TAP Story


After spending time, and being seen with such bands as Tattered Glory, Assassins of Youth, The Dodge Gang, Mynd Exit, Kick The Cat, and Tweeter Head, Tom Allen had quit doing music for a while. But he couldn't stay away forever. He decided to start recording. That's when he met Wade Tonken. Wade had a small recording studio in Manhattan, so he and Tom began recording the song 'Time For All Time', a song Tom had written years before. Tom and Wade played all the instruments. Tom did all the singing and Wade did all the engineering. Soon they were recording a second song (Together Again), then a third (Tales of Knight)(all three songs are on TAP's CD "Tales Of Knight").

Right around that time Tom's sister died and he hit the bottle pretty hard, but he tried to finish the many songs he planned to record. Then one day while he was pretty buzzed at a street fair, he decided to sing karaoke. Buster Pascali happened by and saw Tom singing. Buster said, "Hey we're looking for a singer." Tom said, "What the hell." And joined the band. It was a Deep Purple cover band called Child in Time. That worked for a while..........

With some personnel changes, came a name change to Terra Firma. Terra Firma played 70s 80s and 90s covers and one or two originals. But it just wasn't working for Tom. He wanted to do mostly originals and one or two covers. So Terra Firma went their separate ways. Tom went back into the studio with Wade to record 'Ever Since,' a full orchestrated instrumental, and 'Run', another song Tom had written years before (Both songs are included on "Tales Of Knight").

Around that time Tom's college roommate, Bill Royce decided to get married, so Tom took the trip to Vegas to attend the wedding as one of the witnesses. When he returned home there was a note on his door from Buster. The note said that Buster met another musician and wanted Tom to come down and jam. That night Tom met Rick Drago and they wrote 'Castles in the Sand' ( also included on "Tales Of Knight). The three needed a bass player so Buster and Tom called a friend to come sit in. Fritz Demorney joined the band the next night. Buster had also been talking to another musician and asked him to come down. By the time Kevin Christ joined the band, they were called Bastid Child. Kevin and Tom got together and wrote the song 'Hey You' ("Tales Of Knight"). Soon afterward the two wrote 'Don't Want It' (This song is on the TAP CD "Deadly Dose), and 'If You Go'. Rick and Tom went on to write 'Temujin' (ode to Genghis Kahn)("Tales Of Knight), 'Bastid Kid' and 'Jenny Genocide'. That's when Bastid Child hit the New York music scene. In the meantime Wade and Tom were recording 'Writeland Valley'("Tales Of Knight'').

After playing the scene for a few months Tom was invited to a reception in Kansas for the wedding of Bill Royce. Tom flew to Kansas City and stayed for a few days. While he was there, he and Bill decided to record one of Tom's songs called 'So Much'.(this song is included on the CD 'Deadly Dose') As they started recording at Becky Steve Studios, their friend Andy Shivers dropped by. He joined in on the recording, and they finished, just in time for Tom to catch a plane back to New York.

Back in New York Bastid Child was becoming pretty popular on the music scene. Tom decided to add 'So Much' to the song list. It was met with some resistance from some members of the band, but audiences seemed to like it. At this time, the band was opening up for famous acts like The Jimmie Van Zant Band, and playing the top rock venues in New York City. As the band did full house gigs the tensions began to rise, but that didn't stop them from going into the studio.

The first Bastid Child release was going to be a four song demo called Group Therapy. The name reflected the dysfunctional relationship of the band members with each other at the time. Bastid Child went down to Mega Traxx studio's (Jeff Shears engineer) and tried to record without fighting every night. They got along just long enough to get the four songs recorded. Group Therapy was never released.  

Right after the recording sessions Kevin Christ quit the band. Soon after Fritz quit too. Kevin Smith was brought in on bass temporarily to finish out some gigs. Buster met a left handed guitarist name Mike Fillius who came down to jam and then joined the band. Soon, Rick Drago would leave the band too. Mike and Tom wrote 'Deadly Dose'(on the CD of the same name), and a few other songs during the next few weeks. Tom also wrote 'Pigeon Song'(also on the CD Deadly Dose) around this time.

Bass players came and went and the name changes included Plunger, Phsycotronics, and Satan's Den. When Mike quit because of personal problems, Buster, Tom and Billy Buyer (a friend who was playing bass) were left to audition new guitar players. And so the auditions began.....

During the auditions Buster and Tom were yelling NEXT quite a bit so they decided that would be their next name. Then, in walked a guitar player from Switzerland. He hardly spoke english. But when he began to play, Xavier Frey became a part of Next. He and Tom wrote 'Where Is My Heart (18 Strings)' that night. And a few nights later the band worked on a musical piece of Xavier's that would later become the song 'Come With Me'. (both songs are on the CD 'Deadly Dose')

After a few gigs Billy Buyer quit, and Next needed a bass player again. Friends were helping out when they could at a few gigs, but it was time for a permanent bass player. That's when Buster found Joe Cuisimano. Now Next was ready for their world tour.

The new line up for Next was working out well until the band signed a contract to do a European tour....

In the mean time, Tom went on a ski trip and met a guy named Hank who kept telling Tom he knew a female drummer and that Tom should get together with her and jam.
As timing would have it Buster quit the band and Tom called the female drummer. She said, come on over and jam. So Tom, Xavier and Joe went to Dawn Dimilia's house to jam. The jam session went well enough, but Next wanted a serious audition for their prospective new drummer. So they rented studio space, gave Dawn a tape, and had an audition the following week. Tom and Xavier liked her, but Joe didn't.....he was out.

Dawn brought in a keyboard player who could sing back up as well. Cecile Kabarajian joined the band and they were on their way. Tom called up Kevin Smith and got him to come down and jam. The band was complete. Or was it?

Between gigs they started to do some recording. 'Pigeon Song' and 'Come With Me' were recorded during those sessions. But, because of family obligations, Kevin couldn't stay on.

Soon TAP brought in a good friend and one of the best bass players in New York - Jay Rivera. Jay liked the music and stayed on. TAP was complete. The line up hasn't changed since.