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Blimp Time-Hop: We Lost Brad Delp of Boston 14 Years Ago Today
We were still reeling from the news of Maine music legend, Bill Chinnock s death in the windy chill of that first week in March. Then while I was on the air just a couple days later, another phone call came that I certainly didn t want hear. My friend Dave dialed into the Blimp studio to tell me that Brad Delp was now gone too.
Dave is a huge Boston fan and was also a loyal follower of Brad s Fab Four tribute band, Beatlejuice. He had connections to Brad through friends and was the first to share the heartbreaking message with WBLM. I remember instantly choking up and then after composing myself as best I could, delivering the sad story on-air to Blimpsters. The announcement was followed by all Boston classics for the rest of the show.
Friends of the Blend. Today we remember the great James JD Drown on his 74th birthday. JD is best recollected as the visionary front man for the legendary Maine and New Hampshire band, The Blend (originally White Mountain National Blend). He was born in Arundel on February 22, 1947.
In the Seventies, these Kennebunkport and Fryeburg country rockers were the #1 bar band around before signing with MCA Records in 1978. Their music was such a huge part of growing up in Maine for most of us over 50 kids. The Blend also had the honor of being the first band to play at the (then brand new) Cumberland County Civic Center in March of 1977 opening for ZZ Top.
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Jodi Langlois, who owns The Chez, discusses the bar Thursday at 45 Water St. in Waterville. The Chez has been closed since mid-March 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel
WATERVILLE Four afternoons a week for the last 40-plus years, Terry Ann Loisel sauntered through the white storm door. Every visit to The Chez Paree resulted in the same order, a beer and a shot.
An Oakland native and Vassalboro resident, Loisel saw her beloved South End bar close on March 15, 2020. It has yet to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In a flash, Loisel’s social life eroded.
“Oh my God, you don’t even know how many friends I had there,” Loisel said on a recent afternoon, reflecting on her decades of patronage at what everyone calls “The Chez.” “It’s like the show ‘Cheers,’ where everybody knows your name.”