Deacons Timeline III – Early Deacons

Posted: January 11, 2007 

Summer 1986

Rick, Dan & Dave discuss putting together a new band that combines the best of all that’s come before. Cam offers to come in and play drums, an instrument he’s never played onstage before. Serious rehearsals start in August.

October 1986

First Deacons gig. Mickey DeSadist (Forgotten Rebels) emcees & gives away TiCats tickets (a club promo) between sets. Name comes from Tim Gibbons, who has apparently taken to calling the band “Reverend Rick & the Deacons”. Mercifully, only the “Deacons” part sticks.

February 1987

Dave gets engaged between sets at a Deacons gig. “About the same time as my brother-in-law proposed to my sister-in-law on a beach in Acapulco, I proposed to my wife under a railway bridge in Hamilton!”

March 1987

Cam is called up to serve his country again. His recommended replacement is his brother, veteran percussionist Ken Brawn. With the added muscle Kenny’s drumming provides, the band renames itself “the Screamin’ Deacons”.

May 1987

Cam returns, and for a brief time, the Deacons are a five-piece, with Cam on precussion, harmonica & guitar. “The energy level was INSANE, and it was musically one of the best bands I’ve ever been in. However, all we ever did was argue”, sez Dave.

May / June 1987

Meanwhile, Dan & Dave have been buying recording gear in hopes of building a demo studio. “We needed guinea pigs to try it out on, so why not the Deacons?”

The first sessions produced two songs, a rocked-up version of “(I’m a) Lonesome Fugitive“, which was Merle Haggard’s first hit (written by Lynn Anderson’s parents), and the Eddie Cochran classic “Cut Across Shorty“. A third song, Johnny Cash’s “Tennessee Flat Top Box“, was recorded but never completed.

Fall 1987

Almost exactly a year after the Deacons’ original lineup launched, the band grinds to a halt. “A couple of people were struggling with personal issues, but the biggest reason for the collapse was that we were friends first, and bandmates second”, reasons Dave.”We didn’t want the politics within the band to permanently affect our friendship.”

1988

1988 was the year of no Deacons. The individual members gigged together and separately in a variety of combinations (The Jacklords, the Hucklebucks, Sweaty Betty) but none of these bands lasted more than one or two gigs. The one bright spot that year was Dave becoming the first married Deacon in August. True to form, Dan was best man.

1989

The Screamin’ Deacons lineup (Rick, Kenny, Dan, Dave) reform briefly in the spring. “We played about four gigs in about six weeks. The truly memorable one was playing Good Friday at the Gown & Gavel, when I looked out into the audience (I think we were playing “Fortunate Son”) and realized that every musician in the city was there. Then I went to Boston for a week’s vacation with my new bride, and by the time I got back, the band had broken up”, recalls Dave.

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