On Friday, September 1st, Quad Cities' own Josh Duffee will debut his brand new music project: a band called "Class of '82." This group, made up of six musicians, will be a 1980s synth-pop band. They will be performing in the Redstone Room at the River Music Experience in downtown Davenport.
While still staying heavily involved with my jazz gigs, Duffee says “this group will be something different and fun to perform with in addition to the great jazz music I perform each week.”
There is a lot of hype surrounding this group, and they're already starting to get calls for gigs later in the year! Duffee adds, “The Quad Cities hasn't had a band like this in a very long time, and once word can reach the people living in the area, I know this group will become a local favorite for people to come and see.”We have an event page on the band's Facebook page, and we already have a lot of interest towards the first show."
For the past 3 years Duffee has been attending the concerts of the original bands from the 80s whose music they will be performing. He has been fortunate to have met a lot of the musicians before or after their shows, and even has a close friendship with a few of them as well. Some of the groups and people he's seen or met are Gary Daly, Eddie Lundon and Gazza Johnson from China Crisis, Thompson Twins' Tom Bailey, Erasure, Nick Beggs and Jez Strode from Kajagoogoo, Peter Byrne from Naked Eyes, Marian Gold from Alphaville, Howard Jones (Howard, Jon Atkinson and Robbie Bronnimann), Martin Fry from ABC, and so on... Duffee has collected signed LP's that are hanging on a wall in his home, as well as songbooks and sheet music from the 80s that the band has been using to learn the songs. Everyone in “Class of '82” is excited to be performing this music, and we can't wait for people to hear us in person!
