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Say looky here!! You guys are famous! =========================== =========================== Annual get-together of Allman Brothers fans wraps up By Phillip Ramati TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER Clouds made for an overcast Sunday, but for fans of The Allman Brothers Band, it was nothing but blue skies. GABBAFest, the annual get-together of Allman Brothers fans from around the world, wrapped up Sunday with several participants getting together to pick up trash at Rose Hill Cemetery, where guitarist Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley are buried. "It's all Allman Brothers and sisters," said Karen Bomberry, who came down for the weekend from southern Ontario. "We're all an extended family. You can't even imagine. It's amazing - the family the band has created is unreal." Said Terri Belco, a fan from Cherry Hill, N.J.: "We're all Internet friends." GABBAFest began in 1991, when members of GABBA - the Georgia Allman Brothers Band Association - got together in order to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Duane Allman's death. Attendance each year has ranged from 100 to 750, with people traveling to Macon from as far as Iceland, Japan, Croatia and Australia, plus fans from all over the U.S. "It's amazing," said Greg Potter of Macon, who led the cleanup effort at Rose Hill. "It was the anniversary of Duane's death and people got together. We decided to make it an annual event, that all fans should come together. It kept growing; we do different things every year." Attendance was down somewhat this year, thanks in part to high gas prices and the fact that there was no GABBAFest last year because it coincided with the band's tour. Potter estimated about 250 came in for this year's festival. Those fans had a pretty full weekend. Musical acts performing during the weekend at the Douglass Theatre included the Moses Jones Band, the Tony Tyler Trance, the Tommy Talton Band, Lefty Collins & The No Mercy Band, and Jimmy Hall, performing with Tyler, Jack Hall, Ric Seymour and friends. In addition, there was also a "members jam" in which fans got to play songs on the Douglass stage. Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson, the drummer who was both a member of the original lineup and current incarnation of the band, was scheduled to perform but had to back out at the last minute because of family issues. Potter, a retired landscaper, said he will become the director of the Big House, a three-story house on Vineville Avenue where members of the band lived in the 1960s and '70s. The Big House Foundation has already raised more than $1 million - about a third of what they hope to end up with - to convert the house into an Allman Brothers museum. Potter said the foundation has moved into downtown office space and is in the process of putting all the archives onto computer files. "We'll be ready to move straight into the museum," said Potter, who said the group hopes to get started on renovations to the house early next spring. Potter also said the group is having a raffle for a customized Allman Brothers motorcycle on Oct. 31. People interested in buying a raffle ticket can get one at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. GABBAFest attendees got to take a tour of the Big House and got half-price tickets to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Allman Brothers fans had a little more to celebrate this year because Gregg Allman was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame as a solo artist a couple of weeks ago. "The first thing I could think of was, 'It's about time,' " Bomberry said. "It's long overdue. Bless his heart, it's something he so richly deserves. He was recognized for his contributions to music and the world." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To contact Phillip Ramati, call 744-4334 or e-mail pramati@macontel.com.