Hey Spring Break fans,

Ed Koch here – the guys have assured me they hope this electronic mail finds you in good health.

Being the head of the executive branch of NYC’s government can be a steep learning curve. Ignoring the growing AIDS epidemic, accusing Jesse Jackson of being an anti-Semite, alienating small town voters, supporting the death penalty and stymieing civil liberty legislation were all mistakes made on my watch. But if there’s one thing I really learned as a three term Mayor of New York, it was how to throw a parade. Much like the ‘half moon’ parties during Carnival on the tropical island of Aruba I like to attend to this day, a NYC St Patrick’s Day Parade requires singing, dancing and half-baked mysticism. Begosh and begorrah, I found myself thinking back in the Fall of ’81, who in entertainment is so full of blarney they can provide all three whilst equally satisfying the demands of camp artistic directors and workaday NYC administrators?

They say St Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland; my decision to make Jan Van Couver the Grand Marshall of the 1982 St Patrick’s Day Parade drove the liberal elite to the edge of reason. Most commentators were put off by Van Couver’s plans to launch his debut solo single on the day but many more were outraged by his attempts to include Halliburton, Lockheed Corporation, DynCorp and ConocoPhillips floats in the parade. But these agenda-setters had underestimated the Spring Break front man, a man of paradoxes: big business and civic pride; red, white & blue patriotism and offshore business accounts; hot air and Celtic mist. When it comes to Jan Van Couver, anything can go together, even the leader of the world’s foremost super group himself and large scale municipal planning under tight budgetary constraints. March 17th arrived and saw the most excessive cavalcade of corporate largesse and crackpot folklore this great nation has still ever seen.

Now, 30 years later, Van Couver will head the Dublin parade, which will lead to the doors of The Button Factory and a Spring Break concert of unmitigated Irish-American jingoism. Tickets for this show are €25 and go on sale at 10am, Friday, February 10th, online at www.tickets.ie and in Sound Cellar of Nassau St.

Hope to see you at the show and that the road rises to meet you at the top of the morning.

Ed & Spring Break.

Kim & Spring Break.

Hey Spring Break fans,

The Most Reverend Rowan Williams here, spreading all the latest good news from the world of Spring Break. Please be seated.

It was late in to the night at the wedding reception of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer when I first discovered that women of the cloth, a chalice of good wine and the music of Kenny Loggins are just three of the passions I share with my good friends in Spring Break. A little over thirty years have passed since that unholiest of nights, but now, finally, I can look forward to engaging in another platonic one-night stand with the world’s premier, good-time 80s super group.

Being asked to preside over a royal wedding is the greatest honour that can be bestowed upon any cleric. Back in 1981 I was merely an assistant to my predecessor before last, the Most Reverend Robert Runcie. But now, at the wedding of Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton this April, yours truly is finally moving centre stage. It’s a big gig, though nothing compared to the burden Spring Break faced three decades ago.

Back then nobody knew what the future held for Spring Break, apart, of course, from Penny Thornton, Diana’s astrologer and confidante. It was the shrewd clairvoyant who peered in to her crystal ball and foresaw Spring Break providing imperial entertainment on her friend’s big day. Upon meeting Jan Van Couver the future Princess was immediately taken by his wit, charm and frank thoughts on age-harmonics and decided to harness the matrimonial expertise of the singer and his band mates. Jim Break would put his encyclopedic knowledge of precious stones to good work by picking the rings. Kenny Berrera would lubricate Prince Andrew’s best man’s speech. And Hilton Burbank would donate his horses, Porcaro and Lukather, to pull the ceremonial carriage to St Paul’s Cathedral.

But the jewel in the nuptial crown was Spring Break doing what they do best. That evening the band played one of their most majestic sets, dedicating Maneater, Easy Lover, (She’s A) Maniac, Material Girl and many others to the blushing bride. It was as happy as the People’s Princess would ever be as she battled through the minefield of public life. A public life lived like a candle in the wind.

On May 21^st, Spring Break will be stopping by Dublin’s Tripod on their way back from Buckingham Palace to give a performance fit for a king. Tickets for this show are €26.50 and go on sale at 10am, Thursday, March 24th, online at www.tickets.ie and in Sound Cellar of Nassau St.

Hope to see you at the show – I’m going to move heaven and earth to be there. I pray to God you will too.

This email has ended, go in peace.

Rowan & Spring Break.

Hi Spring Break fans.

Sonny Prizewater here, serving up all the latest revelations from your favourite 80s super group. The guys assure me this one’s on the     house.

Be sure to come along – I wouldn’t miss it for all the Long Horn Squeezes in Texas.

Sonny & Spring Break.

John Madden here, tackling all the latest issues in the world of Spring Break. Take a knee.

Polo, fencing, offshore yacht racing: when it comes to sport, Spring Break have long enjoyed engaging in the highborn leisure pursuits that most accurately reflect the cultured refinement of their musical performances. It’s fair to say the guys are to those civilised divertissements what Dom DeLuise was to unbridled excess at a chili cook off, but the world’s leading super group didn’t get to where they are today without occasionally taking the road less exclusively travelled by. One such thoroughfare led to Giants Stadium, New York in the summer of 1982 and a sport defined by its worldwide appeal, much like Spring Break.

In a time characterised by passing fads, soccer – an unglamourous field sport apparently popular with men the world over – seemed like another fleeting craze, merely following in the footsteps left by the cross-trainers of lapsed joggers, viagra instructors and jazzercisers. But I was soon to discover – much like Tom Selleck did with Indiana Jones – one man’s trash is another man’s treasure: where one man sees a sport that, on the surface, appears to be a dreary free for all, another sees the opportunity to score lucrative corporate tie-ins with a global reach.

Jan Van Couver was determined to integrate his band in to the fabric of the self-styled ‘beautiful game’ to avail of the commercial opportunities that seemed to be presenting themselves like open goals. It was clear that the best way of achieving this was to spearhead a campaign that would secure for the US the position of host country for the World Soccer Cup. A hat trick of offers were tabled: a meet and greet for FIFA delegates with long-time Spring Break confidante Loni Anderson, signed photos from the cast of The Scarecrow & Mrs. King and a scat-funk symphony written with Al Jarreau that would be performed as the centrepiece to the opening ceremony of the thirteenth World Soccer Cup, in Mexico City on May 31^st, 1986.

The presentation of this celebrity-heavy triumvirate of delights was enough to wow the powers that be at FIFA for a length of time that enabled Kenny Berrera to tamper with the ballot boxes and ensure the 1994 World Soccer Cup would be coming to the land of the free. Van Couver’s trademark opportunism was the catalyst for this, the greatest coup in the long and chequered history of Spring Break’s dynamic synergies.

This May 22^nd, Spring Break will be kicking off a short pre-World Soccer Cup tour with a gig in Dublin’s Tripod. Tickets for this show are €26.50 and go on sale at 10am, Thursday April 15th, online at www.tickets.ie and in Sound Cellar of     Nassau St.

I hope to see you at the show – I know we’re going to have a ball.

John & Spring Break.

After a short rest – following their work as the musical guests and cocktail directors at the Montego Bay wedding of long-time friend and confidant, Michael Winslow – Spring Break are back on the road.

Sunday the 4th of April, the guys play Infernos Nightclub, Clapham High Street, London, and will be dusting off the greatest US floor-fillers of the 1980s. It promises to be an emotionally charged evening that will transport you back to that scorching July day in 1985, when Spring Break and a host of their contemporaries took to the stage at Philadelphia’s JFK stadium for Live Aid.

Tickets must be purchased in advance and won’t be available at the door. You can buy tickets using Paypal or credit card on our website here Your name and the amount of tickets bought will be added to our list and you’ll be met at the door and given wristbands to gain admission.

The band hope you can make it along and look forward to sharing a margarita after the show.

Keep the fire burnin’,
Sonny Prizewater (CEO Spring Break Inc)

Sonny Prizewater here:

The band are currently recording their appearance on this year’s Muppets Christmas Special and have asked that I drop a line to bring you all tidings of stage times, ticket giveaways and post-gig festivities.

Doors for the Spring Break show in Vicar St on Dec 22nd open at 7.30pm and the band will be onstage at 8.30pm sharp, so be sure to get there early to get the jump on the queue. The night’s been a sell out for some time now but for those of you without tickets, or simply looking for more, all is not lost – you can get your hands on some by tuning in to The Morning Crew on Dublin’s 98. Dermot and Dave will be giving pairs away between 6 and 10am every weekday morning from now until the show.

December saw Spring Break successfully negotiate a senior management change at ConocoPhillips and I can now confirm they’ve brokered a deal that will see their Vicar St aftershow hosted by Pygmalion in the Powerscourt Centre on South William Street. Admission is free and Spring Break DJs Cherelle LeJarre-Brown, Nelson ‘Nelson James’ James and Tevin St Kitts-Jarreau IV will be spinning tunes from 11pm til 3am. So please come along after the gig and help us all make it a night to remember.

See you all at the show – and aftershow, hopefully.

Keep the Christmas fire burnin’,

Sonny & Spring Break.