" WBBH "
Recently I had an album ( there's a word you seldom

hear these days ) converted to a C.D. so that I could

listen to the music. My " Hi Fi " was discarded years

ago when C.D.s came to the fore so my 3,000 albums

are sitting in boxes under our home. There was an

album that I REALLY wanted to hear again , " WBBH ".
I had a 9 piece band 30 years ago ( 1979 ) called

WBBH. The letters stood for Welker, Baker, Barclay

and Haggerty. I attempted to achieve something that

had NEVER happened in this county nor has it

happened since. That being, to put together a band

from Sonoma County and actually " make it ". There

are about 1,000 musicians living in Sonoma County, I

understand, and there is obviously lots of " talent" in

the area...but...no band has EVER come to

prominence out of Sonoma County...so...I have

always loved a challenge...I decided to take on this

HUGE challenge. By" making it", I mean #1 Have a

band that works regularly at not only local gigs but

big gigs in the Bay Area #2 Record an album and have

that album get picked up by a prominent label #3 Get

signed by a very respected agent and manager #4

Get extensive radio airplay #5 Get reviews in Major

newspapers and magazines.
This had NEVER been accomplished by ANY Sonoma

County band nor has it still been done. I was hoping

that my credentials in 1979 might help to achieve this.
By 1979, I had already toured and recorded with; Cold

Blood, Buddy Miles, Santana, Dr. John, Van Morrison,
George Duke, Jesse Colin Young, Jerry Garcia, The

Pointer Sisters and I was nominated in the

"Bammies" ( the Bay Area Music Awards ) for the Best

Horn Player in the Bay Area.
So...I set out to try " the impossible".
I hand picked my band. I called Sarah Baker and

Michael Barclay...( the 2 Bs in WBBH ) Each had a

pretty successful band in the area and both were

VERY talented ! They said that they would check out

my plan and take it from there. I then called Tim

Haggerty...a great musician ! I needed a bass player

and another arranger in my band and he would

DEFINITELY fit the bill. I got together with Sarah and

Michael to get demos of their tunes...I then selected

certain songs of theirs that I thought would best suit

what I was trying to do musically. I then started

arranging those songs. In 2 months I had 8 songs

done and was ready to call our first rehearsal. But I

still needed 3 horn players, a drummer and a

percussionist. I called Michael Whitwell to play Lead

trumpet , Rob Sudduth ( he has been with Huey Lewis'

band for 20 years now ) on reeds and Leland Gee on

trombone rounding out my horn section. My drummer

was the wonderful James Preston who has played

with the Sons of Champlin over the last many years...
and on percussion, I called Oscar Calderon. We could

now have our very first rehearsal. I called everyone,

and being VERY nervous about what might happen,
we convened at the rehearsal hall. Well...it was a GAS !
After just the first song, we knew that we had

something VERY special! The rest of the 3 hours was

like magic ! We all left the rehearsal walking on a

cloud. I got Tim involved arranging some of Michael

and Sarah's songs for our next get together in a

month. We all couldn't wait for the next get together !
In a month we had 8 more songs ready to rehearse.
We convened and ran through the new songs ...it was

REALLY exciting! We now had 15 songs that we just

needed to polish up and then we could debut this

remarkable 9 piece band.We would need a large

venue that could hold 700 to 800 people...the Cotati

Caberet seemed like THE perfect place to hold our

"coming out" party ! The Cotati Caberet was a VERY

happenin' place in the 1970s. Many big name folks

would play there on their way up North or on their

way down South. I got us a Saturday nite a month

away and we rehearsed hard for this event. The night

arrived...we had NO idea how successful it would be !
Well...we got the 800 people AND 200 folks stood

outside just to hear this new band debut. We were on

our way ! The word was out...we were launched ! For

the next 2 years ( 1979 and 1980 ) we worked 2 to 3

nites a week. We had a sound company of 2 guys who

did our sound at every gig...so I had 11 people on the

payroll every gig. I was able to get $700 to $1,000 for

every gig for my band...which 30 years ago was a lot

of money ! I started to get bookings early on for my

band outside of Sonoma County. We started to play

gigs all over the Bay Area and when our album came

out, it was getting airplay on over 100 stations world -

wide, we started to get calls for large festivals.
We played at Slim's ( Boz Scaggs' club ) and Boz was

in the club that nite and asked to sit in on our second

set. He was fabulous and told us that he loved our

band...in fact, he got us on a huge festival in San

Francisco where we opened for his band. We did our

album release party on a Saturday nite to a sold out

crowd at the Great American Music Hall in San

Francisco. One of our songs was picked up by Good

Morning Bay Area television show with Terry Lowry.It

was their theme song for 2 years. Our album cover

was done by Stanley Mouse the world renowned

artist who did most of the Grateful Dead album

covers. Our album was getting rave reviews in many

newspapers and magazines...the hot red vinyl was a

HUGE hit with everyone. The 10 original songs on the

album were all very different from each other and

beautifully crafted...critics and disc jockeys ALL

remarked on that. Great variety...jazzy, bluesy with a

gospel latin influence. We were compared to Cold

Blood , Tower of Power, Earth, Wind and Fire,

Blood,Sweat and Tears and the Electric Flag...NOT

BAD ! The Bill Graham Organization was coming to

our gigs to check us out for possible management

and bookings. We were becoming the talk of the Bay

Area..." The next big band to make it from the Bay

Area"...everyone felt that we were right on the verge

of breaking through !! We shared New Years Eve with

The Sons of Champlin ( with Bill Champlin ), we

shared an evening with The Dixie Dregs and Tower of

Power. If we could just hold on...be patient...keep

gigging...BUT...after 2 years, I was beat !!!
Writing hundreds of hours of arrangements , making

phone calls daily to book the band...making flyers

every couple of days and then driving the 125 mile

route in our county to put up the flyer ( doing this

every few days for 2 years )calling rehearsals...getting

together with the song writers on a regular basis to

arrange new material...making many interviews to

promote my band...dealing with numerous "personal"
problems that arose within our " family"of 11 people
on a regular basis...I was totally BURNT out after 2

years and had to call it quits for my health and sanity.
However, we made GREAT music and played to

thousands of fans during our short stint. I listened to

the C.D. just yesterday and flashed back to that

period in my musical career...we got SO close ! Closer

than any other band has EVER gotten to " making it"
from Sonoma County. We will always be remembered

by our fans for REALLY giving it a good shot ! I tried

to do the impossible, and got VERY close! I have C.D.s

of the band for sale if anyone would like to check out

WBBH.

Please check out...www.peterwelker