The Lead Singer of This Popular New Hampshire Band Sadly Passed Away This Weekend at Age 45
The NH music scene is still trying to cope with the shocking news of the untimely passing of Jeff Bibbo. I'll try to put into words how influential and important he and his Seacoast based band, Groovechild, were to me, an entire generation of their fans.
My brother had a cassette copy of their debut album 'Sick At Last' and that tape was played continuously throughout the spring and summer of 1993 at parties, cookouts and kickball tournaments.
My band 'Isinglass' had just formed a few months prior and though we were still a LONG way away from reaching their level of musicianship (we never got there) it was so cool to have a great local band (rumored to be from Newmarket) to look up to and hear on the radio.
Fast forward to Friday of Labor Day weekend in 1995 and, through a bit of good luck, Isinglass got to open for Groovechild!
We played at The Palace, which is now Blue Ocean Music Hall and were the first band of three to share the stage that night with Groovechild. I remember being nervous when meeting them even though we were all about the same age and they all we're very down to earth and friendly.
That night I also met their manager Scott Laudani who was a great on-air personality at the time and now is a brilliant radio programmer. I talked to him at length about this crazy business that has been my career now for the last 20 years.
By 1996 I was working part time in radio (probably board opping for Laudani) and by 1997 Isinglass was no more.
It's been 25 years since 'Sick At Last' first blasted through the large Boston Acoustic speakers at my parents house. Whenever I hear the opening guitar licks of 'Riverside' followed by the distinctive voice of Jeff Bibbo, it'll always sound how being 20 years old felt, and it'll always feel like Springtime.
RIP Jeff Bibbo.