Local rock band raises $1,500 for MHS choir Europe trip

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    Four Malibu High School students recently donated their time and their talent to help raise money for the choral department’s spring trip to Europe. The students are following their new vocal music director’s lead by taking action to improve the program and create unique opportunities for its members.

    Taylor Goldsmith, Blake Mills, Jake Slosser and Aaron Smith put on a concert Jan. 17, in the school’s new auditorium.

    “The auditorium is really nice,” Goldsmith said. “The sound in there is great.”

    Smith was master of ceremonies for the event while Slosser opened the concert with several numbers on the piano. The headliners were Goldsmith and Mills’ band called Simon Dawes. The group includes Mills on guitar, Goldsmith on piano and lead vocals, Alex Orbison on drums and Damon Webb on bass.

    “Our sound is a cool mix of rock ‘n’ roll and piano,” Goldsmith said.

    Orbison (the son of crooner Roy Orbison) and Webb are older, more experienced musicians who used to play with Backbone 69-another staple band in the Malibu music scene. Backbone 69 included several offspring of musical royalty along with Orbison. Duane Betts and Berry Oakley Jr. are sons of Allman Brothers rockers Dickey Betts and Berry Oakley Sr. Rounding out the group was Chris Williams. Williams’ father is Jerry Lynn Williams, one of rock’s well-established songwriters.

    Backbone 69 heard about Blake Mills three years ago when he was playing regularly at the Malibu Inn Restaurant. The band asked Mills to perform with them when they opened for Lynyrd Skynyrd. Mills was just 13-years-old.

    After the untimely death of Chris Williams last year, Orbison and Webb joined forces with Mills and Goldsmith to form the current line-up of Simon Dawes.

    The group came up with the idea for the benefit concert while recording a demo tape at BPS Productions, Inc. A sound engineer from the company donated his time to the performance to help the band and Malibu High School.

    “The boys did all of the work setting up this concert themselves,” said Irene Messoloras, the director of vocal music at Malibu High. “I’m really proud of them.”

    Messoloras, who is originally from New York, came to Malibu two years ago with hopes of reviving the high school’s flagging choral department. When she arrived the choir had seven students. Today it numbers 150.

    Part of the resurgence of interest in the choir is due to programs like the Europe trip. Messoloras looked into several opportunities provided to public school choral groups and decided the European performances would be a great experience for the students. Malibu High School’s choral groups have never gone on a trip like this one before.

    Messoloras is taking approximately 40 students to Europe where they will perform in London, Paris and Rome, as well as visit some famous places such as Stonehenge, the Louvre and Versailles. Each student is paying $2,000 for the trip.

    “She is impressing everybody,” said parent John Mills. “She built the group up and now she’s created this great opportunity for them.”

    “Mrs. Messoloras made the choir grow so much and now we’ve gotten to a point where we deserve to go on a trip like this,” Goldsmith said.

    Approximately 150 people attended the benefit concert adding about $1,500 dollars to the choral department’s kitty.