So said our dear friend, the late, great Bill Bennett in the clip you are hearing, to a crowd of what seemed like thousands of sweaty New Yorkers packing the Village Underground in Greenwich Village on August 21, 2002. Bill, the owner/operator of the “Off Wall Street Jam” music organization, was introducing the debut of Abbey Roadkill – the spiritual predecessor of Newspaper Taxis. Abbey Roadkill was created by Bill and his long time collaborator, Hank, to fulfill a simple mission – to play the Beatles masterpiece Abbey Road, perfectly, in order, side to side, start to finish. And that is what happened that night – it was magic.
Hank and Bill, together, had already been in bands devoted to the music of Tom Petty, Sly And The Family Stone, and others, when they decided to create a band to perform the music of Steve Miller, inviting mutual friend and investment banker Kevin, to join on guitar, keyboards and vocals. After a while, “Miller Time” decided to become “Squeeze Play,” when Bill, Hank and Kevin decided they liked playing Squeeze tunes together. Squeeze is kind of like the Beatles (you think?), and before you could say “Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl,” Bill, Kevin and Hank decided “Hey, let’s do the music of the Beatles – the band we all love the best, if we are going to be honest, here, but in a really cool and different way – let’s tackle Abbey Road!” (Another neat little band, the Fab Faux, was apparently having/ had had similar thoughts at the time. . . . )
Long-time friend of Bill, and new friend of Hank and Kevin, CEO George joined the project on drums. Finally, to round it out, Hank invited his college friend, the “secret weapon” -- attorney and keyboardist extraordinaire Brian (“I have memorized the Beatles canon hideously well and thusly you must bow to me”) to join on piano and keyboards – and cricket sound effects for side 2!! And Abbey Roadkill was born.
In 2003, Hank bought a Hofner bass and they fell in love -- Bill and Hank agreed that Hank could play bass in a new band, mostly from the guys in Abbey Roadkill, and do Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band perfectly, in order (well, what do you do after playing Abbey Road perfectly, in order?). Brian started loading crowd noises. Kevin began fixing a hole. George got by with a little help. . . . Bill, who could play a mean guitar, but was also promoting shows, decided to sit this band out and just be its Brian Epstein. This gave another guitarist a chance to have fun with the guys, and Robert, accountant and Lennon-vocal-doppleganger, joined the bunch. The Newspaper Taxis were born, and it was good, and Bill started booking the band for gigs.
Bill passed away in 2003 before he could see us play, but we debuted in 2003 at the Red Lion on Bleecker Street, and have played lots of shows since -- we wanted to keep going after doing Sgt Pepper because (a) we are serious musicians that, as it turns out, sound great together, (b) we are good friends, (c) and we are the only ones that can put up with each other’s obsessive attention to Beatle detail and so we are forced to hang out together. Adding publishing maven Rod on drums in 2007 (to relieve the recently married George), and now God of Thunder Tyler (to relieve the recently George'd Rod) you can now watch Newspaper Taxis dodging careers, kids, and all kinds of distractions to continue appearing at top venues all over town. We love doing this, and we were even written up in the Wall Street Journal in 200t. So join our mailing list with your head in the clouds, and you're gone!
