Meeting
Gregor “Spike” Torrence and Jeff “Mad John” Benjamin met in August of 1984 when they were both given rooms on the same floor of Newsom Hall at Colorado State University. Both were computer science majors, and they quickly discovered a shared interest in electronic and New Wave music. After their first year in the dorms, where they met a small but substantial crowd of punks, new-wavers and other alternative types, they moved in to an apartment off-campus for the next three years.
Origin
The first co-hosted party was not a holiday gathering but was in March of 1985 in Spike’s dorm room. It featured alternative music, a crowd of people wearing leather jackets and studded dog collars with mohawks and shaved and/or blue hair (and that was just the girls!), and boxed wine. It was an unqualified success, and earned Spike and Mad John admiration from the other guys on the dorm floor.
After moving into their apartment in the fall of 1985, the duo decided to hold party before everyone left town for winter break. The date was set for the Saturday “the week before the last week of classes”, so as not to interfere with finals. That was the first Saturday in December, and established the party’s traditional date.
That party was successful as well, and prompted the two to hold parties at the same time the following two years.
The Name
During winter break of 1985, friends of the two jokingly invented nicknames for a number of people. Jeff was christened “Mad John” and Gregor was given the nickname “Spike”. Nobody thought much of it, until Jeff and Gregor started a weekly DJ dance show that spring at The Tap, a campus bar. They adopted the humorous nicknames as DJs, and “The Spike ‘n’ Mad John Show” was born. The name got attached to their party eventually as well.
Continuation
After the pair graduated in May 1988, Spike returned to his native Portland OR, and Mad John remained in Fort Collins. Mad John continued to host parties the first Saturday in December, although at the time there wasn’t any thought of keeping a tradition. However, numerous friends who had moved elsewhere in Colorado continued to come to Fort Collins for the parties, and Spike himself came to visit every other year. As more people decided to come visit every December to see old friends, Mad John’s Xmas party (named back to “Spike ‘n’ Mad John” when Gregor was in town) grew and even surpassed its former size.
Tradition
As the party moved past its first decade and more people began visiting from out of town, the event began to expand. Friends would meet in Denver the day before the party, and going out for a “Hangover Breakfast” the following morning. The 20th annual party featured a “Where Are They Now?” reunion concert featuring bands Mad John and his friends had played in back in college (Irön Lüng, The Porters, Great Caesar’s Ghost, Y-Translate/Newt Go Bang). The 25th annual party was a live performance of Jesus As An Ornament, a previously recorded-only band featuring Jeff and Lantz Barbour, that showcased Christmas Carols as done in the style of other bands. The 30th and 35th annual parties in 2014 and 2019 had Spike ‘n’ Mad John going back to their roots and spinning dance tunes on the floor so folks could “Dance Like It’s 1985”.
People now regularly fly in from around the country and the world to attend the Xmas Xtravaganza.