Michael Shrieve - drums; Stephen Dees - vocals, bass; Pete Hewlett - vocals, guitar; Carlos Rios - guitar, vocals
On tour in support of our second album Animation Generation, with our new guitarist, the great Carlos Rios, we find ourselves in good spirits and more than ready to have at it at this show at Park West in Chicago. We had played this venue before and had a wonderful experience, but we weren't quite prepared for the enthusiastic response from the crowd this time around. At this point in our career we had attained some respectable chart success mainly on AOR radio with the songs "Up Periscope," "Tattoo" and "City Bound 'E' Train" from our debut disc. This time out "Too Long Gone," "Welcome Innervision" and "Animation Generation" were the lead tracks.
Novo Combo was based out of New York City. It made sense at that time that our strongest markets were mainly metropolitan. In 1982 there was still some reluctance from mainstream American radio to embrace "New Wave" music. On this tour we were fortunate enough to open shows for The Who, Cheap Trick and others, but I must say we enjoyed headlining at venues like Park West most of all, with its perfect size crowd and excellent sounding theatre. This gig was definitely a highlight of the entire tour.
Hope you enjoy it.
Cheers,
Stephen Dees
Michael Shrieve continues to push the barriers of avant-garde and popular music, collaborating with renowned musicians such as Jack de Johnette, Andy Summers and Bill Frisell; and along with his fellow Santana band mates was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1998.
Stephen Dees later worked with Tony Carey, Foghat, Pat Travers and Victor Wainwright to name a few; and is currently a member of the Bandees, an indie-rock, power-pop group. Their latest release is entitled Sonic Kitchen.
Pete Hewlett went on to work with Billy Joel and Joe Jackson, and formed his own project, the Hewlett-Anderson Band.
Carlos Rios is an in-demand session guitarist, recording and touring with Madonna, Chick Corea, Lionel Richie and many others.