tuuslc

Terrg Reid E Rick RssasFlew

of Tfre

icore this: a bandwhose membershave performedand recorded withThe Rolling

Stones, John Lennon, TomPetty, Don Henley, NeilYoung, The Eagles, RoyOrbison, Bonnie Raitt, andthe list goes on. Each band

member is equally proficient,all likeeach otherandall are init forthe fun of itl The band is

called "The Flew" and fea-tures Joe Walsh and friends.As they prepare for their up-coming shows at the VenturaTheatre April 30 and TheCoach House May 1, I talkedwith band members TerryReid and Rick "The BassPlayer" Rosas about their im-age, their music and what it'slike to work with Joe Walsh.Rick "The Bass Player," as helikes to be called. has workedwith Joe Walsh since 1985,

touring the world several timesand playing on his last fouralbums. Over the lasl threeyears, Rick's been ontourwithNeil Young. With that workfinished he thought it was timeto join Walsh again for an-

other band project. Walsh'sidea was to revive their 1986

band, The FIu, which featuredWaddy Wachtel andRick Marotta. After a

slight name change,Walsh decided to askBritish rocksingerTerryReid to join the band.Walsh played on Reid'ssolo album The Driverlast year and liked hisstyle of singing and hisgreat sense of humor.According to Rick, hu-mor is a key feature inthis band. It creates a

spirit of unpredictabilityand freshness in theirshow, making The Flewdifferent from otherbands' "staged" shows.Walsh is, in fact, wellknown for his spontane-ous antics on stage andhis portrayal of adrunken rock star. Ricksays rhis is not really theway Walsh is. Rather,it's a character that hehides behind- "That'sjust Joe. He's very, veryaware of things. He'sreally very together."Walsh's act certainly hasn't hurthim financially. Since touring withRingo Starr's "All Stars" last year

and on Ringo's previous tour a

TERRY REID

fe* years ago. he's been Produc-ing a New Zealand band calledThe Herbs. Last November, heperformed on the bill with Glenn

Frey for Frey's L.A.show. And now, he'sgearing up to work withPete Townsend onsome showcases Petewill be doing for his newrecord. With The Flew,Waish and the band willstay busy playinground L.A. and will be

recording a record to-gether later this Year.Joiningthebandon key-boards is NickyIlopkins, known tomany for his work withThe Rolling Stones,John [:nnon. JeffersonAirplane and JeffBeck- Both Reid andRosas agree thatHopkins is an impres-sive addition to theband. Said Reid, "youcan always tell whenNicky is playing causehis style is so unique.All the different thingsthat he plays, whetherit's a ballad or a shuffle,whatever he's doing,you can tell it's him."Phil Jones rounds outthe band on drums.Jonesjust finished workwith Tom Petty on hisalbum Full Moon Fe-

ver. Hiscredirs in-clude workwith StevieNicks, RoyOrbison andDel Shan-non. Withtheir collec-tive timeplaying ingreat bands,the showpromises tobe an excit-ing one.There isalso a great

che mi strybetweenthem, saidReid. "Youcan try toput bandstogetherand some-times it's areai pain.This onejust kind offell to-

gether." Because they are all pro-

fessionals and know each other'smusic, Reid said they don't need

to spend too much time working

by Pat Kramer

out arrangements. The materialThe Flew will be doing could in-clude songs from any ofthe bandsWalsh has been involved with. orit could feature Reid's soul-drenched vocals from his six soloalbums. Reid said his favorites are

$e R&B classic "/ Can't Standthe Rain" and The Waterboys'"The Whole Of The Moott." Thenagain, Rosas said they mayjust dosongs they like such as StevenStills' "Rock andRoll Womn" orsome great soul songs. ofcourse.when you're playing with JoeWalsh, anything can happen. Attheir show last month in Las Ve-gas, Walsh wandered out on stage

with his guitar a full hour beforethe show was supposed to start.

Not one to be outdone, Reid saidhe joined Walsh and began sing-ing. "I saw Joe on stage so I justfollowed him out there. Peoplehad just stailed coming in. There'sall these people saying, 'the showdoesn't stad for an hour'. The sur-prise set went off fine with Walshand Reid making it up as theywent along until the rest of theband joined them on stage. Thereis also a good chance that theaudience will get to see a slideshow which Walsh andRosas haveput together. Rosas said he and

Walsh share the same "sick sense

of humor." "Throughout America,Joe and I have taken slides oftoilets and we show that. We'll go

out to a shopping mall and takepictures offunny people too. That.to us. is funnv." The uPcomingshow in Ventura will be TheFlew's sixth show. Theiropeningshow last month was described bY

one reporteras "generaling enough

hot licks and inspired moments tocompensate for Walsh's badjokes." lt's clearthis band projectis imponant to Reid and Rosas as

it provides an opportunitY for the

band, and any celebrity friendsthat might be backstage, to keeptheir musical talents sharP. SaidReid on the band persona. there isa definite charisma working here."That's what's good about thisband. it's gc " bit o[ fire to itbecause everybody's got some

energy goingon. There's real good

chemistry between us." With thetalent and lrr eliness of the crew inThe Flew. there's no doubt it willmake for an interesting and enter-tainrng shou . The Fleu'bnng thelrall-star line-up and dementedsense of humor to the southlandfor two shows; Friday, APril 30 at

the Ventura Theater and SaturdayMay I at The Coach House.Tickets for both shows are available at Ticketmaster. P

RICK ROSAS

- PAGE24 EMERTAINMEMIODAY APRlL3o, 1993