SAT 09/30 ... Mach Bell Experience rocks NEM Hall of Fame at Regent Theater
Once a Rocker Always a Rocker
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Cowboy Mach Bell
In the vibrant and ever-evolving world of rock music, there are a few names that have left an indelible mark on the genre. One such name is Mach Bell, a man whose passion for music and unique talent has seen him rise to the top of the rock scene. Known for his powerful vocals and dynamic stage presence, Bell has become a beloved figure in the world of rock and roll.
Born on January 23, 1953, in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Bell’s journey into the world of music began at a young age. He was classically trained on the cello as a child, a testament to his innate musical talent. However, the allure of the electric guitar during the Swinging 60’s proved too strong to resist, and he made the switch. As the 70’s dawned, Mach made another switch, this time to lead singer, a role that would catapult him to stardom.
His singing career took off, leading to gigs that included five years touring and recording with Natick MA’s Thundertrain. This was followed by a stint on the West Coast working and performing with Circus Vargas. However, the highlight of his career came when he joined forces with America’s quintessential rock star, Joe Perry of Aerosmith. This collaboration resulted in the Joe Perry Project and the album “Once a Rocker Always a Rocker,” released under MCA Universal/Geffen Records in 1983. It was during this time that Joe Perry officially gave Mach his nickname “Cowboy,” a moniker that has stuck with him to this day.
Mach Bell’s career is not just limited to music. He is also an educator and an author. A lifelong diarist, he has compiled journals of his rock’n’roll exploits. His debut book, “Once a Rocker Always a Rocker: A Diary,” was released in 2019 to a warm reception. The audiobook edition hit the market a year later. More recently, his 20-year (1965-85) rock memoir “I Gotta Rock” was published in late 2021. Cowboy calls it a “prequel, sequel, and return to the gritty scene” of his first book.
In recognition of his contributions to the music industry, Mach Bell was inducted into the New England Music Hall of Fame this year. He is also Staff Emeritus of the Macomber Center in Framingham, MA, further showcasing his diverse talents and interests.
Cowboy Mach Bell bio courtesy of MUSICCONS/ Photo by Katy Nathan
Mach Bell Discography:
1975 THUNDERTRAIN - I'm So Excited/Cindy Is a Sleeper - United National Records
1976 THUNDERTRAIN - Hot For Teacher/Love the Way - Jelly Records
1977 THUNDERTRAIN - Teenage Suicide LP - Jelly Records
1977 THUNDERTRAIN - Live at the Rat (compilation LP) - Rat Records
1979 THUNDERTRAIN - Best of the Boston Beat (WCOZ comp) - Infinity Records
1981 MAG 4 - Mag 4 Go Monte Carlo/Man With No Name - Pure & Easy Records
1983 JOE PERRY PROJECT - Once a Rocker Always a Rocker LP - MCA Universal Records
1999 JOE PERRY PROJECT - The Best of the Joe Perry Project CD - Raven Records
2001 JOE PERRY PROJECT - Once a Rocker Always a Rocker CD - MCA/Geffen
2001 LAST MAN STANDING - Last Man Standing CD - LMS Records
2002 THUNDERTRAIN - Teenage Suicide - original 9 tracks & 6 bonus tracks. CD - Gulcher Records
2004 THUNDERTRAIN -Hell Tonite! Recorded Live in 1979 CD - Gulcher Records
2005 MACH 5 - Meet Mach 5 - Lawless Records
2023 MACH BELL EXPERIENCE - Power Fever - United National Records
Cowboy Mach Bell Books:
2019 ONCE A ROCKER ALWAYS A ROCKER: A DIARY Panther Rock Books
2020 AUDIOBOOK ONCE A ROCKER: A DIARY w/ NEW FINAL CHAPTER Audible
2021 I GOTTA ROCK Panther Rock Books
2023 TITLE N/A Panther Rock Books
"Once A Rocker" AUTOGRAPHED BOOKS. buy with Paypal.
Personalized by rock singer & author Cowboy Mach Bell
- autographed copies of Mach's top-rated memoir. One price includes EVERYTHING: The Diary, free shipping and even an official BookMach to help save your place.
Please order using LINKS below. Be SURE to INCLUDE your MAILING ADDRESS and the name you want me to personalize the book to. Fast, free Shipping!
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ONCE A ROCKER ALWAYS A ROCKER: A DIARY
ONCE A ROCKER ALWAYS A ROCKER: A DIARY
"My debut book is based on the road diaries I kept during the early 80's. "Once a Rocker Always a Rocker: A Diary" is a first-hand account of how I get & manage to keep my job as lead singer with Joe Perry and his Project and the adventures that ensue over the next two and half years. Rocking, recording, laughing, fighting & touring all over the place with the JOE PERRY PROJECT!"
ONCE A ROCKER ALWAYS A ROCKER: A DIARY
ONCE A ROCKER ALWAYS A ROCKER: A DIARY
ONCE A ROCKER ALWAYS A ROCKER: A DIARY
On the Road with The JOE PERRY PROJECT in the Big 80’s.
On the Road with The JOE PERRY PROJECT in the Big 80’s.
On the Road with The JOE PERRY PROJECT in the Big 80’s.
On the Road with The JOE PERRY PROJECT in the Big 80’s. The Untold Story, Unveiled in Amazing Detail.
Rock’n’Roll’s Most Freewheeling - but Ultimately Doomed Band. Outrageous, Uproarious and 100% Genuine.
True Tales from the Trenches of American Hard Rock. Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry needed a singer for his Joe Perry Project. Out of nowhere, I got drafted. It was like winning the lottery. Much better though - because lotteries only pay cash. For the next two years I experienced things that money just can’t buy. Living on the road and singing alongside America’s quintessential rock star lead guitarist, Admiral Joe Perry. Playing adventurous, rebellious music on big stages to crowds, signing autographs, finding romance and partying with my idols. I was suddenly on top.
At that same moment Joe Perry was spiraling downward. Health failing, marriage dissolving and deeply in debt.
In order to stay one foot ahead of the tallyman, the ex-Aerosmith star jumped into a van and hit the road. Taking me and a few other newbies along on a mad dash across North America - and beyond.
Taking any gig he could get.
ONCE A ROCKER ALWAYS A ROCKER: A DIARY
326 pages, with rare photographs.
Once a Rocker Always a Rocker: A DIARY
On the Road with The JOE PERRY PROJECT in the Big 80’s.
On the Road with The JOE PERRY PROJECT in the Big 80’s.
"Mach really did a great job on this.
Recommended big time!"
CARTER ALAN
Author of The Decibel Diaries, Radio Free Boston and Outside is America: U2 in the U.S.
"I like the fact that (this) is authentic.”
MITCH LAFON - Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon
“5 stars out of 5 stars.”
THOMAS S. ORWAT JR. RockMusicStar.com
“I’m THRILLED that you’ve put out this book. This is the LOST ERA…and to get it from somebody who was there!”
JULIAN GILL - Author of "Aerosmith - On Tour 1973 - 85" and host of Look! It’s Rock’N’Roll
Photo: 16 Magazine from 1976.
"I Gotta Rock" AUTOGRAPHED BOOKS! order with PayPal or Venmo
I'll autograph my latest book to you & send it out in the morning mail! $27.99 includes EVERYTHING: the book, shipping and a kustom BookMach too!
Be SURE to include your mailing address and the name you want my autograph personalized to. Please send $27.99 to www.venmo.com/u/MachBell or paypal below
Cowboy's 2nd book is here! I GOTTA ROCK
"Mach’s story is one that resonates.” - BOSTON GROUPIE NEWS
"Among the best I've ever read! You get the meat & potatoes - you get exactly what you would hope for in a book. "
JOEY SUTO - Host of Rock Show Critique
"its the From Here to Eternity of rock memoirs"
WILLIE LOCO ALEXANDER
"LOVED I GOTTA ROCK ...You told the story so well - lots of detail and heightened tales."
T. MAX - The Noise
First rock concert: The Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1968.
Crashing on L.A.’s Sunset Strip in 1974.
Writing and recording with Aerosmith’s Joe Perry in 1983
“Cowboy Mach Bell is best known as rock singer/songwriter with the Joe Perry Project and the earlier, celebrated band out of Natick MA called Thundertrain (1974-79) whose pulsating 1976 single Hot For Teacher (pre-Van Halen) lands Mach Bell in the frontlines of the explosive rock’n’roll/glam/punk music scene orbiting around the Rat in Kenmore Square and CBGB in New York City.
Later, Mach tours with thirteen elephants and a dozen showgirls in Circus Vargas, but that’s a whole ‘nother chapter.
I Gotta Rock is an up close and personal memoir documenting twenty years spent chasing a rock’n’roll dream and, for some magical years, actually capturing it. Return to 1965 -1985. Years that rarely allow Cowboy Mach a moment of peace as he records and performs with Biggy Ratt, the Wild Bunch, Joe Flash and the Screamin' Ya-Ya Girls and even the Mechanical Onions. Included are teenage tales of Bell’s daring cross-country hitch hiking escapades at age 16. Mach’s backstage memories of the Runaways, DMZ, Mink DeVille, Alan Vega, Reddy Teddy, The Fast, the Dictators, Willie Alexander, Stiv Bators, the Dead Boys and Phil Lynott… and for the first time ever, Mach Bell’s remarkable circus diary is finally unveiled.”
I Gotta Rock, 492 pages, Nearly 200 photographs, #1 New Release on Amazon
CLICK image to access Amazon order page.
FIVE STAR RATINGS FOR THE AUDIOBOOK
CLICK THIS POSTER AND HEAR IT FOR YOURSELF!
The deluxe, expanded AUDIOBOOK of “Once a Rocker Always a Rocker: A Diary” is now available at Audible, Amazon and iTunes/AppleBooks.
Featuring monumental Boston rocker Greg“Earthquake”Morton as Mach's co-narrator. The whole Diary is included PLUS...
Boston radio personality, author and rock historian Carter Alan joins in with his Thundertrain and Joe Perry Project insights (& some buried treasure)…
But there’s more! Joe Perry Project members Danny Hargrove and Charlie Farren drop by to spin personal road tales.
Vivid, new stories are shared, old questions are finally answered, and a gripping, new Final Chapter is premiered…
Meet the BAND...
The MACH BELL EXPERIENCE (MBE): a hard-riffing quintet banging out Blazing-Hot live versions of Mach's JOE PERRY PROJECT and THUNDERTRAIN classics PLUS NEW, original, Made In Boston rock - like the flashy new single POWER FEVER! Served up Dirty, Fresh and Heavy. Hell yea!
"That set the tenor for what was undeniably the highlight of Hallapalooza: the debut performance of Mach’s new band the Mach Bell Experience! The Cowboy kicked off his set with Chuck Berry’s “Round and Round” and swaggered through selections from his Thundertrain and Joe Perry Project days, along with cool covers of T. Rex’s “Bang a Gong (Get it On)” and Yardbirds “I’m Not Talking.”
Hard to believe Mach hasn’t played live with a rock band in a decade, but he’s certainly been making the rounds lately with his newfound success as an author for his two memoirs of his prime rocking days, and he finished his set with what he described as a song, an album, a book and his raison d’ etre: “ Way to go, Cowboy!" Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker!”
BOSTON GROUPIE NEWS 9/26/22
They call him the Magnificent Bastard...
JOHNNY PRESS is the lead guitar rocket that guides the Mach Bell Experience. Mach's longtime comrade in rock, Press is now Bell's musical collaborator and fearless leader of the MBE band.
Johnny's helmed scores of rock groups
(Gross National Productions, Velocity, Big Guns, Smokin' Joe, Burning Sky). His just-released solo record is titled
Johnny Press Nuclear Gypsy.
"If I could play guitar like anyone it would be Johnny Press."
- Tom Werman, record producer
DEBUT MBE SINGLE rocking the world!
POWER FEVER is catching. Now playing at Wave Radio Boston, KLKK-FM, KIOW-FM, WCUW-FM, the Rock and Roll Geek Show, WMFO-FM, Deezer, Mark Skin Radio, Pandora, Bandcamp, Spotify, Youtube, WMWM-FM & more added every day!
JEFF TREMBLAY / AL D’ALLESSANDRO / JIM BECKER
Jeff Tremblay (hard-rock guitarist and vocalist) arrived one day at the MBE headquarters and immediately proved himself indispensable. Jeff contributes musical depth to the MBE All Star lineup, ripping on the Stratocaster & singing up a soulful storm!
Generating massive backbeats, Al D'Allessandro (they call him “The Count”) enters the ring with Fists of Fury flying. MBE proudly presents our 10th degree Black Belt Grandmaster, hard-rocking drummer & vocalist!
Jim Becker has joined forces with the MBE - on the BASS guitar! Up til now known as a lead guitarist, Jim has taken to rocking his new 4-string instrument in a big way.
MBE bass guitarist JOE BLACK is on medical leave of absence. We join everyone in wishing Official Joe all the best & a healthy & timely recovery from his recent life-saving surgery.
MACH BELL EXPERIENCE - LIVE!
09/30 SAT Regent Theater, Arlington MA New England Music Hall of Fame Awards ALL AGES!!
- 12/16 SAT Magic Room NORWOOD MA
- TICKETS and MORE INFO on upcoming events on the "EVENTS" page (menu above).