Passing of Joseph Marques of Winter Hours last yr

[sbriggs]

http://obit.stellatofh.com/obit_display ... ting=Found


Sorry folks I've been really super busy the past few
months with a new job and other things, so haven't been
on the board much of late. I am posting the above link
to a memorial page for the late lead singer and songwriter
of the 80s band Winter Hours, one of my favorite all-time
rock bands and certainly one of the premier indie NY NJ area
bands of the 80s and early 1990s, they were kings of the college
radio circuit in the mid 80s and used to play places like Maxwell's in NJ and The Ritz, etc. Been in mourning for a year since Joe
died, not sure of the details but apparently was a heart failure
that felled him. The band are all devastated about it,
especially since they had been "estranged" from Joe and not
in contact with him for years, and efforts to reach him had
recently failed and then we all got the terrible news last
July that he'd passed away. I meant to post this when it happened
last summer but things got away from me, as they are wont to do.

I'm still not over hearing about this dreadful news, though I didn't
know Joe myself personally, but I know some of the other band
members and that's enough. I hope by posting this message
and link to the memorial pages, that I turn more 80s and rock fans onto one of the greatest bands of that or any era, a band that never
got their due and never got the recognition they so richly
deserved. Maybe, even amidst the tragedy with Joseph, they
will finally achieve that recognition soon. I stil listen to
this band almost daily and at least weekly, and play my vinyl
and CDs of the band constantly. I feel if I don't get the word out, I'd be doing Joe's memory a disservice. I had good luck years ago
turning folks onto their music, so I'm trying once again even though now we'll never get any new music from them again.

My good friend Dina Williams is a major fan of the band and you
can find her web site on Winter Hours if you do a basic Google
search online. Also, there is a new complete compilation of
Winter Hours available from Michael Carlucci and his NYC record
shop SUBTERRANEAN RECORDS (entitled These Familiar Places) on Cornelia St. in the West Village. It's well worth tracking down and owning his comp. Winter Hours' sound was somewhere between R.E.M. (early jangly), Buffalo Springfie ld, Dylan, Gram Parson, Guadalcanal Diary, etc. folk/rock with great vocals and wonderful poetic, literate lyrics by Joseph. This band never wrote a "stupid" ever. They were a thinking man's rock and roll band and hailed from Lyndhurst New Jersey.


Scott Briggs
NYC

[sbriggs]

P.S. Meant to say this band never wrote a stupid SONG ever!
My first post on Winter Hours dropped a few words, or I type
too fast. (which is also true)
I also meant to say I once saw them open for a show
at the NYC Ritz (old one, downtown now We

[romanticide]

Thanks for passing on the sad news. I'm a fan of the albums "Wait Till the Morning" and "Winter Hours". I'll collect some roadside flowers in his honor on my way to work tomorrow.