Crowded House drummer found dead

[Drew Geraci]

I'm only posting this because Ron & I are two of Crowded House's biggest fans. I just found out this morning.

http://staging.hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBIT_HESTER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-03-28-00-27-56

[Shade]

Yeah saw that the other day. Real shame. I liked SPLIT ENZ and was an even bigger fan of Crowded House so I was bummed to hear this.

[Ron Marz]

Very sad news. Unfortunately, we're in the midst of moving, so all my Crowded House and Split Enz CDs are in storage temporarily.

[Captain Jim]

Well, your timing is pretty good. The northern US is finally starting to thaw out. Good luck with the move, Ron; the act of moving is never fun. Let us know when you get all settled in...what state are you headed for again?

[Ron Marz]

I am, unfortunately, headed for Florida! We moved to a temporary locale -- our house sale closed March 31, but we didn't want to head back to NY until our son's school year finished. Didn't seem fair to yank him out of school and send him to a new one in the middle of the year. So we're renting a friend's a lakefront house, about 10 minutes from our previous place, for about seven weeks. Then, finally, we head for "home."

As to the move ... hellacious. Days and days of packing, boxing, putting stuff in storage (I've concluded I have WAY too many books) and finally the move to the rental. Thanks to some buddies including Jim Fern, Jim Pruett and Aaron Lopresti, we made it. Special "above and beyond the call" thanks to Bart Sears, who stuck it out until the bitter end -- 4:30 a.m. on March 31. I owe that guy one HELL of a steak dinner.

Not a pleasant experience, but the end result -- building a home on ample acreage in upstate NY -- will be worth all the headache.