Here and Now - About Us

About - Here and Now
(as best we can remember)
"The Meeting"
In the spring of 1984 Rob & Stephen started jamming with friends
John & Mindy Lawler to reherse for the BHS - Battle of the Bands.
"The Name"
"Here & Now" got its name from our first real gig in November 1984,
after countless performances at coffee houses and open mic nights that year.
We were approached by a guy from the U. of ME. He loved the set we played at the eastend
cafe in Newark, DE. and asked us if we wanted to play a SEVA benefit at the U. of ME. in the
fall of 1984. Our immediate answer was yes. Needless to say we were not letting anything
stop us from playing this gig. So Barkin Bill drove us 15 hrs. into the very northeast part of
our country. Right before we were ready to go on stage the show announcer walked over and
asked us what our band name was cause the only thing it said on his list was "acoustic duo
from DE." So I said to him "well were Here" and rob shouted "and Now". The guy announced
us as "Here and Now". So we just kept jamming under that name.
"The First Switch"
After jamming with John and Mindy Lawler for most of 1984-85, Stephen went to college in
FL. 1986-88. Soon after; Michelle Martin, Linda Bunting and Rob McClelland went to visit
Stephen in Coco Beach FL. we had so much fun jammin I left college in Fl. and joined them
back in DE. We played a few gigs in DE like East End Cafe, Halloween Jam,
and at the Dewey Beach Summerfest Acid Test with the gone boys.
"The First West Coast Tour"
We had so much fun with the music that we all started planning a tour out west.
Here and Now's first tour out west was a crazy, tent living, west coastal, musically expanding time but
overall a huge success because of the level we took our music and vocals.
Linda Bunting (vocalist) didn't go with us. So we had to improvise on some of her vocal parts.
Bryce Richards and Teddy Nobles joined us as our crew and musical testing
ears for our new tunes we were pumping out.
Some of the crazy places we played in California were;
The Monterey Brew Co., Portofino's, River Inn - Big Sur, Esselen, Santa Cruz etc..
We had an awesome time and it felt like we were free as the wind.
It still didn't pay alot so the whole tour we camped out and lived in our cars and
camped in a slew of the parks along the California coast and met alot of really cool
songwriters/musicians like Paul Crane . Big Sur is awesome!!
"The Second West Coast Tour"
The performance line up had changed again for Here and Now's second west coast tour.
Michelle Martin (floutist and vocalist) decided to continue her theater/dance studies at N.Y.U.
in New York. So Rob and Stephen auditioned a seasoned jazz/rock bass player named Bob
MacDonough for the second tour out west. Before the tour out west, we played a few local DE
gigs like Poncho O-Harra's & The Scrounge at Uof DE. Musically and acoustically these gigs were some of
Here and Now's finest shows. After that Rob and Stephen both decided to stay and live in
Pacific Grove California and Bob M. went back east.
Pacific Grove CA.
We played dozens of gigs and started to make some great musical connections. Eventually a
music manager Gail Epps saw us play at Portofino's and eventually started to "manage" us.
We asked Michelle Martin to come back out west to jam with us again and join
in our studio project "Calling You Home"
Here and now started jamming again with studio pianist/keyboardist Paul Crane and
percussionist's Steve Lobes and Eric Braun(Elric) and Bassist Jeff Gavere.
"Opening for Santana & 60,000
dancing ice cream loving freaks"
Stephen saw an ad about Ben & Jerry's Music Festival in Golden Gate Park and told our
manager we should try to open the show for Blues travelers and Santana. We got the gig
from a demo that was sent to Ben & Jerry. To this day that was the best show and most
people Here and Now ever played for. 60,000 dancing ice cream loving freaks there that day.
Back stage we saw Michelle Shocked, the guys from Hot Tuna,and Blues Travelers and Carlos
Santana. Wow What a privilage and treat!!!
"The Switch # 2"
After that gig Here and Now regrouped back down to just Rob M., Michelle M. and Stephen Q.
We started Playing with percussionist/floutist Eric Braun, mostly around Monterey and Big Sur, Ca.
Michelle M. left the group shorly after that to continue to pursue the theater arts again.
"Cannery Row"
Here & Now "Over The Row"; A Musical journey.
(Rob M.-Guitar and Piano, Stephen Q.-Guitar and slit drum & Eric Braun
-Percussion and Flute) "The three of us got to experience a magical moment in time for
writing and recording gallery room sounds over The Cannery Row in
Wonderful Monterey California" SQ...
"The SF Bay Move "
A few months later Stephen moved to the San Francisco bay area with percussionist/floutist
Eric Braun. A few months into living there Stephen started to see the potential of Here and
Now's music in the Bay area. Here & Now knew they were going to have to go electric to
capture an audience in San Francisco. Stephen went down to Monterey to ask rob to come
out of the crazy elements there.
"The Electric Switch"
After getting part time jobs and living in a really cool condo in Sausalito CA on top of a
mountain, where you could see the golden gate bridge and SF Bay from our deck, we started
jamming with an energetic talented 6 ft. 8 in. drummer named Mike Healy (of "The Healy Trio") and found
one of the bay areas smoothest and best toned lead electric guitar players Gus Julin,
under a new name and called ourselves "Ruder Alice". Ruder Alice played some gigs and did one major
studio project. Ruder Alice was a grungy, funk, metal version of Here and Now.
Ruder Alice was short lived but a wonderful musical productive time for everyone in the band.
"The Trilogy"
After living for a couple years in the San Francisco Bay area, Rob and Stephen recorded an
album called "Trilogy" and then decided to try the east coast again. The band we were
playing with on the East coast in DE was Frank H. on Keys, Linda B. on Bass and Rob and
Stephen on guitars. During the 9 months we were on the east coast we only played a few
gigs and had some fun just jammin and rehearsing out of Franks house.
In the summer of 1994 we started planning to head back to California.
about a month or so before hitting the road Stephen & Rob realized
they needed a much needed break and rob having a full time job at the time
stayed on the east coast in DE.
"The Greenbrea Daze"
Teddy N., Linda B. and Stephen Q. went back to California to form the band Greenbrea Daze and
found Gus J. again to play lead and an old drummer of ours Sean to play the traps. We also
had a well known percussionist Robert sit in with us as much as possible. Greenbrea Daze
mostly had fun jamming at the houseboat on the San Francisco bay and was an awesome
mix of acoustic electric heavy energy music with male and female vocals, insightful lyrics,
and a great sound. There was an awesome lyrical bond Teddy, Linda, and Stephen made in
this band and also Linda, who never played a bass before in a band just gave it her all.
It was like a musical test of stamina
Still a great time !!!!! Gus Julin and Sean where are you?
"The Strange Flavors"
Another offspring is Teddy's Band "Strange Flavors". Stephen sat in with them in Jan. 2001
and just after that Rob started playing lead with them. Linda and Teddy over the years have
done some jamming and recording also and a few years ago Linda and
Rob did some recodings together.
The Porch Daddies
When Stephen moved from California to North Carolina he met
Michael Babb, a young acoustic jammer with a nice grasp on songwriting and pickin.
Porch Daddies recorded three CD's
('Appalachian Bandwidth", 'Porch Daddies", and "With You")
Porch Daddies Review:"With an obvious influence ranging from Garcia/Grisman to Bread, the dueling
acoustics of Stephen Quigley and Michael Babb make for excellent easy, listening mood music,
ranging from light acoustic melodies, and dreamy mind-altering lyrics to tribal
drum-circle percussion you might find at a Rainbow gathering"
- Pat Ferris - HotBands.com
"The Reunion"
On July 3rd 2005 we converged for a re-union Jam.
Since the re-union we havent heard much from Teddy, Linda, & Michelle, but
Rob & Stephen have managed to record over 60 new tunes and still going strong

Thanks to all the musicians who jammed with us and fans who kept us going....
Enjoy life with music.....