Eclypse

Eclypse
(aka: Preflyte)
1977 - 1978
Eclypse

L to R: Sheldon, Me and Keith
When TRACE ended the first time, I called my old friend Sheldon Skinkle (Epics & Britons). We decided to re-invent The Britons. I also called Keith Rose (Rosenbaum), a drummer that had worked with the Andy Hardy Band and Thornhill and had substituted with Sheldon for Rick and Sandy on ocassion in TRACE. We jammed a couple of times and it felt good. Eclypse was born.

John, first rehearsal

Originally called Preflyte, it was great fun working with my high school buddy Sheldon again and Keith had great drumming chops. We played a fair amount of original music as well, both mine and Sheldon's (his Tears Of A Woman is a wonderful piece of writing and his Put Your Bisquits In The Oven (Get Your Buns Into The Bed) is a guaranteed crowd pleaser). We backed a singer at the El Tango in Glendale named Susan Jean, which was interesting. As you can see from the photos below, Halloween night 1977, was a real howl (pun intended)!

John, Sheldon & Keith: Halloween @ El Tango

John, Sheldon & Keith: Halloween @ El Tango

Eclypse was a very good band. Unfortunately, we followed TRACE and could never live that down. I felt bad for Sheldon and Keith, they put up with a lot from TRACE fans. The inevitable happened, however, and after a year of trying and being labeled as an inferior copy, we disbanded.