THE NEW JERSEY STAR LEDGER – BY JAY LUSTIG – FEBRUARY 24, 2005
Lots of rock vocalists admire Roy Orbison, but few try to imitate him. It’s just too daunting a task. One of the exceptions is Bobby Bandiera, who has often covered Orbison’s soaring, almost operatic songs, and written tunes with a strong Orbison flavor.
Bandiera, a longtime member of Southside Johnny’s Asbury Jukes who also leads his own Bobby Bandiera Band, will front the newly formed Jersey Shore Rock & Soul Revue in a sold-out Orbison tribute concert, tomorrow night at Red Bank’s Count Basie Theatre. Plans call for this new group, dominated by current and former Jukes, to continue to present occasional tribute concerts at the Basie in the future. Potential subjects include Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and The Everly Brothers.
Count Basie Theatre CEO Numa Saisselin came up with the idea for the project, but Bandiera suggested starting with Orbison.
“He’s been close to my heart my whole life,” says the 51-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist, who grew up in Orange and now lives in Brick Town. “I used to listen to his records growing up — my mother used to have his records on the stereo all the time.”
Joining him in the newly formed band are guitarist Bob Burger, keyboardists Mick Seeley and Kevin Kavanaugh, drummer Joe Bellia, bassist Steve Shewchuk, and backing vocalists Lisa Lowell and Maureen McCrink. Bandiera will handle most of the lead vocals tomorrow, though Lowell, McCrink and various band members will also be featured occasionally.
The show will be dominated by Orbison’s hits (“Oh, Pretty Woman,” “Crying,” “Only the Lonely,” “Blue Bayou”), but also have room for more obscure material and a few of Bandiera’s Orbison-style originals.
Is a Southside Johnny guest appearance possible? “I will certainly invite him to come by, though I don’t know that there’s anything he’d like to sing as far as a Roy Orbison song goes,” says Bandiera.
How about Bruce Springsteen, or Jon Bon Jovi? Bandiera worked with Springsteen as recently as December, when his band backed the Boss at two charity shows at Harry’s Roadhouse in Asbury Park. He also appeared on Bon Jovi’s 1997 solo album, “Destination Anywhere.”
“All my local friends — Bruce and Jon and Gary U.S. Bonds and Southside — they’re all more than welcome, and even if they show up on the spur of the moment and want to sing something, that’s fine with me,” says Bandiera. “But we don’t have plans to work with any of those guys that night.”
Bandiera has performed at the Basie theater many times — mostly, but not always, with the Jukes. In January 1998, he led the house band at an all-star (Springsteen, Bon Jovi, etc.) concert there that raised money for the family of Patrick King, a Long Branch police sergeant who had been murdered. In April 2003, the theater was the site for “The Hope Concert,” benefiting Bandiera’s son, Robert Bandiera Jr., who has struggled with neurological problems for many years.
Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Bonds, Southside and The Max Weinberg 7 all performed. At the end of the show, Springsteen said they were there because “Bobby has saved all of our asses so many times over the years.”
Saisselin, who became the Basie theater’s CEO in January 2002, says he first met Bandiera about two years ago.
“I just instantly liked him,” says Saisselin. “I thought, ‘We need to do something together. I don’t know what it is, but we need to do something.’ About a year and a half later, I had this idea … because nostalgia is so big these days, I thought, ‘There’s got to be a way to pay tribute to people kind of classily — the way it should be done.’ And I kind of hit on this idea of Bobby as musical director.”
The fact that the show sold out, and therefore will be profitable, makes Saisselin breathe a little easier.
“I would have been thrilled if we broke even,” he says. “Frequently, the first time you do anything new, it’s rocky, and then you have to look and say, ‘Did this flop because it was a bad idea, or because we didn’t quite figure it out yet?’ It’s rare that you hit a home run out of the gate.”
Saisselin says if the project continues to be successful, it could even travel elsewhere. “We’ve got a bunch of other venues coming to take a look at it,” he says, “because in the back of my head, I always had this idea: If we can make it fly here, we could send it out on the road for a week.”
But for Bandiera, who has traveled all over the world with the Jukes for 20 years, one of the best things about the gig is that he’ll be able to sleep in his own bed.
“It’s a night in my own backyard,” he says. “I feel very comfortable about the whole thing. You couldn’t ask for a better situation.”
Copyright 2005 NJ.com. All Rights Reserved