By Tammy L. Carter

New hairdos? Check.
The perfect outfit? Check.
Fake press IDs? Check.
A lot of gumption? Check.

Ann Marie Portoghese, who was 14, and Linda Gumerson, who was 16, were ready to meet their favorite band, the Raspberries, during a concert at Rollins College on Nov. 9, 1974—even if they had to tell a fib.

What were they thinking?

"Youth has no fear, and we had no idea that we could get in trouble," Linda Gumerson Bravard of Jacksonville says today.

"I don't really know how we knew how to do it, but we created fake press identification cards—we 'worked' for Cream magazine—and we made all the necessary phone calls to secure backstage passes," says Ann Marie Portoghese Varga of Winter Park. "It was all very innocent."

Though the band's roadies knew the girls were fake reporters, they allowed them backstage. As the Raspberries—Eric Carmen, Wally Bryson, Jim Bonfanti and Dave Smalley—walked to the stage, Bravard kissed Carmen on his cheek. Varga gave Bryson, the one with the "dreamy eyes," a black hat with his nickname, Razz, spelled out in hand-sewn sequins.

The Lyman High School students had fallen in love with the band after hearing "Go All The Way" on the radio. Released in 1972, the record rose to No. 5 on the pop charts.

"They were what I expected them to be. They were cute, and I loved that pop sound," Bravard says, describing her impression of the "foxy dudes."

Varga, assistant vice president of public relations at Rollins, agrees. "The Raspberries were the heartthrobs. They were the ultimate." Victims of declining success and in-fighting, the Raspberries split in 1975, but Bravard and Varga continued to follow Carmen's and Bryson's solo careers.

They also bought the Raspberries' Collectors Series and Refreshed CDs.

"I still have their albums in a box in my garage," Varga says. "They are warped now. I would have to dig them out, but I still have them." Bravard followed the band through its Web site (Raspberries.net). In November, she read about a reunion concert in Cleveland, the band's hometown.

Now in their mid-40s, married with children, Varga and Bravard just had to see their favorite band perform together one more time. "It was almost 30 years from the first concert," Varga says. "We felt like it was meant to be."

But it almost wasn't. The Cleveland concert sold out in four minutes. A New Year's Eve concert, with tickets costing $100 each plus airfare and hotel rooms, was too expensive. They were about to give up when a Chicago concert was announced.

Everything fell into place. On Jan. 14, Bravard and Varga flew to the windy city. The next night, they sang along with the band.

"If you closed your eyes, it was just like they were" back at Rollins in 1974, Varga says.

"I'm still on a high," says Bravard, who works at Jacksonville University. "I never thought it was going to happen. Just the fact that they reunited is amazing."

These true-blue fans also had another chance to mingle with their idols after the show. This time, however, they went through the front door with legitimate IDs.

"I think they are really gracious people, and that was the fun," Varga says. Seeing the group again "wasn't about them being heartthrobs anymore. It really was just about friendship and memories and the music that defined our youth."

Orlando Sentinel / February 3, 2005