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It's been an incredible journey since Deuce
was formed. I should know because I've been here since
day one. If you've been to any show you've seen me
because I haven't missed a single one! I'm the one that
built the sign and of course I now get to
hook it up and run it at every show. The hardest part
though is trying to find enough power to run the thing.
What you see on the left is part of the equipment that I
deal with at every show. In my right hand is the 16
channel controller for the 6000 watt sign visible in the
background. The controller has a miniature IBM PC built
into the back of it and uses custom software which I
wrote in Turbo Pascal. It runs in DOS and does NOT use
WindoZe. In my left hand is the power panel to run
everything. Wrapped around my neck is all the cabling
needed to hook everything up. Sitting on the floor is the
new 16 channel pyro box. Bill built the box then I got to
stuff it with black magic. All the electronics came from
60 throw away cameras. The entire band thanks you Mary
for saving these for us. You're the only one that would
do this for us and we appreciate it. Instead of them
ending up in a land fill they are now performing a useful
task. I built everything you see in this photo for ! You can read more about the sign HERE. |
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I remember when we first got to one of the clubs and someone on our crew asked me where the bathroom was. I told them I have no idea but I can tell you where the fuse box is! This is the very first thing I look for when we get to a new gig. You see I have an entirely different persepective when it comes to Deuce shows. Our show is one of the most demanding of any I've ever worked when it comes to power. Since I also wrote the computer program that controls everything I've developed some clever software that allows us to light the 6000 watt sign yet use only 400 watts average power. A BIG help at some shows which have no provision for a 6000 watt sign on stage. Of course it's always a joy to work those shows where there is ample power and I get to crank the sign all the way to the 6000 watt max without worrying about blacking out the entire club or part of the neighborhood! I remember doing one show where one of our fans came running up to me and told me to look out the window. When I did I was shocked to see the street lights dimming in step with Deuce and the sign! |
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As far as I know I'm the oldest member of . Although I can't believe it I've been at
this for ~40 years now! A couple of reasons why I think
I'm still at this is because I became a vegetarian over
20 years ago which made a TREMENDOUS improvement in my
health and energy level plus I've been practicing and
teaching Yoga for many years. I also stopped getting hair
cuts around the same time. Like they said in an old song,
"It's done by itself" but at this point I'm
just glad I still have ANY hair! I find the flexibility
and concentration Yoga gives me much more beneficial than
any other form of excercise that I've tried such as
weight training, etc. And just so you don't get the wrong
idea, Yoga has NOTHING to do with religion or cults. At
least not in the form that I or anyone else that I know
practices it. It's just an ancient form of relaxtion
combined with stretching and breathing excercises. It has
helped me to ignore everything else going on around me
and concentrate on what I'm doing no matter what's going
on. Many of you have probably noticed this when you try
to get my attention and I'm busy doing something. The ear
plugs and headphones don't help either as I can't hear
much of anything around me so talking is pretty much out
of the question during a show. (Sorry Joy!!! We've got to
find a way to continue during a show!) |
When I was younger I always hung out with older people because I didn't seem to have anything in common with people my age. Now that I'm older I still don't seem to have anything in common with people my age. They seem so OLD !!! I can just imagine discussing Deuce or some other current group with some of these people. They just look at me with a blank stare as they don't have a clue as to what I'm talking about! Imagine trying to explain to them that I hang out with a bunch of guys that wear tights, makeup and lipstick! For some strange reason it just doesn't come across properly and they just don't understand !!! Looks like I'm forever caught up in the generation gap! Fortunately I seem to get along just fine with younger people now which is why I enjoy doing this type of work so much.
I've always enjoyed music. Over the years I've played bass, keyboards, fooled around with the drums a bit, did some vocal work and for a while was playing in a rather unique two man band called TNbT (The Next Best Thing). I played keyboard and did vocals along with a live drummer. Everything else including the lighting rig was computer generated by a sequencer and a huge midi setup. We played mostly nursing care homes, dinner parties, special events, etc. doing stuff from the big band era which these people seemed to enjoy. However, we could and did play anything from the 20's right up to the most current rock music. I remember at one of the nursing homes we played in Pittsburgh where someone asked if we knew anything by Green Day! This came as quite a shock to me as I didn't think any of these people even knew who Green Day was but much to their suprise we could play anything they asked for! I think it was one of the mental patients that wanted to hear Basket Case !!!!
Although I put a year in toward my BSEE (Electronic) degree I never continued as the school I was going to dropped the Electronic degree and tried to force all of us into the Electrical Engineering department which of course I had absolutely NO interest in. I then decided to pursue a career in broadcasting since I managed to get my First Class Radio Telephone License when I was 16 which was all that was required at that time to pursue this career. I already had some experience in this field as I had been working at WGL while I was going to college as well as maintaining the post of Chief Engineer of the college radio station. I worked back in the 70's at KQV and KQV-FM radio, back when AM radio was king and KQV AM was top 40. FM radio was just starting to catch on back then. Both were owned by ABC radio at the time. I was the engineer on duty the night that KQV-FM signed off for the last time. I popped out the KQV-FM ID cart and stuck in the new WDVE-FM station ID cart and 102.5 became WDVE so I was the engineer that put WDVE on the air! That was back in the early 70's. The rest is history. For those of you with a technical background you may enjoy my personal web site at: K3PGP. I've had my ham radio license since age 12. I was the only one in grade school with a ham license so I really didn't have much in common with the other kids in my class. Unfortunately this continued through high school.
As many of your know the original broke
up after approximately five years. Although I can't speak for
anyone else I was pretty much disgusted with everything and was
tired of dealing with all the personality conflicts. I had to
patch the sign together with chewing gum and masking tape to keep
it running as it was next to impossible to get any money to make
repairs that were needed. I'm sure many of you remember seeing me
swapping light bulbs around in the sign trying to hide all the
burnt out light bulbs behind the Catman's head as I couldn't even
get money for light bulbs! Thanks Bill for spending all those
hours sitting on stage in front of the U hiding all my bad light
bulbs! I never could have hid them without you! Although I'm sure
you didn't mind it being a bit cooler when some of the bulbs
didn't work. In that case the more bad bulbs I could stick in the
bottom of the U the better! When I found out Aaron was leaving
Deuce I decided that was the perfect time for me to leave as well
as I HAD IT and was ready to quit anyway. In the old I
always got the impression I was only there because no one else
could do what I was doing. That's why I always arrived at the
last minute and was the first one out the door at 2 am!
I used to kid everyone that all that Deuce needed was a new bass player. Little did I know that my joke would one day come true. Sorry Rob (or whatever you call yourself these days!) but you were the main reason why I quit the original Deuce. I hope you were able to make good use of the D! (The D contained all the electronics for the original sign.) But without the magic computer program the D and all the other letters is just an expensive collection of bad light bulbs and parts. Because you chose to keep the D and a couple other letters we were forced to completely rebuild the sign and we now have an even more powerful and versatile sign than ever. And this one is a dream come true to set up and run! I can't thank you enough for keeping that pile of junk otherwise I'd still be trying to patch it together with bubble gum and masking tape! The original Deuce sign was a marvel in it's time but I'm glad I no longer have to deal with it.
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I had mixed reactions when I found out Deuce
was reforming as it brought back too many bad memories.
Although the original Deuce started out being a lot of
fun things got kind of ugly in later years right before
we broke up. There was also the issue that Kurt passed
away shortly after Deuce broke up and I wasn't sure if I
could do the show without him. However, once I found out
what a great crew we have now I'm glad I returned when
the band reformed. The first five years was a great
education. We learned what worked and what didn't. Now
we're prepared to draw upon that knowledge and do it
right! For the first time in over 6 years with Deuce I
now feel like I'm part of a team. Now if I need something
all I have to do is ask!!! It's now a two way street and
we're all working together toward the common goal of
bringing you a bigger and better D_E_U_C_E !!! Oh, for those of you into that sort of thing and in case you haven't figured it out by now I'm a Virgo. (09-15) Now you know why I never stop till it works PERFECTLY !!! Website > WWW.K3PGP.ORG |
Copyright 1995 -
2001 DEUCE & KatHouse Productions
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