The original Blue Diamond was an instrumental surf rock band that was based in North Delta, B.C. Canada, between 1964 and 1972. It consisted of four local Surrey/North Delta musicians, Bud Brausen, Mel Patrick, Fred Lichota and John Manten:
Bud - lead guitar
Mel - rhythm guitar
Fred - bass and keyboards
John - Drums
Any given day of the week would find us practicing songs from the Ventures or some other popular instrumental group in Mel's dads garage (the first garage band?). Playing quietly was probably not the order of the day yet, none of the neighbors ever complained. Well except once, but they lived more than a block away so we were probably slightly too loud.
As a band you could find us playing almost anywhere. Clubs, Legions, TV (Club 6 in Victoria), Pacific National Exhibition, or for parties. The gigs were as widely varied since we would play just about anywhere (even a 50th wedding anniversary once). The only place we never played was for schools, at least that I remember.
However, like all bands, at some point creative differences and life in general starts to get the way so players tend to move on. Sometimes to other bands, but more often than not, to simply hang up the strings and keep those days as memories. It happened to us.
It stayed pretty much that way until 2006 when I (Mel), while surfing on the net, on a whim, looked up Fred and gave him a call (Fred was still local). We had a reunion at Red Robin and found that we kind of missed the old days. As luck or fate would have it, we decided to see if we could rekindle the fire of some of that instrumental music.
With no aspirations of hitting the road or making a comeback in the music world, we decided early on that this would be for fun. I'm not even sure that recording was in the works at the on set, but looking back, I'm glad we did. At this point, July 2007, we have recorded 28 songs on two CD's. For whatever reason, they seem to be quite popular with a lot of friends.
Now we call ourselves "The Fabulous Blue Diamonds" for the simple reason that we're still Blue Diamonds, but it's fabulous that we're back playing and having more fun than ever!