Palace Meat Market (1968-1969)
Genre:
Base Location: Eugene, Oregon
Members:
- Dave Acker – Guitar, Vocals (also played in Searchin Souls Blues Band)
- David Booth – Guitar
- Keith Duncan – Bass (also played in Seattle band, Grey Blues Band)
- Ed Epstein – Saxophone (also played in Peter Brown Band from Corvallis)
- John Laws – Drums, Vocals (also played in Portland band, Natural Gas Company)
- Rob Moore – Bass
- Wil Radding – Baritone and Soprano Saxophone, Flute
- Jim Richmond – Vocals, Songwriter
- Keith Doug Skelton – Bass (also played in Searchin Souls Blues Band)
- Frank Spiecker – Lead Guitar (also played in the Nighthawks)
- David Young – Keyboards / Founder
- Mike Vanisse – Tenor Saxophone
The Palace Meat Market was together in about 1968 and 1969 and was from Eugene, Oregon. They opened for three Grateful Dead shows and twice for the (New) Tweedy Brothers. They were a major part of the early Eugene music scene, many anti-war benefits. The Palace Meat Market worked with Phantasmagoria (Light show) and Ocular Mirage (Light show). They were a jamming band with much original material. Personnel included: David Young–Founder/Keyboards, John Laws – Drums/Vocals, David Booth – Guitar, Rob Moore –bass guitar, Jim Richmond–Singer/Songwriter, and two wind and horn players I wish I could remember.
-Jim Richmond (later songwriter for Shirley Lorene and Rush Hour), October 2003
I played bass the same year (1969) that Frank Spiecker played lead guitar with the band. There was a sax player also. Once, right before a gig in Portland, Frank Spiecker slammed his left hand finger in the car door (bad). He drank some of the cough syrup the sax man had and things were fine after that!
-Keith Doug Skelton, April 2004
Though I only met Keith once (he was before my time with the band), Frank had just left when I was asked to become the lead singer. My first gig with the Palace Meat Market was opening for the Greateful Dead…in fact, it was my first non-coffeehouse performance ever. Wonderful terrifying stuff!
-Jim Richmond, April 2004
I was in the very beginning of the Palace Meat Market. My memory says that our first gig was in Coos Bay at the junior college there. We were rounded up by a red-haired guy who played bass. The lead guitar was Dave Acker. John Laws was the drummer. I played baritone and soprano saxophones and (maybe) flute. We had a better sax player who played tenor. There was a blond girl with a light but really pleasant voice sang many of the vocals. Acker and the bass player shared the other vocals.
In Coos Bay we connected in the way bands could in those days. There really was almost no set list. We just started some tune that one of the band members liked and the kids just shook in front of us. Gigs were thin on the ground at first. We did record one commercial written by Dave Acker and Dave Young, I think. I have no idea if it aired. I went to Israel for work purposes. My memory still has Acker playing with them when I returned; I think they had a regular gig at a tavern in the strip between Eugene and Springfield. They played before the Grateful Dead in the basketball arena of the University of Oregon one evening after I returned. It was a memorable night.
Later I think the band morphed into a group called Sweet Release, and they were booked to Alaska.
Much later I ran into Acker in New York. He had attended Berkeley School of Music studying classical guitar. I don’t know anything about the rest of the folks.
-Wil Radding, January 2009
The saxophone players were Ed Epstein and Mike Vanisse who later played with Robert Cray. The other incantations of the band were “Permanent Brain Damage” and “Fourplay”.
-David M Booth, August 2013
Source: PNW Bands