A band named Dispatch-Who are they?
01-17-05, 06:33 AM
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A band named Dispatch-Who are they?
A friend of mine mentioned a band named Dispatch and for the last few hours I've had that deja vu feeling. I've heard of them before, but I don't know how I remember them or where I remember them from. Did they have a big hit, was there music on a tv show or in a movie? Somebody help me out, even though I have a feeling I'm going to wake up in the middle of sleeping and figure out who they are
01-17-05, 11:03 AM
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Feature: Dispatch calls it quits
By Pat Nason
UPI Hollywood Reporter
Published 8/2/2004 8:32 PM
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- The independent, unsigned band Dispatch has called it quits after an eight-year run during which it achieved more prosperity than most bands are able to manage with the benefit of record deals.
The band's three members -- Chad Urmston, Pete Francis and Brad Corrigan -- threw a farewell concert at their native Boston's Hatch Memorial Shell Saturday evening, attracting 110,000 people, according to an estimate published on the Boston Globe's Web site, Boston.com. Following a week in which Boston was coping with the disruptive aspects of hosting the Democratic National Convention, local authorities had to shut down major thoroughfares around the concert.
Organizers had said before the show they were hoping 40,000 to 50,000 fans would show up for the free concert, which was called The Final Dispatch.
During their eight years, Urmston, Francis and Corrigan played their blend of rock, reggae and funk free of the media glare that typically accompanies top-selling rock bands. That kind of hype tends to be a byproduct of something else the band has done without -- the support system that comes with signing to a major label.
Doing it their way, Dispatch developed a fan base that bought hundreds of thousands of CDs, millions of dollars worth of merchandise and enough concert tickets to transform the band from a struggling startup to a sell-out attraction at such venues as Roseland, Central Park, Fleet Boston Pavilion, Orpheum and The Fillmore.
In an interview with United Press International, Corrigan said the farewell concert might not be the last time the band plays together, but it will take a special occasion to bring them back together again.
"If we feel kind of a healthy opportunity to write music for a film or to go overseas and play music or to play charity gigs, we'd love that," he said. "As far as being a touring band that gives its life to what we do, Dispatch is finished in that regard."
Despite their prosperity, Urmston said band members did not live the prototypical lives of rich rock stars.
"One of the reasons we've been able to do OK is that every cent we got we poured back into the band," he said. "When we were getting supposedly big money -- record-label-type money, when we played Roseland or the Orpheum or the Fillmore -- even at that time we threw every cent of that into making a DVD, so we never really saw that much money, but we kept investing it in ourselves to just keep the ball rolling."
Francis said the band did try in its earliest days to get connected with record labels, but without success. They worked around that by taking their music directly to as many people as they could.
"We'd get up early and play at an assembly at a prep school, sit there and sell our CDs and get back in the van," he said.
There were some experiences common to bands that Dispatch was unable to avoid -- including personal, creative and professional differences that can step on creative impulses and throw up barriers to prosperity.
"As we kept on playing through the years, our friendship started falling apart," said Urmston. "We just didn't want to ever feel like we were faking it. A big part of this band is that we've known each other so long we feel like we're brothers. The downside was overshadowing the good."
Part of the problem, said Corrigan, is that each member of Dispatch had strong feelings about his own music -- and each had the talent to back up an unyielding fidelity to his own musical vision.
"Very few bands have three lead personalities and three creators that share the same canvas," he said, "and you just can't keep that up forever."
Urmston suggested that the personal conflicts helped keep the band independent of major labels.
"Sort of late in the game, the record companies came to us -- they sort of flocked to us," he said. "It was just too late. We had the foresight to know the last thing we wanted to do was bring a whole lot of advance money and the contractual world to what was already sort of dysfunctional. If they had caught us a year or two earlier when things had more promise, we may have considered something."
In the end, Urmston said he was pleased that Dispatch went wire-to-wire without "the man" -- the tag rock musicians give to most authority figures of any kind.
"The Man" will get his crack at sharing in the wealth in October, when Foundations Records/Universal will release a DVD/CD chronicling the farewell concert. Plans call for the package to include behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the band.
Ironically, as the band packs up its road gear for the last time, it also is announcing a deal with a major label.
"Universal is picking up our back catalog to do distribution for us," said Corrigan.
For Dispatch, it is like having the best of all possible worlds.
"We could have had this (label deal) five years ago," he said. "It wouldn't have killed us, but it would have been different."
By Pat Nason
UPI Hollywood Reporter
Published 8/2/2004 8:32 PM
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- The independent, unsigned band Dispatch has called it quits after an eight-year run during which it achieved more prosperity than most bands are able to manage with the benefit of record deals.
The band's three members -- Chad Urmston, Pete Francis and Brad Corrigan -- threw a farewell concert at their native Boston's Hatch Memorial Shell Saturday evening, attracting 110,000 people, according to an estimate published on the Boston Globe's Web site, Boston.com. Following a week in which Boston was coping with the disruptive aspects of hosting the Democratic National Convention, local authorities had to shut down major thoroughfares around the concert.
Organizers had said before the show they were hoping 40,000 to 50,000 fans would show up for the free concert, which was called The Final Dispatch.
During their eight years, Urmston, Francis and Corrigan played their blend of rock, reggae and funk free of the media glare that typically accompanies top-selling rock bands. That kind of hype tends to be a byproduct of something else the band has done without -- the support system that comes with signing to a major label.
Doing it their way, Dispatch developed a fan base that bought hundreds of thousands of CDs, millions of dollars worth of merchandise and enough concert tickets to transform the band from a struggling startup to a sell-out attraction at such venues as Roseland, Central Park, Fleet Boston Pavilion, Orpheum and The Fillmore.
In an interview with United Press International, Corrigan said the farewell concert might not be the last time the band plays together, but it will take a special occasion to bring them back together again.
"If we feel kind of a healthy opportunity to write music for a film or to go overseas and play music or to play charity gigs, we'd love that," he said. "As far as being a touring band that gives its life to what we do, Dispatch is finished in that regard."
Despite their prosperity, Urmston said band members did not live the prototypical lives of rich rock stars.
"One of the reasons we've been able to do OK is that every cent we got we poured back into the band," he said. "When we were getting supposedly big money -- record-label-type money, when we played Roseland or the Orpheum or the Fillmore -- even at that time we threw every cent of that into making a DVD, so we never really saw that much money, but we kept investing it in ourselves to just keep the ball rolling."
Francis said the band did try in its earliest days to get connected with record labels, but without success. They worked around that by taking their music directly to as many people as they could.
"We'd get up early and play at an assembly at a prep school, sit there and sell our CDs and get back in the van," he said.
There were some experiences common to bands that Dispatch was unable to avoid -- including personal, creative and professional differences that can step on creative impulses and throw up barriers to prosperity.
"As we kept on playing through the years, our friendship started falling apart," said Urmston. "We just didn't want to ever feel like we were faking it. A big part of this band is that we've known each other so long we feel like we're brothers. The downside was overshadowing the good."
Part of the problem, said Corrigan, is that each member of Dispatch had strong feelings about his own music -- and each had the talent to back up an unyielding fidelity to his own musical vision.
"Very few bands have three lead personalities and three creators that share the same canvas," he said, "and you just can't keep that up forever."
Urmston suggested that the personal conflicts helped keep the band independent of major labels.
"Sort of late in the game, the record companies came to us -- they sort of flocked to us," he said. "It was just too late. We had the foresight to know the last thing we wanted to do was bring a whole lot of advance money and the contractual world to what was already sort of dysfunctional. If they had caught us a year or two earlier when things had more promise, we may have considered something."
In the end, Urmston said he was pleased that Dispatch went wire-to-wire without "the man" -- the tag rock musicians give to most authority figures of any kind.
"The Man" will get his crack at sharing in the wealth in October, when Foundations Records/Universal will release a DVD/CD chronicling the farewell concert. Plans call for the package to include behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the band.
Ironically, as the band packs up its road gear for the last time, it also is announcing a deal with a major label.
"Universal is picking up our back catalog to do distribution for us," said Corrigan.
For Dispatch, it is like having the best of all possible worlds.
"We could have had this (label deal) five years ago," he said. "It wouldn't have killed us, but it would have been different."
01-17-05, 12:20 PM
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If you want some more reading material, I had one of my writers on my website (www.fliggil.com) interview Pete Francis of Dispatch in August, check it out if you like http://www.fliggil.com/interview-dispatch.html
