Cole Stanfield: Some times you take the Long Way Around.
Today my mother brought me some old videotapes of some of the bands that I've been in throughout my life.
I was also on the net searching some of the bands I remember from those days. It made me realize how much fun it is to remember those times, so here's a trip down memory lane for all those that have known me or want to know my story.
When I first discovered music I can remember listening to my father's eight-track tape, I think it was Boston and Kansas. I remember singing along with them like it was nothing. I soon found some friends that played some instruments, I think I had a Peavey T-15; you know the one with the amp in the case. My friend Andrew lived across the golf course and all I remember is that we could play some Rush; I think it was Trees and Lime Light. Sometime around then my voice changed and all of a sudden those guys where a bitch to sing.
Soon after I remember meeting a friend around the corner from me who was listening to Ozzy Ozbourn. Wow, who was this guy listening to this cool music that I had never heard? Turned out to be one of my best friends Bobby Williamson. We started to experiment with playing together. He wanted to be a drummer, or was it pots and pans. My father, Jack Stanfield, bought us our first drum set, a CB 700, isn't that the first set everyone owns. From that point I was hooked, think we started off playing Smoke On The Water and Iron Man. I had remembered a band playing that song in the Jr. High talent show. At that time I was playing and singing and we soon worked up Purple Hayz and Cocaine. These songs I could actually sing and play although when it came to the solo sections I think we just went back to the verse. One day Bobby came up to me and said he met a couple of guys that played guitar (Stuart McKay and Rudy Pinada) and we should start a band. These guys were phenomenal. They could even play the solo sections of the large list we had worked up. For at least two years our list consisted of Smoking In The Boys Room (Motley Crew version of course), Suicide Solution, and Mr. Crowley. At that point we decided we needed a bass player. The first bass player we had was Patty, she was already famous (the girl in the front row of the "Home Sweet Home" video by Motley Crew). Boy, Livin' After Midnight never sounded so good, back up singing and all! She only lasted awhile because she and Bobby had a thing going (later realized relationships in a band... never a good idea). We soon found Jeff, experienced and cool; I think it was the 76 Camero that sold me. It was time to gig, the band would be called Espionage. Our first battle of the bands was with Silk and Holly Roxx at On the Rocks. I think we came in third. Well at least it wasn't last! We played several gigs including my high school talent show. After high school Espionage went our separate ways.
I tried out for a band named Success (Steve Newcomer, Jim Finn, Rick Flores, Bill Wilkerson and George Garvin). I remember showing up to their house and meeting a beautiful young woman who later became my wife, Julie. I got the gig and we set our sites on the first show. It was going to be a big one, one no one would ever forget. We made the banners and worked night and day on the songs we were going to play. The first gig was going to be a self-promoted show at the FM1960 Car Show. It was 1989 and the show went of with out a hitch. Success worked hard and played a lot I remember Shooters very well... oh those tequila sunrises. We decided it was time to hit the road so we bought ourselves a P.A. and a converted school bus and were ready, when, all the sudden I was out of the band. What a blow, still to this day I don't know what hit me. That was many moons ago and we are all friends to this day.
This was about the time a new club opened up called Headbangers Ball with the coolest painting of Eddie (from Iron Maiden) on the wall. I hooked up with some of the greatest musicians I'd ever played with. The band was Revolution (Bobby Fikes, Karim Khoresheed, Rusty Cooley and Jess Mitchell). Our first show was at Headbangers Ball and we grew from there. We played many shows and made so many friends over the next 6 years that it would be a whole other page (maybe someday soon). We Released an EP entitled Graffiti (which can be heard on Rusty's Site under the audio tab) and recorded many demos. Some highlights would have to be getting to play with Rusty and Karim, meeting our second drummer Jeff Huerta (former singer for the band Winter) and recording a great CD at Mickey Gilly's house with his son Greg Gilly; incredible times and so many good friends. I remember having a rehearsal room downtown where we practiced with the band Bang Bang.
At the end of these times my fiancé, Julie (now my wife) and I were having some hard times and I felt that Houston was no longer the place for me so in 1996 I decided to move to Austin, TX where my brother Shane had been living for five years. It was also the place where the Arc Angels and bands like that were located. I moved to Austin and started over. After about 8 months my brother hooked me up with a guy he knew that was looking for a singer, so I tried out for a band called Otis Pinto (Patrick Donahue, Chris Donahue, and Rob Shilz). We released a three-song demo and later a full length CD called Funky Stuff.
I also started a band and idea called Green Rosetta. The idea was to create a family of musicians who could create without the pressure of being on the track to "make it big", and to have a group of musicians that had no concern for the confinement of any particular style of music. I decided that this would be best accomplished by a variety of inputs so I created this web site and invited the world to join. It was around this time that my X- fiancé came to Austin and decided to propose to me (thank you). We finally, after nine years of dating, got married and two years later had a boy named Jacob.
It was in 1996 that I started working at a backline company called Music Maker Rentals. It was here that I met Mark Geary the Drummer of a "little known band" called Dangerous Toys. After bugging him with my riffs in the warehouse I asked if he would be interested in helping me record some songs I had been working on. He agreed and we recorded a five song EP called Proof of Life. It turned out well and we had so much fun that he suggested that he might be able to get Mike Watson (also from Dangerous Toys) interested in putting a project together. We soon found a guitar player in the local blues bar and we recorded our second EP under the band name Proof of Life...the rest is yet to come.