SPECIAL THANKS

            There are a few people who we would like to recognize for their contributions to this website and to the making of our CD and DVD. We never imagined that 20 years after we played our last gig as an active band that we would release a CD and a DVD. We also would like to give a nod to some others that helped the band during our years together. There is no order of importance in this list, because they are all important. We would like to thank………….   

            Mitch Tingiris – Mitch has been the driving force behind our reunions, the website, the CD and DVD. He is very involved in all of these projects. He has "kept the candle burning” all these years and is our biggest fan.

            Jeff Perillo - Jeff was a roadie for us during our last few years together and he works out of The Secret Lair (his home studio) where he spent an immense amount of time bringing our website to life. He also designed the artwork for our CD and DVD. Originally our CD was to be released in the summer of 2004 but was put on the back shelf due to numerous technical issues. That was followed by several months of inactivity while we looked for someone to pick up the pieces and get it going again. It was Jeff who stepped up and jump started the process. He did an enormous amount of work in a very short period of time. All of his mixing, fixing and editing came to fruition with the release of our CD at the Taste of Syracuse event. He put new life into our tracks and we are deeply thankful for his work. He has donated all of his time and we couldn’t have done it without him.      

            Gordy Scibior – We want to thank Gordy for the financial support he offered so that we could get our CD done. Also for taking care of and refurbishing, the original Alecstar sign (that was the backdrop for hundreds of shows) so that we could use it at our reunions.

            Bill Hatch – Bill is an engineer in the Visual Media department at Cornell and had heard about our DVD project. He offered his time to transfer all the videos we chose to DVD format. Because our video’s date back to 1980, he ran each one through Cornell’s audio and visual equipment first to enhance both the picture and sound. We are fortunate to have someone like Bill involved in our project. 

            Steven Tingiris – Steven lives in Tampa and is president and CEO of Prospect Smarter. They are a marketing solution company that specializes in designing ways to increase a companies sales. He not only donated his time to do the initial setup of our website, his company donated the space to host it as well. It all started with Steven and we can’t thank him enough. Their website can be viewed at www.ProspectSmarter.com 

            Jim Barnes & Paul Baywall – Jim is an engineer and Paul is the owner and engineer at Tuffy’s Barn in Sangerfield NY. This is the studio where we took all our old 2, 16 & 24 track master tapes to be dumped to a digital format to be remixed for the new CD. These guys are analog kings and without their equipment and knowledge of the analog world we may never have been able to remix the tracks that we did. Trying to locate a studio that had the equipment to handle all the various formats we had proved to be very difficult. We almost gave up. As it turns out these guys were also Alecstar fans. We dumped our project in their laps and they came through for us. It was not an easy task. Our tapes were 20-25 years old. With the old tapes came a lot of problems. We won’t go into them here but suffice to say, these guys used every analog trick in the book and probably invented a few more on the way, to bring our tapes back to life. We can’t thank them enough for their dedication to our project. You can visit Tuffy’s Barn at www.arcaneaudio.com

            Jerry “The Doctor” Kraus – There were a number of DJ's that helped Alecstar (see History section and below) but Jerry deserves a special thanks for breaking Alecstar into the Utica - Rome area back when we first went on the road with the main line-up in 1978. That was also Jerry's first year with WOUR. He began carrying the flag for the band right out of the gate, and was an enormous help to us. Jerry has been the master of ceremonies at three of our reunions to date starting with our first in 1998 at the WOUR 25th birthday celebration at Vernon Downs. Jerry left WOUR in 2007 and now works as the public relations/marketing and development director for the Stevens-Swan Humane Society of Oneida County. Jerry is a dog owner and animal lover, and keeping things afloat for the shelter is something that he enjoys immensely. It is no secret that we donate all profits from our shows and merchandise to animal shelters. Jerry deserves a double thanks... for helping us, and for helping those that cannot speak for themselves. Thanks for everything Doc!  To donate or adopt you can visit the shelter at www.Stevens-Swan.org

            T.J. Condon - T.J. was a close friend and bass player alongside Dick Murphy in Bib-N-Tucker. Not only did he design the cover of our first single, he designed our logo which is forever linked to the band.

            UVTV – These are the guys that took the video footage of the band at the Turning Stone Casino in May 2003. We want to thank Rich Stahle and his crew for doing a great job in what was somewhat difficult circumstances (T.S. had strict requirements on video camera shoots). You can catch some of Rich’s work on our DVD (available in the merchandise section) and you can check out the UVTV (Underground Video Television) website at www.uvtv.info/update/

            Our Road Crews –There were a lot of  people that worked for the band over nine years and if we forgot you, we apologize. We want to thank Matt McDowell (who became our manager for most of our time together), Phil Berrigan, Mike Cook, Dave Seib, Mouse, Junior Tilson, Dave Swift, Dennis Wantuch, Wayne & Mel Merritt, John & Bob McCain, Tommy Addison, Arty VanHousen, John Gilmour (who also recorded some of the tracks on our new CD), Matt Forger (who recorded our album), Jeff Perillo, Joe Bravo, Mark Mayola, John Mantor and Rich Pabst.  And we don't want to forget Ashley Scott , Christian Fidler, Brie O'Donnell, Justin Scott and Tom Scott who work the merchandise table at our reunions.

            Promoters – We would very much like to thank the late Jack Belle and his associate Chuck Chao for the many gigs we were lucky to have played on. Also Tony Cee & Associates in Utica, the Turning Stone Casino staff and stage crew, and the many agents that worked for different booking agency’s.

            Club Owners - There are so many that we could not possibly list (or remember!) them all here. But suffice to say we want to thank each and every one of them for having us in their "homes".      

            Radio Stations & DJ’s – All these people and their stations were immensely helpful in promoting the band. We would like to thank Jerry Krause, Tom Starr, Peter Hirsch and Jeff Chard at WOUR 96.9 in Utica, Dave Fresina at 95X in Syracuse, Howie Castle & Tommy Nast at 94Rock in Syracuse, Andy Turco, Bob Welsh & Rick Van Zant at PYX106 in Albany. We would also like to give a note of thanks to Andy Rebscher and John “Bunky” Bunkfeldt who recorded Alecstar live (for WOUR) on a number of occasions and did an outstanding job.

            Our Fans – You know the saying…. Save the best for last. What can we say? Without you there is no us. We are eternally grateful for your support and loyalty over the years.

THANK YOU ALL …………                                                                                           

The Alecstar Band 

George Mahoney

Jack Murray

Dick Murphy

Harold Mantor

Tim Sharp