We used to have a band called Nick Kent & The Border Patrol (the name has a story to go with it).

The band had its heyday from the early 80s to the mid 90's. Our keyboard player moved away near the end of our run - he's the only one who can read music. He flew back to San Diego for gigs from time to time. Well, he did it once anyway. The bass player then moved away as well. Then he moved back, but by then the drummer and the other guitar player had kids. So it goes. When we actually played out, our material was mostly rock and R&B covers from the 50's-80's. Some might say we played a disproportionate number of Stones songs. I don't think so though. Our gigs were mostly private partys, weddings, etc. We usually didn't charge much money. We don't have any CDs, we do have a few noisy live tapes rattling around in a drawer somewhere, not suitable for reproduction. We were never what you'd call skilled musicians but we had a core group of fans who didn't seem to mind and were quite enthusiastic especially when we bought them beer.

Todd Barrett        guitar
Don Bedford         bass, backing vocals
Wade Blomgren       guitar
Tom Fisher          vocals,blues harp
Robin Gales         sax, from time to time
Bill Kazmierowicz   drums
Ed Roseboom         keys, percussion
Steve Wilder        sound (taught me to easy-chain extension cords, for which I am grateful every time I use my lawnmower)
Like Spinal Tap, we went through numerous drummers (7 at last count) but Bill stuck with it and never did spontaneously explode. Former drummers, each great in his own way, include: Chuck something, Phil something, Craig Leweck, Joe Parker, Pat Muglia, and Glen Arnold. We had a number of backup singers in the past, the best of which was Robin Moore but she quit to join a better band. The main problem with backup singers is that often they start dating people in the band, then they break up, and then you have to fire them.

A lot of the band members went to UCSD and/or SDSU. A lot of them have raced Snipe sailboats at one time or another. Some of them either work for SAIC or used to.


Wade Blomgren / wade@ucsd.edu