Thursday, Sep. 24, 2009
Octopus Jones Loses An Arm
Steve Bailey
Tragedy struck Aug. 29 when Octopus Jones’ bassist/vocalist John Pruitt, 20, was killed in an early morning car accident on Tibwin Avenue off Gardner Lacy Road in Myrtle Beach. Pruitt, from Lake Wylie, was a student at Coastal Carolina University in addition to playing with Octopus Jones, which was a finalist in the Hard Rock Café Battle of the Bands in April and had been playing regularly around the beach.
An impromptu benefit concert, tentatively scheduled for Saturday at Drink! in Myrtle Beach, has been cancelled. “We’re just not ready,” said Darrin Cripe, fellow CCU student, Octopus Jones drummer and friend of the deceased. “We’re still all in shock. We will do this benefit, but we want to get a bunch of our friends together. We’re still playing and writing new songs, but we’re just not ready.”
Reports say Pruitt lost control of the 2003 Chevrolet Trailblazer he was driving, which struck a tree and flipped into a partially filled ditch, trapping him underwater. Pruitt was alone in the vehicle. Tragic beyond words…
taking it to the limit
Our hometown fretless bass wizard, Steve Bailey, will perform on multiple bass guitars in concert with Grammy-winning harmonica player and keyboardist Howard Levy (Bela Fleck and the Flecktones) and drummer Jeff Sipe (Trey Anastasio’s band) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Wheelwright Auditorium at Coastal Carolina University in Conway.
The concert, billed as “Pushing The Limits,” will reportedly showcase brand new material, plenty of improvisation and new twists on old standards. “We will push the limits, for sure,” said Bailey, who is an artist-in-residence at CCU, teaching bass guitar and recording classes. Bailey, from Myrtle Beach, has a long and well-respected career as a bassist performing and recording with Victor Wooten, Dizzy Gillespie, Jethro Tull, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Willie Nelson and dozens of others. He was voted “Runner-up Bass Player of the Year,” in 1994 and 1996 by Bass Player Magazine.
The concert will reunite Bailey with Levy and Sipe, two musicians with whom he has previously performed, but the concert will mark a first for the three as a trio. “It should be really interesting with the textures of the harmonica, keyboard, percussion, voice, upright bass, electric bass … it should be pretty cool.”
The performance will recorded (video and audio) and may be released as a DVD/CD sometime in the future, according to Bailey, who will also reinstate his week-long Bass at the Beach event in late January or February. “We’re still getting everybody’s schedules together, but it looks like after a two-year hiatus we’ll be back.”
Tickets for Pushing the Limits are between $10-$15 with reduced pricing for CCU students. Contact the Wheelwright Auditorium Box Office for more information at 349-2502.
RU ready 2 q-ROCK?
Q-Rock Radio (QRR) plays a retro 1960s – 1980s format and features live on-air personalities, requests, contests and sponsors rock concerts, too – though you won’t find it on your radio tuner in your car or at home, but all that may be changing as the station grows its technologies. QRR, which went live in May of this year at www.qrockradio.com, is hosting a concert by Nantucket (“Heartbreaker”) at 7 p.m. Friday at Celebrity Square at Broadway at the Beach. Opening the show are Steve Marino (father of Artichoke’s bassist Conner Mills) along with yours truly, The Paul Grimshaw Band. The event is a fundraiser for South by Southeast with 100 percent of the ticket proceeds going to the organization that hosts semi-monthly concerts at the Myrtle Beach Train Depot and also supports music in local schools.
Currently the online radio station features a live-streaming signal through your Web browser or any Web-enabled device, such as any mobile smart-phone. QRR, made up of some former WKZQ staffers, is hosting a WKZQ reunion this weekend with invited staff and DJs who worked at the station between 1973 –1997, when it was owned by Grand Strand Broadcasting. Bob Scarborough, a QRR co-founder, and former WKZQ deejay is often found behind the mike at QRR’s studio, which is open to the public, at Hero’s Harbor at Broadway at the Beach (adjacent to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville). “We wanted to all get together again and do something for the community and for South By Southeast, while we were at it,” he said. “We really love what Jeff [Roberts] is doing over there and this show will hopefully help them out.”
Tickets for the Nantucket concert are $15, available via www.qrockradio.com. The event is rain-or-shine and will be moved indoors, if necessary.
Have a thought, comment or newsworthy item for Weekly Surge Music Notes? Send an email to pgrimshaw@sc.rr.com.
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