Fred and Toody Cole are R&R legends and DIY icons.
For over 40 years, the couple has toured the world performing their blend of rock and roll, punk, garage, country and blues in bands such as The Rats, The Range Rats, Pierced Arrows, and, most notably, Dead Moon.
Explaining the extent of what they have meant to music would take pages and pages, but we’ll try to summarize it in a few lines:
They met very young when Fred went to play in Portland with his then-band, The Weeds (later The Lollipop Shoppe), and it was love at first sight. They married and together developed a way of dealing with the music industry and life in general that, for us, is THE EXAMPLE to follow for its honesty, independence, and generosity. They built a house with their own hands and opened a gear-music store that was the seed of the Portland punk scene. Later, Toody gave Fred for his birthday the vinyl cutter that had belonged to The Kingsmen’s manager and from which the anthem “Louie Louie” was released . Since it wasn’t in very good condition, Fred spent months fixing it until he got it working, and voila: they could press their own records. Not happy enough, they founded Tombstone Records to release their records along with those of other bands they liked. When they went on tour, they drove, set up, and repaired the equipment themselves if anything broke.
Dead Moon conveyed the idea that it is possible to live a life ignoring the evils of this world by building one of their own—and, of course, a much better one. They are adored by legions of fans around the world, from anonymous ones and the most underground bands to superstars like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Jack White. The seed they planted has germinated and will endure forever.
Sadly, Fred is no longer with us, but Toody continues his legacy, and it’s beyond an honor to have this superwoman join us for this special edition, in what will be an ONLY SHOW IN EUROPE, performing songs from the repertoire of her legendary bands: The Rats, The Lollipop Shoppe, Dead Moon and Pierced Arrows. Joining her on this adventure are Kelly Halliburton, drummer for Pierced Arrows and occasionally Dead Moon, (whom he’s known by the Cole family since he was a child since his father played with Fred in the 1970s in a band called Albatross), and Christopher March, guitarist on the fabulous Jenny Don’t and The Spurs.
We’ll welcome them with open arms and hands ready to give them an standing ovation that will make rumble the skyline of Benidorm.