Thursday night rocks at Field House

Lady of the law busts rock beat

By Mary Beth Keene

Posted on Oct. 15, 2001, at 12:00 a.m.

By Mary Beth Keene

For The Maine Campus

Who would have believed the University of Maine’s beloved Officer Deb Mitchell can be seen belting out the lyrics to Fuel’s “Hemorrhage,” decked out in leather pants and purple lipstick?

When she’s not out patrolling or slapping the cuffs on people, Mitchell is the lead singer in the contemporary rock band Chain Gang, which will be playing at Patriotfest at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 18, in the Field House.

Mitchell loves her alter ego and thrives on the power of rock’n'roll.

“The coolest thing about it is that for three hours I am a rock star,” Mitchell said at a recent band practice.

She enjoys telling people she’s a cop and then expressing that she also plays in a rock band.

“It just blows people’s minds,” Mitchell said.

Chain Gang plays at local clubs in the area and also performs at wedding receptions, where their repertoire consists of mostly popular dance music. They play songs such as “Mony, Mony” and a hard rock version of “Leader of the Pack.” For the students here at UMaine, you’d most likely hear Mitchell singing along to Alice in Chain’s “Man in the Box,” or Guns’n'Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”

“It’s one of my favorite places to perform,” Mitchell said. “It’s like my worlds are colliding together.”

Mitchell’s inspiration comes from the voices of KD Lang, Karen Carpenter, Pat Benatar, and Canadian Kate Bush. Chain Gang plays songs from Van Halen, Alice in Chains, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and even Weezer.

One time Mitchell got a call from a fan who had heard Chain Gang perform The Rolling Stones’ song, “Dead Flowers.” He gasped into the phone, “Dude, Mick Jagger is playing one of your songs!” The band has also written a great deal of it’s own music.

Officer Mitchell began singing at the early age of four.

“I played drums, piano and clarinet, but always went back to singing,” Mitchell explained.

In grammar school, her music teacher noticed Deb’s perfect pitch, but she wouldn’t be introduced to the band until years later in 1990.

“It’s a funny story, I was sitting on the floor at a Christmas party and next to me I saw some cowboy boots,” Mitchell said. “I looked up to the man wearing them and said `nice boots.’”

The boots belonged to the band’s drummer, and Deb’s future husband, Robbie Gilbert. He told her that his band was looking for a singer, Deb tried out and was immediately offered the lead.

Paul Blaire plays rhythm guitar, Larry York is the lead guitarist and Shane Vanidestine plays bass.

“The one thing we share is love for music,” Mitchell said.

For a while, Mitchell was even forced to give up her love of singing. Doctors thought she had serious throat abrasions and she would have to stop singing to keep her voice. Heartbroken, Mitchell took up horseback riding. When she finally realized she was capable of doing something else besides singing, she thanked God and miraculously she got her voice back.

Luckily, she only had bad allergies, not throat abrasions.

Mitchell loves the duality of being a cop and a rock star.

“I get the best of both worlds,” Mitchell said.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2001, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.