Skip to main content

Did the band Live split up? What we know now


play
Show Caption

Cryptic posts Saturday on Live guitarist Chad Taylor’s Facebook and Instagram accounts have fans questioning on social media whether the York rock band has split up. 

Live’s FacebookInstagram and Twitteraccounts have since been deactivated, and the band's website – freaks4live.com – is an empty, black page.

Saturday evening, Taylor posted a photo of the Dr. Seuss quote “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened” along with the status “Grateful, blessed, and thankful … That’s all for now.”

Taylor did not specify whether the quote related to his band, via an email to the York Daily Record Monday morning. He said he posted the Dr. Seuss quote for the Canadian band The Tragically Hip, which celebrated its final show over the weekend.

"Sadly, Gord Downie, the band's frontman has incurable cancer and really the entire country shut down to say a final farewell this weekend," Taylor said in the email. "As a musician, you see these moments and reflect on your own career. I think it reminds us to appreciate the good times. There is no news otherwise to report on our band, we're simply enjoying our families at the moment." 

At the time of posting, Taylor did not explain why Live's website and social media accounts have been shut down.

A spokesperson for Think Loud, Live's recording studio and development firm in York, was also not available for comment. 

Live was formed in York in the mid-1980s featuring singer Ed Kowalczyk, bass guitarist Patrick Dahlheimer, drummer Chad Gracey and guitarist Chad Taylor.

During its run, the band saw success with several albums, including the mid-'90s classic song “Lightning Crashes.” The band performed on several shows including “Saturday Night Live,” “The Jon Stewart Show” and “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

In late 2009, Live parted ways with lead singer Ed Kowalczyk – with varying views of the split. According to a 2010 lawsuit filed by Dahlheimer, Gracey and Taylor, the three band members “elected to remove Kowalczyk from the band Live as a result of certain disagreements.”

The lawsuit said that Kowalczyk was misleading fans by branding himself “Ed Kowalczyk of Live” when he took to the road after the band split, according to a 2012 Daily Record article.

Kowalczyk argued that the band agreed to take a hiatus.

“I never left Live,” he told the Daily Record. “We all agreed to take a two-year hiatus. But virtually immediately after we made that decision, lawyers representing Chad, Chad and Patrick began their legal attack on me.”

In 2012, the band took the stage as Live at York’s Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center, replacing Kowalczyk with a new lead singer – Chris Shinn. He had been the lead singer of the band Unified Theory before joining Live.

With Shinn on vocals, Live released its eighth studio album, “The Turn," in October 2014. 

Members of the band are involved in leading plans for United Fiber & Data, a York-based fiber optics company.  

Reporters Mark Walters, Anthony Machcinski and Abbey Zelko contributed to this report.

READ MORE:

York company lays fiber under Hudson River

Is York ready for UFD'S 'gigabit revolution'?

United Fiber & Data gets grant to pursue gigabit initiative

United Fiber & Data's York construction slated for 2016

Funding, construction problems hit United Fiber & Data project