One.25: Remembering John Williamson and Ian Alexander

By Alyssa Bellingham

A flyer for the One.25 concert highlighting the event.

On January 25, 2009, Drexel University’s Alpha Chi Rho Fraternity(AXP) suffered the sad loss of two members, John Williamson and Ian Alexander. In the wake of the tragic accident, the Greek community, friends, and family of the fraternity banded together to support them with a candle-light vigil held outside of North Hall. Members of Grindcity, a local Philadelphia band who recently toured with Living Colour, were so moved by the media coverage of the vigil that they contacted their manager, Joe Malachi, about supporting the AXP brothers, not knowing that he is an AXP alumni. Joe is a local band manager who books venues, works on artist development and runs a non-profit organization called Philadelphia Young Artists where he teaches urban kids about music. He contacted AXP about doing a benefit show in memory of John and Ian and coached them through the process of organizing a concert.

This is the second year for the One.25 benefit concert, where five bands local bands, including Grindcity, performed on April 23 at the First Unitarian Church. The music ranged from a rock rendition of “Hit Me Baby One More Time” to Eminem’s “My Name Is”, with plenty of original pieces mixed in. The concert supports a scholarship for a member of AXP so they can pursue their studies at Drexel University. The concert has significantly grown since last year when it made its debut at Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center. Members of AXP stated that they hope the concert will continue growing every year.

The bands were selected by the members of AXP, and were chosen for their reliability, popularity and connection to the fraternity. The first band that played, Nobody Yet, includes Joe Freebird who attended Drexel. When playing a house party gig he was asked the name of his band and replied “Nobody yet” because they did not yet have a name, and the name stuck. Grindcity, the night’s crowd pleaser, performed next with J-O on lead vocal, Damon Smalls backing him up on vocals, Gab Guma on guitar, Kevin Prendergast on bass, and Jon “Foot” Ardito on drums. Following Grindcity was With The Punches, really down-to-earth guys who love music. New Liberty was up next with Willi Love on bass, Niko Marz on lead guitar, Shane Mac on vocals and Diesel Bottoms on drums. This band stood out in the crowd of jeans and t-shirt clad students with the vocalist’s tattoo sleeves and the lead guitarist’s tall purple Mohawk. But this band will soon be moving to California to try their luck at being discovered, so look out for them in the future. The final performance of the night was Starting Over. This three man band met in high school, but all the members were in different bands at the time. When they formed a band together, they were all literally starting over, hence the name of the band.

It is easy to tell that John and Ian left an impression on their AXP brothers and the Drexel community. According to Stephen Seltz-Axmacher, the chair of One.25, Ian was a mentor who always encouraged people to educate themselves, and John was an extremely happy and positive person. They will be remembered every year with the One.25 concert, so mark it on your calendars for next year because this is an amazing event.