Band Apart Mach II
The original Band Apart was fronted by multi-tasking New York artist Jayne Bliss, and featured music by multi-instrumentalist Medor Mader from Marseilles. You can still find their 1980’s records, which were released on the unique boutique record label “Crammed Discs” in Brussels, Belgium.
Band Apart Mach II was created to support the original Band Apart’s album on a tour of France and Belgium. The original band broke up just as the album was being released. Jayne Bliss and Mitchell Dancik were introduced by a mutual friend, engineer/producer David Bailes. At the time David was recording a sports radio show with then-unknown Bob Costas. Bob knew his baseball well enough to do everything in one take, leaving time for Mitch & Jayne to record in whatever extra time Bob unknowingly left us. Mitch and Jayne did not have time to recruit real people, so they did what Mitchell Dancik & The Senators would do in that same situation, and created a backing tape to be the band. With David Bailes encouraging them, Mach II only bothered to learn two songs from the Band Apart album they were supposed to promote, and instead wrote themselves a bunch of new ones. The official Band Apart Mach II line-up was Jayne at stage right, Mitch at stage left, and Dave’s tape recorder on a spot-lighted stool at center stage.
The tour was a success, including a featured spot on Belgium’s prime time equivalent of “Top Of The Pops”. Unfortunately most of the recordings did not survive the 1980’s. However, two tracks were salvaged: Mitch’s instrumental backing of “Dithy Ram” (a Jayne Bliss opus to video store creeps), and Jayne’s vocal performance of Mitch’s song “Hand’s Up Heart’s Up”. Those two tracks are available on this web site.
Band Apart Mach II evolved into a series of one-off projects, usually led by Jayne Bliss with a circus troop of characters. These projects culminated in a gig at “The Kitchen”, a NYC performance space that seemed meant for artists like Jayne. According to Mitch “there were at least ten performers on the stage, and I never knew what they were all doing. But Jayne’s mystical energy always made disparate people and styles come together. Looking back, I think of Jayne as the other Patti Smith, a singularly artistic person who was known and loved by so many of the great NYC artists of that era”. The gig at the Kitchen was the last US performance by bassist Paul Jeffreys ( www.pauljeffreys.com ). Paul, who was an international star as part of the British band Cockney Rebel, was on the Pan Am plane that went down over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988. He and his new bride Rachel were on their way to a NYC honeymoon, and were to stay at Mitch’s apartment. The Senators’ song “Flying Busses” is Mitch’s memorial to Paul.
Jayne Bliss went on to a life of art and holistic medicine.
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