The Traveling Deengelburys

A One Night Band
In the late 1980's there was a band called The Traveling Wilburys. The band had an all-star line-up: George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Bob Dylan. So what did a small southern Illinois town in 1989 need? Their own all-star band. Enter the Traveling Deengelburys!!!

It started in the fall of 1988. Jason and Harry had a Spanish teacher, Mark, who played guitar and bass. He would occasionally get his acoustic guitar out and play for the class. At the time, Jason and Harry had been tinkering at home with their own instruments. So for Christmas of 1988, Jason, Harry, and Mark played a few songs in class for what seemed like half the school.

Early the next year, the school was having a 50's & 60's dance to raise money for a charity. The music at school dances always came from tapes and new-fangled CD's, but this dance would be different. Jason, Harry, and Mark recruited a few other musically inclined students to form a band to play at the dance. Half the members of the band were heavy into the Traveling Wilburys, so when it came time to name the band they modified the name into something more appropriate and called themselves the Traveling Deengelburys.

The Deengelburys were Mark (lead guitar), Mark (the Spanish teacher, bass), Harry (keyboards), Jason (rhythm guitar), Darrin (saxophone), Jay (vocals), and Brad (drums). They also had two background vocalists during the show, Jody and David. The honorary Deengelburys were Jeremy and Joe.

Friday, March 31, 1989, the day of the dance, the band played one song at each of the two lunch hours to raise the hype of the "live performance" at that year's dance. And that evening, sandwiched between music from tapes and CD's, they performed their 6-song set with a 1-song encore. The crowd went nuts. And then the dance was over. They have not performed together since.

A few of the members of the band wanted to get back together in 1999 for a ten-year reunion jam but that did not happen.

There were Traveling Deengelbury t-shirts made for the show to raise additional money. As far as additional memorabilia there was the concert poster that hung in the school and the large banner the band painted and had on the wall behind them during the show.

There has never been an official release of any of the recordings. Their first rehearsal was recorded on cassette. The dress rehearsal practice on the stage the night before the dance was video taped. Both of their two lunch time performances were video taped. Their final rehearsal was video taped. And the show at the dance was videotaped. There may be a compilation CD released some day. ..

A detailed account was written several years ago of the whole Deengelbury experience. Metal XOR Studio is trying to get the rights to that story so the whole world can read what it was like to be a Deenglebury.

For more information, visit the official Traveling Deengelburys website.

After the Fame
The bass player/singer, Mark, made an appearance at a graduation party in 1993. Although two other members of the Traveling Deengelburys were present, Mark was the only one who performed that evening. He did a set of five songs on acoustic guitar, then had to leave to go to the next party...