David here. This is a longer than normal post from us, but it’s for a good reason. I wanted to tell the story about the whole experience we had with ZOOT in 2011, and not just a quick “here’s a clip from the ZOOT DVD we produced”.
Prior to meeting them, the only knowledge I had of ZOOT was that it was an early band of Rick Springfield’s in Australia before he came to the USA and achieved success as a solo artist.
In November 2011 ZOOT were to reunite with Rick on his fourth and final Rick Springfield and Friends Cruise (for which we’ve documented and produced a DVD set every year for Rick’s fan club & merchandise site). On previous cruises, the musical guests included Kevin Cronin from REO Speedwagon, Richard Marx, and John Waite. On all of these cruises we filmed the concerts performed by the musical guests but typically did not include (much) footage in the final DVD because of copyright & licensing issues. As you can imagine we have a TON of footage from over the years on the cutting room floor!
We weren’t told any different about ZOOT so it was status quo for us. But this year was different. During the first two days of the cruise we’d shot concerts, photo meet & greets, fan interactions, and Q&A segments. We ran into several people from Australia who told us they flew from Oz to Miami to be on this cruise just to see the reformed ZOOT. In their words, for ZOOT to reform like this was “massive” and that for their time, in Australia, they were “bigger than the Beatles”. Alrighty then…I’m starting to think we are in for something special.
We go into the main room to set up for the ZOOT show at soundcheck. It’s just Christie and myself as it always is. Rick comes down and asks us how many cameras can we have rolling because they are multitrack recording the show, and that this is a really special night for them. Well…it would’ve been nice if you told us this back on DRY LAND! Remember, we’re on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Buzz, one of Rick’s audio technicians (and don’t you love it when your sound man is named Buzz…) had a small action cam that we made use of, in addition to our regular setup.
The soundcheck was no normal soundcheck. Usually, a soundcheck is simply “does everything work, can everyone hear OK” and lasts maybe half an hour. This soundcheck was 2+ hours and we filmed a lot of it. They ran the entire set. They drilled beginnings and endings. Over and over, to get it right. It was a rehearsal, one of only two they had for this concert. After 40 years! We were familiar with only a couple of the songs before seeing this and I was blown away at the craftsmanship of the music and especially at the power of Darryl Cotton’s voice. Their songs and his singing style had elements of the Beatles, Black Sabbath, the Who, and Led Zeppelin. I remember Christie and I looking at each other after soundcheck and thinking, who knew?
A whole lotta people from Australia knew, that’s for sure. And Rick’s stateside fans were about to find out.
The concert was fantastic. When the four of them came out (supplemented by Matt Bissonette, Rick’s bass player at the time and currently playing with Elton John), the place erupted. It wasn’t a polite round of applause for the musical-guest-that-isn’t-Rick-Springfield, it was an outpouring of love for a band gone but never forgotten. These hard-core ZOOT fans, who had paid big bucks for airfare from Australia to the US and even more money for the premium ticket on board the floating Rick Springfield party, they definitely got what they came for.
When it was over I had a sense that there was something special backstage so I ran back there with a camera. Normally, it’s Rick and his band, and they are just cooling off and headed back to their rooms after a normal show. Nothing special. This was…magical. Rick motioned me in and said “Yeah get some of this, absolutely.” All of the special guests of the cruise were there. Rick’s band was there, even though they weren’t playing. I think people may have had their doubts as to what it was going to sound like after so much time away. I can’t say it enough that everyone was BLOWN AWAY. Afterwards fans mobbed them in the hallways leading back to their rooms. Beeb, Rick (Malc), and especially Darryl were grinning from ear to ear. It was really, really fun.
During other events – waiting for the doors to open for the photo ops, when no one else was around, the ZOOT guys were catching up and goofing off. They were genuinely happy to be there. Darryl especially smiled the entire time we were on that boat; he was really glad to be there, playing for and meeting the fans. Christie and I really enjoyed getting to know Darryl, Beeb, and Malc even for just the short four days of the cruise. As quickly as it began, we were docked in Miami and flying back to Houston.
Fast forward to the first week of June 2012 and we get an email from Rick’s manager that took our breath away: “Darryl Cotton is dying of liver cancer and one thing Rick wants to do is put together a video for him.” Rick wanted him to see the reunited ZOOT from the cruise. Management tried to coordinate with a video editor in Los Angeles but he wasn’t available. As fate would have it, Christie and I were days away from a friends-and-family vacation to celebrate our 10-year anniversary. We’d been planning the trip for two years. As I recall we both looked at each other and said, we have to step in and do this. After having met Darryl, how could we not? So we packed our mobile editing gear and headed out; enjoying our vacation during the day and working on the footage at night. We FedEx’d DVDs to Rick and he set out for Australia. What a difficult trip that must have been. He told us that Darryl absolutely loved the concert. I’m so glad he got to see it because I had developed an understanding of how much ZOOT meant to him.
Darryl Cotton died on July 27th, 2012.
In May 2013 Rick contacted us to begin work on a full-length DVD featuring the concert as a tribute to Darryl. Darryl’s friend Bruce Hutchins from Melbourne was overseeing the project. Darryl specifically asked Bruce to “make sure this gets heard” and they were shopping it for an Australia / New Zealand release as a CD/DVD combo. We spent a few weeks cleaning up footage, adding a full-length Q&A with all of ZOOT and hosted by Mark Goodman; and adding as much bonus footage as we could, given another tight deadline. We produced a PAL version for the Australian release as well as an NTSC version for release in the USA.
Christie and I are honored and so proud to have been a part of this project. Beeb Birtles, Rick Brewer, and Rick Springfield are pleased with the results. The response in Oz has been overwhelmingly positive and we’ve shared some of the comments and reviews below. We look forward to the stateside release. Regardless of where you are on the planet, you can get more information about ZOOT and this release, including where to buy it, at the Official ZOOT Live – The Reunion website.
If you have heard or watched the DVD and find yourself on this site, please leave a comment for us.
The surviving members of ZOOT and especially Bruce Hutchins spent countless hours putting the whole package together and it was definitely a labor of love – their love of ZOOT and of Darryl. It shows. He will never be forgotten.
David McKnight
September, 2013
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It was great DVD and the rest on it was great to hear all there story’s ….just goes to show 40 years on they can still sing ..not that i ever doubted Darryl as i have seen him many time in Melbourne ..such a gentleman taken to soon.
What a great cd/dvd…. well done guys ….
I finally got my copy of “ZOOT LIVE-THE REUNION” in the post! I watched it this afternoon and it was just so fabulous…….such great memories. Loved all the songs but the second they started to play “Eleanor Rigby” I cried! The band sounded so great together and Darryl was just awesome………..he looked so happy and I’m so glad that they got to do a show together one more time! Darryl will always have a special place in my heart!
it was a blessing that you all got to see Darryl – we in Australia are just devastated that we didn’t get to see the boys perform as Zoot again in reality. Luckily now we have this dvd – we will be able to share in the experience.
From Beeb Birtles, founding member of both Zoot and Little River Band (and all around Very Cool Guy): Just letting you all know that I watched all of the DVD today having received it only a couple of days ago and my first thought was what a moving tribute it is to the memory of Darryl Cotton. He is full of life on this DVD! More than anyone I would be extremely critical of anything we did but this is such a feel good concert that I gloss over anything that might normally make me cringe. Let’s not forget that we only had two rehearsals to pull this whole concert together. I think it says a lot about how professional ZOOT was. And when I saw the still photo of Darryl right at the end of the concert footage with his long blond hair in action with microphone in hand, I nearly lost it. It is the perfect ending to someone who knew he was born to entertain. And entertain us he did!
From blogger / reviewer rockinluke: It is AWESOME,ROCKIN and BRILLIANT with great songs and the band just rocked and rocked on the CD and DVD and there great extra stuff on the DVD which has Meet Zoot and them rehearsing and performing as well which looked great too.
Bought my Zoot CD/DVD yesterday brilliant….thank you guys love it love it love it
DVD is sensational what more can I say.
Inspirational, well captured and you guys Rock! Fantastic footage and sound production, Beeb glad you playing guitar, it just fatten up the colors of sound on stage, brilliant performance by you all, cheers mate
Just finished watching the dvd & I must say, I was blown away! The production, sound quality etc. is excellent, far better than I thought it would be! You could see the love between the boys & how much fun they all would have had on this cruise. I would have dearly loved to have been there, but for Darryl’s sake, I’m glad it was done when it was done. Time was ticking away for him & he had the BEST time…he looked so happy & healthy…so lovely to see the smiles on his face, on all of their faces! So many memories came flooding back, ‘specially during question time… that was brilliant & so much fun!…love that last brilliant smile on Darryl’s face…
Listend to the CD and watched the DVD now and it is brilliant. Love it
home alone…turned it way up!…the look on Darryl’s face at the end of Elenor Rigby is priceless and gorgeous…bugger RIP…rest in rock mate! Jeez Australia had some GREAT bands back in the day!
Just watched Zoot live reunion – how amazingly special. Loved it all – you all took me back to the 70′s and the days of Zoot. No time will ever take what you all shared away – I feel so,lucky to be Australian and to have lived through those times. Your voice Beeb amazing – the reaction was great to the song you sang – Rick of course always amazing on guitar, Rick Brewer (malc) still an outstanding drummer and Darryl always the best frontman. It was a beautiful celebration – one that obviously was meant – I watched it with joy and love – but the last captured photo broke me up – the realization that Darryl is no longer here. with tears still in my eyes – I say thank you for the memories – we may not of been there but now we can see what Australia missed and rejoice that Darryl had his dream come true to play with his old mates. Xxxxxxx
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 11th, 2013 at 7:32 pm
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Great story, Dave! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you and Christie and your team for sharing the story of Making of Zoot reunuion And your personal views! Im sure the worldwide fans will be loving and appreciating the results of your hard work and dedication to being so thoughtful and going above and beyond to capture the magic that happened! In my mind, i feel that the members of The Zoot and their families will be forever grateful for the memories you have preserved for them . I was not on that cruise, (darn it)!but on others and saw how much work was involved and im sure it was not easy with us crazy fans. I havent seen the entire package yet, but definately plan on ordering it the moment we can..
A grateful Rick Springfield/Zoot fan,
TerrI in Tampa FL
Even though this concert was over two years ago I distinctly remember how exceptional it was. Truthfully, there were a lot of us that absolutely NO idea what we were in for! I became an instant fan … Seeing them live was magical.
They truly had the best time up on stage and it flowed over to the audience. I swear EVERY
ONE left smiling. I had the pleasure of speaking with Darryl afterwards. What a wonderful man. I instantly loved the guy and was truly heartbroken when he passed away. I am so happy for them to have had that one last hurrah … Grateful for having been a part of it … And thankful to be able to experience it over and over again with the DVD.