Charlie Taylor’s band, Mortimer Park, spent five months practicing “Miss You” by the Rolling Stones and “Valerie” by Amy Winehouse. They rehearsed three times a week in their
fraternity house, St. Elmo Hall, building set lists and steadily landing bookings. “Our own fraternity didn’t let us play for a while”—five months, precisely, Taylor said.
Taylor recalls, “One night, we were practicing in the house, and then the social chairs came down and said they were ready to let us perform.” Mortomer Park was ready for their Elmo premiere at the Wild West party that upcoming weekend.
College bands are alive everywhere, but their presence is special at the University of Virginia. Walter Blessing, a student at the University of Virginia, says, “bands absolutely amplify a party,” emphasizing that his fraternity, Zeta Psi, spends all their time meticulously booking
bands for their parties, often booking student bands, like Mortimer Park. While many UVA students play in bands, putting together one that is cohesive, musically skilled, and brings the right energy isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Charlie Taylor, a third-year student at the University of Virginia, took up the guitar after his father and started playing it during COVID, and struggled to put it down since. When he came to UVA, he wasn’t expecting to join a band, but a group of his fraternity brothers impulsively decided to start the band one night when they went out. They picked up their instruments, started playing, and didn’t think much of it.
When the band got organized in his freshman year spring, Taylor was thrown into the role of bass, given the fact that he was the youngest of the three who played guitar– luck of the draw.
However, according to Taylor, “The bass is way easier, so it comes after, it’s the same thing as the guitar but just the top strings,” so it wasn’t a huge adjustment for him. He graduated from playing bass when a new member, Jack Shaifer, joined this past September, allowing him to return to guitar and get back to his roots.
Alongside Taylor, there are six other band members: Marian (vocalist), Thad Felton (singer and guitarist), Ram Perez (guitarist), Jack Shaifer (bass), Max Makover (drums), and Henry Campbell (keys).
They chose the name “Mortimer Park” in honor of a former St. Elmo Hall member who died while serving in the British Royal Air Force. “It sounded like a band name,” Taylor added. Their basement features a plaque dedicated to him, making the name feel like a fitting tribute.
After bouncing off ideas amongst one another, Mortomer Park decided they’d play a mix of 90s rock, classic rock, grunge, and, according to Taylor, “all the classic songs every girl wants to hear.” Queue the Bruno Mars and Valerie.
Their first gig came from a connection of Felton, and they played at a Delta Upsilon parents’ formal at a winery outside of Charlottesville, VA. The other band members had experience performing in front of a crowd, but Taylor had to take a few shots backstage to prepare himself for getting up there for the first time.
Leading up to it, they practiced for one week, two hours a day, to really nail their 30-song set list. Taylor had the list on his iPhone wallpaper for easy access during the show. The gig went swimmingly, as Taylor recalls, “You just gotta commit to it.”
Taylor and the rest of Mortomer Park continued practicing outside their fraternity house following their premier gig, and kept getting the no from their social chairs. Once finally approved, it was time for the Wild West party.
They began rehearsing three nights a week for about two hours, building a repertoire of roughly 100 songs and curating set lists tailored to each party’s vibe.
For Taylor, his most memorable performance, which he also claims was one of the first they really crushed, was about a year into their career, when they performed two falls ago for their fraternity’s parents’ weekend “darty,” in 2024.
On a scorcher of a Saturday, there were three hundred people: parents, siblings, fraternity brothers, friends, the whole nine yards, packed into their fraternity backyard.
“I don’t really remember much of that one, I was just taking it all in, it was sick”, says Taylor. He even remembers looking out into the crowd and seeing his mom crying.
However, for Shaifer, one of the times Taylor’s personality really shone through his performance was during a darty in the fall. Taylor was overserved, missed a few chords, and his band members unplugged his amp.
Nonetheless, his friend, Adam Trubish, in the crowd, urged him to do a solo. Taylor took the guitar behind his back and between his legs, ripping into a “solo,” as if in an illusory state, unaware his amp had cut out.
Shaifer is a third-year student in SAE at UVA, who joined the band in September, after coming off of his own fraternity band, Boscobel. Shaifer joined in and took over the bass, but quite frankly, he claims, “I didn’t know what I was getting into.” That darty was his first gig with Mortomer Park.
This moment wasn’t just special for the band, but for every member of the audience. Malone Morchower, a student at the University of Virginia, remembers that party as a great kickstart to the school year, and it was the first time anyone had seen them all play together with their new members. Morchower exclaims, “Especially seeing Charlie perform was exciting because he’s our friend and he was up there doing his thing. He looked cool doing it.”
Taylor isn’t just a bandmate– to Blessing, he was also his second-year roommate, and, as he puts it, “everyone knows Charlie.” From an audience perspective, Taylor sits in the back corner of the stage on guitar, yet in between sets, according to Blessing, “he’s always talking and drinking with people in the corner– you almost forget he’s performing.”
Within Mortomer Park, Shaifer argues that Taylor is “the glue guy” and says there’s an underappreciation for a third guitar player, acknowledging that the bands had to change some of the songs since Taylor’s been abroad.
Shaifer also says, “We call him the ‘vibes guy,’ just kinda his energy before shows is always fun, and you can tell when something’s off when he’s not there.”
So far, Mortimer Park has played at least once every weekend this past fall, but this spring, they’ve been playing twice a weekend, in addition to traveling for gigs. They played at a gameday tailgate and parents’ formal in Athens, Georgia, in the fall, and played at the Miami of Ohio this past weekend. Shaifer says that these road trips, paired with pints at Trinity Irish Pub, have allowed the band’s bond to flourish.
The band is now beginning to wind down as some members graduate and move on. Taylor is adamant about continuing to play guitar purely for enjoyment rather than pursuing it professionally.
However, for reunion weekends, he thinks it would be a great idea to literally “get the band back together” and play for their fraternity, regardless of how rusty they could be– “A lot of the band thing is just being a vibe,” claims Taylor, “people gotta like you, and that’s it. You don’t necessarily need to be the best musician ever.”
Known among listeners for getting the crowd going and bringing a strong sense of energy, Mortomer Park doesn’t quite see itself the same way. In Taylor’s words, he humbly compares themselves to “a shitty garage band. It’s there, but it’s not anything to write home about.” But to the rest of us, it’s way more than that.
