Paul Rock used to have this quaint little house off highland near olympic, which is south of hancock park, in the lower hollywood/midtwon part of los angeles. Paul would host parties that centered around great bands from the past. case in point; about 10 years ago (actually, I believe it was April 29, 1993), Paul invited Baby Lemonade to attend his “beach boys party” where there would be instruments set up in the living room and selected musicians were asked to play beach boys songs. The bands asked to attend that night (besides us) were the Wondermints, The Negro Problem and Daisy Chain. We’d never met any of them before that night.

At the time, Baby Lemonade consisted of Daddyo, Rusty, Myself and original bassist, Henry Lui. We played our set and then we had to split, as we had our very first gig playing at Raji’s in Hollywood as the new LOVE group. So we only caught the Wondermints, who were spot on brilliant. That night was really great and it was Paul, being the kind of guy he is that would bring musicians together like that. And it gets funnier; the opening band, BOYS NAMED SUE, had a really cute, long hair bassist that we eventually asked to join Baby Lemonade and LOVE; Dave Chapple.

I remember when we met up with dave to discuss the group, we were nervous cause several bassist we wanted to audition wanted nothing to do with us. See, at the time, Rusty and myself had a bit of a reputation of being assh*les when it came to working on music. But we’re totally nice now! Plus, you know, at the time-and we’re talking 1993- the singer had a not so good reputation. We worked our asses off to bring credibility back to name LOVE. Many people come up and tell us we’re lucky to be playing in LOVE but they forget what it USED to be like. I mean, I certainly FEEL blessed beyond words…everyday. But I like it now that LOVE fans have raised the bar and expect more…they expect the best. I hear boots from ’92 and stuff like in Liverpool and think people must be mad! But that’s their memory…you can’t take that away! Those are special moments. But i trult hope, with these upcoming shows in the states, that we really get this thing across to you-hoo, know what I mean? It’s time for America to stand up and be counted among the Forever Changes faithful.

But back to ol Paul Rock. Paul has put together many amazing concerts featuring soem of the best talents around (brain Wilson, Alex Chilton, Jon Brion…ok, wierd people…just joking…) and guess what he does with the proceeds from many tribute concerts he’s put together with his WILD HONEY FOUNDATION? he gives the proceeds to charity. just recently, march 27 (the day AFTER we flew to Amsterdam!) he put together a tribute to Elvis Costello, featuring a host of great folks, including Michael Penn and Aimee Mann. All the proceeds went to the USC Cancer Center, where a good friend of ours, Greg, has been battling cancer for the last 7 months. That’s why I like Paul Rock. He’s one of the good guys.

Mike Randle