Hello, everyone. This is Robert Darlington in Baltimore, Maryland, reflecting on the thirty years that I've been a member of Translator.

The band started as a trio (Steve, Dave, and Larry) in 1979, and I became a huge fan. They asked me to play with them on "Dizzie Miss Lizzie" at a party, and the next thing I knew they were asking me to play "Cry For A Shadow" with them at their next gig. The song has two guitar parts and Steve was the only guitarist in the band.

(We recorded this great Beatles' instrumental with David Kahne in San Francisco, and 415/Columbia Records released it on our one vinyl EP. In 1995, The LA Times Calendar section wrote that the three [at that time] surviving Beatles had recorded a new version of "Cry For A Shadow" and that they were planning to release it on one of their upcoming anthology collections: it turned out that it was our recording of the song, much to our surprise. To have one of our recordings be mistaken for the Beatles was a great moment for all of us.)

I learned their entire set at one rehearal,
including "Cry For A Shadow."

I believe it was March 6, 1980 when I joined them onstage at a club called The Londoner -- I played the entire set with a minimal cheat sheet, but I felt as if I'd been playing the songs for years. The music had an energy and power that really took off. I joined the band, and we played all of the great LA clubs of that time with all of the great bands who were around.

Later that year we moved to San Francisco, met David Kahne and Howie Klein, and the rest is history, so to speak. It's been a great ride, and it continues to get better. Translator is expecting 2010 to be a great year for us. Stay tuned.