My Friend Pat Leonard

A few weeks after the fire, Pat Leonard came over. We went to different schools, so I hadn't seen him in during that time. He asked how I was doing, and told me that he had just bought a Guild electric guitar. Pat wanted me to show him how to play some stuff. It seemed like a nice way to wash away some of the pain of losing my bandmates. Pat said Mark and John would want me to keep going with the music, and he wanted to be part of it. A few days later, I brought a bunch of LPs over to his place and I played him the stuff that had gotten me so excited to play music myself. Pat absolutely loved the Clash from first listen, so I know right then that teaching him to play guitar was going to be a labor of love. We also became such great friends, practically brothers. For the next two months, we got together nearly every day to hang out after school, listen to punk rock and make plans to start another band. Pat picked up his instrument so quickly, it blew my mind. He had a natural ability to play things moments after I would show them to him. After a while, he he went out and bought a no name bass guitar, and started learning how to rock the fuck out of the four string. I couldn't have asked for a better friend or musical comrade.

We put up some flyers around town looking for a drummer. A guy named Phil Gordon answered the ad, and invited us over to his garage to kick around some tunes. It was late winter when we met up with him, and we could see clouds of steam leaving our mouths as we plowed through a few songs. Phil wasn't too hip to the punk rock scene, but we convinced him to try London Calling and Brand New Cadillac by The Clash. His kit was a hoot. Every piece from a different drum set, different colors, and way too much stuff. Phil had at least seven tom toms, and about a dozen cymbals, all cracked from being hit in 30 degree weather. He wore glasses and would push the frames back up on the bridge of his nose in the middle of a drum fill, before they fell off his face completely. He was also a super sweet guy, full of jokes, good cheer, and a pocket full of grass. Our prodigious marijauna consumption was the inspiration for our future local hit song, "Light up a spliff. Pat and I asked Phil to join our band and we decided to once again call it Iron Cross, in tribute to what had begun with Mark and John Norris.

We moved some electric heaters into Phil's garage and started learning as many songs as we could. We revisited all of the originals done with the Norris brothers and added a selection of cover songs. Phil had decent taste in music, but Pat and I had to find ways to sneak punk tunes into our repertoire. We usually did this by saying it was some new song I had written. That way, it would be considered a personal affront to me if he didn't want to learn the tune. We rehearsed 3 or 4 times a week, and always had a gang of our peers there to cheer us on. The place was one of those homes where all the friends of the Gordon kids (Phil, and his three brothers), would congregate. His Mother and Father welcomed everyone with snacks and a place to hang out. Having everyone around while we practiced helped us hone our stage moves as well. I started to realize that Pat and I had a special musical bond that we would never lose from that moment on. It really was magical.

To be continued........