Mourning Rain, 1969

Members of the band Mourning Rain (L-R); Valerie Brauner Tomiello (keyboard), Patricia Burden Scott (flute), Bob Von Rhee (drums), Roy Justice (guitar), Jeff Gallagher (bass guitar). We were an MOR band covering groups like Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, Sly and The Family Stone, CCR, some Beatles and Rolling Stones. Val, Pat and Roy went to Massapequa High School, Massapequa, L.I., N.Y. Bob and Jeff went to Berner High School, also in Massapequa. The band was unusual at the time for having female members who not only sang but played instruments, as well. Roy, Jeff and Bob had played and sang together as a trio before inviting Val and Pat to join the band. The addition of the extra voices made 5 part harmonies possible and the group had a unique sound for the times. Together for less than a a year, in 1969, the band entered a series of Battles of the Bands, sponsored by LILCO (the Long Island Lighting Company), placed first at the Marjorie Post Park local competition and took second place at the Bethpage Community Park Finals competition. That win earned them a spot in the Nassau County Finals held in front of a crowd of nearly 15,000 at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York. Mourning Rain won that competition which earned them an 8 track recording session at Ultra-Sonic Recording Studio and a $400 gift certificate to Sam Ashe Music Store. The band was favored to place well at the NY State competition that year but the event was cancelled. When the band arrived at Ultra-Sonic Studios to record the two songs that they had planned to use on the demo, they were informed that the songs had to be originals - unless licenses were obtained for the songs they intended to cover. Ultra-Sonic graciously allowed the band 48 hours to come back in with two original songs (no time to obtain licenses in that time-frame, in those days!) so, Roy (vocal leader of the band) - with the help of the other band members - wrote two original songs the next day and recorded them the day after. One of those songs - Speak for Yourself - will be entered into the R360 HS Band Contest. The demo that was made at Ultra-Sonic was shopped to several record/music publishing companies in NYC and the band received an invitation to do more recording for MGM Studios. Unfortunately, MGM went through a corporate re-construction just before the sessions were to take place and Mourning Rain, along with a number of other bands slated for development deals, received a letter of apology, cancelling the sessions, but encouraging the band to keep making music! Since the band members were 15 and 16 years of age, and lives were becoming diverse, the band broke up in 1970. But, oh, those memories! Today the band members enjoy sharing those stories (and songs!) with their children and grand-children and, thanks to Radio 360, have re-connected through Facebook, email and phone, after several decades! There's even 'talk' of a 50 Year Reunion of the band!! Thanks, R360 for the opportunity to relive some of our best memories from that time period!

Roy