A Cold front blows in
for a winter reunion
by
Vincent Fumar – (12/89)
Times-Picayune
How do you revive the Cold sound after a two-year layoff? With six rehearsals, that's how.
"I don't think that capturing the Cold sound is any problem because it's pretty basic," said Bert Smith, Cold guitarist and songwriter. "We don't have any problem re-learning the songs. The problem is tightness. Six practices may not be enough to get the timing right completely. We'll never be like we were when we played four times a week for a couple of years, when we were just like a locomotive."
The Cold's reunion, tonight and Saturday night at Jimmy's, may seem more like a public homecoming. Of the original members, only Smith and drummer Chris Luckette (now with Dash Rip Rock) have stayed in New Orleans. Kevin Radecker and Vance DeGeneres reside in Los Angeles, and singer Barbara Menendez in Dallas.
It was the Olivia Newton-John album, "Totally Hot", that gave a name to a group of young musicians organized by University of New Orleans students Smith and Radecker in 1978. Rick Connick and Ronnie Blanchard joined Smith and Radecker and Totally Cold began playing around town.
At the time, their only desire was to be an opening act for the Normals, their shared passion. They accomplished their goal and then suddenly found themselves with a following. In December 1979 Connick and Blanchard left but they were quickly replaced by DeGeneres, Barbara Menendez and
Luckette.
The Cold stood at the top of the local musical heap through the early 1980s, and the band's popularity hasn't been matched since. Seemingly within a few months after their regrouping as the Cold, the band was most sought-after in the New Orleans area. Booking the Cold was a guarantee that a throng would appear. In the summer of 1980 the Cold pulled off the impossible - they had a hit single ("You") that received extensive local radio airplay. Propelled, no doubt, by the sheer number of fans the band had.
"When I think about 'You' now, I think the planets must have been spinning backwards," Smith said. "As we moved on, certain songs seemed kind of stupid of dated after a while. Now when I listen, I think the stuff I liked the best was the very last stuff we did - 'Let's Flip' and 'Rock Man,' which were two of the last songs we recorded."
Smith estimated that the peak of the Cold's popularity was probably 1982, the same year the group disbanded (they reformed in 1984), and expressed mild surprise that Cold singles are now collector's items ("I hope it doesn't mean we've moved into the area of dead bands"). By 1986 critics were calling those contemporary classics minimalist music, a legacy carried on by such contemporary bands as Dire Straits.
Smith also said that he has been completely out of the music business. "I play my guitar around the house," he said. "And I come up with ideas for songs and put them on tape for myself to listen to. I'm not really interested in getting into another band because it's a long shot and there's so much time involved. Everybody I know who's in music wants to make it big, which means signing some slave-labor contract with a record company. "Mainly I'm into my job (public-relations director for the Jefferson Parish Animal Shelter), which involves promoting responsible pet ownership."
Smith added that all members of the group were surprised by the enormous turnout for the last Cold reunion in November 1987. Given the deep and wide audience the band cultivated, it's obvious that being a Cold alumnus is no easy thing to shake.
"I still see people from the Cold days from time to time. A lot of people I met through the Cold. I don't go around playing Cold songs or anything. If I'm in a club and somebody puts on Cold songs, it makes me feel funny."
for a winter reunion
by
Vincent Fumar – (12/89)
Times-Picayune
How do you revive the Cold sound after a two-year layoff? With six rehearsals, that's how.
"I don't think that capturing the Cold sound is any problem because it's pretty basic," said Bert Smith, Cold guitarist and songwriter. "We don't have any problem re-learning the songs. The problem is tightness. Six practices may not be enough to get the timing right completely. We'll never be like we were when we played four times a week for a couple of years, when we were just like a locomotive."
The Cold's reunion, tonight and Saturday night at Jimmy's, may seem more like a public homecoming. Of the original members, only Smith and drummer Chris Luckette (now with Dash Rip Rock) have stayed in New Orleans. Kevin Radecker and Vance DeGeneres reside in Los Angeles, and singer Barbara Menendez in Dallas.
It was the Olivia Newton-John album, "Totally Hot", that gave a name to a group of young musicians organized by University of New Orleans students Smith and Radecker in 1978. Rick Connick and Ronnie Blanchard joined Smith and Radecker and Totally Cold began playing around town.
At the time, their only desire was to be an opening act for the Normals, their shared passion. They accomplished their goal and then suddenly found themselves with a following. In December 1979 Connick and Blanchard left but they were quickly replaced by DeGeneres, Barbara Menendez and
Luckette.
The Cold stood at the top of the local musical heap through the early 1980s, and the band's popularity hasn't been matched since. Seemingly within a few months after their regrouping as the Cold, the band was most sought-after in the New Orleans area. Booking the Cold was a guarantee that a throng would appear. In the summer of 1980 the Cold pulled off the impossible - they had a hit single ("You") that received extensive local radio airplay. Propelled, no doubt, by the sheer number of fans the band had.
"When I think about 'You' now, I think the planets must have been spinning backwards," Smith said. "As we moved on, certain songs seemed kind of stupid of dated after a while. Now when I listen, I think the stuff I liked the best was the very last stuff we did - 'Let's Flip' and 'Rock Man,' which were two of the last songs we recorded."
Smith estimated that the peak of the Cold's popularity was probably 1982, the same year the group disbanded (they reformed in 1984), and expressed mild surprise that Cold singles are now collector's items ("I hope it doesn't mean we've moved into the area of dead bands"). By 1986 critics were calling those contemporary classics minimalist music, a legacy carried on by such contemporary bands as Dire Straits.
Smith also said that he has been completely out of the music business. "I play my guitar around the house," he said. "And I come up with ideas for songs and put them on tape for myself to listen to. I'm not really interested in getting into another band because it's a long shot and there's so much time involved. Everybody I know who's in music wants to make it big, which means signing some slave-labor contract with a record company. "Mainly I'm into my job (public-relations director for the Jefferson Parish Animal Shelter), which involves promoting responsible pet ownership."
Smith added that all members of the group were surprised by the enormous turnout for the last Cold reunion in November 1987. Given the deep and wide audience the band cultivated, it's obvious that being a Cold alumnus is no easy thing to shake.
"I still see people from the Cold days from time to time. A lot of people I met through the Cold. I don't go around playing Cold songs or anything. If I'm in a club and somebody puts on Cold songs, it makes me feel funny."
