Iridium History, How it all came together
By Wayne 


I first met Chuck Abbey in 1976. I went to high school with Chuck’s brother Mark. The first time I heard Chuck play guitar was a real experience. He had a crappy guitar (a “Winston” I think) with a tiny little amp with a Radio Shack horn tweeter. He could do some really loud screeching Hendrix-like feedback, but couldn’t really play anything resembling a song. I left his house with my ears ringing. If you had told me then how good a guitar player he would be today, I would have never believed it. We started hanging out and riding around in Chuck’s 1970 Barracuda. Chuck bought a copy of Rush’s “All The World’s a Stage” on 8-track (you heard right, an 8-track. Remember those?). We were so impressed with the Rush stuff, that I was inspired to buy a bass and try to play some of the songs. My favorite bassists back then were Rush’s Geddy Lee and Yes’s Chris Squire, and they both played Rickenbacker’s. I went to the music store and was shocked that a Rick cost over $1,000. I was only 18 and quite poor, so I bought a Univox clone of a Rick, which was less than half the cost. Even at that price, I had to finance it for a year. But I got it and started trying to learn the Rush songs. Chuck bought a tobacco-stain Les Paul, followed by an original white Stratocaster and we kept practicing.

I went to Northwest high school with Larry VanDruten and Steve’s brother Harry Steinmann. I met Steve when I was at Harry’s house one day not long after we graduated from high school when he was jamming with Larry and Tim Cunningham. Chuck was getting pretty good on the guitar and joined the band. When the original bass player decided to leave, I stepped in and the original line-up was complete. When we first formed, we were looking for a new place to rehearse. Tim’s parents lived on a 55 acre farm and he said he had a barn behind the house that we could use. We took a drive over there to check it out and the “driveway” to the house was little more that a dirt path through the woods. I thought he was taking us 4-wheeling when we followed him back there. I had a big old Chrysler and it was not made for off-road, but we all made it. It turned out to be a great place to practice. It was way back in the middle of a bunch of land where the noise wouldn’t bother anyone. We setup our gear in the barn and began practicing there. Tim’s folks had a pet goat that ran around the property, and he was always hanging around at practice. Tim’s parents told us that we weren’t allowed to smoke out there, since it was a wooden building, but we did anyway. It turned out that the goat loved to eat cigarette butts, and would clean up all of the evidence. That goat could clean an entire ashtray with one swipe of his tongue. In fact, the goat loved any kind of paper, so we could not leave any paper lying around. We lost many set lists and lyric sheets to that goat. You would think a goat would hate loud rock music, but he was always there. He was our first real fan.

As we got better and started to play at the local bars, we began to gather a large group of fans. Even though the barn was in the middle of a field with a driveway that you could barely drive down without a 4-wheel drive, people started showing up at rehearsal every night. We would look out of the barn and see a line of headlights working their way down the driveway. Some nights, we had a mini-Woodstock back there. There were cars and people everywhere. The barn had a dirt floor, so you would get a big cloud of dust when people would dance. Eventually, we moved rehearsal to the garage at Steve’s parent’s house. But that turned out to be just as bad, because the garage was right off of Harrison Avenue. Being much more accessible and near a major road, we had even more people showing up. We played many of the local bars in that part of town, and were the house band at Lady Love on Harrison Avenue for a long time. We also played outdoor events like Gobbler’s Knob. 


The Band Moves On

Around 1980, after playing together for about 3 years, the band drifted apart. Tim moved to California and everyone else started playing with other bands. Larry played in several other bands with Chuck and eventually joined a local band called Fast Forward, and is still playing with them today (www.thefastforwardband.com). Tim played with numerous California bands such as Craven Morehead and Bad Town Boys. While with the Bad Town Boys, they released several CD’s and went on a tour of Europe. Steve was in numerous bands over the years. He was the lead vocalist for the original Crash Landing band with Ed Hall on bass, Duane Harmon on guitar, Keith Hobbs on drums, and played all around the city. Chuck played in several notable bands. He played with Larry VanDuten in Monterry and St. Valentine. He also played in a band called Lion Heart with Ed Hall on bass and Keith Hobbs on drums. Chuck and Larry still work together and play in a band for the company Christmas party every year. Wayne and Chuck formed a band called Navigator in the early 80’s and continued to jam informally over the years. 


It All Comes Back Together

Chuck and Steve began jamming together again after Steve left Crash Landing. They were working on some projects for fun, such as a Led Zepplin tribute band. Tim moved back to the Cincy area along with his Bad Town Boys bandmate Tom. They formed a band called Killjoey with Steve, Chuck, Tim, and Tom playing bass. When Tom decided to leave the band, Chuck called me one night and said “How would you like to play bass in the old band again?”. When he first told me that he had been jamming with Steve and Tim again, the whole idea of a reunion seemed unreal. I had often joked with Chuck that we were due for a reunion jam, but never thought that it would really happen. We decided to meet at Harry’s house one Friday in November 2001 night for a jam. I was really nervous, because I had not seen Tim since the old band days, and had only seen Steve a handful of times over the years. The first time we played together after that many years was a very surreal experience. It was just like the old days all over again. We had a great time rehashing stories of the original band and all the fun we had. At first, we thought this was just going to be a fun Friday night thing to do, and never really planned on this being a real working band again. However, after a few months of rehearsing, Tim lined up a gig at a bar near his house. We played our first gig at Who Cares in Brookville Indiana in early 2002 and had a great time. We had a good crowd and it was clear that we were back! We had a great time and decided we wanted to do more live shows. The original line-up performed for the next 5+ years. 


The Next Chapter

In August 2007, after nearly six years, Tim left the band. A search for a new drummer began and Keith Hobbs joined the band on drums to replace him. Keith had just become available due to the recent breakup of his current band DVS. The timing could not have been more perfect for a reunion with Chuck and Steve. Even though Chuck and Steve had both played in great bands with Keith separately, the three of them had only played together for a very brief time. They came together to start a Led Zeppelin tribute band, but Chuck was injured in a motorcycle accident and the short-lived reunion was shelved until Chuck could recuperate. Unfortunately, everyone moved on to other bands and that line-up did not reform again until years later. The new lineup started playing in September 2007 and continues today. 


Iridium Today

Jeff Stewart provides the sound for our live shows, as well as singing and playing harmonica on a few songs. We’re all older (maybe “more experienced” is a better term) so we continue to play for fun. We don’t have as much time to devote to music as we did when we were younger, but we still play live as often as we can. As long as we’re having a good time, and have fans who enjoy the music, we will keep going. Thanks for your support and stay tuned to the website for news and upcoming shows.

-Wayne 
August 2007