TOWAMENCIN- Nothing lasts forever. People gain and lose fame, trends come and go, people walk in and out of others’ lives. Glory is fleeting and it is a sad day when it is gone. The greatest victories could be followed by the greatest defeats. The happiest days followed by the saddest. Winning the talent show marked a great victory for beloved local band, Carl and the Hamiltones, but it was followed by a sad day.The next day, seniors Carl Hamilton, Zach Lavalla, Joey Urban, Antonio Magalhaes, Jimmy Dooling, and Braden Alderfer decided to go their separate ways.

Recently, Carl and the Hamiltones have gained fame throughout North Penn High School and throughout the community. They have played many gigs in the community, one being the Lansdale Farmers Market. This year they also entered and won the North Penn Talent Show.

Although the band seemed to be doing well, there were actually many tensions among the band members that erupted after their victory in the talent show. Even though they agreed that their performance was outstanding, they still believed that it was time to go their separate ways since there were so many disputes, rehearsals were getting out of hand, and there were clashing views on what the band should be.

“We broke up due to creative differences,” claimed Lavalla, the band’s bass player, “Joey, Braden, and Antonio wanted to do serious jazz, but Carl, Jimmy and I wanted to be a Nirvana cover band.”

This raised a huge issue since each band member had such a strong viewpoint on the matter.

“Nirvana’s music provides the challenge I was looking for, jazz was just too simple,” explained Hamilton.

Tensions also rose after Dooling decided that he wanted to pursue percussion instead of trumpet, but the rest of the band agreed that only one drummer was needed causing a feud between Hamilton and Dooling.

“The talent show inspired me to grow my hair out and become a full-time percussionist. The trumpet just isn’t musical enough for me,” Dooling stated.

The band also grew angry with Alderfer’s never ending pageant of girls distracting from rehearsal and putting a strain on the group. The band claimed that he was unfocused all the time and because of it their rehearsals were not as efficient as they used to be.

The band has agreed to put on one final show on top of North Penn High School before they dissolve the group just to thank everyone who supported them throughout their journey as a band.

“We have received so much support and encouragement from everyone and it wouldn’t be right to just end the band without one final show to thank them,” explained Hamilton.

“It’s sad, but this is the end of an era. It was awesome while it lasted, but we all started to develop different views and we will definitely thrive on our own. Probably not as a band anymore though,” stated Dooling. “I’m also thankful in a way since the fracture allowed me to pursue my true passion and the other members to do the same. We realized that we were just holding each other back.”