Show and Tell (1984-1985)

After Mike and Sherri left Arms and Legs they formed a modern-rock band with Dan Casero, a neighborhood friend, and a drummer from New York named Steve Fox. Sherri decided to leave this band right around the time the Arms and Legs trio broke up, and I was recruited to replace her. This was great fun for me as I became not only guitarist but also keyboardist. Mike and Dan switched off on bass and guitar. Steve worked as a bouncer at The Keystone Palo Alto and was able to get us gigs. Dan adopted the stage name John Christopher and we named the band Show and Tell, as we were all contributing writers. This was very much a dudes’ band, and there were plenty of wild parties. We all moved into my dad’s rental house in San Jose for a while, then into a big house in Palo Alto that belonged to Steve’s girlfriend’s parents, who were in Europe for the Summer. John and Steve were both popular with the girls, and Mike and I soon found ourselves partying and hanging out with a number of groupies. This had never happened in Arms and Legs, and soon we were dating and fighting over chicks! While I got to contribute some songs, John was the main writer and vocalist, and he assumed the role of band leader and promoter. We gigged at all the same clubs Arms and Legs did, plus college and high school appearances and even a high school dance. Our biggest break came when Steve’s older sister and her boyfriend offered to become our financial backers. They hired a producer from LA and booked studio time at The Plant in Sausalito. This was one of the greatest experiences; recording in a full-scale pro recording studio. We were put up for two weeks in a cabin in the Marin hills in June 1985, and worked with our producer John Hug and engineer Rick Sanchez on a 4-song demo down at The Plant. Journey and Starship were recording in the studio at the same time we were. That was very surreal, hanging out with Steve Perry, Neil Schon, Grace Slick and Mickey Thomas in the break rooms in between sessions. Neil even let me borrow his Marshall amp for a recording. We shopped the demo around to every major and indie record label we could think of, but unfortunately didn’t get much positive feedback. Within the year tensions were forming, and finally Mike and I left the band.