Royal Crescent Mob reunites after nearly 30 years
Nearly 30 years after its last gig, Royal Crescent Mob has finally found the time to reunite.
Perhaps a little update is in order: The R.C. Mob crashed into the Columbus alternative music scene in 1985 with the dizzying and irrepressible funk-rock song “Get On The Bus.” With its killer mix of funk and punk, the group packed the smallest and then largest campus-area venues with diehard fans and maniacal dancing.
By 1994, the group had called it quits.
“We had a good run, lots of fans, some good records,” vocalist David Ellison said recently. “It was just time to give everyone the air to breathe and do other things with their music, creativity and life.”
But the band will be back together for two concerts to benefit cancer research and awareness. The first takes place in Columbus at the Athenaeum Theatre on Dec. 16, and the next in Covington, Kentucky, at the Madison Theater on Dec. 17.
Music:Columbus musicians shoot fundraising video for area refugees and immigrants
The R.C. Mob formed late in 1984 when Ellison, Brian “B” Emch, Harold "Happy" Chichester and Bill Schwers left Columbus bluesman Ray Fuller’s band. Without Schwers, the other three indulged their love of both funk and punk rock, and formed the short-lived Roy-Yals.
Ellison took on the vocal chores, Emch switched to guitar from bass, and Chichester exchanged his beat-up spinet piano for a bass. New drummer recruit Davey “Devadip” West didn’t have a kit, so he played on various-sized cardboard boxes and used bar ashtrays as cymbals. Emch only had a Hawaiian lap steel guitar.
The setlist ranged from funk (Ohio Players) to punk (Dead Kennedys) and back to funk (James Brown).
Schwers joined, and the band changed its name to Royal Crescent Mob. The quartet released the “Land of Sugar” EP−which was picked by New York’s influential Village Voice as one of the best of 1986−for the tiny, local No Other Records. (This writer owned the label.)
The classic lineup, though, began with Schwers’ departure, and the arrival of drummer Carlton Smith, who had recently left reggae band Irie. Mob soundman Montie Temple (the fifth "mobster") had encouraged Smith to audition.
The group parlayed its growing reputation into a deal with New York’s Celluloid label for its full-length debut, “Omerta,” featuring a re-recorded “Get On The Bus.”
When the Mob signed with Warner Brothers Records’ subsidiary Sire (Ramones, Talking Heads, Pretenders) in 1988, though, it was as though the vibrant Columbus alternative music scene had arrived.
But the label dropped the Mob in 1991, delivering the local scene a painful reality check. The group continued, though, tapping the experience it had gathered recording and performing tirelessly. The musicians kept touring the world with bands including the Replacements, the B-52s, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
After the break-up, Ellison became a tour manager for Alanis Morissette at her point of departure into the big time. He augmented that success with stints managing tours for Avril Lavigne, Jay-Z and now Miley Cyrus, among others.
Chichester formed Howlin’ Maggie to showcase his songs, and went on an all-too-familiar industry rollercoaster with Columbia Records for the band’s debut. Smith joined him for the group's second, self-produced LP.
Music:The Killers' Imploding the Mirage Tour to stop at Value City Arena in March
Amicable as the split was, Royal Crescent Mob never performed any reunions, other than Ellison, Emch and Smith delivering an impromptu reading of a Mob favorite at Ellison’s mom’s celebration of life in 2021.
“From note number one, I fell in love with these guys,” Smith remembered recently. “That’s why I think we are having this conversation today. We spent nine years on the road.”
That changes with the forthcoming benefit concerts. All of the obstacles that had, for years, complicated a reunion seemed to fall away as Ellison was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer this year; Emch’s wife, Sallee Fry, died of pancreatic cancer in May; and Smith was diagnosed with glioblastoma (brain cancer) also this year.
The camaraderie the band shared so long ago will kick back in for, perhaps, one last time.
“The moment Carlton walked in (to that audition in 1986), it just took off,” Chichester said recently.
"We all were truly a band in that classic way: all for one and one for all.”
At a glance
CD92.9 presents Royal Crescent Mob Reunion Show will take place at 8 p.m. on Dec. 16 at the Athenaeum Theatre, 32 N. 4th St. Tickets are $30. For more information, visit columbusathenaeum.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Royal Crescent mob to play reunion show at the Athenaeum Theatre
