Greetings

[danfromnj]

May be a good idea if the board creator makes topic heading for "Other Bands and Music"  and "Live Audio and Video Trading".  Again, just a thought. I know that worked nicely before.

Or even other members ... outside of Sava, JOP, Caffery & Skolnick (P.S. you all have Skolnick's fairly new autobiography, right? hint hint? Along with the new Jeff Scott Soto bio? wink wink?)

I emailed the board's "admin" a few days ago, but haven't heard back yet.

I totally agree on the above suggestions though. I would love to see a section for "TSO Family" "TSO Related" or something along that line where we could talk about the works of Chameleon, DareDevil Squadron, Kings of Christmas, etc. I know on the Express a lot of that would wind up on the main board and sometimes people got bent out of shape about it.

[randola]

hi all! i'm Randi...known as randola on the CCB and briefly on the Express. discovered tso back in 200 when my husband became the production manager for east!

[Kissguy1973]

I emailed the board's "admin" a few days ago, but haven't heard back yet.

I totally agree on the above suggestions though. I would love to see a section for "TSO Family" "TSO Related" or something along that line where we could talk about the works of Chameleon, DareDevil Squadron, Kings of Christmas, etc. I know on the Express a lot of that would wind up on the main board and sometimes people got bent out of shape about it.

Yeah, some folks would get bent if someone went off topic... I have done it before (probably am right now)... but sometimes posts would morph into another subject, something that was actually a healthy conversation or debate.

[256CATMAN]

Thanks for setting this up - thanks for sending me the link, Frank! I look forward to the discussions!

Brian

[MrWizard]

Hi all,
This is Scott the keyboardist/music director of The Wizards of Winter....therefore the clever name, Mr. Wizard. I have been a TSO fan since first seeing them way back in '99. In 2010 I put together a tribute band around their music. Since then things have really grown. We now have our own album out and are about to have a couple of major announcements. Former members of TSO have been touring with us for the past couple of years. They include Tommy Farese, Guy LeMonnier, Tony Gaynor, Joe Cerisano, and Michael Lanning. Guy recorded two songs with us on our recently released CD and has officially joined The Wizards as a member. Both Guy and Joe will be singing on the next CD which we expect out later this year.
We still perform some of TSO's hits in our show. This past tour Guy sang Christmas in the Air...which he did with TSO. Joe sang Snow Came Down, Old City Bar, and This Christmas Day. Others include Queen of the Winter Night and Christmas Nights in Blue.
While I know it is a bit controversial, I readily admit that I was more of a fan when it was about the music and not so much about the lighting. The shows are too over the top for me now and have lost a bit of their appeal.
Because of my direct interaction with the guys, I get a lot of the behind the scenes dirt. Since that is the case, and the fact that this is a TSO Board, I don't comment too often. I prefer to keep things positive and limit the drama. I am glad this Board has been created. Like DanfromNJ, to me, the FB Group has been a disappointment.

[Kissguy1973]

Like DanfromNJ, to me, the FB Group has been a disappointment.

For me, I wouldn't say it is a disappointment because there are a lot of good folks on there and it has it's purpose. I still check it out and drop a comment here and there. It just isn't necessarily conducive to good discussion and quality information sharing with that type of social media environment.

Facebook makes it too easy to just drop in, comment, like something, and post a picture that is just another variation of 100 other photos I have seen in the last 24 hours! Everything just gets lost in the shuffle. Again though, I use Facebook, it has it's place and purpose... but for good online discussion nothing beats this format here or the previous express site. Ideally we would all hang in the basement, shooting pool, listening to good music while talking about this stuff, but there are geographical challenges!

With a board like this, whether everyone is friends or ever agrees on anything, we all want to be here (I think). We all signed up for an account, made a user name, had to choose a password, etc. Not that it's rocket science sign up, but it will deter the fly-by fan that can just click the "Join Group" button on Facebook then post a poll about who the hottest TSO member is.

[aaroninmaine]

Like DanfromNJ, to me, the FB Group has been a disappointment.

For me, I wouldn't say it is a disappointment because there are a lot of good folks on there and it has it's purpose.  I still check it out and drop a comment here and there.  It just isn't necessarily conducive to good discussion and quality information sharing with that type of social media environment.

Facebook makes it too easy to just drop in, comment, like something, and post a picture that is just another variation of 100 other photos I have seen in the last 24 hours!  Everything just gets lost in the shuffle.  Again though, I use Facebook, it has it's place and purpose... but for good online discussion nothing beats this format here or the previous express site.  Ideally we would all hang in the basement, shooting pool, listening to good music while talking about this stuff, but there are geographical challenges!

There has been a lot of disappointment in numerous TSO forums and a lot of friends and enemies made ... for right and wrong reasons over the years. But, when I was invited to this forum .... the tag line included something like 'let's get this forum off to a good start!' The discussion to expand topic categories is one of those starts.

Personally, I like discussion over an endless array of photos too. And, videos are good but I don't need every song and every concert. I actually have tucked away an old email from one TSO forum where someone was in a discussion with me and others about what is and what is not a concept album. One of the most interesting discussions I've had on a forum.

[aaroninmaine]

Hi all,
This is Scott the keyboardist/music director of The Wizards of Winter....therefore the clever name, Mr. Wizard. I have been a TSO fan since first seeing them way back in '99. In 2010 I put together a tribute band around their music. Since then things have really grown. We now have our own album out and are about to have a couple of major announcements.  Former members of TSO have been touring with us for the past couple of years. They include Tommy Farese, Guy LeMonnier, Tony Gaynor, Joe Cerisano, and Michael Lanning. Guy recorded two songs with us on our recently released CD and has officially joined The Wizards as a member. Both Guy and Joe will be singing on the next CD which we expect out later this year.
While I know it is a bit controversial, I readily admit that I was more of a fan when it was about the music and not so much about the lighting. The shows are too over the top for me now and have lost a bit of their appeal.

Having seen Wizards 2x in Portland ME I readily will endorse looking for their new album and that it's everything but a rehash of TSO. "Just Believe" with Guy on vocals will blow you away. Not just is it perfect for his voice but it made my girlfriend cry during the show .... which she only does when things are going bad, but it was such a touching song I turn and there she is crying and I'm having a panic attack wondering what is wrong. Now, after some ups and downs with us, she can't stand to listen to it as it's too intense! If that's not a positive review I don't know what is! I've also been known to sing it in the shower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caYTVak-K04

I also agree that the lighting has become more important than the players, who come and go so much that casual fans probably don't even notice. Or, as Alex Skolnick once said in an interview "the lighting rig gets higher billing than him." But, then I never liked the lighting show of Pink Floyd either. LOL

[Kissguy1973]

Hey we need to keep advertising this thing... but I don't want to go "worldwide" without the board creator/mod's blessing.  We do need to get some people here to keep things chugging along.  Unless it gets advertised where TSO fans already are (i.e. facebook, yahoo, etc) we are not going to see a lot of new blood infused here.   That's just my take...  anybody have any ideas???

That said... if you all want to keep it small... that's cool too.

[admin]

Hello, everyone... thanks for signing up.

I setup this site and went away for a week. I never quite finished it and came back to some activity. Pretty cool.

I am having trouble with a couple of different features of the site and was going to switch to some other software but since we have some activity, I will deal with the issues.

Thanks for the surprise.