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OCTOBER 31, 2007
Hey!! how is everyone?!?!?! I hope you are having a
great Halloween!!! Wow... I am recovering from last week to say the
least...last week was LEOPALOOZA and in honor of my birthday and in
also in the pursuit of trying to make sure I died with a smile on my
face we gigged 4 nights in a row!!! ... that was about the best way
to spend a birthday week.
I don't want to get too heavy on anyone, but as another birthday passes
I must reflect on a few things...
- Some things are just good no matter what...Peanut Butter and Jelly,
Cold Beer, Thin Lizzy...finding a $5 in an old coat
-America, in light of O.J., Michael Richards, Donald Trump, Brtiney
Spears etc.. if you would just let me into your hearts, make me a celebrity,
I promise I would not turn into a total a$$hole!
-NASCAR is a little dry for me, what if they release a momma and about
a dozen baby ducks onto the course once in a while. The drivers would
lose points if they hit a duck.
Because Willie reads and enjoys these I will give you the rundown of
how the week went...
WEDNESDAY
The start of LEO KELLY ROCKSTAR\LEOPALOOZA\CAN-YOU-F-ING-BELIEVE-WE-PULLED-THIS-OFF-WEEK
saw WICKED LIZ AND THE BELLYSWIRLS play a private party at an undisclosed
location for a certain midwest celebrity who is now married to someone
who used to be married to another famous celebrity who is in T.V. and
film. This was a very private hush-hush affair and I can't say much
except for the fact that Ron Howard looks nothing like he did in E.T..
THURSDAY
Thurs saw Supefly Samurai hit RIBCO...very cool to see so many friends
and co-workers show up... the highlight being our pals from Cincinnati
PIKE pulling into town to rock with us!!! They got to the venue just
in time for soundcheck... very good to see Kelly, Holly and Wade and
meet their fill-in guitar player Brian. As I have mentioned we met them
when we played Chicks Rock Fest in Cincinnati in 2005. They write some
very catchy tunes and just totally rock when they hit the stage. Kelly
might very well be my 2nd favorite rock frontwoman and what you don't
know is she also is one of the premiere chainsaw-jugglers of her generation!
I hate to mention that, as she usually works fairly heavily costumed
and does try to keep her musical life seperate from her carnival-sideshow
life....if you ask her, she willdeny it, but that's how you know it's
true!!! ....I just thought it should be mentioned.
The gig went very well... I had a gaggle of work friends there and they
all wound up dancing the night away and many wound up sporting PIKE
shirts! YAY!...Bill Stage jammed a few tunes, our old pal Jim Ryan jammed
Steamroller Blues with us (Spatterdash's Chris Sindt made an appearance
to wish me well but made a hasty exit b4 we could yank him onstage,
he did mention having some socks to darn...I wish he would just let
those child-laborers in India make their .02 a day and buy some socks
at Wal-Mart!!!!)
Find of the night: PIKE buying us all So-Co-and-lime...yum!!!
You may know our drummer Greg delivered beer for a few years and one
of his stops was RIBCO. Well at the end of the nite we got the biggest
laugh of the weekend when owner Terry Tilka rode Greg pretty hard about
his performance, appearance and hygene.
We would end the night at Ross's... this may be the only reason PIKE
came to the Q.C.!!! After downing his Magic Moutain bassist Wade was
overheard commenting, "I got what I came for!" (ALthough I
normally eat McDonald's 3-4Xs a day, it is on occassions like this that
I eat oatmeal and egg-whites and tout the benefits of a high-fiber diet,
clean living and scowl at anyone having anything remotely tastey...
I mean you eat a pancake I will look at you like you just took a dump
in MY pants....don't think I don't know that I am doing this... beacause
I know I do... I am doing it on purpose)
FRIDAY
I led the ROCKSTAR life! Took the day off work, slept in late... woke
to devour shrimp, turkey, escorgot, a waffle, banana creme pie, an apple
fritter, onion rings and a diet coke...then went back to bed! Got a
call from Bob around 3pm trying to roust me and get me up for the gig.
Nice try Bob! I wouldn't be playing ROCKSTAR if I wasn't a little difficult
for no apparent reason... so I slept til 5pm when Holly, Greg, Bob,
Kasey, Kelly, Wade, Brian and Liz showed up to roust me from my slumber.
They also insisted I bathe... haven't they ever seen or smelt Keith
Richards?!?!?!
We were off to JUMPERS in Dubuque Iowa, where we had a cool write up
in the Telegraph Herald by Megan Gloss. Megan is a sweatheart and has
always done more for us than we probably deserve.
Pike were very well recieved in Dubuque...at the conclusion of the night
owner Stacy had just a ton of great things to say about the whole evening
and PIKE in particular...she is just a doll and her kind words were
very much appreciated.
In keeping with my ROCKSTAR theme, I sat at the bar while everyone loaded
gear, cursed at the bartenders, drank shots and grabbed female patrons
in inappropriate spots.
http://www.myspace.com/piketheband
SATURDAY
By now my behaviour had really garnered me some attention! In fact that
morning we all got up and drove to the farmers market...and they let
me drive alone! Convinced my hair was looking more "trendy"
the less I bathed.... I decided to continue the regime. I looked totally
trippy! I do think they were sort of jealous as they all tried to take
the wind out of my sails and suggest things like Suave or White Rain...even
suggesting they would "pitch in" if it was a money issue.
So we hit the farmers market.... I grabbed my favorite pumpkin squash,
bulgar wheat and dried apricots and then we all strolled thru the levee
area where Bob and I told tall tales of how we had once opened for Bing
Crosby at the bandshell and how Don Knotts had tried to screw us out
of $50. Hey, they are dead, they'll never tell!!! (Side Note: I think
you all remember Cary Grant died in Davenport, but did you know this
is where Britney Spears twisted her knee and thus had to cut short a
tour, took 6mos off then shacked up and started making baby K-Feds!?!?!
Think about it... the Q.C. bringing down superstars!!! U-S-A!! U-S-A!!
U-S-A!!)
After a tour of downtown Davenport and more clever stories from Bob
and I, like how the sky-bridge was part of the Space program and the
mafia had closed the Levee hotdog stand we headed out to Kelly's Irish
Pub and Eatery... now I dunno if PIKE were sticking to the "fish"
theme .. but they all had fish-and-chips!!! Reportedly, they were delicious.
In a bizarre twist, we ran into Spatterdash's Matt Hauser AND Florida
based Johnny Vander-I-will--spell-hiss-last-name-wrong and thus reunited
three-3rds of the original Gashouse Gorrillas! We plotted a comeback
tour but as Johnny is currently uinder contract with Alice Cooper and
Pat Boone our hopes are slightly deminished.
This has been a lot of writing so far huh?!?!?! And I'm not even to
the part where I discuss my afternoon colonic!!!
So we had a tastey lunch and everyone retreated to either find costumes
(PIKE) or sleep (ME!). I woke around 6pm to the delicious smell of tacos
sifting thru the house and came down to find the whole tribe of musicians
dining. A little miffed that I had missed the administration of my Saturday
colonic, I rebuffed repeated please to shower or bathe...and even had
to dodge a hose that Holly tried to soak me with!
The gig at the Brew that night was wild and crazy...we got to the club
and had 2-3 So-Co-and-limes before we relaized The Sunday Night Music
Show was there to film!!!I think\hope they got some good stuff... I
KNOW they got my amp cutting out twice!!! YIIIKES!! Power was going
out on my side of the stage for some reason...anyway..very lively crowd..Liz
and Kasey BOTH dressed up as "LEO KELLY" ..verry funny! And
some crazy gal threw her bra at me!! I mean COME ON?!?!?!!! Brian Goedlin
twisted-my-arm into 2-3 more shots than I needed (Oh, you know me, I
gotta blame it on someone!!!) I couldn't tell you how everything shook
out... I know Brian and Kelly both played guitar with us.... the highlight
had to be Holly playing tambourine and then just putting on a slamming
performance on the drums for the Cranberries ZOMBIE!!! She totally brought
the heat!!!
http://www.myspace.com/sundaynightmusicshow
As the weekend wound down... I was totally exhausted, immaculately filthy
and excessively happy. (ALthough my bowels were maybe just a little
irritable!) So much fun seeing PIKE bring their alterna-Zombie-punk-pop...
cool to see them on an "adventure" and loving every bit of
it... making the most of it and I confess fun to dupe them with Bob
and my B.S. like "Al Gore may have invented Global warming, but
Jenna Jameson gave us a reason to look at the internet".
All in all a very very good weekend...I love rock and roll... I love
ALL my friends and I hope to see any and all of you soon!!! --- Leo
SUPERFLY SAMURAI @ JUMPERS Dubuque, Iowa Nov 2
WICKED LIZ AND THE BELLYSWIRLS opening for BLUE ISLAND TRIBE @ THE HUB,
Cedar Falls, Iowa, NOV 3
AUGUST 19, 2007
Hey thanks for tuning in...things are changing around here, thought
we would shake things up...I'll recap the weekend for you, we were all
giddy with excitement for our Friday night plans, we all huddled around
the tube for the initial screening of HIGH SHOOL MUSICAL 2!!! What a
treat!!! Let me tell you, it didn't not fail to entertain and maybe
exceeded our expectations!!! Luckily Stacey had bought enough beerita
(beer, tequila and lime-aide) to kick off a 3 day celebration which
culminated in Sunday nights karoake version of the show. Good times!!!
Aside from that, I have been pretty busy working on my soduko and trying
to figure out the opening line of ABBA's "Dancing Queen" don't
ask me why, it is a little tricky! (And I have figured out almost the
entire DEVO catalog!!!)
Okay, seriously, recently I caught a few movies, here are some thoughts:
HAIRSPRAY-- great movie, excellent message, fantastic movie... but
I was a little embarrassed after expressing my attraction to the husky
mom that that was John Travolta! So I am a little confused and nervous.
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE-- Okay this one score a thumbs up from me BUT---
it did lack sufficient amounts of Krusty and Apu. Do you think the exclussion
of Apu was political? Hmmmmm....
KNOCKED UP-- Again, a great movie, but what no one is talking about,
-I was really impressed w\ the Special Effects! The wizard riding the
broom was simply amazing!!!
Did anyone get to read that FEE WAYBILL interview from classicrockrevisited.com?
Very good read.
Do you remember Mannix?
is Chris Daughtry cool? Or is that music for little girls? I am asking
I don't know....
I broke my toe this past weekend--- so i am gimping around
Caught HEAT over the weekend, weird to see Chris Sindt look-a-like
Val Kilmer play a long-haired character named "Chris"! Also
weird to see how many Jeremy Piven and the guy who does Burns and APU's
voices have roles... some other young comics in it as well...were they
there just to entertain DeNiro and Pacino?
I did pick up the new Andy Summers (Police guitarist) book, although
it looks to be very entertaining I do not plan to read it. Let me tell
you why, I am working very hard at creating loud-mindless-rock-&-roll
and how can I do that if I keep filling my mind up? So, here are a list
of things I will be avoiding: Newspapers, CNN, PBS, books, notes from
my kids school, disconnection notices and The Office (it seems a little
"brainy" to me!)
*sigh*
Well, we have added a few new tunes to our sets this summer... Liz
has written a new tune we hope to demo soon and start playing... so
you can look forward to that....keep checking the shows page (which
for some reason won't update like the rest of the site!) ---I would
hate for you to miss any shows!
Take Care! --- Leo
JUNE 9, 2007 --Leo's Life Lesson's And
Secrets To The Universe
Hi there and congratulations on your win!
Some may know me as that long-hair guy in a rock band...
but what you may not know is millions of online readers seek me out
as a
Self-Help Expert!....so I thought I would share some lessons from the
last
year...
Be patient w\ yourself!!! Da Vinci, Babe Ruth, Robert DeNiro, Pele,
Yo-Yo Ma...
all these people took time to develop their skills! Do think Yo-Yo Ma
was always
a champion?!?!? A recent Wall Street Journal article quoted him as saying
it
took him 6 months just to learn "walk the dog"! So don't be
afraid to try new
things! Don't be embarrassed or down on yourself if it is not easy.
Do you know
what is easy? To sit and point and comment on other people doing things.
You
know what else is apparently easy? To write flaming hate-mail to unaccredited
online advice experts!
Like Jim Morrison said, "Keep your eyes on the road and your hands
up on the
wheel" Remember when I got in that accident on the Moline bridge?
Well, I looked
down for just a second to get my badge. This can be applied to a lot
of things
in life. Like your bank account. I like to check mine at least 3-5 times
a day
(I wish someone told Jim not to drink and do drugs sitting in the tub!)
You are very special. So is everyone else. This may seem self-explanatory
but
let me explain further, I am very special and should be regarded a lot
higher
than I am... once the board is through with their investigation I am
sure I will
be cleared and my Q points will go waaaay up!
Drink 8 glasses of water every night before bed-time and you will never
need an
alarm clock.
To ACHIEVE you need to PLAN TO SUCCEED! Let's face it, you go to work
everyday
and you assume everyone is your friend. They are not! They are your
competition!
You want that promotion? You want that raise? DO YOU WANT TO BE SOMEBODY?!?!?!
SUGGESTIONS: It takes just a little time to point out your co-workers
short-comings to management. Here are some of my favorites: "I
guess Dave really
botched that one!", "wow! Is Terry ever going to set up that
account?!?!?!",
"Mike will be in.... this afternoon!" ADDED BONUS: Make off-hand
comments about
a co-workers recent weight-gain or divorce or accident on the Moline
Bridge...all these things breed low-self-esteem and keep those other
chumps in
line!
Grizzly Adams is now available in a DVD Box Set, take advantage!
Take time to enjoy the little things...like a warm spring day, an ice
cold beer,
children's laughter, the smile of a friend, a co-worker's naturally
curly hair,
puppy dogs ...aren't rainy afternoons a great time for a cappuccino
and a good
book?!?!! (My online female readers lap this tripe up!)
Okay! Thanks for sharing this time with me, I hope you have gained
something
here and I hope you have a terrific Summer!!!
Adios! -Leo Kelly
P.S. For an additional $15 we can register a star with YOUR name via
International
Star Regisery.You will get a certificate of authenticity, a crisp 8X10
B&W photo of your star
and a Gumby Pez dispenser.
JUNE 3, 2007
BLOGGING!!! What I thought were maniacle self-inflated opinions are
now deemed to be BLOGS!! YAY!!!
After debunking Kevin Trudeus "7 Natural Cures the Big Drug Companies
Don't Want You To Know" I felt compelled to bring the American
Public up to speed on a few things…
War? What’s it good for? My good friends, it is good for everything…
it creates jobs, it gets patriotic minded girls all steamy eyed, it
fuels the economy and while you sit at Borders sipping a Latte, wearing
your Birkenstocks reminiscing on the first time you kissed your freshman
roommate, you know, the captain of the girls LaCrosse team, scared to
death but secretly wishing your boyfriend were there to watch…consider
this… are we in a war for oil? OF COURSE WE ARE!!! Heck, who are
we kidding?!!?! And when we develop a hydrogen car or finally embrace
wind-powered electricity we will wage wars over hydrogen or wind power
or hiccup power… people… IT DOESN’T MATTER!!!….We
live in a GLOBAL ECONOMY and as I brush my teeth with my Chinese made
electric toothbrush, look out my Columbian fabricated double-hung-flip-in
windows and wear my Korean spun-silk bathrobe I am reminded of WHY we
have these wars… It gives folks a sense of National Pride to stand
up for something and defend something!
Have I made my point?
Alright, starlets… what about all these troubled starlets?…
Paris is in jail, Lindsay is in Rehab and Brittany is fresh out of rehab
and lipo….will her stunning good looks, wealth and moderate talent
keep her warm at night? I don’t think so, that’s why I am
initiating my LEO’S FIRST ANNUAL BLANKETS FOR BABES drive. Please
drop off your blankets (clean please) at our home address.
Paris in prison, we’ve all seen and avidly collected “women
in prison films”… tell me the downside on this whole scenario?
Have you ever caught something like a cardinal eating a cinnamon roll
out of the corner of your eye? Don’t you think that cardinal spent
the rest of his life trying to find another cinnamon roll? I bet that
would drive them crazy.
Every time someone resigns in Washington they state, “ I am leaving
to spend more time with my family”. I wish I could quit my job
to spend more time with my family.
Or devote more time to my Bonzai.
If everyone can do me a favor, check yourself, if you are absolutely
devoid of any muscle tone, let’s make this the summer tank tops,
tube-tops and wife beaters are left at home. Be honest with yourself…
or better yet, ask a friend and be prepared for a brutally honest answer.
70’s FLASHBACK:
What would Foster Brooks do? “ I am leaving to spend more time
drinking alone and chasing Bob Crane’s leftovers”.
Okay... I will blab more later....
PEACE!- Leo
April 18th--2007
Monday night April 16 marked the kick-off of the 2007 Wicked Liz &
the Bellyswirls World
Tour. We started w\ a bang by playing the International Pop Overthrow
at the Elbo Room
in Chicago. This is an awesome even that runs 2 weeks in Chicago and
also in other cities
around the world (London, Minneapolis, L.A.). Dave Bash the festival
organizer is a huge
power pop fan and a great guy. This event is named after a Material
Issue album and thus
is a tribute to that bands deceased frontman Jim Ellison.
We started the day meeting at Liz?s, hard to believe but we all do not
live Monkees
style in a treehouse all together. In an uncharacteristic move, we were
ALL early! We
loaded up Liz?s SUV and hit the road w\ nary a hitch. Some bands might
be put off by
driving 3hrs to gigs like this, but we really have a lot of good laffs
on our trips.
Along the way we put in a call from our pal in California Dale Fisher.
Dale is tracking a
new disc, sounds like all is going great for him?he has an orchestra
on some tracks and
Raffi Jaffe on organ on some. (Raffi Jaffe is in the Wallflowers and
is the son of MAD
illustrator Al Jaffe?that last part might be Bob pulling my leg, but
I?ll go with it.)
Navigating these trips is way easy, especially since Bob and Greg do
most of it! Greg
knows Chicago like the back of his hand. So we had no trouble finding
the Elbo Room,
which did not disappoint. Classic old-world bar upstairs, trashy ?rock
bar? downstairs.
The stairs made me gratefull the backline (amps, drums) were provided.
Thanks Dave Bash!
Thanks Victoria Amp Co.! Anyway, the bar was painted all black, lots
of flyers and
stickers on the walls. Cool mood lighting by some colored neon lights
hidden behind
couches. Actually nice touch that there were, okay I wouldn?t say couches,
50?s style
dinner benches? Anyway, very cool atmosphere. Also very cool to see
our friend Chad V
come out to hang with us. Okay on w\ the music part of the post? good
set by the Goldbugs
form Missouri, a lot of energy and the vocalist\guitarist had some great
chops. Very wild
and expressive! Also saw Phil Angotti who we were first amazed w\ a
year ago when we did
an acoustic set at the Uncommon Ground right near Wrigley. We also met
him when he worked
at the Chicago Music Exchange, Phil may have hollered for me to climb
off an amp as I
stretched to reach a highly placed James Trussart steel body electric
guitar. I don?t
hold that against Phil, I get that a lot as I like to climb on things
in stores. You
should hear the grief I get at J.C. Penney!!! Phil has a great voice,
played solo this
night, acoustic half the set and jazzbox the other half. He did a great
tribute to early
BeeGees. Not the disco stuff, but stuff from the 1960?s. The tune you
may know is
?Istarted a joke, that got the whole world laughing? that?s not the
title, but a
memorable line (mayebe it is a title, I dunno) anyway, Phil really nailed
these tunes,
suffice to say, we are Phil Angotti fans. He?s also got me curious about
checking out
some 1960?s Bee Gees?and that?s what it?s all about right?
Okay, okay, leading up to our appearance, we had been having some informal
rehearsals,
Liz actually lives fairly close to me, so we?d steal an hour here or
there to play
acoustic, make sure we remembered parts (some parts we did, some parts
we didn?t!) had a
couple w\ all the band there, so we were pretty confident we were ready,
we drew up a set
list for a solid all-Wicked Liz set?.first sign we were in good shape,
2 songs into the
set, we ditched the list! As any frustrated soundman will tell you,
this band usually
puts together a set-list as ?reference?, but it is no factor in what
we will actually
play. So like I said, a very good sign, we got comfy very early, I think
we ditched
whatever slow song we planned and just ?rocked out? Liz clearly over
any jitters and
having a very good time, evident in a lot of those famous mile-wide
smiles, some very
confident delivery (after not playing since early Nov 2006 that?s very
good) plus Bob and
Liz plying their usual between song patter. Anyway, a good set based
on over all vibe and
comraderie..9am, Pico, Wonder, B-Groove, Break Me, Up and Down were
all played. I am
probably leaving out some.
After our set up was Ryan Powers, he played solo acoustic, very good
stuff, as he went to
call his last song he asked the audience to join him onstage?so we did
and all sat
campfire style and had a sing along, good stuff! He handed Liz the mic
and she did What?s
Up and then Ryan took back over and played Patience, with whistles by
many in the group
and at the end, Bob supplying the monologue part (who knew he was such
a Guns and Roses
fan!) Very good, very intimate and fun and communal. A great way to
end out night. I
would tell you more but in summary; I slept, Greg drove.
Hope to see everyone soon! - Leo
March 29, 2007
Okay- We've left this site dormant for too long!!! THANKS to everyone
who
has joined our MY SPACE!!! If you haven't, stop over there and become
our "friend". The
summer is gearing up and we will be out playing all over the place!!!
Visit our calendar
for all the great summer gigs we have planned!!! We will be adding more
gigs and updating
the band members pages, so please stop back often!!! PEACE!- Leo
For More LEO Click HERE
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