Tomato - Ghost In My Bed

The Tomato Story
David Rathbone tags along with Johnny Temple to Cynthia Nelson's birthday party, where he meetsTony Dinoff. Tony and David soon agree that what the world really needs is a two-guitar-plus-drums band that sounds like the Gang of Four covering Charlie Parker. “Improvised three minute jams” says David, “like: Look Mum, no idea!” “You mean, Mom”, corrects Tony. The air is tense with electricity. Defending his accent's honour with a silent “u”, David responds “You say Tom-ay-to, I say Tom-ah-to, let's call the whole thing art”. “Yeah” says Tony “and let's call the band Tom-art-o because that's what'll be thrown at us on stage”. They agree that there is only one way to find out.

Somehow roping in world-famous drummer Steve Crowley the three musicians meet in a rehearsal room on Avenue A to conduct their first experiment. They walk in and without so much as tuning up play Jam Zero off the top of their heads (luckily Tony pressed record), followed immediately by Jam Zero Plus One. Suspecting they are on to something, our intrepid explorers follow the clues through a series of rehersal-room recordings and crowd-polariszing party performances, such as the one at Kathleen Millea's birthday party on Norfolk Street where Gerard Cosloy hears in Tomato just what he's been looking for to fill the graveyard slot in a CBs show he's putting together with The Thinking Feller's, The Grifters and The Sun City Girls. You can well imagine Gerard's predicament as he asks himself (trying to think above the "bah" uttered by Lisa from The Mad Scene as she exits the room) “who would be foolish enough to try and follow this mighty series of acts out on stage? What fools would face the drunken and tattered remnants of New York's dregs de là dregs and get the thing well and truly over and done with?” And suddenly here are those very fools, served up on a platter with watercress around it, driving such hardened rock fans as the Kilgours themselves out of a party with free booze: something that makes him sit up and think. And then get up and leave. Exactly what he needs the punters to do at CBs on November the 7^th at roughly 3 A.M.

So it happens that the leads Tomato had been following converge upon CBGB one Friday night in November, and our brave musicians confront the mystery live on stage for 20 action-packed minutes. The dynamic trio manage to get down five separate numbers for posterity in this time, each achieving the impossible in its own special way. Meanwhile, suddenly aroused by the heckles of “Break Up!” and “Nihilists!”, the last of the Bohemians blink in disorientation, scratch their heads, and wander off into yet another New York night. Rock, which had been slowly sickening in their one heart for years, was now well and truly dead and buried there, along with the camps of the Manhattan Indians, the rubble of Dutch New Amsterdam, the corpse of Charlie Ondras, and the very truth itself.

intro	Jam Zero	Jam Zero Plus One	Shopfront Jam
Jam With C.N.	@CBs 1	@CBs 2	@CBs 3
@CBs 4	@CBs 5	Seven Minute Jam	Ghost In My Bed
outro	watch this space	watch this space	watch this space