PROBLEM CHILD

Ranch Rock 86, Pyramid Lake, NV, 7-Sep-86
Portland, OR, 3-Sep-87
Elks Ground, Grant Pass, OR, 5-Sep-87
It's Not My Fault
New Georges, San Rafael, CA, 24-Feb-88

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Ranch Rock 86, Pyramid Lake, NV, 7-Sep-86

Tracks
1.	Walkin' The Plank	6:09
2.	Fever Dreams	6:25	(John Cipollina)
3.	(You've Got To) Help Me *	5:11
4.	Goin' Down *	8:42
5.	? Instrumental	4:44
6.	All Worth The Price You Pay	8:45	(Greg Douglass)
7.	Mona	12:30
	Total	52:31

Personnel
John Cipollina	Guitar, Vocals
Chris Cole	Vocals
Greg Douglass	Guitar, Vocals
Greg Elmore	Drums
Les Lizama	Bass
John Farey	Keyboards, Vocals	*

The info above is what came with the disc, but Setlist.com has track 1 as Hideaway, and personnel as Cipollina, Douglass, Bobby Vega (Bass), Elmore, Farey (Piano & Lead Vocal on 3 & 4). The poster for the event lists Cipollina, Douglass, Vega, Elmore, and Jeff Nations.

Cipollina also played with Mickey and The Twilights, Robert Hunter & The Mystery Band, Kingfish and Zero at this festival.

This show, together with many others, is legally downloadable in various formats from the Live Music Archive section of The Internet Archive.

Ranch Rock 86, Pyramid Lake, NV, 7-Sep-86

As circulated via DimeADozen, May 2005

Tracks
1.	Hideaway	6:04
2.	Fever Dreams	6:25	(John Cipollina)
3.	Help Me *	5:11
4.	Goin' Down *	8:42
5.	Move Over	4:44
6.	All Worth The Price You Pay	8:46	(Greg Douglass)
7.	Mona	12:30
	Total	52:24

Personnel
John Cipollina
Greg Douglass
Greg Elmore
Bobby Vega
John Farey

Fantastic soundboard. Superb show.

Straight from my master reel to reel.

This is step 2 of the Ranch Rock Festival, Kingfish, R. Hunter and Zero's performances will come in the next days....

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Portland, OR, 3-Sep-87

Tracks
1	Intro	0:10
2	It's Your Monkey Now	5:09	(John Cipollina)
3	Hired Hand	4:21
4	Moonlight Traveler	5:29	(John Cipollina)
5	Prayers	3:59	(Greg Douglass - Brian Kilcourse)
6	Summertime	6:33	(Gershwin)
7	Rumble	2:43	(M. Grant - L. Wray)
8		0:54
9	?One for the Money	4:08
10	Blind Love	6:20
	Total	39:54

Personnel
John Cipollina	Lead Guitar, Vocals
Chris Cole	Vocals
Greg Douglass	Lead Guitar, Vocals
Greg Elmore	Drums
Les Lizama	Bass

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Elks Ground, Grant Pass, OR, 5-Sep-87

Tracks
Disc 1
1	Summertime	5:20	(Gershwin)
2	Rumble	3:49	(M. Grant - L. Wray)
3	Running Blues	6:53
4	All Worth The Price You Pay	12:05	(Greg Douglass)
5	I Put A Spell On You	8:22
6	Rooster	3:19	(Greg Douglass - Dave Walker)
7	Jungle Love	5:04	(Lonnie Turner - Greg Douglass)
Total		44:57
Disc 2
1	Stormy Monday	8:12
2	Follow Her Around	4:57
3	Mona Medley (incl. bits of Tequila, Secret Agent Man, Not Fade Away, All Over Now, Whole Lotta Love and others)	24:20
Total		37:32

Source: DSBD > C > CDR

Mellowsoul: An excellent performance! Probably my favorate P.C. show! The air is light and goofy, and the music packs some greatness. Highlight is that crazy "we are going to bore you now with a Grateful Dead type of thing" 'Mona Medley', but everything else on this just shines as well. 'Summertime', 'Rumble' and 'All Worth The Price You Pay' are also excellent as well. Highly recommend for the Cip and/or Greg Douglass fan! I'm both! =)

Personnel
John Cipollina	Lead Guitar, Vocals
Chris Cole	Vocals
Greg Douglass	Lead Guitar, Vocals
Greg Elmore	Drums
Les Lizama	Bass

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It's Not My Fault

Tracks
1	Poor Boy	3:35	(Trad./Arr. Greg Douglass)
2	Breather	1:41	(Greg Douglass)
3	It's Your Monkey Now	4:51	(John Cipollina)
4	Prayers	3:27	(Greg Douglass - Brian Kilcourse)
5	Moonlight Traveler	5:30	(John Cipollina)
6	Summertime	6:21	(Gershwin)
7	Move Over	3:39	(John Cipollina)
8	Jungle Love	4:27	(Lonnie Turner - Greg Douglass)
9	Rooster	3:13	(Greg Douglass - Dave Walker)
10	Fever Dreams	5:11	(John Cipollina)
11	Rumble	2:25	(M. Grant - L. Wray)
12	All Worth The Price You Pay	10:53	(Greg Douglass)

Personnel
John Cipollina	Lead Guitar, Vocals
Chris Cole	Vocals
Greg Douglass	Lead Guitar, Vocals
Greg Elmore	Drums
Les Lizama	Bass

Produced by Dan Healy, Greg Elmore & Mike Somavilla
Chief Engineer: Dan Healy
Assistant Engineer: Mike Cresswell
Mixed at Studio 'D', Sausalito, Calif., Oct 30 1994
Digital editing by David Gans for Truth & Fun Inc.

Remastered by J. P. Bouquet at L'Autre Studio (Vaires s/Marne)

Tracks 1 - 10 recorded by: Charlie Kaiser at The Chi-Chi Club, SF, Calif., Oct 24 1987
Tracks 11 & 12 recorded by: Coco Pugh at Elks Ground, Grant Pass, Oregon, Sept 5 1987
Artwork: Front & Back Covers: Randy Tuten. Inside front cover: Pedro Ortiz
Liner Notes: Mike Somavilla
Photos: Stephanie Mikel & Ginny Syn


Extra special thanks to everyone for their friendship and support in making this all possible: Antonia Cipollina, Dan Healy, Mike Somavilla, Dan Godfrey, Randy Tuten, David Gans, Pedro Ortiz, Stacy Elmore, Nicolas Meriwether, Crest of the Wave Productions, John Cipollina, Greg Douglass, Les Lizama, Chris Cole, Paul Butterfield, Jeff Nations, Charlie Williams, Alex Dore, Michael Pegeus, Bobby Vega, David Hayes, Rob Wulenjah, Steve Keyser, Charlie Kaiser, Miss Keiko, Masa, Ron and Coco Pugh, Mike Dolgushkin, Debbie Wilensky, Stephanie Mikel, Ginny Syn, Nick Gravenites, Terry Dolan, Barry Melton, Andy Andrus, Jason Elmore, Rachel Elmore, Legend Records and to our fans for being there through out it all. It wouldn't of been the same without you.

This CD is dedicated in memory of old friends John Cipollina, Nicky Hopkins, and Dino Valenti.

Thanks and Happy Trails
Greg Elmore

* The Story of Problem Child *

Well, if ever a band was appropriately named it would have to be Problem Child. From the first note of the first rehearsal to the last minute of putting this project together, the often and common reply when asked "why is there a problem?" was "it's not my fault". Either it was kismet or karma but it became apparent in a twisted, somewhat, tongue-in-cheek, foot-in-mouth kind of way that "it's not my fault" was meant to be the title of the Problem Child CD.

Even stranger than fiction is that there is a release at all, which in itself was a shock to the band, because the only tapes that existed were audience and soundboard recordings of their live gigs. Originally, there were never any plans to put out a release, but with the prospect of some of these moments of brilliance actually seeing the light of day, it became more important to preserve the legacy of this often great and misunderstood band than worry about not having state-of-the-art studio recordings. Another consideration behind the release of these recordings is the fact that since the passing of John Cipollina there's been a hole, some might call it a vortex, in the San Francisco music scene, and this was a way to help fill it - not to mention that the saga of Problem Child is the stuff that legends are made of, or at least soap operas, and we'd like to share it with you.

Problem Child was born out of the solo album Little Joe by legendary Quicksilver Messenger Service drummer Greg Elmore, which also featured Greg Douglass (guitar), Bobby Vega (bass) and Charlie Williams (vocals). It was released on red vinyl in 1982 as a limited edition of 1,050, but prior to the completion of the production of the project, Greg Douglass was called to tour duty by Greg Kihn, killing any chance for Little Joe to play some gigs. After Little Joe was completed, Bobby Vega went off to work with Norton Buffalo, Lydia Pense, Paul Butterfield and many others, eventually joining Zero. Charlie Williams would join up with former Doobie Brother Tom Johnston, and Greg Elmore would continue to work with Terry & The Pirates, and Nick Gravenites.

The next time we heard from Little Joe was July 24, 1986 at the Full Moon Saloon in San Francisco with the addition of legendary guitarist John Cipollina, the man of a thousand bands, and one of San Francisco's musical icons. However, for some reason Charlie bailed out and at the last minute Paul Butterfield saved the day and came to the rescue. Later that night Bobby Vega joking with the band as they were thinking of a name, mentioned that the band was fast becoming a "Problem Child" due to everything they had endured at that point - Charlie not showing up was only a small part of it.

On August 9, 1986 in San Francisco at the Chi Chi Club Problem Child had their official debut, with Jeff Nations on lead vocals. Jeff only lasted for three gigs leaving them high'n'dry on August 20, 1986. From there the band would continue as a four piece with John Cipollina and Greg Elmore handling the vocals, however this line up would change again and on Sept. 7th Bobby would quit Problem Child and they realised that yes they had chosen the right name.

It was also around this time that Greg Douglass played in the band Bad Dog (not to be confused by the band led by Buddy Cage). This group also featured Mike Pegeus on vocals (who in the sixties played with The Old Grey Zipper), Alex Dore on bass & vocals and with Jeff Cregg on drums (Huey Lewis' brother). Jeff quit Bad Dog only to be replaced by Greg Elmore, and Problem Child in need of a singer and bass player, it made sense for the two bands to merge.

This new line up of Problem Child - John Cipollina, Greg Douglass, Greg Elmore, Alex Dore amd Mike Pegeus - made their debut at the Starry Plough in Berkeley on September 20, 1986. This line up would continue until May 9, 1976 [1987?] when Alex and Mike were asked to leave over creative differences. It was soon after this that Greg Elmore discovered Chris Cole singing with Bobby Vega's new group, The Joneses, and while enjoying a beer and the music decided to steal Chris away to join Problem Child. First Greg calls up Cipollina to come out and check out Chris, and as they say, the rest is history.

At this point the band briefly contemplated changing their name to Poker Face, but since they were already making some noise as Problem Child, they felt they'd would just stick it out. However, they still needed a bass player! Well here comes David Hayes to help out until they find a permanent replacement. David's first gig was July 11, 1987 at the Chi Chi Club and his last one was at the Music Works in San Francisco on August 22, which was also a celebration for John's upcoming 44th birthday on August 24th.

By late August Les Lizama had taken over on bass. Formerly with Link Wray and S.F.O., among others, Les had looked forward to a long tenure with the band, but alas with more problems mounting, Les would eventually leave on December 29, 1987. Taking over for Les was Rob Wulenjah. Rob had been in Terraplane with Greg Douglass, Greg Elmore, Andy Andrus and occasionally Chris Cole and was the most logical replacement. Rob's first gig with Problem Child was on February 5th, 1988 at the Chi Chi.

On February 12th, the band did a live radio broadcast from New Georges in San Rafael, California, on KRQR. It seemed like everything was finally going their way but somehow, by the end of the night, as they loaded up their equipment, they knew it was over. Problem Child would never play again.

John Cipollina started playing guitar in 1955 at the age of twelve. Before that he had played piano for three years, but it was not his thing and he gave it up to pursue his first love, the guitar.

By the late fifties John had formed his first group, the Penetrators. They would soon change their name to the Deacons, aka The Swinging Deacons, and at one point they even had female background singers known as the Deacons Daughters. Rob Moitoza, later to play with Cold Blood and the Sons of Champlin was also a Deacon, as were Adam Fourman, Winston Searles and Larry Biancala among others. The Deacons broke up by July of 1965 and John, along with his housemates Jim Murray and David Freiberg, would form the nucleus of what would later be known as Quicksilver Messenger Service, along with Casey Sonnabend and Skip Spence, who left to join the Jefferson Airplane in August 1965. Quicksilver Messenger Service waa born in the basement at 52 Water Street in San Francisco, where Greg Elmore and Gary Duncan had been living. John's car, with all his instruments, broke down outside. Jim and David were with him and the rest is history. John would stay with QMS until October 5, 1970, prior to the release of their fifth album What About Me. He returned in 1975 to work on their reunion album Solid Silver and toured briefly in support of its release.

Although John is probably best remembered for his work with the Quicksilver Messenger Service, he also recorded, toured or performed with Copperhead, Nick Gravenites, Terry & the Pirates, Raven, Man, Rocky Sullivan, Dinosaurs, Zero, Mike Wilhelm, Kathi Mcdonald, Novato Frank Band, Healy Treece, Papa John Creach, Robert Hunter, Stu Blank, Mickey Hart, Nathan Sark, Liv with the Boys, Martine Fierro, Charles Lloyd, Pete Sears, Freelight, Brewer & Shipley, Sounds of San Francisco, Fred Neil, Eric Clapton and many others. In addition, John worked on episodes of The New Twilight Zone with Merl Saunders, as well as the soundtrack to the movie 68, the video documentary Survivors The Blues Today and on the soundtrack for the video Skiing Extreme. It was towards the end of Problem Child that John and Chris attempted to put together a side-project. The rehearsals were held in complete secrecy with John copping a "take no prisoners" attitude. However, this band never made it out of Black Dragon Studios - John's famed studio.

Problem Child broke up in February 1988. John left Zero in July of 1988 and became ill following an October tour of the Dinosaurs. John would be out of commission until after Christmas of that year. Upon John's return to the stage he resumed playing gigs with Fish'n'Chip, Terry & the Pirates, Martine Fierro, Dinosaurs and topping it off with a March tour of Greece with Nick Gravenites. There were plans for Nick and John to do some Bay area appearances since they hadn't played here since November 1988, but these shows never happened. John's last public gigs were May 8 at the Chi Chi Club with Terry & the Pirates, and on May 13 at the Saloon with Fish'n'Chip.

On May 28, 1989 John passed away due to respiratory failure. On June 28 a tribute concert was held at the Fillmore Auditorium. The capacity crowd filled the hall to hear the dozens of musicians pay tribute to John including Peter Albin, Greg Anton, Antonia Cipollina, Mario Cipollina, Chris Cole, Terry Dolan, Spencer Dryden, Greg Elmore, John Farey, Martine Fierro, David Freiberg, Nick Gravenites, Dan Healy, Nicky Hopkins, Robert Hunter, Doug Killmer, Steve Kimock, Paul Liberatore, Barry Melton, Merl Saunders, Pete Sears, Mark Unobsky, Al Staehely, Rocky Sullivan, David Weber and others, who rocked the roof off the Fillmore.

John Cipollina spent the better part of his life doing what he knew best - playing guitar. When John played, his body, mind and guitar became as one. His style of playing was unique. John created an original sound that would become his signature trademark, making him one of the most identifiable guitarists in the history of rock'n'roll.

Greg Douglass performed his first gig in June 1964 playing with the Statics for a P.T.A. sponsored event. Throughout 1965 Greg was in the Vibrants, leaving them in 1966 to replace Paul White in the Virtues. By late 1967 the Virtues consisting of Greg Doiglass (guitar & vocals), Dave Carter (bass & vocals), Steve Derr (guitar & vocals) and Bill Baron (drums) - changed their name to Country Weather and created quite a storm playing the Avalon, the Fillmore, and throughout Northern California. However their "almost" record deal never materialised and by 1973 the bad broke up.

Next Greg and Bill Baron would form Mistress with Brian Kilcourse, but as fate as fate would have it their album produced by Mallory Earl was never released and by August 1974 Mistress called it quits.

All this time Greg's reputation was growing. Aside from playing in Terry & the Pirates, he had recorded on Link Wary's 1973 album Be What You Want. He also joined up with Mario Cipollina's band Soundhole and went on the road as Van Morrison's back up band. Later, through an introduction from Mallory Earl, Greg would join Hot Tuna for a tour and an album, co-writing "Song for the Fire Maiden" on the Yellow Fever album.

Meanwhile in 1976 back at the Terry & the Pirates camp, Greg and John grew restless and formed their own short lived band Raven. Then Greg grew restless and would revive the name Mistress and form a new band with the various members from Raven and with Clay Cotten (Mother Earth) and Dave Walker (Savoy Brown). After a while of almost getting there, but going nowhere, Greg would leave and eventually would join The Steve Miller Band in 1977.

Still while in Terry & the Pirates, Greg and Lonnie Turner were sharing musical ideas when the song "Jungle Love" was born, It was a blend of Greg's music left over from his early Mistress days and words Lonnie had from his days with Dave Mason. This became part of the Pirates set prior to becoming a hit for Steve Miller.

Lonnie would soon leave the Pirates to rejoin Steve Miller taking with him a copy of the song. Miller liked it but could not play the lick, so he invited Greg to join the band, with whom Greg toured for two and a half years recording and writing on three albums.

At this point there was no stopping Greg. He either toured, recorded, performed or all that and more with Terry & the Pirates, Michael Dejong, Norton Buffalo, Gene Clark, Country Joe McDonald, Peter Rowan, Steve Douglas, Greg Kihn, Nick Gravenites, Tom Johnston, Mike Wilhelm, Barry Melton, Nico, Lethyl, Paul Butterfield, Danny Kalb, John Coinman, Pacific Coast Highway, Robbie Dunbar, Eddie Money, Rocky Sullivan and David Bennett Cohen to name but a few.

When Terry & the Pirates called it quits in 1989, Greg had already gone back to performing solo. In 1992, Greg released his first solo album Maelstrom on Taxim Records in Germany. Since that time Greg has recorded with Doug Clifford and Greg Kihn, and has performed live with among others Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and Stephen Stills. He is currently working on his follow up to Maelstrom and working on a book about open tuning for Mel Bay Publications.

Les Lizama toured western Canada for a year with the rock group BRO before settling in the San Francisco bay area in 1974.

A timely referral from his high school friend Greg Elmore led to a two year stint with guitar legend Link Wray while riding a Northern California comeback, fuelled by the Polydor release The Link Wray Rumble. Also in the band was Boston-bred drummer David Weber, formerly with Front Page Revue and John Cipollina's Copperhead. John Cipollina became an honorary fourth member of the band, making several appearances with the group.

When Link relocated back to the East Coast, Les hooked up with Eddie Money. During his eighteen month tenure, while working towards Eddie's management deal with rock impresario Bill Graham, Les collaborated with Eddie on several of his later hits including "Two Tickets to Paradise" and "Life for the Taking".

A chance invitation to rejoin his old buddies David Weber and guitarist David Lewark, formerly with Sammy Hagar and Eddie Money, led to the formation of S.F.O., a hugely creative quintet led by Kent Housman, a guitarist-singer-songwriter (Ducks, Blue Cheer) and Clay Cotten on keyboards (Charlie Musselwhite, Mother Earth). Les wrote bass and vocals parts for much of the band's huge, original, and as-yet unreleased repertoire.

The start of a family led to a sabbatical from the music business for a few years, with a few exceptions, until one day in August of 1987 when Les would once again receive a phone call from his old high school pal Greg Elmore with the opportunity to join Problem Child. Well, needless to say Les was ready, willing and able to join, especially given the chance to work again with John Cipollina.

Today Les' musical focus is in the area of progressive rock and jazz fusion, and he divides his time between family and a YMCA directorship.

Chris Cole was a late bloomer when it came to playing rock'n'roll, but his passion for music always ran deep. His influences were early Motown, The British invasion of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, et al, to just about everybody who came through the San Francisco music scene.

Although Chris started performing publicly in 1980, he has worked with a plethora of musicians including Randy Oden, Carlos Santana, Mario Cipollina, Johnny Colla, members of Eddie Money, Tesla and of course Problem Child.

Chris remembers Problem Child for the times when the band's playing was "beyond brilliant" and that "they always had a good time". He also remembers their three day tour of Oregon capping it with the surprise birthday gig for Ron Pugh in Elks Ground Park.

Chris would also like to mention that he fondly recalls the time when John Cipollina was asked "where did you get Chris" and John's reply was "I got Chris in prison for a pack of cigarettes". Chris says I'll miss John's sense of humor. Chris would like you to know that his music comes from the heart and is always dedicated to his daughters Jenifer and Lauren, and that he'll never forget performing at the tribute concert to John Cipollina with Nicky Hopkins and fifty other musicians for about two thousand of John's fans and friends.

Greg Elmore started playing drums in 1957. While in high school he played John Phillips Sousa music in the marching band, along with Les Michaels. It wasn't long after this that Greg joined up with the surf group Pendulums and cut an unreleased side.

In 1964 Greg formed the Brogues with his high school friend Eddie Rodriguez (guitar & vocals) and along with Rick Campbell (organ & vocals) and Bill Whittington (bass & vocals). They cut the single "But Now I Find"/"Someday" in March of 1965. Gary Duncan, known then as Gary Cole, joined the band in time for their second single "Don't Shoot Me Down/""I Ain't No Miracle Worker" in August of 1965.

By September 1965 Greg was a founding member of the legendary Quicksilver Messenger Service staying with them for all their original eight albums leaving them in 1976 and going into semi-retirement.

By 1979 Greg had joined the Allies with whom he cut the single "Carried Away"/"Small World" and performed with them live for over a year. From here Greg would once again team up with John Cipollina and join both Terry & the Pirates and the Nick Gravenites-John Cipollina Band, aka Thunder & Lightning. Greg also recorded and toured in the US and in Europe with them.

Greg, or Elmore as he is known to his friends, has recorded on Terry & the Pirates' Rising of the Moon, Mike Wilhelm's Mean Ol' Frisco, and the WolfPack Band single "Mr Big/""Public Enemy #1", with John Cipollina, Norton Buffalo, Amory Kane, Pat Craig and others. Greg also recorded the single "Vaya Con Dios"/ "What Makes the World Go Round" with Dan Stuart and Chuck Prophet from Green On Red, and toured Europe with them in the summer of 1988. Greg can also be found in the video Survivors the Blues Today performing with Thunder & Lightning.

From 1987 until 1990, Greg also recorded and performed with Terraplane, The Bond and Yikes which all featured Andy Andrus. Since the break-up of Yikes Greg has gone back into semi-retirement, but occasionally finding the time to jam with Gregg Allman, Harvey Mandel, Nick Gravenites and Barry Melton, and he performed at the tribute to Chet Helms and at the Gibson guitar 100th anniversary celebration concert.

Last updated: 17-Mar-2006