Missing Persons
© 2001 by Cyndi Glass

With its unique, colorful and jampacked history in the music business, Missing Persons is a band like no other. Over the years, this collection of talented and strong-willed personalities created music that tested boundaries and limits, and now they're back for more! 

Before the band began…
In 1975, Terry Bozzio was playing in Frank Zappa's band, becoming a legend in the music industry as well as with Zappa fans. Enter, Dale Consalvi in 1976. A former Playboy Bunny from Boston, Dale visited Frank at the studio one day, and she and Terry hit it off (marrying in 1979). Warren Cuccurullo, a guitarist and Zappa fan from New York, was hired into the band in 1978 just as Terry left. When the band returned from the 1979 European tour, the Joe's Garage albums began to take shape, making Dale and Warren as infamous as Terry had previously been. Dale and Warren began writing their own songs, and Terry quit the band he was playing with (UK) to join Dale and Warren in founding a new band. Their energy, potential, persistence and talent created Missing
Persons.

1980-1981
Turning down a chance to go back on tour with Frank Zappa, Warren chose to dedicate himself to Missing Persons, and the three of them began writing, rehearsing, performing and recording. They appeared as "Teddy and the Ruff Riders" in the movie Lunch Wagon. Ken Scott, their producer, got excited about the band, becoming their manager. With $3,000.00 from Warren's father, Missing Persons released the 4 song, 7 inch Missing Persons EP on their producers' label, KoMoS. Incredible live shows, self-promotion and persistence paid off: the EP sold (estimates vary) between 7000 and 11,000 copies, and when they sold out a 3000 seat hall, Capitol Records gave them a contract in March of 1982.

1982-1983
Capitol re-released the EP, which became the best selling debut EP at that time, selling 250,000 copies and charting on the Billboard album chart. In October 1982, Missing Persons released its first full length album, Spring Sessions M. "Words" and "Destination Unknown" were released as singles, gaining airplay all over the U.S. Brash and energetic, the new songs were perfect for a new era of music. The album went gold, peaking at #17 and was the band's most successful album. Missing Persons performed on many television shows, including Solid Gold, and did interviews with Entertainment Tonight, MTV and others. On New Year's Eve, 1982, the band played in front of a sold-out crowd at the Long Beach Arena, which seated 18,000, and in May 1983, they did a set at the US Festival, which was in front of several hundred thousand people.

1984-1986
In early 1984, Rhyme and Reason was released, accompanied by Helmut Newton's stunning photos of the band. Three more videos were made, and a tour was launched. Another album, Color In Your Life, was released in 1986. A single and video were released for "I Can't Think About Dancing." Shortly after the album's release in the summer of 1986, the band broke up along with the Bozzio marriage.

1986-2001
The members of Missing Persons all went on to have careers in the music industry. Warren joined Duran Duran in 1986 and remained with the band for the next 15 years, co-writing the 1993 top five hits "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone." Warren's contributions to Duran Duran were many, including not only his guitar wizardry, but his talent, versatility, creativity, energy, home studio, production experience and prolific songwriting. He also has released four solo albums. Meanwhile, Terry Bozzio has made a name for himself playing with many different groups and artists, including Duran Duran studio work in 1995.  He won a Grammy Award for Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop in 1990. Most of his time is spent conducting drum clinics and selling instructional videos. Dale Bozzio released a solo album on Prince's Paisley Park label in 1988 and toured occasionally throughout the 1990's performing Missing Persons songs with a hired band.  She participated in the Zappa's Universe concert in December 1991, was featured in MTV's It Came From The 80's in 1996 and appeared onstage with Duran Duran in Boston to perform "Destination Unknown" with Warren in 1999.

As for Missing Persons, Capitol Records released The Best Of Missing Persons on CD and cassette in 1987,and a special markets cassette compilation called Walking in L.A. in 1988. A live album released by Warren, Late Nights/Early Days, includes a concert from 1981 as well as the previously unreleased"Action, Reaction." The next project was an album of remixes (Remixed Hits), for which TV Mania (Warren Cuccurullo and Nick Rhodes) contributed their version of "Destination Unknown." In May 2001, Warren announced that he was leaving Duran Duran to re-form Missing Persons with original members Terry and Dale.  Plans include tour dates and recording, and he's already writing new music with Dale. Although fans never dared to hope for a reunion, especially considering the fact that Terry and Dale are divorced, the news has been greeted with much happiness among this still cohesive and devoted fanbase.