Arms and Legs (1982-1984)

When I was a senior at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, I jammed once or twice with a freshman singer/keyboardist named Bob Fernandes. He was a prodigious musician and I was in awe of his talent. Three years later I was in Grickstorgl with Mike Thompson. Bob was dating a girl who lived across the street from Mike, and by chance one night he happened to overhear Mike playing King Crimson’s “Elephant Talk” on his bass from inside his garage.

Bob asked him to join a band he was putting together with another young prodigious musician, a 17 year old girl from Los Altos High named Michele Graybeal. Michele was the best and most innovative drummer we had ever heard. By now Bob was calling himself Robert Ferris, and writing some jazzy, progressive post-punk art rock along the lines of Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and Talking Heads. I came along to listen a couple times and was fascinated. Soon Bob invited me to sit in and before I knew it Arms and Legs was born.

This was my first serious band, and Bob was a strong, charismatic leader. He had connections with older, established musicians, and got us into TRS recording studios in Sunnyvale to record some demos. This led to gigs at Bay Area nightclubs like The Keystone in Palo Alto, The Stone, Chi Chi Club, I-Beam and Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco, and The Stone in Berkeley. This completely blew our young minds and we figured we were headed for the big time for sure.

We later added another Los Altos High alumni named Sherri Sarto as keyboardist, to allow Bob to be a more interactive front man. Michele was a gifted artist and also cut our hair, and was ultimately responsible for convincing me to lose my stoner look. She cut my hair short and bleached it blonde, and I abandoned flannel shirts in favor of new-wave fashion. It was an exciting time for all.

Alas, all good things must end and around 1984 Mike and Sherri left the band. We forged on as a trio for a short while, but the steam had run out of the project and eventually we moved on to other things.