By CASEY FREEMAN
For the Colorado Daily
Countless musical groups make their home right here in Boulder. Unfortunately, most of these bands only survive for a semester, a year or until all the chips are gone. Problems; such as too much ego and substance abuse and not enough drive or talent, cause many bands to break up before they ever even put on a good show.
But one band from Boulder has been together for over 1O years, and shows no sign of breaking up. The Bandits are a cover band, a sturdy quintet that has survived many of the troubles that drive wedges between band members: personnel, changes, equipmement failures and kitchen floods.
"We found a way to form a group that doesn't have a lot of edgy things going on and ego battles," says Mark Hubley, one of the group's guitarists. "Everybody likes each other a lot, so there's really no reason not to stay together for l0 years."
Mark Hubley and Mike Morgan play guitar while Jackson Mammele strums the bass.
It's kind of like family at this point We all get atong very well There isn't any one of us who considers us the leader, the boss or the manager," says drummer Rich Gray. "We work things out by just discussing it among all of us. So far we've been lucky and it's all worked out very well."
"Mike Morgan, (the other guitar player) and I met through a mutual friend waaaay back," says Hubley, who works a day job as an animator, contributing to famous cartoons such as "The Smurfs." "They were forming a band that needed a bass player, and I played bass."
The four guys, Gray, Hubley, Morgan and Mammele, have been together for 10 years, while singer Whitney Delohery has been with them for about five years.
"I am related to one of the guitar players (Mike Morgan) through my husband," says Delohery. One day at a party, "they (The Bandits) had just let go of their lead singer and I had just left a band. The timing was just perfect, They called me for a rehearsal and we've been together since."
All of the band members are accustomed to working hard and practicing. They all grew up playing various instruments in different types of bands.
Mammele's father was a jazz pianist who insisted his children take piano lessons. Mammele has also played in various high school bands and more. Hubley has been strumming a Gibson guitar for over four decades.
"Music has always been part of my life and it's similar with the rest of us," says Gray, who played in his high school's band, went to college on a music scholarship and later played in the 282nd Army Band.
The Bandits play primarily classic rock and roll covers, but they also do a little country, some new songs and some of their own creations.
"Playing cover music is like living different eras of our lives," says Hubley. "In a lot of ways we revisit eras from our collective past that hold Special places in our hearts."
The Bandits enjoy playing cover songs, but they try to make them very danceable so the audience parties and has as much fun as the band does.
"We just get a real kick out of being able to perform," says Gray.
As time moves on, the band members and the music grows older, perspectives and needs start to change.
"The best part about being with this band is that there is more respect, and these guys give me the most respect of any band I've ever been with, ever," says Delohery, who before becoming a Bandit toured with professional bands for about 15 years. Not only that, they're family-orientated, fun - and that's just refreshing."
But playing music hasn't been all fun and games. Members compare setting up for a gig to moving in and out of an apartment." The worst gig that came to mind was one very wet night at a bar.
"Somebody tipped over about 50 gallons of water in the kitchen and it came flooding right out to our equipment, like a wave of water at all of our electrical equipment that was all turned up and we were playing," says Hubley, who can laugh about it. now. "We just had to stop, immediately unplug stuff, start grabbing things and rescuing stuff. That was a nightmare and the end of the evening"
The Bandits have stuck together for over a decade, but not without struggle.
"Not everyone, gets along perfectly, but we all communicate really well so we know to leave who alone," says Delohery. "We know each others boundaries."
Most bands hope to turn professional so they can make tons of money, go on Worldwide tours and meet a bunch of groupies, but the Bandits enjoy their day jobs, staying local and making their love of music tangible, together.
"Music, has been a great release from the pressures of other work and daily life and so forth," says Gray. "When you're playing the music nothing else is in your head, you're not thinking about anything else and it just takes you away."