Message from Bill Webster '73 on the Epic Battle of the Alumni Party Bands

Reunions 2010 will offer an outdoor concert, “Battle of the Alumni Bands," featuring alumni from all the major reunion classes.  This concert is dedicated to those alumni who formed extra-curricular “party bands” while they were undergraduates at Princeton.  This letter is a call to re-assemble the old band and perform three or four songs in a 15-20 minute set.

 

On Friday afternoon, May 28, 2010, between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., we will feature bands from every major reunion class (if available) in an outdoor concert by the U-Store near Blair Arch.  We’ll kick the concert off with a current undergraduate band and then feature a different alumni band every 20 minutes.  Imagine a rock and roll band from the Class of 1965 followed by a jazz group from 1950 followed by a hip-hop group from 2005!

 

While many of you are still playing and/or singing, some of your old classmates have stopped playing or have passed away.  We will have a professional piano, bass, guitar and drummer (our house band) standing by to fill in for any missing band members.  If you’d like to bring your current band, we’d welcome their participation.

 

Don’t worry about equipment.  We will have a complete P.A. system, music stands, and a back-line of amplifiers necessary for any configuration.  We’ll even have instruments available; drum-set, piano, guitars and an electric bass.  I’d recommend that you bring your own instrument, but you won’t have to lug all the extra equipment!

 

We hope to have a representative band from each major reunion class from the 5^th through the 75^th reunion.  We will promote the concert and start times for each band so that your fellow classmates can attend the concert and cheer you on.

 

I’m funding this concert in hope that it becomes popular and a permanent part of the annual Reunions activities.  It’s important that we have broad participation from all Classes. Call your classmates/band-members and see if you are willing to work up a few songs for this concert.  Then give me a call, or drop me an email, to reserve your space.  It is important that I hear from you ASAP, so that we can guarantee sufficient participation to the Alumni Office and get the full support from the University.

 

If you start practicing now, you will have sufficient calluses, chops or a singing voice to make it through the 20 minutes!

 

If you have an interest or would like to discuss the details, please give me a call.

 

Bill Webster ‘73

 

wgwebster@yahoo.com

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