RON DADON

Ron Dadon is an up and coming singer and songwriter in the LA scene. Heavily influenced by Art Pop legends such as Fiona Apple and Alanis Morrisette, her music seeks to move you, getting to the deepest corners of your heart using her captivating storytelling and warm croons. Ron’s first single “In My Head”, produced by Keaton Stromberg, was released in April of 2018. She is currently working on a full-length album and will continue to release singles throughout the upcoming year, and with her penchant for creating music that everyone can find something to like about, you’ll want to listen.

DENISE MANGE

About Kelly Jones

Margaret Starbird holds BA and MA degrees from the University of Maryland where she concentrated in comparative literature, medieval studies, and German language, studies she pursued on a Fulbright Student Grant at the Christian Albrechts Universitat in Kiel, Germany. She taught German language classes at the University of Maryland for four years (1964-68) and for one year at North Carolina State University(1969-70). She later studied theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, TN (1988-89).

Margaret Starbird has lived and traveled widely  in Europe including pilgrimages to Black Madonna and Mary Magdalene shrines and Cathar citadels in Provençe. Starbird and her husband of 48 years currently reside in the Pacific Northwest. They have five grown children and nine grandchildren. Starbird presents frequent lectures nationwide as well as international seminars and retreats honoring the Divine Feminine and the Sacred Marriage at the core of the Christian story. Her interviews appear on various TV channels and some are available on-line. She is the author of 7 books:

The Woman with the Alabaster Jar (1993)

The Goddess in the Gospels (1998)

The Tarot Trumps and the Holy Grail (2000)

Magdalene’s Lost Legacy (2002)

The Feminine Face of Christianity (2002)

Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile (2005)

14 Steps to Awaken the Sacred Feminine (2008, co-authored with Joan Norton, a Jungian therapist).

About Robin:

Although Robin always had aspired to become a great leader, he realized from his time at the United States Naval Academy and in the United States Marine Corps that leadership was much more than just telling people what to do: a great leader uses interpersonal skills to influence, rather than command, others. As a commander in charge of over 200 recruits and 16 drill instructors at Parris Island, South Carolina, Robin learned the fundamentals of leadership and influence. Upon entering service in the FBI in 1997, Robin began his journey as a behaviorist in the agency's efforts to thwart the effort of our country's adversaries. Throughout his life, Robin has received advanced training and experience in the area of social psychology and the practical application of the science behind relationship development. Robin's remarkable journey began as a 1992 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and former U. S. Marine Corps Officer. He has studied interpersonal relations for the past 30 years of his government service. Through observations of nonverbal behavior, use of the Personal Discernment Inventory, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, and his own unique techniques, Robin has built highly effective tools for all aspects and stages of interpersonal communication. Robin has combined all these tools and techniques and created a one-of-a-kind formula for success with people. Today, Robin is a recognized expert, author, and gifted lecturer in the art of interpersonal communication. These skills are used every day in leadership, sales, human resources, and all relationships, both business and personal.

S T E P H E N    B I S H O P

CELEBRATING OVER FOUR DECADES

OF

LIVE PERFORMANCE,SONG CRAFTSMANSHIP, RECORDING,AND ENTERTAINMENT

Stephen Bishop is a world-class guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter with a celebrated career of over four decades of live performance, song craftsmanship, recording, and entertainment.  A San Diego native, Stephen Bishop’s introduction to the music industry was after seeing the Beatles perform on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” at 13 years old. Shortly after seeing their performance, his brother Denny bought him an electric guitar. He began creating his own unique chords, melodies and writing original songs. The first song he ever wrote was called, “Surf’s Turf,” an instrumental. Less than a year after picking up the guitar, Stephen formed a band called, “The Weeds.” Soon after, they began performing at local venues, playing a mixture of original songs and popular hits on the radio at the time. As a band, the Weeds placed second at the Claremont Battle of the Bands in 1966. 

After the Weeds disbanded, Stephen ventured to Los Angeles in the hopes of landing a songwriting contract. Stephen walked the streets of LA in the early 1970’s with nothing more than a $12 guitar. He began playing songs for different publishers in the area and landed a deal with Edwin H. Morris Publishing in Hollywood. Stephen was paid $50 per week. During his first few years at the publishing company, only one of his songs was recorded. At one point, Stephen considered leaving Los Angeles to work for his father's insurance company in San Diego. However, his friend Leah Kunkel connected him with Art Garfunkel. Art recorded two of Stephen's songs on his album, “Breakaway.”

Shortly thereafter, Stephen was signed to ABC Records. He released his first album, “Careless,” which had two popular hits, “On and On,” and “Save It For a Rainy Day.” It became gold certified, as well as his second album, “Bish.” Stephen Bishop has released 17 albums and has played his songs personally for Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Bette Midler, Melissa Manchester, and Katy Perry. His newest album, "Blueprint" was released in 2016. In Eric Clapton's autobiography, he mentions Stephen Bishop as one of his favorite songwriters.

Accomplishments

Stephen Bishop’s hit song, “It Might Be You,” was the theme to the film “Tootsie.” Stephen has written the themes to several films, including “Animal House,” "The Money Pit," and “White Nights.” His songs have been performed by Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Barbra Streisand, Art Garfunkel, Steve Perry, Stephanie Mills, Kenny Loggins, Johnny Mathis, Phoebe Snow, David Crosby, The Four Tops, Aswad, Beyonce, and Pavarotti. Stephen was nominated for two Grammy's and awarded an Oscar nomination for his song, “Separate Lives.”

Fun Fact

Stephen appeared as the “Charming Guitar Player,” in Animal House. In the toga party scene, John Belushi slams Stephen's guitar to smithereens. 

Recent News

On March 16th, 2018, Netflix released the film, "Benji." The main theme song for this movie, "Almost Home," was written by Stephen Bishop and Curt Sobel.

For more information about Stephen Bishop visit ...

https://www.stephenbishop.com/

https://www.facebook.com/stephenbishopofficial

J O H N   M C N A L L Y

GUITARIST-SINGER-FOUNDER

OF

BRITAIN'S LEGENDARY ROCK GROUP

'THE SEARCHERS'

Do you remember....

"Sweets for My Sweet"; "Needles and Pins" "When You Walk in the Room"; "Sugar and Spice";  "Don't Throw Your Love Away"' "Love Potion No. 9" to name just a few …  the Searchers tied for the second group from Liverpool, after the Beatles, to have a hit in the US when their "Needles and Pins" and the Swinging Blue Jeans' "Hippy Hippy Shake" both reached the Hot 100 on 7 March 1964.

It’s little wonder then that most observers considered The Searchers to be the most successful and important Group, after the Beatles, in that quite wonderful period of Pop Music.

Originally founded as a skiffle group in Liverpool in 1959 by John McNally and Mike Pender (Mike Prendergast), the band took their name from the classic 1956 John Wayne western The Searchers.

The band grew out of an earlier skiffle group formed by McNally, with his friends Brian Dolan (guitar) and Tony West (bass). When the other two members lost interest, McNally was joined by his guitarist neighbor Mike Prendergast. They soon recruited Tony Jackson with his home-made bass guitar and amplifier and styled themselves Tony and the Searchers with Joe Kelly on drums. Kelly soon left to be replaced by Norman McGarry and it is this line-up—McNally, Pender (as he soon became known), Jackson and McGarry—that is usually cited as the original foursome.

McGarry did not stay long, however, and in 1960 his place was taken by Chris Crummey (who later changed his name to Curtis). Later that year Big Ron had a successful audition with Mecca and became a ballroom singer. He was replaced by Billy Beck, who changed his name to Johnny Sandon. The band had regular bookings at Liverpool's Iron Door Club as Johnny Sandon and the Searchers.

Sandon left the band in late 1961 to join The Remo Four in February 1962. The group settled into a quartet sharing the vocal lead and billed simply as The Searchers. They continued to play at the Iron Door, The Cavern, and other Liverpool clubs. Like many similar acts they would do as many as three shows at different venues in one night. They negotiated a contract with the Star-Club in the St. Pauli district Hamburg for 128 days, with three one-hour performances a night, starting in July 1962.

The band returned to a residence, at the Iron Door Club and it was there that they tape recorded the sessions that led to a recording contract with Pye Records with Tony Hatch as producer.

Hatch played piano on some recordings and wrote "Sugar and Spice"—the band’s second number one record—under the pseudonym Fred Nightingale; a secret he kept from the band at the time.

After scoring their monumental hit "Needles and Pins", bassist Tony Jackson went solo and was replaced by Hamburg pal Frank Allen of Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers.

Chris Curtis left the band in 1966 and was replaced by the Needles and Pins-influenced John Blunt, who in turn was replaced by Billy Adamson in 1970.

As musical styles evolved, the Searchers could not keep up and as a result, the hits ran out and while they continued to record for Liberty Records and RCA Records, ended up on the British "Chicken in a Basket" circuit although they did score a minor US hit in 1971 with "Desdemona".

The group continued to tour through the 1970s and were rewarded in 1979 when Sire Records signed the band to a multi-record deal. Two albums were released by them, The Searchers and Play for Today (retitled Love's Melodies outside the UK). Both records garnered great critical acclaim but did not break into the charts. They did however revitalize the group's career. According to John McNally, the band were ready to head into the studio to record a third album for Sire when they were informed that due to label reorganization, their contract had been dropped.

In 1981, the band signed to PRT Records (formerly Pye, their original label) and began recording an album but only one single, "I Don't Want To Be The One" backed with "Hollywood", saw the light of day at that time. The rest of the tracks would be released as part of 2004's 40th Anniversary collection.

In 1985 Mike Pender left The Searchers to form his own group. His aim was, and still is to this day, to faithfully recreate the sound and feel of those Hit Recordings and at the same time introduce other material that compliments Mike's unique voice and guitar style.

In 1988, Coconut Records signed The Searchers and the album Hungry Hearts was the result. A very contemporary sounding release, it featured modern sounding remakes of "Needles and Pins" and "Sweets For My Sweets". While the album was not a major hit, it did keep the group in the public eye.

The Searchers are still going strong today and hold a significant fanbase worldwide.

The band members are:

John McNally - original member and founder, 6string/12 string guitarist and vocals

Frank Allen - bass guitarist, vocals and front man

Spencer James - guitar synth and lead vocals

Scott Ottaway – on drums.

For more information about John McNally and The Searchers visit ...

http://www.the-searchers.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2267201297/