Band's success tinged with sorrow

Chesterfield Kings mourning original drummer Doug Meech

Jeff Spevak
Staff music critic

(September 11, 2007) - Rochester's garage-rock groundbreakers, the 
Chesterfield Kings, perform tonight on Late Night With Conan O'Brien. But 
the celebration of the Sept. 18 release of the band's new album, Psychedelic 
Sunrise, is tempered by news this week of the death of the band's original 
drummer, Doug Meech.
Meech, 57, was a lab technician at the University of Rochester. He played 
with the band from its inception in 1979, including the first three albums, 
1983's Here Are the Chesterfield Kings, Stop! two years later and 1987's 
Don't Open Till Doomsday. He toured the country and Europe during that time, 
a period in which the Kings are credited with re-igniting interest in rock 
bands playing in the raw style of the mid-'60s Rolling Stones.
Services for Meech are 10 a.m. today at Anthony Funeral Chapel, 2305 Monroe 
Ave.

No cause of death has been announced; according to several people associated 
with the band, Meech was found dead in his city apartment after missing 
work.
"He was really kind of a private guy, it was really sad for us," said 
guitarist Andy Babiuk.

"Here we are, getting ready to launch a new record. He was just a quiet, 
just a nice, gentle guy, really laid back. He was into listening to records 
and watching old TV shows."
In an e-mail circulated around the local rock community, fellow drummer and 
local rock historian Rob Filardo wrote: "Since his departure from the music 
scene in 1988, Doug has lived a quiet life. On Sundays he would frequent the 
record store I work at (the Bop Shop) after church and buy loads of early 
'60s soul and R&B vinyl. In fact I just saw him last week and asked him if 
he still had his original Kings' drums (which he did)."
Victor Tabinsky, the Kings' road manager, also recalled Meech as a gentle 
soul. In a message on the band's MySpace Web site, he writes how Meech 
encouraged the Kings' current drummer, Mike Boise, as a young musician, even 
giving Boise his first pair of drum sticks.
Meech is the third Rochester rock musician to die recently. Shalonda 
Simpson, 25-year-old bassist for the Cheetah Whores, was shot on Aug. 23. 
Her murder remains unsolved. Tony Cavagnaro, guitarist and main force behind 
the Buddhahood, was killed in a car accident in Yates County on Friday. His 
calling hours will be today and Wednesday at Richard H. Keenan Funeral Home 
in Fairport.
The Chesterfield Kings' album Psychedelic Sunrise is being released on 
Little Steven Van Zandt's Wicked Cool Records. Van Zandt, the guitarist in 
Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and hit man on The Sopranos, has long been 
a supporter of the Kings. His radio show, Little Steven's Underground 
Garage, heard at 10 p.m. Sundays on WCMF-FM (96.5), frequently features the 
Kings.
O'Brien's show, featuring actor Richard Gere, airs at 12:35 a.m. on WHEC-TV 
(Channel 10), with the band slated to play "Up and Down" from the new album.
The Kings also play two gigs in New York City on Sept. 29: an in-store 
appearance at 1:30 p.m. at Vintage Vinyl and a 7 p.m. "Rocks Off Concert 
Cruise" through the harbor to the Statue of Liberty. Other gigs are being 
set up.
As for playing in Rochester, "We will," promises Babiuk.

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