The Radiators plan to disband after 33 years together
Published: Tuesday, November 09, 2010, 4:00 PM Updated: Tuesday, November 09, 2010, 4:24 PM
Keith Spera, The Times-Picayune


The Radiators are disbanding after a long, strange trip of 33 years, 4,500 performances and more than a dozen albums.


A pair of tentative farewell shows in New Orleans next June will be the longrunning band's swan song.

Keyboardist Ed Volker, who shares songwriting and lead vocal duties with guitarist Dave Malone, informed his bandmates last Thursday via email that he no longer wanted to continue. The next day, the Radiators flew to Chicago for a two-night stand. During a band meeting Saturday in a Chicago hotel room, Volker reiterated his decision to call it quits by summer 2011.


The end “came a little sooner than I expected,” Malone said. “I’m still trying to digest it. Truth be told, I thought I’d be the first one to walk away. He beat me to it.

“He feels strongly about it. I’m heartbroken, but I still understand. I can’t blame him. The traveling is difficult. It consumes your life.”

The Radiators intend to honor all scheduled performances on the books. They tentatively plan to bid farewell with two shows in New Orleans the second weekend of June.

For more than three decades, the hard-traveling New Orleans band has mixed up roots rock, funk, New Orleans R&B and improvisations, recording for both indie labels and, in the late '80s, Epic Records. Malone does not rule out the possibility that he, drummer Frank Bua, bassist Reggie Scanlan and lead guitarist Camile Baudoin will continue to collaborate in some way. “It’s too soon to figure it out,” he said.

Still, the prospect of a post-Rads future is unsettling, and not just from a financial standpoint.

“Thirty-three of my 58 years were consumed by this monster,” Malone said. “The last Jazz Fest, the last MOMS Ball, the last New Year’s Eve Show…weird.” With the remaining shows, “I want us to give it our all, give the fans a good time and let them know how much we appreciate them.”

The Radiators perform at the Maple Leaf on Saturday, Nov. 13, followed by a 5:30 p.m. show at the New Orleans Po-Boy Preservation Festival on Oak Street on Sunday, Nov. 14.

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2010/11/the_radiators_plan_to_disband.html

The Rads were a great band.  They did a couple of shows in Eugene the same weekend the Dead played back around 1992; Dead shows in the day, Rads at night.  Friday they headlined; Saturday they opened for Los Lobos.  Good times.
Brainy