Chris is a long time professional musician in the San Francisco Bay Area. He cut his musical teeth in the 60’s playing, pretty much, daily with a wide range of bands and musicians. Music and musicianship became, and are, his passion.

Chris and The RaveUps co-founding member and drummer John Cuniberti played together for a number of years in the early 70’s with Berkeley rockers The Rockets that included a young Eddie Mahoney (Eddie Money). Chris went on and spent years touring & composing as a member of The Shakers, the first American reggae band to sign with a major recording label (David Geffen’s Asylum records), and the Eddie Money (CBS) band playing guitar, bass & B-3 organ. He spent a number of years in the late 70’s and early 80’s playing guitar & keyboards, as well as composing 15 songs, as member of Santana. He can be seen and heard on Santana albums from that era (“Inner Secrets”, “Marathon”, “Zebop”, “Shango”, “Blues for Salvador” and many Greatest Hits packages.

As a session player Chris provided tracks for such artists as Chris Isaak (first two albums and Isaak’s hit “Wicked Game”, Greg Kihn (first Berserkeley album “Chartbusters”), A Man called E (two albums for Polygram), George Lynch (solo effort “Sacred Groove”), Gary Brooker (the voice and piano man from Procol Harum) and many more. Over the span of a 35-year career Chris has earned over 15 gold, platinum and double platinum records for his musical efforts.

For the last 16 years Chris has been a private guitar & bass instructor in Berkeley California doing his best to help his students become aware of and utilize their creative spirit.

Dave has been involved in the Bay Area music scene since the mid 1970’s playing guitar, bass, drums, and harmonica with such bands as Little Roger and the Goosebumps, Jonathan Richman, and Berkeley’s infamous Psychotic Pineapple. Dave is also currently performing as a vocalist-dancer-percussionist with Dick Bright’s S.R.O., a high-energy, 20-piece Soul-Funk-Rock-Hip Hop extravaganza and also fronts his own band, The Feztones.

Dave is also an award-winning sculptor who has put on a number of one-man shows of his “Eco Abstracts” including a wall sculpture for “House and Gardens” Curb Appeal Television show.

Dave’s photographs of the rock group Mad River (c. 1967) can be seen in “Nuggets from the Golden State” compact disc on Ace records Ltd., London, and a photograph of Jerry Garcia (c. 1967) in the book titled “Deadheads” by Linda Kelly.

Dave’s day job is Waste Reduction Coordinator, overseeing all salvage, recycling and waste management operations for the Presidio Trust in San Francisco.

Kit cut his bass fingers in the 60’s playing many of The Yardbirds' songs and the like at the same El Cerrito school dances and parties as the rest of these local guys. On some of those gigs he played bass in the original Arm and Hammer band with his buddy Chris Solberg on guitar, apparently setting the stage for The RaveUps some 36 years later.

With his rock-blues roots Kit went on to play with some of the San Francisco Bay Area's favorites including Dixie Peach, Gideon and Power, Frank Biner & The Nightshift, (Roy) Rogers & Bergen, and The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils. After a long stint as founding bass player with Johnny Gunn (No Control) in The Johnny Gunn Band, he had most recently been making the rounds on the local Bay Area blues circuit, but yearned for the highlights of the early years.

When Chris called to ask him to play bass, he blurted "Yes!" in a knee-jerk reaction, surprising even himself. Kit says, "What could be more perfect than playing with old friends and acquaintances, all consummate professionals, and all the while having a chance to recreate the sound, feel and look of a style of music I haven’t played since I was a kid?" What a ride this is gonna be...

Bob Lewis started playing guitar after catching poison oak at a summer camp in the early 60's. Because he couldn't swim, hike, or do any other activities, he picked up his camp leaders guitar and learned a bunch of folk tunes by ear. From Peter, Paul, & Mary, he quickly jumped to Surf music, and then to the British Invasion craze. The Rolling Stones were a big influence, but the most influential guitarist back then was Jeff Beck of the Yardbirds. Bob learned all of Jeff's solos note for note. It was at this point that Bob met a very young musician by the name of Chris Solberg who saw Bob playing a famous Yardbirds song "Mister Your A Better Man Than I" at a show with his band The Treez.

Bob and Chris went on to play together in a group called The Blues Flight back in the 60's. While Chris went on to much success in music, Bob got a "real" job, but never quit playing. He played in numerous bands over the years opening for many bands including Norton Buffalo, New Riders, and Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers.

Fast forward many years, Bob and Chris reconnected at a 60’s Bay Area Garage Band Reunion in 2005. Their friendship was reignited. Over a dinner one night Chris mentioned he was looking for a rhythm guitarist for The RaveUps and would Bob be interested. The opportunity was one Bob couldn’t refuse.

The Yardbirds originally brought Bob & Chris together and now brought them together again performing the music they love in The RaveUps. So after all these years they are back to the beginning.

Long live The Yardbirds!

Rich Snider knows all about the early days. The British Invasion caught him in high school, when he started developing his skills as a drummer, playing beat for beat with his hero Ginger Baker on the albums of Cream. Rich hung around the LA scene, honed his skills, never missing a show big or small, where he was always in front, studying all the best players.

Moving to Berkeley after high school, he started the Berkeley Musician's Switchboard where he met many Bay Area musicians and experienced several unique encounters. He sat down in Jack Bruce's hotel room in San Francisco to have a conversation about the direction of rock, only to be told to listen to Tony Williams. That advice started along his affair with jazz and fusion in which Rich immersed himself. However, before departing the hotel, Rich asked if he could replace then drummer, Mitch Mitchell. Bruce replied he was joining Tony’s band but "would have a play with him next time 'round."

Rich has played with dozens of local players he met over the years including Leigh Stevens of Blue Cheer, Pete Sears of Jefferson Starship, and Dave Carpender of Greg Kihn. He even crossed paths with The RaveUps guitarist Chris Solberg some 25 years ago, and played a stint with RaveUps bass player Kit Newkirk in The Johnny Gunn Band. In his own British style band, KingBee, Rich dug for the more obscure and challenging songs of the British scene, channeling the distinctive sounds and beats of the Pretty Things, The Yardbirds and Them.

At the first British Invasion Night performance of The RaveUps Rich wondered why he had not heard of the band and why he wasn’t in it!. When the drum chair for The RaveUps became available it was an opportunity Rich wasn’t going to miss. We are happy to have Rich onboard where he can continue to pursue the sound and feel of the 60’s British beat that has inspired him from the beginning. Always a perfectionist, always the bruising back beat, we think we finally found the drummer that pulls it all together.