by Allen Knollenberg, New Castle, Delaware

I lived in Champaign, Il for a while and that is the home of the Univ of Illinois, so there is lots of great music going on. There was a local musician who had his own group called the George Faber Review. George, his brother and their father were part owners of the local bar called Mabel’s and that is where most of the great music acts played.

One night at Mabel’s after George finished a show he was telling me how Cheap Trick used to play in Champaign a lot before they hit it big and they hadn’t acquired their current leader singer yet. Rick Neilson and George Faber were friends and Rick offered the lead singer roll to George, but after some thought he turned down the oppurtunity. Rick and George hadn’t talked in a while because Cheap Trick was on the road. The next time the two were able to talk Rick Neilson told George he was getting ready to order a new Ferarri and he couldn’t decide on a color.

We all know how things worked out for Cheap Trick and the George Faber Review continued on as a regional rock band known mostly around Central Illinois.