GONN - Reunion and Later Fame

Reunion and Later Fame

The bandmembers kept in close contact even after their breakup, and most of the members remained in music. The band's fame grew over time as "Blackout of Gretely" became better known, and the band began receiving letters and telephone calls from fans around the world. The song was included on a number of bootleg compilation albums, and a live version of the song was included on the first EP by the Fuzztones, Leave Your Mind At Home (1984). At length, the release of a 1985 retrospective album of GONN's mid-1960s recordings on Voxx Records brought numerous gems into the open.

However, "Blackout of Gretely" and their other recordings were slow to appear on legitimate garage rock compilation albums, especially those released in America. For instance, other than the British release Best of Pebbles, Volume 1, no songs by GONN were ever released on any of the LPs in the Pebbles series, although "Blackout of Gretely" would eventually appear on the CD reissure of Pebbles, Volume 1. Since Iowa was not one of the regions featured, the band also missed out on inclusion in the Highs in the Mid-Sixties series. One reason may have been the unusually long timing of the song (4:29); typical garage rock records are less than 3 minutes in length. In 2000, Lenny Kaye told Craig Moore in person at a Patti Smith Group concert that "Blackout of Gretely" would have been included on the original Nuggets#1: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 double LP in 1972 except that it was too long. The song was, however, featured on the Nuggets box set released by Rhino Records in 1998.

After an abortive attempt in the fall of 1969, a few mini-reunions of GONN occurred in the early 1980s, along with various friends of the band. The first featured Rex Garrett, Gary Stepp and Brent Colvin; another a week later reunited Craig Moore, Larry LaMaster, and Dave Johnson.

On the heels of the successful reception of a 1989 album by Craig Moore and Friends called Agonnagain, GONN held a reunion concert in 1990 on the riverfront in Keokuk. In 1996, six of the seven core members in 1966-67 (excepting Brent Colvin, the band's original drummer) returned to the recording studio for a 30th-year reunion album, Gonn with the Wind. The album features a mix of well-crafted familiar and obscure covers with several original songs, plus a new song, "In the Wind", written by Moore and Garrett especially for the album as a tribute to garage rock fans everywhere. This was their first songwriting collaboration since "Come with Me" in 1967. The release of this album was followed by a two-week tour of Italy, France and Holland in 1997, along with an appearance that year at the Fuzz Fest in Atlanta, where GONN was able to meet a new generation of garage rockers.

Another European tour followed in 2001; this time, only Moore, Gabel and Johnson were able to tour, so they were joined by Jeff Jacks of the Chocolate Watch Band (whom Moore had met in New York in 1999) and Massimo del Pozzo of an Italian band called the Others. The band played eight dates in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium and France.

On July 4, 2004, GONN played a concert in their hometown for the first time in years at Rand Park, and then embarked on an American tour through Alabama and Louisiana, ending at a New Orleans club called the Circle Bar.

In 2005, GONN received an invitation to appear at a special event sponsored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Cleveland Browns Stadium. (The photo above of Craig Moore is taken from that performance).

On January 5, 2008, GONN reunited for a show in St. Louis, Missouri, and all five original 1967 members were featured in the lineup. Reception was such that the band returned to St. Louis for another show in June 2008. A second reunion album is in the works as of mid-2009.