Bobby & The Midnites

Bobby & the Midnites were a <a href="spotify:artist:4TMHGUX5WI7OOm53PqSDAT">Grateful Dead</a> spin-off group led by <a href="spotify:artist:4TMHGUX5WI7OOm53PqSDAT">the Dead</a>'s guitarist/singer <a href="spotify:artist:6YB0tbDGk01Q0P6wcHPjpC">Bob Weir</a> during the first half of the '80s. Their initial lineup, in addition to <a href="spotify:artist:6YB0tbDGk01Q0P6wcHPjpC">Weir</a>, comprised Bobby Cochran (guitar, vocals), <a href="spotify:artist:4TMHGUX5WI7OOm53PqSDAT">the Dead</a>'s Brent Mydland (keyboards, vocals), <a href="spotify:artist:1FutnfJOtsTB8mG0zb7Omm">Tim Bogert</a> (bass), noted jazz fusion drummer <a href="spotify:artist:0IwfuIL3gUJxjzUqY3wJ3j">Billy Cobham</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:0maKRgpJdoHiZCwdhr6YVe">Matt Kelly</a> (harmonica, guitar, congas), who had been in <a href="spotify:artist:6YB0tbDGk01Q0P6wcHPjpC">Weir</a>'s '70s spin-off group <a href="spotify:artist:7G4XSEfxa9AKvCoDtEInob">Kingfish</a>. This sextet played their first gig at Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, California, on June 30, 1980. Bobby & the Midnites signed to <a href="spotify:artist:4TMHGUX5WI7OOm53PqSDAT">the Dead</a>'s label, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Arista+Records%22">Arista Records</a>, and released their self-titled debut album in November 1981, by which time <a href="spotify:artist:2rNtnZArzMAimcRCnFrwUU">Alphonso Johnson</a> had replaced <a href="spotify:artist:1FutnfJOtsTB8mG0zb7Omm">Bogert</a> on bass. The album charted for a couple of months, but wasn't a big seller. The band, having dropped Kelly and replaced Mydland with keyboard player <a href="spotify:artist:3oS1slqwJmcbNAngVjvXBR">Dave Garland</a>, toured extensively from 1982 to 1984. In March 1983, Ken Gradney replaced <a href="spotify:artist:2rNtnZArzMAimcRCnFrwUU">Johnson</a> on bass. In August 1984, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Columbia+Records%22">Columbia Records</a> released Bobby & the Midnites' second album, Where the Beat Meets the Street, which wasn't commercially successful, though it charted briefly. Bobby & the Midnites played their final show on September 30, 1984, at Rio in Valley Stream, New York, after which <a href="spotify:artist:6YB0tbDGk01Q0P6wcHPjpC">Weir</a>, while continuing with <a href="spotify:artist:4TMHGUX5WI7OOm53PqSDAT">the Grateful Dead</a>, rejoined <a href="spotify:artist:7G4XSEfxa9AKvCoDtEInob">Kingfish</a> and did solo performances. He later performed with such groups as Nightfood and Go Ahead, and starting in 1988, began to tour regularly in a duo with bassist <a href="spotify:artist:4tbbrHi36Qp5zErYaV0aUJ">Rob Wasserman</a>. Original bassist <a href="spotify:artist:1FutnfJOtsTB8mG0zb7Omm">Tim Bogert</a> died on January 13, 2021 after being diagnosed with cancer; he was 76 years old. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi