Farewell to our longtime bass player and friend, Gary Fountaine. September 15, 1957 to December 28,2023

We lost a good friend recently. Our beloved Bass Player Gary Fountaine died of cancer on Dec 28, 2023, at the age of 66.

Gary was just a kid when we first met him, thirteen or fourteen. He already knew he wanted to be a bass player, but he didn’t have his own bass yet. I can still picture him the day we met; he was playing Stanley Clarke riffs on a beat-up Harmony Sovereign. Back then, he had this crazy one-finger technique.

We lost track of him for a while. In the meantime, Gary developed into the accomplished bass player we know and love. He played in a million bands. There were lots of places to play in those days. Gary didn’t read music. He told me once that he kept track of all the different set lists by compartmentalizing them in his brain.

Gary used funny terms like “Ice Cream Changes” and “Lumpty Gigs.” He also taught me things about being a father, things I remember to this day.

There are certain players and singers who put out 110% every night, whether there’s five people in the audience or 50,000. THEY LEAVE IT ALL ON THE STAGE. There are a lot of clips of Gary on YouTube right now. (You'll find a special one below.) You can see the joy that emanates from his corner of the stage, whatever band he’s playing with. He’s so happy to be there. He loves his instrument. He loves the music and the audience. It was never fake.

Everybody knows the real thing when they see it, and Gary Fountaine was the real thing.

Goodbye, old friend.

The Portland Music Mural Project

We’ve been honored by our hometown of Portland, Oregon. The Portland Mural Project was unveiled in September, a painting by the Pander Bros. of Dark Horse Comics fame. The mural includes thirty-three bands and performers who’ve left their mark on The Rose City and the World. 

The mural is the brainchild of Jason Savage, a freelance photographer. “ I realized that Portland didn’t have any public artworks that were tributes to the music that’s come from here, and there’s a lot of music that’s helped shape the identity of this city over the years.” His dream is to spread the idea to other cities across America.

The acts included span a wide array of genres and more than sixty years of Music History, from the Kingsmen to Everclear, to Esperanza Spaulding... oh yeah...and NU SHOOZ! Head to the Music Mural Project for the complete list of musicians and a close-up of the artwork.

NU SHOOZ News: Time Marches On

Lummi Bay
June 25, 2021

Hello Everyone, 

Well, let’s all breathe a collective sigh of relief. The World is opening up again with baby steps.

All our pals in the Entertainment world can get back to work; not just the performers, we’re talking about the stage crew, the Sound Techs, the folks who drive the trucks, the people who sell hot dogs. It’s going to take a long time to get back to where we were, but we’re on our way. 

But first, the News. 

June 21st was the 42nd anniversary of the founding of Nu Shooz.

That first gig was at a park in Southeast Portland. Seems like it was just last week. Valerie wasn’t in the band yet. She was standing by the side of the stage with our friend Mira (another Shooz alum.) They both had their fingers in their ears. Was it our singing? (Valerie says — Nope. It was the sound system feeding back!)

Two years later, the band had expanded to nine, and we were one of the top bands in Portland, Oregon. So the whole adventure turned out pretty well. 

And now it’s now.

After seven years and over a hundred shows, we are stepping away from touring the 80’s circuit. We’ve made so many friends along the way; groups like The Jets, Exposé, Pretty Poison, The Romantics, Wang Chung, The Cutting Crew, Debbie Deb, Animotion, Stevie B (and his incredible band!)…the list goes on and on.

And we had so many lovely interactions with the people who came to our shows. Took a million selfies. Amassed a million frequent flier miles. Ate two million French Fries and visited a lot of America.

Photo by Paul Brown Photography

A special thanks go to Alan Beck, R.J., and Natalie Duran at Pacific Concert Group, Rob Juarez at Lost 80’s Live, and Amanda Tilk at Groove Entertainment. We had the experience of a lifetime and received a lot of love in return. And, as we said on every album cover since the beginning, “Thanks to all Shooz Past and Present.”

We’re not vanishing from the face of the earth. Valerie continues her successful podcast for and about singers, Living a Vocal Life. (Are you an 80s music fan? Check out her interviews with Rindy Ross from Quarterflash, Bill Wadhams from Animotion, Moana Wolfgramm from The Jets, or Jeannette Jurado from Exposé.)

John has switched from cranking out songs to cranking out graphic novels (like the one below) on his new website, MalcoCreative.com. 

Thanks to everyone for keeping 80’s music alive all these years. We’ll still be here to answer your questions and tell tales of life on stage in the days of Beanie Babies and Miami Vice.

Will we be back? Never say never. You can never guess what will unfold as Time marches on.

Until next time, be well! 

Valerie and John

Nu Shooz Goes to Bagtown!

The Backstory of Bagtown

Valerie opened the utility room door and frowned.
"These bags are getting out of hand."
John rolled his eyes and said in a flat voice, "I know, I know. I'll put it all in the recycling."
It wasn't just the bags. Cardboard boxes were piling up too.
"I swear I'll get to it," he said two weeks later.

Then one night, as she made the morning coffee, Valerie noticed multi-colored lights flickering under the utility room door.
"Hmm."
She put her ear to it. A thumping sound came from the other side, like a drumbeat, a strange disco four-on-the-floor beat. Her hand hovered over the doorknob for a few seconds; then she flung it open, and...
The bags had built a city from the cardboard boxes, a vast city with bridges and nightclubs, trees and statues, and a train!

One of the bags motioned for her to get on the train.
And she did get on...as if a city growing in her utility room was no big deal.
"Come on. Don't be late," said the bag. He wore a neat little conductor's hat made from the same material as himself.
"Welcome aboard," he said. "Where ya headed?"
"Well...I don't..."
"That's O.K. Y'know, we all start out empty, folded flat, and then we open up, right? And we put stuff in our bag, and other people put stuff in, and before you know it, we're full!"

All this time, the train was rolling through a brown paper landscape alive with High-Lighter colors; Pink-Blue-Yellow-Orange.
The conductor went on.
"Your bag is full of everything you've collected over a lifetime. You like Surf Music. You don't like fish. You prefer Yellow to Teal. In other words, our 'Bag' is who we are.
And we decide what we want to put in it."

The drumbeat got louder as the train rolled into town. At last, they got to the source of the noise. There was a party going on. A band was playing.

"If you were you and it was now," they sang, "What would you do?"

"It's up to you," the conductor said, "what you put in your bag...what gifts it can hold. The possibilities are endless."
"Is it a Glad Bag or a Sad Sack," he said.

Time had no shape in the cardboard city. She didn't know how long she was there. Finally, the Conductor broke the spell.

"Uh-oh. Time to head back. The Number-Five is leaving right on away."
In a blink of Dreamtime, she was standing outside the Utility Room door again.

What just happened?
She swore she could still hear the faint sound of drums.
John came up behind her then.
"I swear, I'll recycle all that stuff today!"

"Oh," she said, "Why don't you wait a while."

The Bags of Bagtown

---

The ‘Making Of’ Videos

In the winter of 2017, our son Malcolm worked hard on the miniature Bagtown set - creating incredible art for the soon to be built city.

Malcolm Smith went to work building the town. The project took seven months, burned up many hot-glue guns, and filled about 30 square feet of our studio. The result of his labor was fantastic and magical beyond our wildest expectations. Mike Wellins came in and shot it from every possible angle. Then it was time to take it down.

We were sad. “Can’t we leave it up for just one more day? Or a week?“

Mike to the rescue again. He happens to be the proprietor of the FreakyButTrue Peculiarium, one of those institutions dedicated to keeping Portland Weird. He offered us a home for our beloved ‘Bagtown’ set, and came up with this beautiful presentation. ‘Bagtown’ is now under attack from Godzilla and Sharknado!

All is right with the world.

---

For more about the making of Bagtown and to listen to the
entire Bagtown CD, head over HERE on our website.

In Celebration of Juneteenth 2020

In honor of Juneteenth, all proceeds sold on our Nu Shooz Bandcamp store on Friday, June 19, will be donated to the Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute. The Institute provides training and support for community-based organizations to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities.

Bandcamp is also donating their portion of the proceeds from ALL music sold on their stores to the NAACP. There's a ton of fantastic music on Bandcamp. If you don't need any more Nu Shooz tunes, check out all the other bands who are there and support!

What is Juneteenth? There's a ton of history around this date. Here's a short version.

President Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation on Sep 22, 1862. It didn't become law until Jan 1, 1863. The quarter-million slaves in Texas didn't hear about it until the fall of the confederacy on April 9, 1865! The next day Union General Gordon Granger read general order #3, "In accordance with a proclamation from the executive if the United States, all slaves are free."

The following year, Freedmen in Texas announced an annual 'Jubilee Day' on June 19. By the 1890s, Jubilee Day became known as 'Juneteenth.'

As we all know, race relations in the U.S.A. still have miles to go, but Juneteenth was our country's start  down that long and winding road.

Back To The Basement: A Virtual 80s Concert

Press Release From Abducted By The 80s:

What is Back To The Basement?

Back to the Basement - a virtual concert in support and celebration of doctors, nurses, first responders and health-care workers who are on the front lines of the COVID-19 fight.

Do you remember when your parents made you watch MTV in the basement so you didn’t drive them crazy? Back to the Basement is going to bring you back to those days - with an online concert event that features never-before-seen, at-home performances and guest appearances from 80s bands from the Golden Age of MTV, including A Flock Of Seagulls, Wang Chung, Naked Eyes, Animotion, Cutting Crew, Nu Shooz, Annabella from Bow Wow Wow, The Vapors, Tiffany, Downtown Julie Brown and more.

The show will premiere on Saturday, June 13th on Facebook Live. There will be two screenings on the first day with artists participating in the online chat room with fans. After those screenings, the show will be available on YouTube.

“Back To The Basement is the perfect way to show our love and appreciation for front-line workers — all the courageous people out there who are working hard to keep us safe, well, and fed. We can’t wait to make a joyful noise for them — and you!” — Valerie Day, Nu Shooz

Through the sale of limited edition event shirts, we are raising money for Direct Relief, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with a stated mission to “improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergency situations by mobilizing and providing essential medical resources needed for their care."

We are raising funds for their COVID-19 Relief program - making sure the courage of health workers on the front lines is honored with meaningful support, and the people most at risk in this pandemic are cared for – regardless of politics, religion, or ability to pay.

We will also set up a link for people to make donations directly to Direct Relief.

Additionally, we will be selling limited-edition merch from many of the artists appearing on the broadcast to help them, as they too have been adversely affected by the pandemic due to canceled tours and appearances.

Some of the merch will be themed to the current crisis.

''We are pleased to be part of this event and to have the chance to make our Chungy type contribution towards those suffering the COVID-19 crisis around the world….and also in the process to help raise funds for the amazing and heroic first responders in this crisis, through Direct Relief.

We hope everyone keeps safe and by doing that helps to bring this difficult global chapter to as swift and best-case resolution as possible. And it goes without saying we want everybody to be able to Wang Chung and have fun without limits again, as soon as possible!!! (although you can still Wang Chung in isolation too of course).

Keep safe and Wang Chung tonight!!! — Wang Chung

NU SHOOZ Summer News!

Hey Everybody,

Forty years ago, what was happening? Jimmy Carter was President. The most popular baby names were Michael and Jennifer. And the World's inventors brought us the Walkman and Rollerblades.

AND a little band from Portland, Oregon was wobbling on baby legs. Tha’s right — JUNE 21st IS THE 40th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST NU SHOOZ GIG.

The four original members, Jim Hogan, Larry Haggin, John Smith, and the late Randy Givens, played at Colonel Summers Park in Portland, Oregon. It was a different band back then. (The horns, congas, and backup singers were still a year away.)

To celebrate this milestone, we're going to do a FACEBOOK LIVE hangout after our show in San Antonio, TX on Saturday, June 22nd, and we'd love for you to join us. You can find our official FB page HERE. More updates on that later!

So, what was happening forty years ago?
Well, here’s a playlist of the top twenty songs on the charts in 1979. 

It was a different world, that's for sure! Thanks for being on the journey with us.

Valerie & John

P.S. We’ve got shows!

We've got Freestyle Shows! We'll be sharing the stage with Stevie B., Exposé, Lisa Lisa and more on Alan Beck’s Freestyle Explosion Tour. For more info about the shows plus lineup and ticket information — just head to our calendar HERE.

Hope to see you there!

Spring News: The Tour Begins! Plus Valerie & John's Trip to a Mosque

Rehearsal time.

Here we are... in the present tense, rehearsing for an upcoming batch of shows to kick off our summer tour. Our last concert was in November on Guam. (We were traveling with The Jets and there was a typhoon going on.) Quite memorable.

Coming up in March and April are some Freestyle concerts in San Carlos AZ, Sacramento CA, Miami FL and Las Vegas NV. You can find out more about our schedule on our website HERE

Finally, in response to the tragic shooting in New Zealand last week, some folks up in Canada started a campaign called #VisitAMosque. We were made aware if it by our Toronto friend Keith Laidman. He and his wife Michelle have an interesting website called Discover Hit Music that's worth a visit.

Anyway, we looked up the closest mosque to our house and went over for Friday afternoon prayers. During the service, the overwhelming feeling was one of peace. In fact, the word Islam means peace. Afterward, several members of the mosque came over to talk with us and one of them was an old friend we've known for over 30 years. Everyone made us feel so welcome. A great experience — we recommend it!

OK... that's all for now.

See you somewhere down the road!

xo

 

Valerie and John

November News

Gettin' down to the end of 2015. What a year it's been! And the party's not over...

Last month we started cutting tracks for the 7th Nu Shooz album: BAGTOWN. (Songwriting began a year ago.) Our friend Sean Holmes was in our studio recording demo vocals over the last few weeks. Here's a little video of him cutting the backup vocals on the title track now...
 

We enlisted our son Malcolm Smith to do the cover art, and he did a fantastic job integrating the 'bag people' into his drawn world. It fits the music perfectly. And what is the music like? John says, "It's a cross between a 1979 Toyota and an American breakfast: two eggs, hashbrowns, and sausage patty...with a side of wry."

We're looking to serve that up around the 1st of May.

Watch as the artwork comes alive here...

In the meantime, if you're in the Phoenix area this month, we'll be at the Arizona State Fair with Lisa Lisa, Debbie Deb, Stevie B., and J.J. Fad. That's Saturday, November 7th. Should be a GREAT show.

That's all for now. For those of you who heard about Malcolm's car accident, we're happy to report that he's fine and fully recovered and suddenly has the ability to converse in fluent Croatian.

Just kidding.

Love,

Valerie and John

TOP 5 THINGS TO DO WHILE RECOVERING FROM AN APPENDECTOMY

I had a pretty mellow Father's Day, all things considered. Got to spend the whole day in a comfortable chair, reading. It would have been perfect except that the chair was in the waiting room at St. Vincent Hospital. Valerie woke up that morning in severe pain. By noon it wasn't getting any better so we went to the Emergency Room. Within the hour she was under the knife, being parted from her  APPENDIX!

The Appendix is like the 'Vice President of Internal Organs,' [i.e.; no known function] So as I sat reading in Father's Day splendor, Valerie's Appendix was being impeached. The offending organ went quietly, stating only that it "wanted to spend more time with family."

As luck would have it, the surgeon was a Nu Shooz fan. As they wheeled her into surgery, he asked "Are you the Valerie Day?" Turns out he still had his old 45.

We ended up having a great time at the hospital the next day. Her room had a lovely view of the hills above Portland, and the room service was excellent. "Would you like another pain pill with those fries?" We ended up staying all afternoon. While we were soaking up the local hospitality, Valerie came up with this list of "Top 5 Things To Do While Recovering From An Appendectomy " - John

And here's the list...

 TOP 5 THINGS TO DO WHEN RECOVERING FROM AN APPENDECTOMY

(Not neccessarily in this order:)

1) Play Words w/Friends Even if you're too gorked out on pain meds to actually find the PERFECT Word (for the most points), WWF is great exercise for the mind and you can still feel connected via messaging with your friends.

2) Watch "The IT Crowd" on Netflix Warning! Practice laughing without moving your abdomen FIRST. This British comedy series HURTS it's so funny!

3) Meditate Get some HEADSPACE. Find inspiration on meditation here or on www.tricycle.com

4) Eat popsicles 'Nuff said 

5) Check out the latest news, article, book, video on BRAIN PICKINGS Brain Pickings is…" is your LEGO treasure chest, full of pieces across art, design, science, technology, philosophy, history, politics, psychology, sociology, ecology, anthropology, you-name-itology." I could get lost on this website for decades!http://www.brainpickings.org/

5) Kill some time on Facebook After almost a year of treatments for breast cancer, I have to say that - even with all it's faults - FB can be a lifesaver when you're spending a lot of your life in bed. You can live vicariously, be distracted in awesome ways from how bad you feel, keep in touch with those you care about and who care about you, and, if you share what you're going through, be uplifted and supported in your recovery. Thank you, FRIENDS!

OK. There were actually six things. But who's counting!