Ok, I'm gonna ramble here a bit everyone, sorry...

Hi Ron, I'm new to the message board...but I'm an old Keel fan from back in the day. Your number one fan from Milwaukee back in the 80's in fact. You even knew me by name back then...but sadly, I haven't seen you perform since Sept. of 1989 at the Roxy when I was still living in Hollywood. The show was a week before I was scheduled to move back to Milwaukee. A year in Hollywood took it's toll on me and I had to get out, and that night after the show I was actually mugged on Sunset Strip trying to get back to my Apt! But I'm still glad I went to the show! LOL. Yeah, I can laugh about it all now...

Anyway, I've lost touch with alot of musicians I loved back then, but I still own the music of course. I made a bunch of scrapbooks back then of a couple of bands I loved the most. My Keel scrapbook is one of ONLY 3 I kept and I still have. The other 2 books (for Motley Crue and Tuff) were never even completely filled up. But the Keel scrapbook dates from '84-'89. I'm in the process of scanning some of it, so I hope you don't mind me sharing some old memories???

So how did I stumble back in to the music of RK? Well, my sister is friends with Dave and the rest of the Y& T camp and was at the Chicago show last Thurs. She sent me some pix of you at the show, and mentioned some of the songs that were sung. I was sad. I wished I could have been there! So after that, I ended up here at the website and myspace and even ordered the new CD. It arrived today. I'm still listening to it and I am blown away. It certainly takes me back...especially Serenade. Unfortunately, I never saw Steeler, but I saw you on the "Lay down the Law" tour at a club here called Papagio's (which sadly no longer exists), and that night you sang that song to me...some rock memories stay with you forever I guess.

I was also reminded of another memory when I was reading the liner notes of the new CD---

"There are those who have sat at a bar with me until long after closing, when my throat is raw, and listened to me pull out all my favorite songs..."

I recalled a night on the tour you did with Helix and Accept--you played at the Eagles Club and the date was July 27th, 1985. (21 years ago TODAY, wow) After the show, a couple of my friends and myself were in the venue's bar after the show just hanging out and there was a piano in the corner. You sat down and played just for us. I remember singing along to Seger's "Turn the Page"...it was incredible.

Here's an old pic of us from '85 from the scrapbook. It was taken at the In-Store signing before the show at the Eagles Club.

Thanks for the memories Ron, I hope to see you perform again someday soon. If you ever come back to Chicago, I will be there next time for sure! It's been too long...

-Brenda

Hi Brenda - VERY cool post, welcome to the Forums and thank YOU for the memories and for keeping the music alive.

I've done a lot of shows in my life - many memories are blurred at best - but I remember all 3 gigs that you mentioned. Milwaukee was a strong market for KEEL, and that show at Papagio's was one of our first long distance road gigs; the Eagle's Ballroom was a rocking gig (we returned the following year with Krokus)...and the Sept. 89 gig you mentioned was when we recorded the live side of "Larger Than Live".

I'm so glad you're enjoying "Alone At Last" - I'll probably have to include an acoustic version of "Turn The Page" on the sequel...

Ronnie......if you include that you know Joy will be first in line to get one!! LOL!! Maybe a mix version like was done live with IH?? hmmmm!!

That's a great picture. I wish Keel would have come to Houston more often.

Thanks. I have many more pictures...and a boatload of magazine articles and clippings. Scanning this stuff may take a while tho. But I'm more than happy to share...I'll post them in the "Keel" section of the forums tho, since they probably belong there I guess. In fact, I just posted some stuff there now. 2 flyers--from the shows I mentioned in my post (I guess the Roxy show was Oct, not the end of Sept. like I originally thought). And also a pic I took at the Papagio's show I mentioned, and another pic from the instore that the pic of me and Ron was taken at. Enjoy!

-Brenda