Gil, who already knew Scott Edman, who knew Scott Jones, and all being former high school classmates, connected with Peter (attending ZooMass as it was known in the 1970’s) through Scott’s friend John Lawrence who was in an experimental recording studio class at UMass with Peter.  The Arp Synthesizer and 2-track TEAC recorder from that class became integral assets for creating our first recordings!

So, after Scott and Peter met for a few writing/jam sessions, Peter arrived at Gil’s Mom’s basement with several songs already written (or mostly), Silver Screen, Winds of Change, and Teenage Werewolf – and the four us went right to work learning them.  WEST mk1 was born.

Scott singing like Freddy Mercury, Peter playing like John Mclaughlin, Scott Jones playing like Paul McCartney, and Gil doing his best Neil Peart impression was a wild thing.  And the thing about us at the time is that we really did not know how good we were.  Performing both originals and covers, WEST mk1 played some memorable gigs during its short 2-year life span.   Bu alas, being broke twenty-somethings, we grew frustrated, and so the pressure/desire to become a gigging cover band and earn some “real” cash led directly to WEST mk2.

This was a six-piece affair with some world class musicianship.  WEST mk2 quickly proceeded to play the Western Mass club circuit and after about a year won the UPC’s Advisory Committee Battle of the bands at the University of Massachusetts.  And then about five months later, at the top of our game, the band split due to “Artistic differences” shall we say?

Then in 1984, amid a burst of creativity, WEST mk1 reconvened (less Scott Jones) with Gil and Peter covering the bass duties.  Employing a Fostex 8080 series 8 track we recorded a bunch of arena style rock and pop songs at the home of West’s sound man, Rusty Rowell and produced rough mixes of well performed material.

Two decades passed, and in 2012 there was a new spark as Peter acquired the same Fostex 8 Track 8080 used in the 1984 sessions. Having held on the 1984 master tapes, Peter worked with Kenny Lewis of Mixed Emotions studios to convert the analog recordings to digital in Pro Tools.  Bringing in Tracy Ferrie (bassist for Stryper & Boston) to redo the 1984 bass tracks, Peter produced new and more polished mixes of the 1984 catalogue of songs.

Fast forward to 2016, and a dinner date for Peter and Scott turns into a commitment to make music together followed by calls to Gil.  A short time later Peter heard from Jay Hovnanian, another musical friend from Umass days, asking whether he’d recreate some guitar lines on a new recording of Jay’s 1978 song the “The Best”.  One thing led to another, and before we knew it, Scott, Gil, and I, along with Jay and several other musician friends, set out to creating a new album of old songs called fittingly, “New Old Stock”!   Completed in 2019 this CD included reimagined recordings of West originals from 1978: Better Off, Don’t Let Time Pass You By, and Silver Screen.  The album was recorded in Jay’s professional recording studio where he had been doing some top-notch work with many artists.

Then, as the spark became a steady flame, and with Jay on the team as recording engineer and on the keys, Scott and Peter forged ahead writing four new tunes, Turn on the Radio, Beautiful Cage, Make Love New, and Alternative Reality! And along with Gil on drums, we recorded new material for the first time in around 33 years.

And that brings us up to 2022, and with thanks to the “musical gods”, it seems that we are hardly done yet…so stay tuned as there is more to come from this legend in our own minds, and hopefully to reach new listeners, called West!