Byline: Doug Moe

BEFORE MIKE Riegel died in February, in those days when he was able to say good-bye to friends who visited, knowing his cancer had worsened, the man better known as Dr. Bop said he didn't want any kind of memorial service.

What he got instead, in the upstairs room of the campus Nitty Gritty Saturday night, was beautiful.

"He would have loved it," Gritty owner Marsh Shapiro was saying Tuesday. "It was a happening."

Riegel was the founder and soul of the greatest bar band ever to come out of Madison. Dr. Bop and the Headliners burst on the local scene with some early-1970s performances at the Gritty, though the city could not contain them for long. Their high-energy retro-'50s rock 'n' roll proved irresistible to audiences from Los Angeles (where they had a six-night run at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go) to Boston (where they recorded a live album at Lucifer's).

The original band broke up around 1978, but it survived in some incarnation into the 1990s, with Riegel and bass player Ned Engelhart the holdovers.

Saturday night, Engelhart and the other original members - Ken Champion, Al Craven, Bob Kenison - gathered at the Gritty with other band members, close friends and fans to remember Riegel. The room was decorated...