On a different San Diego night, another group of teenagers watched the video made by “Blind Melon.” They did not know that Christopher Thorn, a guitar player with “Blind Melon” would later play with “Live.” They also did not know that Christopher Thorn and the members of “Live” had all come from the same city, a city far from any San Diego night.
The band that music fans came to know as “Live” began as the entry in a talent show. That talent show took place in 1985 at Edgar Fabs Middle School. The students who heard the first live performance of a yet to be completed band all attended a Middle School in York County. They were unfamiliar with the sights and sounds of a typical San Diego night. They lived in central Pennsylvania.
The band that entered that talent show had only three band members. It pleased the judges, even though it lacked a lead singer. Still the three band members, Chad Taylor, Patrick Dahlheimer and Chad Gracey, knew that they could not go far as a band without a lead singer
The winning band soon managed to get a lead singer, a young man named Ed Kowalcyk. The four man band decided to go by the name “Public Affection.” The four band members stayed together as they passed through and completed the requirements at William Penn High School.
As the band prepared to record its first album, the four band members decided to change their group’s name. They chose to call themselves “Live.” “Live” recorded its first album in 1991. The band then found its name among the Top 100 of Billboard’s albums. Later the members of “Live posed for a photo, a photo that appeared on a Rolling Stone cover.
Meanwhile Christopher Thorn was playing the guitar in the band named “Blind Melon.” “Blind Melon” recorded a hit song and video in 1993. They gained recognition and popularity. Young people in York County began to dream about playing in or forming their own band.
By 1998, the five musicians crossed paths at a point far from York, Pennsylvania. For one year, Christopher Thorn played with “Live.” Music teachers at Edgar Fabs Middle School and William Penn High School must have watched with interest the accomplishments of their former students.
Younger students, too, followed closely the schedule of “Live” in 1998. They thrilled at thinking about the five York County natives in the same band, a highly popular band. Indeed, those five youth had earned a place in history. All five of them were mentioned in Never to be forgotten, a special book published in 1999 by the York Daily Record, the City’s daily newspaper.
A copy of that book has been carried cross county, sitting now on a shelf in California. It has not been taken down to San Diego, but it is in Los Angeles County.