New York

Larry Russell recalled: "Our original name was The Loose Ends but, when we recorded Magnet on 9/8/66, our manager decided to change our name (that night) because there had been another band with the same name that had a record deal before us. On that day we recorded 4 songs, the other two besides the single were (It's A) Dirty Shame, which was going to be our follow-up single, and Pride, written by our producer and which, in our opinion, sucked."

United Artists released (Your Love is Like a) Magnet on its Ascot subsidiary in March of '67. The song was written by the lead singer Alan Turner, who also penned a fine b-side, I'm a Free Man that surprisingly has never been comped before. The 45 made local charts and gave the band the opportunity to appear on afternoon TV shows and open for bigger acts like the Box Tops and the Young Rascals. Dirty Shame would have been a great follow-up, but UA wasn't interested and it remained unreleased for over thirty years after the group broke up in 1968.

The Age of Reason - (Your Love is Like a) Magnet
The Age of Reason - I’m a Free Man
The Age of Reason - Dirty Shame

Thanks to Larry Russell for the photo and ad clipping.

The b-side of their last 45, "Don't Want Your Lovin'" is the toughest 45 song they cut, a crazed rave-up with plenty of furious strumming. The A-side, "Would You Believe Me" is fine too, though the transfer is from my VG- copy.

Songwriting credits go to John Ackert, Butch Loreto, Emery Ruger and Ed Gilroy, maybe the son of their manager, Bob Gilroy. Besides these four, another member of the bnad was Jimmy Marino, who I believe is listed on the card as Jay.

The Mark IV - Hey Girl (Won't You Listen)
The Mark IV - Don't Want Your Lovin'
The Mark IV - Would You Believe Me

There's a rumor that the Go-Betweens shared some members with a group called the Shades who had a release Cry Over You on Rapa in late '64 and an unconfirmed 45 (Nowhere Man/Malaguena) later on. Bobby Brancati recently produced a cd called Americana, but I have no other info.

The Go-Betweens - Have You For My Own
The Go-Betweens - Knock Knock

I grew up in Brooklyn (born 1949) and had my 1st band, The Bristols, in '65-6. We played about 6 gigs a month, school, church, temple dances, etc. (that being long before DJs), playing lots of Beatles, Stones, etc., and some of my tunes too. Our drummer, Mike Jacobs, was already playing sessions at 14- his father, Dick Jacobs, produced Jackie Wilson, Buddy Holly and many others. He got the Bristols in the Decca studios a few times, but wasn't able to get us a contract.

I went away to Harvard, and put a band together at the end of freshman year, and Mike (who was still in high school in Brooklyn) and his dad arranged for us to cut a demo of 2 new tunes of mine, which with their psychedelic/Jefferson Airplane influence, were a far cry from the tuneful Beatles/Stones kinda tunes I wrote for the Bristols.

Mike played drums, Jesse Miller, who had the longest hair at Harvard, played guitar, Rick Scheuer, bass, and Ken Kyle sang. I played organ. We cut the sides the summer of '67, got the record deal to record a 45 of those tunes, but never got it better than the original demos we had done, so that's what they released. Unfortunately, we never got to play live as a band, as Jesse, my best friend, left school for a year to join VISTA in Appalachia.

The record finally came out in summer '68, got some nice airplay locally, and that was the end of that. They edited out some more weird spacy sections for the record (I guess that was before Light My Fire made longer singles feasible). My next band at Harvard was the Revolutionary Music Collective, in which my sometimes Cliffie girlfriend Bonnie Raitt sang lead vocals. We played SDS parties, and did guerilla rave-ups.

Anyway, in brief, I moved to Manhattan, played with Phillip Glass from '72-4, then played and wrote salsa (Tito Puente, Machito), gospel (5 Blind Boys), and R&B until I began working with theater director Lee Breuer, with whom I wrote The Gospel at Colonus for BAM in 1983, my 1st opportunity to get my music out into the world. Which led to other possibilities in theater and film (Bagdad Cafe being the most known). I've been living in Buenos Aires with my Argentine wife the last 4 years, and we just finished our 1st CD together (Isabel de Sebastian & Bob Telson; "TRIP").

Groundspeeed - In a Dream
Groundspeeed - L-12 East

The Primates - Knock on my Door
The Primates - She
The Primates - Don't Press Your Luck
The Primates - Cathy

Their guitarist Howard G. Salada ("Butch") was stationed at Kagnew Station, a U.S. military base in Asmara, Ethiopia (now Eritrea) in 1966-67.

On a Kagnew veteran's website he wrote "I played in several bands at the Top 5 and the Oasis [nightclubs on the base] as well as a few of the clubs downtown. First with the Counts, then the Mauroks and then the Remains. We had a good time. The Mauroks joined together again in '68 in NYC and made an attempt at the BIG time. The other members of the group were: Larry Keiser (linguist), Tom 'Tuck' Kaup (Navy) & Vic D'Amore. Bobby Ward, who was there before me also joined us in NY. Our first drummer was a Navy guy called Willy. The only one I've kept in touch with was Tuck. The others are lost in America. Maybe someone knows where they are?"

Howard's own email address as given on the site is now defunct so I haven't been able to contact him directly.

The Mauroks - Susan

l-r: Tony from Asmara on sax, Lauren 'Larry' Keiser going wild on the keyboards, Daniel Pomerleou on guitar, unknown playing the tambourine, Howard 'Butch' Salada playing the left-handed Gibson SG guitar, and Al Trautman is playing bass in the striped shirt on the far right.



Willy is on drums in the back.

Al Trautman played bass guitar for the Counts. He writes:

I heard Jerry Lee Lewis on the Steve allen Show, told Grandmaw that I wanted to play piano and she GAVE me the upright in her living room. Dad put the piano in the shed (was working midnights) and 3 months later the Del Royals were driving down John Lewis Road, heard me and hired me on the spot.

I joined the USAF the day JFK was assassinated. When I got to Asmara, I had the bass guitar and a GOOD amplifier. Larry auditioned me and the following week I was playing. It beat the Nam thing, that is sure.

The guys were GOOD people, great musicians. I was MORE in the Fats Domino/Lil' Richard/Jerry Lee Lewis vein BUT doing the Beatles, England thing was what the Mauroks was all about.

I volunteered for Asmara, did 6 months and stayed messed up with the VERY cheap beer that was so popular there. Tuck came in right about then, used the bass system and I went back to Turner AFB.

Danny (don't remember the LAST name) was a great guitarist. Butch has a good technique.

Nov. 22, 1967 I got out, got married to a high-school sweet-heart from the pass and have been married to her 35 years. Damned, how time flies, God bless, please keep in touch...AL

Nowadays Al is busy fixing up his home after Hurricane Rita hit in 2005 and is back to playing his first instrument, the piano. More photos of the Counts and Mauroks are available on the Kagnew Station website.

Thanks to Dirk Sermeels of Belgium for alerting me to the Kagnew Station site.