Nena anderson at the Old Venice Restaurant

May 21, 2006 by randomguru

Did a gig last night at the Old Venice Restaurant, playing drums for vocalist Nena Anderson.
It was my first time performing here. James Forstan was on keyboards, and kicking bass. It was noisy and crowded, but a lot of fun. Nena Anderson is a great vocalist, mixing it up with jazz, blues and a few latin numbers. Check out Nena Anderson’s MySpace.

. . . .

Last night after the gig, someone asked me if I was somebody famous, or a celebrity. I laughed and said, “well, I’m a musician around town and I’ve been on local television probably a dozen times.” So I went on to say, “you might’ve seen me on TV”.

Well, I was on a shortlived television series called, Nightman, which was written and produced by the great Glen Larson, of Battlestar Galactica, Magnum P.I., and Nightrider fame.

I did 5 episodes playing myself on drums with the swing band, Big Time Operator. And in one episode I even did a little Sing, Sing, Sing drum solo which ended one of the episodes.

And Big Time Operator was a very popular swing band from 1996 to 1999, back when I was in it. And we performed all over the West Coast, in Disneyland, Disney World and Las Vegas. So, chances are people might recognize me because of that. You can see Big Time Operator in the movie, Pearl Harbor, although the band was seen for only 30 seconds or so.

I was also on HBO once. My band was up at The Derby in Hollywood and the HBO crew filmed the band. It was a short little 15 minutes of fame, I guess. And HBO sent me a copy of the footage.

So, I’ve been on TV and stuff, but me a celebrity? Nope, far from it… hehe.