by Bill McBain
110,000 cheering fans for a band that never signed with a major record label may seem like a pipedream for most musicians, but it was actually a reality on July 31, 2004. Countless people ventured from all parts of the country and world to Boston to experience the last Dispatch concert ever.
This attitude of “music for the fans” and not for the goal of profit has characterized Dispatch, a band that has recently released its final record, a CD/DVD of their final concert, called “All Points Bulletin.”
Dispatch is not only a band, but a movement. They have always been more concerned about spreading music than profiting from it, turning down many record label contracts so they can maintain control over the music.
The band is comprised of Chad Stokes Urmston (vocals, guitar), Pete Francis Heimbold (bass, drums, percussion, sound effects), and Brad Corrigan (vocals, drums, percussion). The three formed a primarily acoustic group while they were at Middlebury College eight years ago. Since then they have changed their name from One Fell Swoop to Dispatch, and accordingly, their music has been infused with a reggae funky jam band style.
Like many jam bands, their albums are good, but to truly experience them you need to hear them play live. For this reason, they greatly encouraged fans to tape concerts and trade them.
Dispatch is often compared to Dave Matthews, OAR, and Guster, but the band really possesses its own sound. The lyrics are heavily influenced by the time that Chad Urmston spent in Zimbabwe, and the study abroad experience of Pete Francis in Ireland.
The song “Elias” is about Chad’s friend Elias from a rough area in Zimbabwe and how he remains strong and works hard so that his children can have a better life. The band has since created a non-profit charity to bring Elias’ children over to the United States for college (More information available at www.eliasfund.org).
Danielle Cameron ’08, who recently purchased “All Points Bulletin,” is attracted to Dispatch’s music because of its positive messages and constructive social implications.
“Without a doubt my favorite song is ‘Elias,'” she said. “But ending the concert with ‘The General’ was incredible. It was by far the best part of the concert.”
Heimbold considers the concert a day to remember.
“It was a day to celebrate the love of music,” he said. “Everyone was welcome, young and old from all around the world.”
After a hiatus that lasted nearly two years, the band announced that they would be putting on one last concert in Boston at the Hatch Shell arena on the Charles River. The show was never promoted except on the Dispatch website and by word of mouth.
Nevertheless, people showed up in droves. Liz Small ’08 attended the concert and describes the crowd as an incredible force.
“There was just so much energy,” she said. “I was there from about nine in the morning until it ended, and I just remember it being so hot.”
The DVD does the concert justice and even includes a list of those who attended the concert at the end (look for Bill McBain).
Urmston hopes fans will be impacted by this release.
“I hope that the release of the concert represents, to the fans, a benchmark in their own musical careers, a thumbtack on the map of their own live’s journeys in which they were not just witnessing something happen but that they were what happened,” he said.
The three former members of Dispatch are now each pursuing their own solo direction in music. Urmston is heading up State Radio, a reggae and funk rock band. Corrigan is the driving force behind the group Braddigan. Heimbold is going after a solo career under the name Pete Francis.
Matt Ryder ’07 believes that Dispatch’s days were numbered all along.
“The three of them created an amazing sound that everyone knew would not be around for long because you cannot cage three talented solo-artists within one group for long,” he said.
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