Game Theory 
Album Covers

Links

Game Theory/The Loud Family  Official Web site Scott Miller rock bands

Scott Miller Interview on this site

Davis 80's rock scene

Page of links to Game Theory/
Loud Family video clips on YouTube

It started with Boy's Life - a hard-pop trio featuring bassist Fred Juhos ('Dildo Time Again'). After a campus gig I gave them a scrap of paper with "Photos, Robert" and my number. First shoots were in my campus studio, then live or outdoors. Shoots were fun - we got to be creative and enjoyed the drinking and socializing.

Most of bands members had never seriously considered what image they wanted to project; collaborating on an image energized the shoots and the bands. The best photos were used on flyers around town and printed in campus and city newspapers - naturally I liked that! Getting decent pictures taken is also good for the band's self-esteem, "We're important enough to be photographed!" People meeting the band were bemused - but impressed - to discover bands had their own photographer. I was invited to gigs and band-related parties, and people began calling me Photo Robert. 

Davis in the early 80's was hopping musically: there were campus events and house parties to play and a funky downtown bar - The Bizarre Bazaar - where any band could get a gig and afterwards pass a beer pitcher for tips. Steve Wynn's Suspects played the art department; the 200-capacity UC Davis Coffee House hosted Iggy Pop, The Talking Heads, Devo, The Roches, etc. House parties featured The Violent Femmes, The Replacements and Rain Parade.

Boys Life Fred Juhos introduced me to singer/bassist/songwriter Donnette Thayer and her X-Men. At Boys Life/X-Men gigs I met Alternate Learning, fronted by singer/songwriter Scott Miller. ALRN were the coolest, artiest Davis band; the campus radio station, KDVS, played their single Dark Days. On a hot Davis afternoon I was working the campus Craft Center tool counter when ALRN dropped in to print band photos. Working my way up the rock food chain, I approached and suggested I could do better - for beer - and gave them my number.
(That was 1980... I shot Scott's bands for another 22 years.)
 
The X-Men (Donnette, boyfriend/guitarist Jerry Coffey and drummer Gavin Blair) lived right around the corner from me, and for a while I hung there almost very day. Later on Donnette and Scott Miller became a couple and I hung with them both in their Sacramento apartment.

In 1981 ALRN became Game Theory (Fred Juhos on bass).
In 1982 I moved from Davis to Berkeley
but continued to do GT's publicity shots and album covers.
In 1984 Scott moved to San Francisco. My fiancé, Shelley LaFreniere, joined the new
Game Theory lineup on keyboards. For about a year the band rehearsed in the back of the photo lab (Big Shot) where I worked. And from 1985-88 I got to tag along on tours
doing lights, photos, video and whatever.

I never stopped loving hearing them rehearse and play live - I'm one lucky bastard.


Photo Robert (1986)
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Leaving on Real Nighttime tour 1984
(BSC recorded during this tour)