All In All It’s Just
The Final Dress Rehearsal – June 2006
L – R: Robb Flannery | Dan Hawes | Dave Lyons | Rhonda Krabbe | Kelly Gough | Michelle Keir | Barry Polichek | Rick Bossom
The story, as told by Dan Hawes. This all happened in Courtenay, British Columbia:
“When I first discovered Doug and Rick and Dave at the Whistle Stop Sunday night jam I was inspired by their level of professionalism. I had already joined a band and was playing again for the first time in many years but these guys really caught my interest. I would go back week after week to watch them. The first one to notice me was Rick. He told me the story of that time which is kind of funny. After a few visits Rick started asking the others, who is that guy over there? This was a whole new crowd for me so nobody knew who I was.
Next week Rick would say, there he is again, the next week, and there he is again. Apparently I appeared right around the time the authorities were going after musicians and they started to wonder if I was a narc or a tax man or who knows what. Paranoia began to set in and sure enough the next week there I was again. Rick went as far as never being within eyesight when he got paid for the jam because he was convinced I was not there for the jam. So when I finally worked up the courage to approach Doug and ask if I could play I was welcomed with open arms. Not only was I a new person to the jam, I wasn’t a government agent of any sort.
Thus began the new friendship between myself, Doug, Dave and Rick. I’m already told you about the beginnings of the jam days and how we came to be playing some Floyd. This just supplements that information and defines the meeting and the beginning of what would eventually become All In All. We also talked about who came when during our first reunion gathering. Rick is the authority on this as he remembers every little detail much better than I.
First it was Rick, Dave and myself joking around about doing a Floyd band. So essentially we were the first three. After I had that dream we began taking it seriously and started the process of finding the band members.
Doug was very excited about it but would never commit to being part of it. I asked him a few times and was really wondering why he wouldn’t say yes until one day I asked him again, he paused a long time fidgeting like he did and then said, what I really want to do is lights. I just sort of went what? He was such an incredible musician and he wanted to do lights? He then suggested Barry as the second guitar player and I think he had this all arranged or at least conspired. When we spoke to Barry about it he pretty much said yes right away. I’m pretty sure Doug had got to him first.
After Barry said yes I went back to Doug because I really wanted him to be involved, we were good friends by this time, and said ok, if you want to do lights you can. Kid in a candy store from that point on. I’m so happy he got to do that before he passed away, he absolutely loved it. So those were the next two, Barry on guitar and Doug on lightning.
We think Robb came next. Art VanVolsen was the obvious pick for a drummer and we can’t remember why we didn’t ask him but we think it was Doug who suggested Robb would be the guy. We approached Robb and he took a little time to think about it but eventually came back and said yes. So now we were Rick, Dave, Barry, Robb and myself as the band and Doug as our lighting tech.
We now needed the female vocalists element and went through the people we all knew and went, no, no, definitely not, maybe but, no. It was Robb who suggested some ladies he had worked with before in a band called Time Well Wasted. He approached Kelly and Michelle who found the project interesting and would give it a try. Not a firm commitment, just give it a try. At some point I guess they decided to go beyond try as they kept showing up for rehearsal. So Kelly and Michelle were the next additions.
We needed a sound man and we think it was Robb again who suggested Mike. We arranged for Mike and I to meet on Saturday at the Arbuckle jam. Don’t really remember the details of that day but I do recall what was the beginnings of All In All actually played that day, jamming not rehearsed, before we spoke with him. He was skeptical but interested, asked a bunch of questions like who is the band, who’s in charge, where are you going to play. All the stuff we began to love as Mike. He did say yes that day but very skeptical that were anything more than just another bar band. I remember him being there for our first rehearsal sitting there saying nothing. Afterwords he just said, ya this might work, ok I’m in, and he left without saying another word. That was the addition of Mike.
The last addition was Rhonda and that was a weird one. We knew we needed another vocalist and a sax player but were having a hard time coming up with anyone everyone was willing to work with. Musicians are a fickle bunch as you know. Again it was at the Arbuckle Saturday jam, in comes Rhonda and starts wailing on the sax. Nobody had ever seen her before. Most of the now forming All In All band were there and we all just looked at each other and went, hell ya! Rhonda was very willing to join our band but had never sung before and was very reluctant to do so. She did eventually get comfortable with it as the ladies rehearsed quite a bit on their own. The story of what happened to those three is still a mystery and I’ll probably never know. So there we had it, a complete band. Dave, Rick, Robb, Barry, Kelly, Michelle, Rhonda and myself as the band, Doug and Mike as AV techs. This was All In All.”
Thanks for coming out! If you landed on this page first and want to start from the beginning, go to The First Concert and view them one-by-one. May the Floyd be with you!
