Midnite Gallop by Midnite Gallop

Biography:

Midnite Gallop was an instrumental rock trio from Massachusetts, featuring Mick Coste on drums, Paul Coste on guitar, and Dave Melo on bass. The band enjoyed a brief recording and performing career in the local music scene from 1989 to 1991, but rejoined forces in 2002 as Bluebox Band.

The band began with Mick and Dave, plus Jim Cribby on keyboards, writing and jamming in Dave's basement, but was soon joined by Paul on guitars. The band wrote and recorded a 4-song demo and then began to audition vocalists who would fit with the band's unique progressive sound. The band sent the demo to a few of the singers to see what they could come up with, and finally 5-piece progressive rock band calling themselves Power Surgeon, with lead vocals by Trace Goins, writing songs influenced by such artists as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Rush and Yes. Trace and the band parted ways amicably, for musical differences, and the rest of the band decided to try it as a foursome. They wrote several songs, many of which featured complex harmonies and progressive riffs.

The keyboard player Jim Cribby left the band to go on to play in a full-time gig with Boston's famed Rick Russell Band (although he was featured as a guest artist in the studio recording of "For Tomorrow".) This left the band in their final state as an instrumental jazz/rock trio. It was in this form that they began performing and recording in 1990 as Midnite Gallop. The name of the band came from one of the first songs the band wrote as a trio. Dave told the band about the story he pictured in his head during the song, which featured some travelers who were attacked by horsemen and decapitated in the middle of the night. The band decided to name the song, and subsequently the band, Midnite Gallop.

Midnite Gallop played to a loyal if small crowd, in venues such as Club 3 in Somerville and Derringer's in Brockton, opening for such acts as the Jon Finn Group and Surrender Dorothy. Both "For Tomorrow" and "Method to Madness" were recorded at Courtlen Studios in Hanson, MA, and engineered by Jon Finn. These tracks were sent out on a self-titled cassette tape, along with live versions of "Early Morning Distant Haze" and the band's namesake, "Midnite Gallop", both of which were recorded at their first gig, at T.T. the Bear's in Cambridge, MA. The 4-song tape was sent out for free as a marketing experiment, along with a survey asking for feedback, to a mailing list of over 300, which came from prior bands and friends. This got the band some good feedback and a few loyal fans. The tape was then put under consignment in the local music section at Tower Records in Boston, and several other locations.

By this time Mike had been playing in the pop-metal band Revelation, and Dave had joined them. Midnite Gallop finally disbanded in 1991, after Dave decided to focus on Revelation full-time, leaving Paul and Mike to figure out what would come next for Midnite Gallop. They worked on a few songs at home, and talked with a couple of local musicians, but ultimately did not pursue any auditions. Instead, Paul joined forces with Mike and Dave in Revelation, where they transformed the band into a more progressive-metal band, and went on to get a large following and win Boston's 1993 WCGY Battle of the Bands at the Rockpile in Saugus, MA.

Midnite Gallop's song "Early Morning Distant Haze" was never recorded in the studio by the trio, but Mike and Paul later went into the studio in 1994 to record it as a duo, with Paul playing bass and rhythm guitar. The song still wasn't finally finished until 2005, when Paul added a guitar solo from home. The result was submitted to Garageband.com where it – and the band – received many favorable reviews and fans.

In 2002, the original members of Midnite Gallop reunited under similar circumstances, with Mike, Jim and Dave writing some grooves in Dave's basement, now a recording studio called "Bluebox Productions". (The term "Bluebox" was first used as the title of a Midnite Gallop song called "Bebop the Bluebox", and was a description of Dave's basement, whose walls at the time were covered in blue foam, now home to Bluebox Productions.) Paul started jamming with the band again, laying down guitars on top of the existing songs, and the band was now a quartet once again.

Bluebox Band began working on their new album by writing and recording songs every week, over a period of several years. This yielded a full-length album's worth of songs, and many more that have never been completed, but were compiled onto a "Leftovers" CD. The band independently released the song "Twisted" which received favorable reviews and made it to #24 in the Jazz charts on Garageband.com (which later became the popular iLike music service, bought by MySpace). Several other songs were also recorded, and are still in progress to date, in various forms. The album has never been finished as a quartet, as Paul left the band in 2007 due to musical differences and family reasons. Paul only played one gig with Bluebox Band, at the "Cotton Club" in Mendon, MA. But Bluebox Band went on to perform at several private parties and smaller venues in MA.

Midnite Gallop was an instrumental rock trio from Massachusetts, featuring Mick Coste on drums, Paul Coste on guitar, and Dave Melo on bass. The band enjoyed a brief recording and performing career in the local music scene from 1989 to 1991.

Midnite Gallop played to a loyal if small crowd, in venues such as Club 3 in Somerville and Derringer's in Brockton,