Little River Band Plays Wagon Wheel Saturday
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Local fans of the classic rock band can catch them Saturday when they bring such hits as “Night Owl”, “Reminiscing” and “Lonesome Loser” to the Wagon Wheel Theatre.
According to the WWT website, show times are 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $35 front row, $30 second row and $25 all other rows.
Little River Band formed in 1975. During a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, lead vocalist and bassist Wayne Nelson said he joined LRB in 1979 after meeting up with them on their U.S. Tour. Nelson was in the opening band with Jim Messina when LRB approached him. LRB was looking for a bassist that could also sing.
At that time, Nelson was in a band that had plans to record. He wasn’t sure he wanted to jump ship and join LRB. Having said that, the first time Nelson heard LRB he knew they had some great songs and a great sound, but needed a bass player and not a hired gun, which they had at the time. Nelson wondered what it would be like to be a part of the LRB.
A couple months later, Nelson’s band fell apart. He inquired if the job with LRB was still open. It was, and they told Nelson he would heard back from them later. Despite initial doubts, he heard back from the band and got the job.
Today, all of the founding members of LRB quit and the band has fallen to Nelson, he said.
“It’s a very unique situation,” he said. “It’s a very interesting history.”
Members of the current lineup of LRB include Nelson, Greg Hind, Chris Marion, Rich Herring and Mel Watts. They own the rights to LRB songs and perform as LRB.
As members of LRB left, Nelson said, they were paid and signed papers that they can’t perform as the band anymore. From the start, the band had saw the legal problems other bands had when members left a band, and they wanted to avoid those.
“Legally, none of the people who left the band have a legal right to use the trademark,” Nelson said.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been problems.
A few years ago, as LRB started to build the band back up, old members wanted to step back in. They had to be taken to court. Seeing the legal documents, “the judge sided with us,” said Nelson.
There have always been two prerequisites to joining Little River Band, Nelson said.
The first is that the person must respect the history of the band. “We don’t change the emotion of the band,” Nelson said.
Secondly, a new member must bring something special so the band doesn’t keep doing things the same way year after year. The sound of the band is more current, using modern sounds, and is more interactive and fun.
“We have to deliver the songs with the right emotion, but with a modern sound,” Nelson said.
Nelson said he has no qualms in stating that when one comes to a LRB show, band members are often told they sound better than they did in the past and way better than the records.
“We try to make the shows more of a party. We try to make it more fun,” Nelson said.
Nelson is approaching 4,000 shows with the band. Every single night, someone always states they had no idea of all the songs LRB did.
The mix of people who come to LRB shows are a mix of people who know of one big song then start hearing other songs they recognize as fun songs, or people who went to a LRB show 10 years ago and wanted to come see the band again.
The band wants to keep the momentum going that started seven to eight years ago, Nelson said.
For the first time since 1991-92, LRB has a record deal for a new CD, which should be out next year.
“It’s brand new. I just got the final contract in e-mail today. The music is going to go in the direction of classic Little River Band in the ’70s and ’80s. They don’t want us to be adventurous. They want us to do songs like we did 30 years ago. They specified that,” Nelson said.
Whatever songs the new CD contains, he said it will have a lot of vocals and guitar harmonies because that’s how people know the band. It won’t contain any covers, but all original songs.
After the album is released in the spring, the band will tour to promote it, Nelson said.
“Usually,” he said, “when certain buyers buy in a certain quantity, that’s where you go to support sales.”
Nelson said, “I know the label is planning releases in Europe, the Orient and Australia. We haven’t had a world release like that in 20 years. We’ll go wherever we need to to support the release.”
He said they will definitely tour America to promote it, which could mean a return stop to the Wagon Wheel.
Besides that album, LRB also released a Christmas album this week. The band took modern songs and put the LRB stamp on them.[[In-content Ad]]Asked about his favorite LRB songs, Nelson said “Night Owl” was the first song he ever sang as a lead on a record.
“It was certainly a game changer,” he said. “The song is like bedrock for me. There’s that one always.”
“Take It Easy On Me” was the first song he contributed as an arranger. His wife can always tell what kind of night he’ll have based on how he delivers that song, he said.
“Reminiscing” and “Cool Change” are favorites, he said, because they mean so much to so many other people.
A fifth choice is “Help Is On Its Way”. Nelson chose that song because it has come to mean so much to military people. Little River Band dedicates that song each night to the military all the time.
On the Net:
Little River Band, www.littleriverband.com
Wagon Wheel Theatre, www.wagonwheeltheatre.com
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Local fans of the classic rock band can catch them Saturday when they bring such hits as “Night Owl”, “Reminiscing” and “Lonesome Loser” to the Wagon Wheel Theatre.
According to the WWT website, show times are 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $35 front row, $30 second row and $25 all other rows.
Little River Band formed in 1975. During a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, lead vocalist and bassist Wayne Nelson said he joined LRB in 1979 after meeting up with them on their U.S. Tour. Nelson was in the opening band with Jim Messina when LRB approached him. LRB was looking for a bassist that could also sing.
At that time, Nelson was in a band that had plans to record. He wasn’t sure he wanted to jump ship and join LRB. Having said that, the first time Nelson heard LRB he knew they had some great songs and a great sound, but needed a bass player and not a hired gun, which they had at the time. Nelson wondered what it would be like to be a part of the LRB.
A couple months later, Nelson’s band fell apart. He inquired if the job with LRB was still open. It was, and they told Nelson he would heard back from them later. Despite initial doubts, he heard back from the band and got the job.
Today, all of the founding members of LRB quit and the band has fallen to Nelson, he said.
“It’s a very unique situation,” he said. “It’s a very interesting history.”
Members of the current lineup of LRB include Nelson, Greg Hind, Chris Marion, Rich Herring and Mel Watts. They own the rights to LRB songs and perform as LRB.
As members of LRB left, Nelson said, they were paid and signed papers that they can’t perform as the band anymore. From the start, the band had saw the legal problems other bands had when members left a band, and they wanted to avoid those.
“Legally, none of the people who left the band have a legal right to use the trademark,” Nelson said.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been problems.
A few years ago, as LRB started to build the band back up, old members wanted to step back in. They had to be taken to court. Seeing the legal documents, “the judge sided with us,” said Nelson.
There have always been two prerequisites to joining Little River Band, Nelson said.
The first is that the person must respect the history of the band. “We don’t change the emotion of the band,” Nelson said.
Secondly, a new member must bring something special so the band doesn’t keep doing things the same way year after year. The sound of the band is more current, using modern sounds, and is more interactive and fun.
“We have to deliver the songs with the right emotion, but with a modern sound,” Nelson said.
Nelson said he has no qualms in stating that when one comes to a LRB show, band members are often told they sound better than they did in the past and way better than the records.
“We try to make the shows more of a party. We try to make it more fun,” Nelson said.
Nelson is approaching 4,000 shows with the band. Every single night, someone always states they had no idea of all the songs LRB did.
The mix of people who come to LRB shows are a mix of people who know of one big song then start hearing other songs they recognize as fun songs, or people who went to a LRB show 10 years ago and wanted to come see the band again.
The band wants to keep the momentum going that started seven to eight years ago, Nelson said.
For the first time since 1991-92, LRB has a record deal for a new CD, which should be out next year.
“It’s brand new. I just got the final contract in e-mail today. The music is going to go in the direction of classic Little River Band in the ’70s and ’80s. They don’t want us to be adventurous. They want us to do songs like we did 30 years ago. They specified that,” Nelson said.
Whatever songs the new CD contains, he said it will have a lot of vocals and guitar harmonies because that’s how people know the band. It won’t contain any covers, but all original songs.
After the album is released in the spring, the band will tour to promote it, Nelson said.
“Usually,” he said, “when certain buyers buy in a certain quantity, that’s where you go to support sales.”
Nelson said, “I know the label is planning releases in Europe, the Orient and Australia. We haven’t had a world release like that in 20 years. We’ll go wherever we need to to support the release.”
He said they will definitely tour America to promote it, which could mean a return stop to the Wagon Wheel.
Besides that album, LRB also released a Christmas album this week. The band took modern songs and put the LRB stamp on them.[[In-content Ad]]Asked about his favorite LRB songs, Nelson said “Night Owl” was the first song he ever sang as a lead on a record.
“It was certainly a game changer,” he said. “The song is like bedrock for me. There’s that one always.”
“Take It Easy On Me” was the first song he contributed as an arranger. His wife can always tell what kind of night he’ll have based on how he delivers that song, he said.
“Reminiscing” and “Cool Change” are favorites, he said, because they mean so much to so many other people.
A fifth choice is “Help Is On Its Way”. Nelson chose that song because it has come to mean so much to military people. Little River Band dedicates that song each night to the military all the time.
On the Net:
Little River Band, www.littleriverband.com
Wagon Wheel Theatre, www.wagonwheeltheatre.com
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