To make things interesting, Fenner had decided to skip the fall semester of classes at Western Kentucky University [as I recall, he had an art teacher he was avoiding], and an old bandmate of his, Paul Nevitt [who briefly appeared on the 2nd lp] was interested in joining. So we had a good foundation of players to start a live band at last! Old friend Clancy Dixon was recruited to play sax & clarinet [he had also done so for FTV2]; a friend of Paul’s, Malcolm Gore, joined on guitar, and Ondraus Cissell was added on percussion.

After a couple of month’s rehearsals, we began playing out steadily, generally twice a month. We quickly gained a reputation for playing weird music and being a bunch of goof-offs on stage-a tradition that continues to this day, to our probable detriment.

Not long into our live career came the defections: Fenner left to return to school, Clancy got married and moved to Alabama, and Malcolm was “nudged” into quitting [due mostly to a fondness for drinking heavily before gigs]. The new crew were Ted Richardson [who unfortunately left for greener pastures 3-4 months later, to be replaced on drums by Ondraus], guitarist Mike Buren, and winds player Bruce Krohmer[who also played on FTV 2 & 3]. This lineup was good for 6 months or so, until Bruce abandoned us during a gig when a local policeman came into the club and spent 1/2 hour threatening to lock us up and shut down the club for our “volume infractions”. He [Bruce, not the cop] was quickly replaced by Louisville Orchestra part-timer Gretchen Wilcox on violin, she of the sparkling cardboard tiara.

Throughout all these lineup changes, work continued on French TV 3. Paul Nevitt & session ace Bob Ramsey provided keyboards, Richard Brooner added some trumpet, Reid Yahn played some sax and a new instrument called the Yamaha WX7 Wind Synthesiser [we spent an excruciating session for “CLANGHONKTWEET” road-testing it for a couple of hours], and future FTV guitar hero Dean Zigoris [who replaced Gretchen once she joined the orchestra full-time] handled guitar on “Real Executives Jump from the 50th Floor!”. We had recorded a version of “Real Execs…” with Artie at another studio previously, but scrapped it due to the crappy recording quality. The project was finished in 1990, but sat unreleased due to Steve Robert’s money woes [he had promised to release it himself on the ZNR label], until I gave up and released it myself in 1994-but we’re getting too far ahead…..

Out of all these lineups, the Sary/Nevitt/Cissell/Buren/Wilcox remained the most stable [perhaps 18 months?], popular, and, as I recall, did the most gigging, including a prominent show at the University of Louisville’s RED BARN, which was later televised locally. The final straw though, was a weekend gig at an outdoor bar, the 1st of which was rained out, and the 2nd, which attracted about 6 people [in which Dean made his debut]. I’d lost a significant amount of money on PA rental, and Paul, Mike Buren, and Ondraus decided it was time to call it a day.

Dean and I stayed together, and enlisted Bob Douglas-a drummer/singer who was a roommate of a friend named Michael Medley[more on him later]. We played as a trio for a few months and only did 1 or 2 gigs, performing quite a few odd choices of covers: Peter Gabriel’s “Games Without Frontiers”, Zeppelin’s “The Rain Song” and “Four Sticks”; the Police’s “Synchronicity #2”; and an interesting version of Yes’s “And You And I”, where Dean played BOTH guitar and keyboards! Later, Bob left to join a local prog/pop band called The Difference, so Dean and I were in search of a new drummer yet again.