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May 1, 2008
One of the most popular local bands in the 1980s, The Pressure Boys, is staging a pair of benefit reunion concerts tonight and Saturday at Cat's Cradle. The benefit is for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and is the latest brainwave to emerge from the Sixty Five Roses project -- which in 2006 released the album "Songs for Sixty Five Roses," the proceeds of which were also donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
The pivotal guy in both the "Songs for Sixty Five Roses" album release and The Pressure Boys reunion benefit is John Plymale, one of the founding members of The Pressure Boys.
Plymale's daughter, Allie, was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at age 2 in 2004, a development that inspired Plymale to find a way to raise awareness of and money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
There are certainly many people in our area that rocked with The Pressure Boys in the '80s. There are probably even more people living in our area now who have never heard of The Pressure Boys. A brief history lesson will help these Pressure Boys-deprived individuals ease into the loop.
During a recent conversation, Plymale recalled how that The Pressure Boys got together in 1981. "We were all in high school -- all but one of us, that is," he recalled. "We were between our junior and senior years in high school in Chapel Hill."
Plymale cited four original members who played in The Pressure Boys for the entire time the band was together: Bryon Settle (guitar), Greg Stafford (saxophone), Rob Ladd (drums), and Plymale (vocals and trombone).
"In the beginning we also had Stacy Guess (trumpet)," he added. "He quit the band right before our first gig to go out for the football team. He was a little-bitty guy but he made the team. Neil Barry took over trumpet, and the bass player was David Blythe."
Guess would subsequently rejoin The Pressure Boys for a time. He battled a heroin addiction in later years and died of an overdose in 1998.
What initially provoked the formation of The Pressure Boys was the influence of '70s second-wave ska bands such as Madness, The Specials, and The English Beat.
"This was at the beginning of MTV," Plymale said, "and all those weird bands were getting their videos on MTV, before it became so commercial. We formed around a love for those crazy bands, and almost immediately we started writing our own songs. Then we pretty quickly started writing songs out of that vein and more toward other influences like XTC and Oingo Boingo and Wall of Voodoo.
"People definitely equate the Pressure Boys with ska, and that's where we started, but we left that behind pretty soon," he said. "We were a band for about seven-and-a-half years, and after about a year-and-a-half we'd moved into a new place, musically."
The band became very popular in Chapel Hill and Raleigh relatively quickly, and after cutting a demo tape with Mitch Easter they were able to use the tape to land dates in Virginia and South Carolina. Hooking up with entertainment lawyer and promoter Gus Gussler gave The Pressure Boys even more East Coast exposure.
The band also cut EPs with Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, and produced a full-length album in 1987. Those tunes are about to become available again in a remastered offering that will be available soon. (Check www.pressureboys.com for updates.)
The Pressure Boys called it quits in 1988. At the time the band dissolved it was populated by Plymale, Settle, Ladd, and Stafford, plus Je Widenhouse (trumpet) and Jack Campbell (bass). This same lineup will constitute the re-unified Pressure Boys tonight and tomorrow evening in Carrboro.
Asked how the attempt to recover their musical chops is progressing, Plymale was optimistic, despite the fact that the band members haven't played together in 19 years.
"I guess we'll get around to practicing pretty soon," he laughed. "We practiced a couple days back in January. Rob and Jack both live in California, and they flew out here for a long weekend, and it was actually fun. I was thinking this could be rough and really no fun, so I was pleasantly surprised."
Plymale insisted that The Pressure Boys have practiced since January. Best get into Cat's Cradle and catch this rare reunion.
Philip Van Vleck charts our world's music from his office in Cary. Reach him at vanvleck@nc.rr.com.
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WHAT: The Pressure Boys, with Sneakers and Greg Humphreys, in a benefit for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
WHEN: Today and Saturday, with doors opening at 8 p.m.
WHERE: Cat's Cradle, 300 E. Main St., Carrboro
ADMISSION: Today's concert is sold out, but tickets are still available for Saturday's show at 967-9053 or www.catscradle.com.
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