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Sun May 21 2000

Yesterday Mark competed at the Mars Music Roseville, MN store in a "Blues Harp Blow-Off". His preparation and talent paid off as he took away top honors in the contest. He brought two of his sons along to see their dad play and help record it on video. There were five entrants, each showcasing two minutes of their best blues harp playing. Mark won a Shure Green Bullet harp mic, a Hohner harp case, a harmonica, and a cool Hohner shirt and hat. Special thanks to a few of Mark's good buddies that showed up to cheer him on!! You can hear Mark and the rest of the Bings at The Old Clover bar this coming Friday May 26 (see gigs)!

Wed Apr 19 2000

I guess it's time for the semi-annual band update. Everything's fine, thanks! Oh, alright, guess we gotta think of the fans and all. Played last Friday at Vadnais Heights finest establishment, the Old Clover Inn. Had a great time - a few things to note, I was blowing harp through a borrowed Fender Bassman RI amp. The Bassman is the "standard" blues harp amp - very common to see them used. It was great and made a big difference in my sound. Now I'll have to buy it. Dan had his tweaked and modified Fender Deluxe. He has got a great blues tone! New members Chuck Haelig on bass/vocals and Jerry Kern on drums/vocals are starting to come along (just kidding, he-he). They are actually solid pro musicians that also play in a classic rock variety band called Preferred Stock. I think they are so sick of playing Skynard, that they begged us to let them be in our cool band. After a few more gigs, we'll let them know if they make the grade. Good to see Hal Satter of Preferred Stock stop by and support the band. We called him up and put him to work on drums and to get some extra stage presence. Check their schedule on their website and go see that band. We are feeling great about our songs, performance, gear, everything! Well, everything except booking. You see I hate booking, and I'm the booker. It's time, hassle, blah, blah... Well, our position is if we can play one or two gigs a month, that ain't too bad. We had a very responsive crowd at the Clover. Shawn Wallin stopped by and played guitar on a few tunes. Check out his website Too Blue's News and check out the webcast Too Blue's Blues Radio station he put together. Bookmark this baby and when you surf the net, get the radio started first and you'll be surfin' to some great hand-picked tunes and artists by the Too Blue guy himself. Way to go Too Blue!

Wed Oct 6 1999

Okay, so I've been a little lax about the Bings news section. So sue me. There is some news to report. First off we are now a 4-piece blues band. For several reasons, Bruce has left the band, and we decided to not replace the keyboard position. We lose some possibilities, but we gain some simplicity and easier dynamic control. Bruce is a great guy and he was fun to play with, and we hope to see him around!

In other Bing news - brace yourselves - Drum Bing David Gullickson was in a car-bicycle accident. He was riding his bike, a car made a sudden turn in front of him, his bike stopped, but he didn't. Landed on his shoulder (Dave - am I giving too much gory detail here? My thinking is if there is some violence on the website, readership will increase). Collarbone snapped like a breadstick. Ouch. This happened weeks ago and it still hurts. He can't drum for 2 months or so. We are hoping that he can be hittin' the skins in mid Nov or so. Sitting in for Dave is our old friend and mentor, Jerry Kern. Jerry played Old Clover with us last Friday. He did a fine job and will also be playing with us at Mac's on Sat, Nov 6. Jerry is primarily a guitarist/vocalist with Preferred Stock.

We returned to Grumpy's in August, and just last Friday played the Old Clover in Vadnais Heights. We had a good time. A special thanks to the friends (and their friends) that came out to see us. We even had a few old buddies sit in with us. Alright that's enough Bing news for now.

Monday July 19 1999

Another good time was had by all last Saturday Night at Mac's Sports Bar and Grill in Ham Lake. Good to see a few friends stop in. We had 'em dancin' right up to closing. We had another milestone - first time our band name was "up in lights" on the marquee. We're feeling better than ever about the band and the "sound" we are developing.

Monday May 31 1999

Had a great time at Geez Sports Bar & Grill in Albertville this past Saturday night. Being Memorial Day weekend, I think there were a few folks out of town. Albertville is not that far away from the Cities (or St. Cloud for that matter), so if you're in the area, stop in at Geez, which is a relatively new establishment I think. The people running the place are extremely friendly!! I stopped in a few weeks ago with a friend to check it out, and the waitress gave us some free appetizers! Now don't go there and be asking for free food! The buffalo wings are good and spicy. Geez has live entertainment every Saturday. We would be happy to play there again. Tammy and (didn't catch her name, but she looks like Margot Kidder) liked our stuff and said they would like to have us back. Check the site for future dates.

Tuesday April 13 1999

We had a great time last Saturday night at Grumpy's in St. Boni. The weather was kind of crummy with a steady rain, which I'm sure kept a few friends from venturing west. But we liked the place, even though we had a lot of requests for AC/DC, Iron Maiden, and Sabbath. But that was in fun, and we all had a good time. Met a few true blues fans - Greg and Emily, that stayed for most of our 3 sets. And Emily was good enough to take more than a whole roll of pictures of us that we desperately need for this site! Keep your eyes peeled for these new pics! Grumpy's truly liked us and said they want us back! We're looking forward to returning!

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