Pat Gallman, Bob Wright, Bart and singer Terry Spillman started as an unnamed basement band at Pat's house in June, 2001. Terry departed in November and new singer, Dave Tingley, joined the group in December. Dave had never performed with a band before and we practiced a lot! After deciding on the name PANACEA, we finally played our first gig in September, 2002 (a wedding reception). Dave took it upon himself to promote us and try to get playing dates. He booked our first "real" gig in Princeton, IN in December, 2002 and things went well. He also was able to book the Southside Bar in Boonville, IN for the following January and Skys Billiards (now O'Brien's) in Evansville for February and things were looking up.
To view a brief bio on each current member, click on our names below.
Bart Lindenschmidt: Drums, Harmonica, Lead and Backup Vocals
Bob Wright: Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Lead and Backup Vocals
Bob Garrett: Bass, Keyboards, Guitars, Backup Vocals
Jim Gansman: Guitars, Bass, Harmonica, Lead and Backup Vocals
Joe Cooper: Bass, Lead and Backup Vocals
But on January 3rd, 2003 the band experienced a terrible loss. Dave suffered a massive heart attack and passed away the next morning without ever regaining consciousness. The rest of us were of course stunned and greatly saddened. Bob and Dave had been the best of friends for over 30 years and Pat and Bart had also become close friends with him since he had joined the band. We were forced to consider something we had never dreamed of...
With the owner's blessing, the January gig at Southside became a bit of a tribute to Dave with the remaining members of the band, the band "Touch of Grey" (Bob was also a member of that band), and the band "Kama Sutra" (Dave was close friends with members of that band) all performing a set. Dave's brother Scott Tingley, also a member of Touch of Grey, sang a few songs with us that Dave used to do.
All went well and it was suggested that Scott would be a great candidate to assume the role as our frontman. Although Scott had played bass in numerous bands over the years, he had never sung a lot and of course had not been a frontman. He decided he would give it a go at least to get us through the date at Skys in February. That also went well and Scott remained our frontman until April of 2004 when he decided to pursue other interests.
Enter frontman Greg Hudson. Although a bit younger than the other members, Greg did an admirable job during his brief tenure with the band. He departed in December. Bob also decided to depart in order to pursue other professional ambitions.
So... December, 2004 and we were down to two members! As luck would have it, Joe Cooper was immediately available and joined the band soon enough (January, 2005) that we were able to move on quickly. Since Joe was a great voice and an adequate bass player to boot, things worked out well enough that we became a "power trio".
Bob continued to stop in and jam with us from time to time and decided to return as a full-time member again in 2006. Of course, we were pleased to have him back! And in January, 2007 the other Bob, Mr. Garrett that is, came along for the ride.
Joe decided to depart the band in April, 2009 to pursue other interests ("and then there were four...") and Pat decided to leave the band in November, 2009. The three of us remained to carry on ("and then there were three... again...").
January, 2010: Guitar player and singer Jim Gansman (formerly of Cheap Date & The Painkillers among others) has joined the band. Also, Joe has rejoined the band and will help us out from time to time.
