Orleans
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Hall left the band in 1978 to concentrate on both his solo career as well as his burgeoning interest in anti-nuclear activism. Not long after 1979’s Three Mile Island nuclear accident, Hall teamed with Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, and Bonnie Raitt to co-found MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy), a group advocating against the use of nuclear power. In September 1979, MUSE organized a series of five benefit shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden known as “No Nukes: The MUSE Concerts For A Non-Nuclear Future.” The event – documented by Asylum on an RIAA gold-certified triple album – saw performances from an array of top stars, including Hall, Browne, Nash, and Raitt as well as The Doobie Brothers, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Poco, James Taylor, Carly Simon, and famously, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. A full-length film of the concerts, also entitled No Nukes, was released in 1980.
Hall reunited briefly with Orleans after the 1984 death of drummer/percussionist Wells Kelly and still continues to perform occasionally with his former bandmates. In November 2006, the longtime local activist was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democratic congressman for New York’s 19th congressional district. He was re-elected in 2008.
Along with Hall’s post-Orleans success, drummer Jerry Marotta went on to enjoy a long career as a sought-after session drummer, with notable stints alongside Peter Gabriel, Hall & Oates, and The Indigo Girls.