As we move into the 1980's we move into my years as a young man in his twenties.

I was still working for Winn-Dixie full time while married to Jill. My passion for music was heavily fueled by more and more live performances. Tim Bernard (guitar) and Dale Richmond (drums) became regular band mates for me as we rocked Raleigh night clubs. Our band Myth, for example, which included Brian Riley (guitar) and Kerry Craig (lead vocals), later to be replaced by Kathy Lewis. Music was good ole rock and heavy metal of the times.

As the decade moved forward, I knew I wanted to go out professionally to play. Tim had joined up with Avalanche based out of Virginia. Shortly after, he made it known to me that the bass player position was opening up and I could come for an audition. I got the job and quit my job at the store. I knew I was taking the risk of my life, but I had to follow a dream. I loved playing with Avalanche. Unfortunately there was some turbulence in the band and members were moving elsewhere. I was offered a job with a new upcoming band called The Commercials, which failed miserably. Back to working in stores, until a couple months later, when Durwood King, ex-guitarist from Avalanche called and said I should come audition with his new band. I did, got the job, and within a month or two, I was asked to manage the band. Durwood decided he would leave and so I returned the favor to Tim and invited him to come play in this new band, we called 20/20. Tim joined up and we were on the road, playing clubs throughout the southeast.

During this whole ordeal, Jill and I were separated, and divorced in 1984.

In 1984, our agent Rod Godwin, called and said another agency out of Boston was auditioning bands to go play in the US Virgin Islands. We jumped on it, drove all night to make the audition. We got accepted and in September we were flown to St. Thomas to play at Marriott's Frenchman's Reef for 4 months. This was a dream for me. I loved the island.

Members of 20/20 were getting homesick (island life is not for everybody) and the band split at the end of the contract. I decided to stay on the island and figure out how to make a living. I worked at Pueblo (grocery store) for a week, began bartending and DJing in some of the night clubs on the island. I would play off and on with some of the local musicians, to try to get something solid going, including Morgan Whalen. I was hired to bartend a beachfront restaurant/night club called "For The Birds" at Scott Beach, and was advanced to more of a management position, including selecting local talent for entertainment throughout 1985.

Of course, I was taking in the beauty of the island and its exotic activities, such as hiking, scuba, sailing, etc.

Still in search of the perfect band, in 1986 I met a young couple named "Kelly and Brian" who were flown to St. Thomas by the same agency who had sent me there a year or two prior. Kelly Fitzgerald was a knockout beauty, and soulful singer/guitarist at 20 years old. Her partner, Brian Pothier, all of 20 was a blue-eyed, multi-talented rising star guitarist. I sat in on bass with them, we struck up a nice 3-part harmony blend and the rest was history. For the next 10 years we performed together, full-time, professionally night after night as "Eden".

In the summer of 1987 it was more than evident that Kelly and Brian wanted to go back to Salem, Mass. I didn't but, enjoyed playing with them so much that I agreed to move on with them back to the mainland to see where it would go.

We didn't move back to the states as most might. Rather, we got a gig on The Norway, the largest cruise ship in the world. It picked us up, with all of our belongings, employed us for 8 weeks and dropped us off in Miami in July of 1987. We rented a U-Haul truck and drove up the eastern seaboard to Salem. Of course, we stopped in Morrisville, NC to visit my family. My lovely sister, Janet, had just had a baby, Christopher Cloer, whom I cherished and still do to this day.

We began to book gigs as Eden in the New England area, writing songs and covering top-40 hits of the time. We were called by some of the clubs in the Virgin Islands and were offered to come back for 8 week stays, which we did 3 times over the course of the next 2 years. We spent 2 ski seasons at Loon Mountain in New Hampshire, playing at the Tavern Inn (winter of 88 and winter of 89). We spent the 2 summers playing at many of the night clubs on Cape Cod. This is where I learned to ski and to eat sushi.

On one of our trips back to the islands, I met Lydia Toccafondi, a French girl who had lived on St. John. We were married on the beach at For the Birds in 1988, just before we moved back to New Hampshire. The marriage lasted exactly 2 years and we were divorced in 1994 in Honolulu, Hawaii... but here I am getting into the next decade already :-)

Hold on though, before I end off on this decade, Eden moved to California in November of 1989. Our good friends, Bill and Kim Connors were living in Huntington Beach and I was soooo ready to move away from the freezing seasons of New England. I wanted desperately to move to where it was warmer (though I would have preferred the Virgin Islands). The band all agreed to pack our bags and move out to Southern California, where I still live to this day. What keeps me here? Is it the high taxes? NO. Is it the liberals? HELL NO. That's probably going to be covered somewhere in the blog, but certainly not Farcebook. - 11/3/10