Pat Lavelle
Vocal
| I had lost touch with everyone until September of this year [2005] when I received an email from my sister, Margaret Banks, and she provided me with a link to The Presidents web site. What a surprise!! After my short time with the Presidents I joined another band and we re-named it the Pat McQueen Combo. Like the Presidents we also were a cover band who were greatly influenced by the US R&B music. We had a ball and met and were fortunate to play with some great bands. The Detours (re-named The Who) and the Animals, Brian Auger Trinity with Long John Baldry and Julie Driscoll, and Rod Stewart. Even Jimmy Page would join us at various gigs and sometimes take over the show. We also had Jeff Beck play lead guitar for a while. One day we managed to get to IBC studios with Glyn. Jimmy joined us in the studio, and Mick Jagger and Brian Jones dropped by. Mick joined us but Brian was more interested in the two lady friends they had brought with them. We played all over the country for two years and one day we decided that there was more in life so we stopped playing and I focused on my day job. This year Bob Stenson from the band contacted me and we had a re-union in August. We met, commented on how little or how gray our hair was, played a few numbers (I couldn’t remember most of the words), talked, drank, and reminisced. It was an intense two-day trip down memory lane. After the band I worked for various UK engineering companies but in 1972 I needed some money so I moved to Berlin, and worked as a designer in a German engineering company. I then moved to Duesseldorf where I worked freelance and met my future wife Sigi. In 1974, I went to work in Beirut, which was then an incredible city with great nightlife and restaurants. I eventually had to leave as the Lebanese civil war got really bad. I left with a Hungarian friend, Louis Kerekes, on one of the last flights for some time, as the airport was being shelled. We then went to the jobsite in Oman and I worked there as a designer and construction supervisor on a Desal Plant and the Intercontinental Hotel. Oman was a fascinating place and I later visited it twice with my family. In 1976, Sigi and I moved to Holland where we lived for 5 years. I joined an Engineering and Construction company – Fluor – as a Contracts Supervisor and spent a lot of this time in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Sharjah and other Arab states. One day I got a call, on a dreary gray day in Holland, from my ex-boss who asked me to join him in Calgary, Canada. He sweet-talked us into moving and we never regretted the move and eleven unforgettable years in Canada. We traveled and camped over this great country from east to west, up into Alaska, and the North West Territories. Our biggest blessing was our daughter, Katya, who was born in 1986. (Katya is really the musician in the family, with a great voice.) Fluor asked me to move again so in 1992, we sold our house and went to Greenville, South Carolina, where I became their Global Contracts Manager. This was also a great move. We truly enjoyed living there, the lifestyle, the people, and the location. All good things had to come to an end so we moved to Houston, Texas, in 1995. Houston is still our home but we did move to Kuwait for two years and I spent nearly a year in Louisiana. Apart from the hurricanes, the heat and the humidity, Houston has been a good place to live. After 27 years I retired from Fluor and joined Chevron in 2003, still in Houston. We will stay here until Katya graduates from college when will I finally retire and we decide to move to __? When I look back I really have been most fortunate in having a companion such as Sigi, who has put up with me over all these years (and all the moves) and a daughter, Katya, who puts up with a dad who still thinks he can sing. My music tastes are varied. I love to listen to Little Feat, Solas, Annie Lennox, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Herbie Hancock, Ry Cooder etc: Once in a while I manage to hear some of that great R&B and rock I used to listen to on Radio Luxembourg and pirate stations back in the 60’s. It is still as fresh to me to day. My contact address is below. Pat Lavelle P.L. 2005 |