concerning drop dead dates for specific events that must occur on our road to pulling this reunion off. We have set a date of June 15th for all of us to have our two songs picked and submitted. Also, rehearsal times were set for August and will probably occur in Des Moines. Big has spoken of having a few of us get together before then to go over the keys we will be playing the songs in and to take care of other pre rehearsal duties.
Our conversations among each other are starting to get good. We are beginning to get a bit passionate about ideals, ideas, show content, and image. It's just like the old days, (Why did we break up again? Oh yeah, I remember.) but it's now from a much more mature perspective. Isn't it guys?. This is good though. It's the kind of energy necessary to make this the best it can be. We all have so many ideas and directions we want take this. Eventually it will distill into a unified direction and allow us to move forward knowing we are all on the same page.
Also, Big contacted Sue Henry. He said the conversation was marvelous! I have added her to all (snail mail) Noblemen communication and we hope to have her attend this summer's Iowa Rock N Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. As well as allowing all of us to see another X Nobleperson and great friend, she would add some much needed vocal power. In fact, I would like to create an Era 4 on this site for that time frame but we have yet to get any group photos or anecdotes to support it. We may get it together in the near future.
Larry has sent in his bio and current photos and I will get to posting them as soon as I can. Meanwhile, he sent some photos from the Iowa Rock N Roll Hall of Fame ceremony from last year and a photo of he and I talking about the possibility of the Noblemen getting inducted at some point in the future.
It happened! Fun stuff.
So we are beginning to organize a bit. Doug has been hard at work remembering the song lists from all 3 eras (See the song lists for Era 1, Era 2 and Era 3) as well as reconstructing some of the lists of dates we played (See summer of 1968 gigs, and Xmas 1969 gigs). His memory has been incredible. While he still has some of the old contracts from that time and a little black book that lists some of the dates and places we played, the song lists are coming from memory. There are songs we played that I had totally forgotten about. There are songs that I *sang* that I had totally forgotten about! How can that be?
They say the mind is the first thing to go. I forget what the second is...
Wow! a lot has happened since the last update. One of the highlights was meeting Joey (Schmitt) and his lovely companion, Nancy.
Joey and I had it planned to meet at a bar (his choice) near Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. I was late, (traffic) but when I arrived and popped the door open, there was this X Noblemen sitting at the bar with a glass of Sierra Nevada and a smile on his face.
We sat there for a while and talked and talked. After deciding we needed to at least move, we slowly wandered down to the wharf and finally out onto the pier. We walked and talked for what seemed like 5 minutes but was actually over 3 hours. We covered a lot of ground. Old times, gigs we both remembered. Women we both... knew. We talked about many memories we had in common and what has happened to each of us in the last 30 years. We just stood out on the end of the pier looking at Marin County and Alcatraz and talking like, well... like it had been 30 years since we had seen each other. It was truly fun.
After that, dinner at Gordon Biersch with Nancy and a bit more ale. We all three had a wonderful time. Joey and I did find that we both have affinity for good beer and Nancy loves a good glass of wine. (She'll have a great time with my wife, Joan!) Actually, Joey and I found that along with beer we still have many things in common. This was such a welcome meeting after such a long time.
As a band, we now are deciding on our procedure for picking the song list for our induction into the Iowa Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame on Labor Day Night. I know I had previously written that we were all going to pick 10 tunes, blah, blah, blah. But it actually may make more sense to pick just a couple of tunes each. This means that each choice we make carries more weight. We are also planning on possibly doing some tunes we had not done in the past. We want to have fun and we want to have the audience have fun too. So, what the hell. Anything goes! We are trying to organize this so that it's more than just a bunch of old geezers getting up on stage and reliving their past.
See you all there! --Updated by Mike McCormick (Mac) - 4/15/98 -
I have again spoken with Keith and Doug. While Doug would love to get everybody back for a rehearsal in May or June, most of us actually have a life to live and attend to. My guess is that we'll reunite In Des Moines the week before Labor Day and rehearse our brains out. We will all, of course, have had tapes of the songs we are doing for at least a month so that we can actually learn our parts before we arrive. After that it's just learn to play together again (eeek!), work on the vocal harmonies (because Doug will have all of the lyrics already memorized), reminisce and drink.
Or, Doug may win and we'll all see each other in May. Who knows?
Right now we are all submitting 10 of our favorite songs from the old but extensive, Noblemen song list. (I will be posting the entire Notorious Noblemen song-list when I get time so you can all play trivia games about which songs we did.) We will distill the resulting list into a 45 minute - 1 hour show to be performed at the Roof Garden in Arnolds Park, IA over Labor Day weekend 1998. We may also do some tunes that we had not done in our previous Noblemen life. (We know how tired you all are of the old songs after hearing us do them so many times!) Our goal is that if we're going to do this thing, let's do it right. If there's any talent left in any of us, we're going to spill it out in its entirety during rehearsals and on the Roof Garden stage that Labor Day weekend.
Better bring your goulashes...
 --Updated by Mike McCormick (Mac) - 4/9/98 -
I have, since the last update, spoken with JB (John) Anderson. We figured it had been at least 30 years since the last time we saw each other. Since he, like myself, lives in the Twin Cities (Minnesota), we vowed to not let another 30 years pass before we have lunch or a beer together.
I have spoken with Doug a few more times and we have nailed down some dates and regions of time that certain events happened (Not easy to do after 30 years!). So, I will be creating a page on this site that is a description of each era. On that page I will try to specify dates of memorable Notorious Noblemen occurrences.
We have just been notified that we are to be inducted into the Iowa Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame on Labor Day weekend 1998! All the old members (there are no young members!) are being contacted and arrangements are being made to play a set at the Roof Garden in Arnold's Park that weekend!
So far I have talked on the phone to Doug Smith (Questionable drummer - singer, and forgetter of lyrics), Mike Buchholz, (Bass extrodinaire, GTO) and Keith Brown (Guitar, personality). I have also traded e-mail with Denny Carlson (Drums, weirdness) and Joe Schmitt (Guitar, more weirdness) and an old friend, Dan Diercks who seems almost as excited about this as any of the members are. In addition, last summer I saw Larry Lind (Bass, paint brush) in Okoboji. Larry and I had a great time talking and that's when the idea of all of this began to take shape as a possibility. I have not yet heard of any contact with Johnny Johnson (Guitar), JB Anderson (Guitar), or Sue Henry (vocals) but we're trying. Our goal is to have all original members there.
Which brings up one thought. Shortly after the break up of the band Joe Kaiser (Bass) was killed in a private plane crash. Needless to say, Joe won't make it to Okoboji. (We tried but he was busy that weekend.) I dedicate this web page to him.
Every member I have communicated with is excited about this reunion. We are working out the details for getting everybody located in the same place before Labor Day so we can begin rehearsing and working on all those old tunes (and maybe some new ones!).
Please enjoy the rest of this site. You'll find lots of pictures of us from the old days and stories we'd like to share. I am very early in the construction of this page but my plans are to have pictures from each era of the band as well as a "Where Are They Now" section with current pictures and information on each member. I'll also update this "What's New?" section when more details of this summer's reunion become available!
So let's make like it was the 1960's. We want to see you all in Okoboji this summer!!!
-Mac
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