Back in January of 1980 my good friend Spaulding Settle (RIP) and I were shooting the breeze on the telephone about our city, Los Angeles, and we decided that L.A. needed another way for folks to meet. So, we decided to choose some cool brothahs that we knew, invite them to a meeting at Spaulding's house in Hancock Park and tell them about our plan to form a group of guys to give classy parties at different houses and venues in the L.A. area and invite the cream of L.A.'s crop to attend. Our first affair was at a gated mansion at the edge of the Hollywood Hills that they used in TV shows and movies. It was on a huge lot and had a large heated indoor swimming pool. That party introduced us, The Group, to the party-people of Los Angeles....It was a BIG hit.

After that we did parties at LaMonte McLemore's house in Encino Hills, a couple of brunches at a restaurant in West L.A., and we obtained the rights to do the premiere of "Body & Soul", a new movie staring Leon Isaac Kennedy, Jayne Kennedy and Muhammad Ali at The Variety Arts Center. Everything we did was a BIG hit because the Black folks in the city were starving for upscale events to attend, and that's what we provided. 

After a few months of giving these events at different venues we discovered The Green House, a restaurant on Wilshire Bl across from the La Brea Tar Pits. The restaurant offered us the opportunity to do Friday and Saturday nights there on a weekly basis. We drew a nice crowd there every weekend for a year, including celebrities like El Debarge, Eddie Murphy and Robert DeNiro, to name a few.

We made a name for ourselves there and continued doing affairs around the city, including being involved the the Sickle Cell Radiothon with the 100 Black Men in 1986 for awhile until we called it quits, but being with The Group opened the door for me to get involved in promoting which I still do with L.A. Promoters which is an offshoot of The Onyx Group in the late 80's thru 90's, which included Don Derbigny, Roland Wirt (RIP), Stanley Stain, Robert Betts (RIP).

Onyx started out doing Saturday Jazz  Nights at Li'l J's, before we did Friday and Saturday nights at Arriba's in West L.A.  and others venues before we began doing First Fridays at The Fantasea Yacht Club in Marina del Rey and kicked off our New Years Eve Parties on the yacht, Fantasea One, for a few years before moving the New Years Eve parties to different hotels in the city. Our last New Years Eve Party was 2018 and then came COVID 19....But stay woke, New Years Eve events are coming back....