As the lights to go down

In 1991, when I fell in love with the music of Missing Persons, I never thought I would see them perform together. Warren Cuccurullo had moved on to Duran Duran, Dale Bozzio was beginning a semi-shaky decade of keeping the MP music alive with hired musicians of varying quality, and the other three (Terry Bozzio, Patrick O'Hearn and Chuck Wild) were making names for themselves in their chosen musical arenas.

But never say never. Ten years later, I found myself sitting in total shock when Warren called to inform me that he was putting together a Missing Persons reunion. He and Dale had been writing new music over the phone and discussing it for months. Shows had been booked in southern California for July, and…oh, by the way, he was leaving Duran Duran and moving to Los Angeles. He was absolutely ecstatic.

My role in the transformation of the Privacy website into something altogether different and more interactive kept me busy nearly non-stop for the next few months, but one week in mid-July was special. It was to be the fulfillment of a wish for many people. Three shows - San Diego (4th & B), Los Angeles (The Roxy) and Anaheim (House of Blues) - were about to make history and show that the past truly can be recaptured.

Since Missing Persons never achieved the level of fame it should have, the loyalty of the current fans (most of whom communicate on the "missingpersons" Yahoo group) is remarkable. We've eagerly bought the live and remixed material Warren compiled, we've enjoyed the songs as they came alive again in Dale's solo shows, and we've watched VH-1 just to see Warren describe Dale as "a piece of candy." Some (myself included) never saw MP in the 80's, but there are bootlegs, including the 1983 US Festival full-length MP set. One Way finally made the albums available on CD. In short, we've been happy for whatever we could get. But now we really had something to look forward to.

Along the way, there were surprises. Ron Poster, who had been in Dale's version of MP for a while, was on tap for keyboards (instead of Chuck). Patrick dropped out, and Wes Wehmiller was immediately hired to replace him. When Terry almost bailed, Warren instructed Joe Travers (an excellent drummer in his own right) to learn the drum parts just in case. A professional publicist came aboard. Warren did loads of press. Dale showed up to help (driving cross-country because she's afraid of air travel). Rehearsals were scheduled at Joe's Garage (Frank Zappa's facility). Fans gathered, some of whom knew nothing about Missing Persons but were loyal to Warren from his days in Duran Duran. Everything was prepared.

But nothing could have prepared us for the real thing.