Back in the early 90’s Wishbone Ash was in trouble. Ted Turner and I were gamely struggling on after producing the Live in Chicago CD and not shortly after, I received a letter from him saying he was ready to call it quits, especially after the company who we’d signed with, had royally stiffed us. The final straw came when my erstwhile ‘buddy’ Andy Pyle decided to try to sue me. His reasoning was that I’d been at the helm and therefore was the responsible party. There's musicians for you. The writing was on the wall for Wishbone, it seemed.

Around that time I’d gotten friendly with a fresh-faced chap from Connecticut who I’d met in a guitar store. I told him I was looking for a piano teacher for one of my sons. He recommended his mother, the redoubtable Agatha Filgate - worldwide concertizer and grand dame of the Steinway. One thing led to another and Roger became our on-the-road tech, that is when he and I weren’t fooling around on guitar together. He was at a loose end and a little traveling to cement our new friendship seemed to be in order. Roger had been to Chicago with me, where we had visited with Ted, just prior to his afore mentioned second Ash departure and we’d worked on a couple of song ideas, one being, the prophetically named, On Your Own. At that time the song had the working title, Hanging By Your Fingernails, another well-named if excruciating, song title.

By this time, I found out that Roger was a gifted guitar player and writer and so he and I started weekly, then daily, writing sessions in an old barn owned by an artist friend, Mr. Don Messer. It was situated deep in Redding, CT, the town in which I live. The barn became a perfect place to plot the new studio CD and prepare some much needed live work for the band. I still thought the original band and players had 'legs' in some way, so we visited England and the home of one, Mr. Martin Turner, and even got together for a later aborted recording session with him. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. We returned to CT and eventually the watershed album, Illuminations came into reality. I’d seen the writing on the wall. Labels weren't offering deals for acts like ours. The way the music business was going was plain to see, and if the band was going to survive, some drastic changes were needed. A website, some new touring vehicles, our own home grown label and some funding, eventually provided by our loyal fans. Roger and I lived and struggled through all this together and later traveled the world with a revamped band, after he eventually joined Wishbone Ash full time, for what turned out to be a 3 year stint as guitarist, writer and producer.

Fast forward: Roger is still my friend and he is now a respected guitar teacher in the community and has been very active with his own music. He’s built a full blown studio and has been busy producing a great solo instrumental CD titled Worlds Within, plus a hard rocking production with the band Blast Room as well as gaining some notoriety with Chubby Checker, whose chart hit Knock Down The Walls, featured his guitar solo. Last year, he and I teamed up in Long Island at the Boulton Center where Roger Filgate & band joined Wishbone Ash for an evening of righteous guitar based rock. We both felt this was a great value for money package, especially for guitar freaks and I was pleased and proud to hear my old buddy once again rocking out with his great band, thrilling folks with some serious guitar chops.

‘Why not bring this package to Connecticut?’ I thought. Roger had already had a lot of success with his own promotions in the area, at places like the renowned Ives Concert Hall in Danbury, so we sought out the Edmond Town Hall Theater in Newtown, a classic old 20th Century wood and plaster building (great for rock and roll acoustics) and set the date for September 24th. So that’s where we’ll be that night. Come and join us for what promises to be a real celebration event, with guitar a plenty. Wishbone Ash will have been playing in Canada just prior to this and will feature some more esoteric songs from our back catalog and Roger’s band will present a full set of diverse instrumental rock. We’re installing a serious light and sound rig and aim to give folks a big rock show presentation but in an intimate, small town setting. All we need now is your support to come along and celebrate our old friendship, together with 40 years of rock history and enjoy some heartfelt music and serious musical chops in what promises to be a great evening.

Tickets are $40.00 (General Admission) and can be purchased or reserved at the venue box office 203-270-4285. Showtime: 8:00pm / Doors: 7:30pm September 24th 2010.

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