Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Eastern New Mexico University student activities organizers said on Monday the 2004 fall semester will be kicked off with an Aug. 28 concert featuring pop group Blessid Union of Souls.
Jeff Blake, program coordinator of Eastern’s Associated Students Activities Board, said he saw the group play at a conference in Cincinnati and figured they’d be a great band for Eastern students.
“They offered deals to colleges and we got a really good deal. I got here and everybody (ASAB members) was excited. We negotiated with them for two months,” Blake said.
The Blessid Union of Souls concert will take place in the Eastern’s Greyhound Arena following the football team’s 6 p.m. season opener against Central Arkansas at Greyhound Stadium.
“The biggest reason we are having it in the Greyhound Arena is because we were coming close to capacity during the Jessica Andrews concert,” Blake said of the country singer’s free concert in late January. “We were close to having to turn people away and we didn’t want to do that.”
The Blessid Union of Souls concert will be free to everybody, not just ENMU students, Blake said. Eastern ASAB officials have also been able to bring Lifehouse and Pat Greene to ENMU for concerts in the last two years.
Blessid Union of Souls had their breakthrough No. 1 hit in 1995 with “I Believe” off of the platinum album, “Home” along with other top-20 hits, “Let Me Be the One” and “Oh, Virginia.”
Their second album, “Blessid Union of Souls” had two more top-20 hits, “I Wanna Be There” and “Light in Your Eyes.” The band released a fourth album entitled, “The Singles,” which had a song, “Brother, My Brother” from the soundtrack, “Pokemon: The First Movie.”
The pop music band from Cincinnati took their name from a line from the television sitcom, MASH, according to a Blessid Union of Souls Tribute Web site.
The concert is also considered part of the Dawg Days festivities for incoming ENMU freshman from Aug. 26 - 29.
“We look at is as the perfect cap to Dawg Days,” Shem Peachey, a Dawg Days coordinator, said. “We worked during the summer to schedule the events.”
Peachey is one of the band members of Social Blind Spot, which played during Dawg Days last year.
“I have a love for music — especially live music. Being on the activities board lets me deal with all aspects of putting on a concert. It has given me invaluable experience,” Peachey said.
