OT: 14th Annual "Pinfield Era" Melody Bar Reunion (2/29/20) at the Elks in NB
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Thinking of going this year... definitely was a regular for awhile...lot of great memories... The ones I can remember lol...John Easdale from Dramarama, Mike Hunt from The Wonderstuff....remember dancing with a member of the RU Women’s Basketball team one night but couldn’t stand any more kept falling over yikes...
If you were a regular, you should go - with 300+ former regulars (mostly) there, I'm sure you'll run into a few folks you knew. Matt Pinfield is very likely to be there again, spinning, along with a host of other former Melody DJs, so if you were a fan of the music from that era and dancing to it, you'll have a blast.
Don't think we'll see John Easdale or Miles Hunt (Mike Hunt was from Porky's lol), but I also recall seeing them at the Mel back in the day and elsewhere. Don't know if you waded through my short book of a first post, but I had Matt arrange with Miles to do my proposal to my now wife on stage at the Fastlane at a Wonder Stuff show, which was pretty cool.
More than a few trips to Steakout, but our go-to place after the Melody closed was the Somerset Diner. Anyone remember the "sweater fish" painting? It was the goofiest thing - a painting of a huge fish, wearing a knit sweater, swimming past some rocks, where the sweater had gotten caught on one of the rocks and was starting to unravel.
The Wonder Stuff — loved them.
My English roommate brought them back from England sometime during the 88-89 academic calendar.
Thanks for the memories:
You read them above. Here (admitting that I was not such a regular there, and if you were, you should have a good time:
The Somerset Diner was the goto place after all of the Rutgers Marching Band parties - we tried on more than one occasion to buy that picture, it was legendary!
Nice! Probably in my top 20 bands all-time and their first album, Eight Legged Groove Machine from 1987 is definitely in my top 10.
For those who don't know them, they were friggin' huge in the UK and Europe, with several #1 songs, but never made it big here, except in a few pockets that played alt music, like our area, given FM 106.3 in Eatontown, where Matt also DJ-ed and was program director played them a lot as did WLIR.
"Unbearable" from that album was one of our 3 "punk rock picnic" wedding songs (Matt DJ-ed that too), along with Just Like Heaven by the Cure and E=mc2 by BAD. Great stuff.
Imagine if an epic snowstorm fell that day and cancelled the event. Numbers would be conflicted
Almost happened in 2015, as we got 4" of snow the afternoon and evening of the event, but the show went on, although with light attendance - so we held a makeup reunion in April that year. Worked out great for me, lol...
It's $10. Just remember you need to be 44 or over to get in (or be with someone who is), as it's a private event. Would be cool to say hi. Will try to post the FB link, but it didn't work before. Can always just search for 12th annual Melody Reunion on Google or within FB to get the event details.
Dude, that's racist!
Have a blast. As I've mentioned before, the Melody was NOT on my list of entertainment options, back in the day. I was more of a Corner Tavern kinda guy.
Yeah, they need to start easing up on the 44 year old thing. It made sense so Rutgers students wouldn’t bum rush the event years ago but it has been going on for a decade with no problems. Otherwise I always have a good time.
Jesus. I just want to have a few drinks maybe a specal smoke and listen to some tunes . I didnt know it was attached to a god damned fillibuster..
Nobody forced you to read my first post, lol - could've just read the intro. Lots of folks go for a few drinks, some weed and some tunes - there are several rooms/bars in the old Elks, so it's easier to "get away" from the pounding music if you want (vs. the old Mel)
Eric I wasnt involved in the usual vetbal fracas here. I just asked a god damned question and you answered it. Enjoy the show!@@
Good to see another Rutgersfan is going to be there. Well, there has always been the age restriction (people who were at least 18 in 1992, the end of the Pinfield era), although it's become a bit more formal, after Big John, the doorman, died back in 2007. It became more formal, because John, while a generally good guy, could be a bit of a jerk to people he didn't know and some folks who were of age were refused entry.
Not sure how much the policy is needed, as I'm guessing a bunch of 20 somethings probably don't want to hang out with a bunch of oldsters anyway, but I can understand why it's in place, as the organizers, who I know quite well, really want this to be for actual regulars from back in the day and it mostly is.
Oops, thought you were teasing me for my very long intro post. Hope to see you there!
Thanks. Good thing for you, you can still have Corner Tavern reunions every night, lol. I spent quite a few nights there too - I frequented any bar with a pool table, like the CT and McCormick's.
Kind of, lol (see below). Pretty standard reunion for me. I get there a few hours early to help Ed Wong load in and set up - only takes an hour or so to do most of it, but then it takes Ed another hour or more to finish off the audio portion, as he has multiple amps, multiple inputs (turntables, CDs, etc.), and records the whole thing live. Event started right on time around 7 pm, with maybe 25-30 people already there.
Probably 100 there by 7:45 with a fairly full dance floor and the dance floor was pretty full from then till closing at 12:30 am. Most interesting thing might've been Sean Carolan getting the dance floor to full around 7:30 with a surprise song, "Driver's Seat," by Sniff & The Tears, which was not a Melody staple. Inspired choice. Set list is not up yet, but had many of the usual favorites and quite a few never or rarely played songs, which is always fun for me.
Probably a bit more focus on "popular" Melody tunes this year vs. last year. Heard total attendance was around 300, which is typical - raised almost $4000 for charity. Did have a few audio problems, with the multiple amps presumably drawing too much power and shorting out a circuit at the Elks - they had to run an extension cord to get a working outlet and Ed had to disconnect one of the amps, reducing the volume a bit, but not a big deal.
Went with the wife to the Somerset Diner after helping Ed break down and load out (done that by about 1 am) - kind of nostalgic for us, as that's where we went after dancing most of the night at the Melody on the night we met in 1987. I then had to get up and play soccer at 8 am, so I was pretty spent by yesterday afternoon - in fact, wrenched my back pretty good and worked from home today, but it's mostly better now.
Love that song "Driver's Seat" ! Tell me you also played "Save It for Later" by the English Beat (or their remake of Tears of a Clown) and I'll kick myself for not attending!
Heard that song for the first time in years a week or two ago. I'm usually a master of artists and songs, but Sniff & the Tears had me stumped.
Officially bumping the thread. Updated the thread title and the first post has brief details for the event, while additional details from the FB event page are below. Anyway, it's 2/23, 7 pm-12:30 am at the Elks in NB and it draws over 300 people every year. It's a private event with an age restriction: you had to have been 18 or over in 1992 (or 45 or over now), which was the end of the Pinfield Era, as he went on to fame and fortune at MTV and elsewhere. With the news of Matt being hit by a car in LA on Monday, it's not clear if he'll be there this year (he had planned on being there, as he's been on the wagon for awhile), but the rest of the crew of former Melody DJs will be.
While anyone 45 or over could theoretically go, the point of the event is for people who used to go to the Melody Bar to go and connect with old friends, do a little dancing, and relive a bit of the magic from back in the day. I know some think it's "pathetic" or whatever, but at our age, it's just great to have a fun night out - definitely the favorite night of the year for my wife and I and our group of friends who go pretty much every year. Hope to see a few of you there.
Edit: Paging you @LeapinLou, as requested...
From the FB Event Page...
It’s that time, people! From that first party at The Loop Lounge in 2007 to our now-annual celebration just blocks from our original home-away-from-home at 106 French Street, our 13th Annual Pinfield-Era Melody Bar REUNION is SET for Saturday, February 23, 2019 at the Elks Lodge in New Brunswick! Make your plans now! As always, we will be reliving the great music and great times we experienced at the greatest little club in the world! We'll be partying from 7 pm to 12:30 am with all the best people and music!
We will once again honor the memory of one of our own—our beloved doorman in the NASA suit, Big John Ryan—by donating proceeds from the $15 cover to a charity that was very personal for John: Camp Nejeda. Camp Nejeda is a camp for children with juvenile diabetes where John, who himself was living with type 1 diabetes, spent countless hours of his own time volunteering. The rest of the $ goes to cover travel and Reflux expenses for the one, the only, Ed Wong and his outtasite DJ setup. There will also be a 50/50, so maybe you’ll recoup your money!
As always, you are urged to GET THE WORD OUT! Post to your timeline, blog, tweet, Insta, Snap, etc. Send through snail mail, call and email all your contacts, and let them know they must attend. Think of some old timers who haven't yet been back and try to track them down. They don’t know what they’re missing!
Need a hotel room? You have two choices:
1. You can get in on the CYBER FRIDAY DEAL at the Heldrich -- UPDATE: no, you can't. Those rooms are now gone!
2. You can book through the room block we’ll post later.
This is our 13th annual “old-timers” party, so anyone who could get into the Mel back in 1992 is welcome at the door. We are calling it like this: you should be 45 or older for the 2019 edition. All are welcome to bring family members (spouse, partner, and/or your equally cool kids). Bottom line: if you were a Melody regular anytime up to 1992, you're in. For "the others," our trusted door personnel will use good judgment as to who among them gets in and when (or if you know the secret password—yep, there is a secret password). As always, if you were a regular and for some reason have a problem, just stay cool and we'll get you in. We all know who we are!
The organizers, DJs and hosts look forward to seeing all of you on the dance floor and bringing the spirit of the Pinfield-Era Melody Bar back to life for OUR 13TH ANNUAL magical night in February!
Love,
Team Stiffy
40 Livingston Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-2521
(732) 249-3420
While anyone 45 or over could theoretically go, the point of the event is for people who used to go to the Melody Bar to go and connect with old friends, do a little dancing, and relive a bit of the magic from back in the day. I know some think it's "pathetic" or whatever, but at our age, it's just great to have a fun night out - definitely the favorite night of the year for my wife and I and our group of friends who go pretty much every year. Hope to see a few of you there.
Edit: Paging you @LeapinLou, as requested...
From the FB Event Page...
It’s that time, people! From that first party at The Loop Lounge in 2007 to our now-annual celebration just blocks from our original home-away-from-home at 106 French Street, our 13th Annual Pinfield-Era Melody Bar REUNION is SET for Saturday, February 23, 2019 at the Elks Lodge in New Brunswick! Make your plans now! As always, we will be reliving the great music and great times we experienced at the greatest little club in the world! We'll be partying from 7 pm to 12:30 am with all the best people and music!
We will once again honor the memory of one of our own—our beloved doorman in the NASA suit, Big John Ryan—by donating proceeds from the $15 cover to a charity that was very personal for John: Camp Nejeda. Camp Nejeda is a camp for children with juvenile diabetes where John, who himself was living with type 1 diabetes, spent countless hours of his own time volunteering. The rest of the $ goes to cover travel and Reflux expenses for the one, the only, Ed Wong and his outtasite DJ setup. There will also be a 50/50, so maybe you’ll recoup your money!
As always, you are urged to GET THE WORD OUT! Post to your timeline, blog, tweet, Insta, Snap, etc. Send through snail mail, call and email all your contacts, and let them know they must attend. Think of some old timers who haven't yet been back and try to track them down. They don’t know what they’re missing!
Need a hotel room? You have two choices:
1. You can get in on the CYBER FRIDAY DEAL at the Heldrich -- UPDATE: no, you can't. Those rooms are now gone!
2. You can book through the room block we’ll post later.
This is our 13th annual “old-timers” party, so anyone who could get into the Mel back in 1992 is welcome at the door. We are calling it like this: you should be 45 or older for the 2019 edition. All are welcome to bring family members (spouse, partner, and/or your equally cool kids). Bottom line: if you were a Melody regular anytime up to 1992, you're in. For "the others," our trusted door personnel will use good judgment as to who among them gets in and when (or if you know the secret password—yep, there is a secret password). As always, if you were a regular and for some reason have a problem, just stay cool and we'll get you in. We all know who we are!
The organizers, DJs and hosts look forward to seeing all of you on the dance floor and bringing the spirit of the Pinfield-Era Melody Bar back to life for OUR 13TH ANNUAL magical night in February!
Love,
Team Stiffy
40 Livingston Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-2521
(732) 249-3420
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anon_ivydyf0amkzay
Guest
Ha the melody...never went to it...but one of my Newell roomies was way too into it...that place still exists huh? Fascinating!
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Actually, no, the Melody closed in 2001; this is a reunion for people who used to go to the Melody back in the day. Not too many bars get 300+ people to turn out for a reunion 18 years after that bar closed...
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anon_ivydyf0amkzay
Guest
Nah destroyed years ago by the Hospital.
I practically lived there from 1982 until the mid-late 90s.
