Somewhere between '69 and '71, Andy Brandt was a CO doing his alternative service at Channing Murray. I was curious if anyone knew where he was now or what he's doing.

Alan Brown

...I will be thinking so strongly of the Red Herring this weekend, even as I honor my commitments at home..but I will miss being with you. It has been great to reestablish contact with so many people with whom I made music, learned about life, and loved.
I am blessed with a very full and happy life.... Lucky to have lots of music and stage opportunities in our little town (yes, I am still writing and performing, and also taking any and all accompaniment jobs). I have a job teaching music and drama at a very relaxed private school, a part-time job as Director of the Concert Series at Washington College, a position as organist (also playing guitar, piano, whatever) in the local Presby church, and I still have time for many friends and fun.

Email to all the Red Herring regulars:

This is from Peter Berkow.

I am quite excited about seeing all of you this weekend at the reunion.

I have been asked to be master of cermonies on Saturday night.

It is quite an honor to return to the town I grew up in this way.

Before we arrive, I wanted to send this personal note to all of you. I remember that 40 years ago it was my job to get people on and off the stage. The getting people off the stage was the most difficult part. (Grin.)

So many people wanted to play at this event, and Ron Cannon has worked very hard to give as many people as possible a chance to play some music. In fact, many late comers will not have a chance to play at all.

If you look at the set list, it is obviously very tight.

Hi,

I covered for the Daily Illini and the (no longer) C-U Courier the New Left during the days of the Dow Demonstration, the DuBois Club controversy, etc., during the 1960s; many meetings took place (SDS, etc.) at C-Murray or the Herring. Later I edited The Advisor (student course evaluation) in 1968-69 and ran the Used Book Store in the Wright St. Y BAsement (1971-74). Will be in C-U June 24/25 and would be glad to hear from anyone who remembers me from those days.

Bob Goldstein
goldstei@oakland.edu

It's been tough committing to attend, since believe it or not, I'm the proud papa of toddler (wanna see the first 7,000 photos?) But I am indeed going to be there. This is a recent development, so...

Obviously I'm not slated to be on the performance schedule, but that never stopped me before. As you no doubt remember, I'm not much of a singer; hence I can't really perform any of the thousand songs I've written, but I hereby officially volunteer to accompany anyone who wants to take the time to either rehearse or send me an mp3 of a tune. My hope is that Billy Panda makes the same offer. (In terms of guitarability, Billy left me in the dust many years ago, so if he's offering, I'd take him up on it. Both of us accompanying would not be a bad thing either.)

I have been lurking here for a few weeks now and I simply can't believe the response to this reunion. There are so many of you coming that meant so much to me when I was at the Red Herring between 1968 and 1971 but I never expected to see you again. I am planning to come and really looking forward to taking part in this.

Bill Trompeter

Remember that girl behind the counter with the long dark hair, the colorful leotard and low-slung jeans? That was me. And there's no way I'm going to miss this folk fest!

Can't wait to see you all again.

The Herring was my home for four beautiful years. And it means more to me than you can imagine. I drew the cover of one of the Folk and Music albums. I learned to play the piano on the beat-up upright. And everything I learned about music in my Herring years helped me in later life when I wrote jingles for companies like McDonald's.

I'll get in Saturday afternoon, and am really looking forward to being there again. This will be the first reunion i've ever attended, and i absolutely expect to have one heavenuva good time seeing old friends, and revisiting the place where so many incredible, indelible memories were made. And i fully expect to make some amazing and wonderful new ones, too...

As a result of the impending reunion, I have been busily contacting folks that I haven't even thought about in years. What a great way to make "new" friends - by getting back in touch with old ones. It's so interesting to see what everyone is doing now.

I remember organizing the first Red Herring music festivals and producing the first records like it was yesterday.

I was still fresh from dropping out of the pre-med program at the University of Illinois, confronting my draft board about Vietnam ("Give me a CO, or I'll go to jail," I said ... ) and learning some of my first guitar licks from Dan Fogelberg, Steve Reinwand, and Peter Swinnerton.