Photo Andy Scheck

What do you get when you mix finance, construction and teaching? In this case, it's the Pacific Coast Band. If you happened to be at Moraga's Pear Festival last Saturday morning, you probably found yourself bopping to their beat.

Band members Sid Luckenbach (drums) and Per-Olof Persson (keyboards) are from Orinda, bass player Jim Murray is a Moragan, and guitarist George Von Giese lives in Lafayette. The band got together a year and half ago when Luckenbach, Persson and Murray met through their kids' LMYA activities. Like most not-quite-famous musicians, the band members all have day jobs - Luckenbach works in the financial services field, Murray is in construction and finance, Persson is a math professor at Cal, and Von Giese is a transportation consultant. Add in vocalists Darvin Hinkle and Cielo Voz, and you have a rockin' '80's+ cover band that was happy to play at the Pear Festival. Luckenbach says, "We are all very passionate about our music and appreciate the opportunity to perform locaIly. We love to play music from the 80's since that is when we all went to high school and college and we get a lot of requests for that music!"

To learn more about the Pacific Coast Band go to www.pacificcoastband.com; reach Luckenbach at 878-9974 to book the band for your holiday party.

L.Borrowman