Sunday Dispatch file photo
Attendees for the first annual Pittston Prohibition lined up to enter the 21-and-over event featuring the reuniting of national recording act, The Badlees in 2021. The Badlees along with Mere Mortals and Reel in the Years are on the bill for the 2022 show.
Sunday Dispatch file photo
Sunday Dispatch file photo
Dupont resident and founding member of national recording act, The Badlees, Bret Alexander, left, plays alongside violinist Nyke Van Wyk during the inaugral Pittston Prohibition music fest.
Sunday Dispatch file photo
By Tony Callaio
For Sunday Dispatch
PITTSTON — After the overwhelming success of a new event in the City of Pittston in 2021, Pittston Prohibition will return on Saturday, Oct. 2, featuring, once again, The Badlees. This year The Badlees are being supported by opening acts Mere Mortals and Reel in the Years.
The 21-and-over event will take place from event will take place at the Tomato Festival middle tier from noon to 6 p.m. Advance ticket price is $30 per ticket that will include a $5 beverage of your choice. Ticket sales on the day of the show are $45. Food vendors will also be on hand. Tickets can be purchased on June 1 and further information can be found at https://tinyurl.com/5n6u2s27.
Last year, the inaugural year, was a huge success. The weather cooperated, with warm temps and a deep blue sky. The Badlees original lineup reunited for the first time since 2003, playing some of their greatest hits such as “Fear of Falling” and “Angeline is Coming Home” from the mid-1990s.
City of Pittston Mayor Michael Lombardo had been looking for a music festival to round out the summer events in the city coming up with Pittston Prohibition. Mayor Lombardo would like to eventually turn the one-day event into a three-day festival.
“Last year’s event, being the maiden voyage of the event and coming out of COVID was a great success building on the foundation for this year,” Lombardo said. “We want to expand this thing like we’re doing this year by adding bands and that will set the stage for the long talked about music fest and the music fest becomes for a two-day event or a three-day event and maybe there’s an opportunity down the road to engage our friends in West Pittston and use the facilities there for one of the events.”
The Badlees was the only act in the first year and this year there will be two opening acts, Reel in the Years, a trio featuring Richie Kossuth, Ray Nemetz and Brandon Joplin, and Mere Mortals, a band that dominated the local music scene from 1991 to 2001.
Lombardo went on to say he was thrilled to have The Badlees back and seeing Mere Mortals reuniting, saying Pittston is becoming like Bands Reunited, an MTV series where the network attempted to reunite broken up bands from the 1980s.
Mary Kroptavich, City of Pittston’s Main Street manager said, “The success of last year’s event led us to find another well-known and talented band from the same time era (as The Badlees) and that’s why we reached out the Eddie Appnel to see if we could have a Mere Mortals reunion also. Those two bands were out at the same time and it’s a good fit with those two bands together.”
“The idea of a Mere Mortals reunion after 21 years is very exciting to me,” Appnel said. “To get back together in Pittston where we performed for so many years and we shot our video for the song “Unreal” with the help of Rose Randazzo and Mike Lombardo and director/filmmaker Sam Daley. Well, unreal is probably the best way to describe it. Not only are we talking about playing the songs we wrote and played back then, we are planning to create some new music together and that I’m particularly excited about.”
Appnel said he hasn’t been in a band since the break up over 20 years ago. He is often performing and trying to earn a living making music with duos or trios, never finding another project like Mere Mortals adept in creating original music in many different styles.
“Pat Flynn, Mark Kiesinger, and Marko Marcinko brought my songs to life in a very special way,” Appnel added. “This is going to be spectacular.”
Appnel said he’s hoping all original lineup members will be on stage at Pittston Prohibition.
The 2021 Pittston Prohibition event saw The Badlees playing with the original line up of Pete Palladino, Paul Smith, Jeff Feltenberger, Ron Simasek, and of course Dupont resident Bret Alexander. Also stepping in was violinist Nyke Van Wyk who had been a band member of the years.
“Last year’s Pittston Prohibition was the original Badlees lineup’s first show in 18 years, felt good,” Alexander, founding member, said. “We’ve done a few more since then and we are looking forward to the return. Mere Mortals are opening the show. We played with them often back in the day but I’ve since become great friends with all those guys. I play with Eddie (Appnel) often while doing my own shows. It’s gonna be a lot of familiar faces in a new context. Should be a great day.”
The tentative entertainment schedule is as follows: Reel in the Years from noon to 1:30 p.m., Mere Mortals from 2 to 3:30 p.m., followed by headliner, The Badlees, from 4 to 6 p.m.
Kroptavich said sponsorships of the event are available as well as information for vendor space can be found at https://tinyurl.com/yckhryhs.
A portion of the proceeds from the event will help benefit the City of Pittston’s Shop with a Cop.
Rain date for the Oct. 2 event is Saturday, Oct. 9.
