The Tempests cut two great original instrumentals for the Dominion Records label of Salem, Virginia, just outside Roanoke.
Dewey Anderson wrote “Midnight” and Anderson – Gordon wrote “Count Down”. Other than the song writing credits, I can’t find any info on the group.
Released in 1961 on Dominion Records 1006 with SO 1064/5 and a Sheldon stamp in dead wax. Both songs published by Powhatan Music Company.
Any info on the group would be appreciated.
The Steps Beyond came from Rosebud, Texas, a small town east of Temple. The group cut one signle on Mark VII D-1021 in late 1967 or early 1968. Their version of “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” has a relaxed moodiness to it. The flip is an original song, “Go on Your Way, Girl”, by Holtman, Surovik, Holtman, published by Ramsgate Music.
One member of the Steps Beyond was James Holtman, and the other Holtman on the credits may have been his younger brother Tommy Holtman.
Surovik turns out to be Bruce William Surovik who drummed for Kenny & the Kasuals among others, and who passed away in November, 2006.
An April 11, 1968, a Rosebud News page profiling local teens notes James Michael Holtman “now plays second, or rhythm guitar, in the Steps Beyond, who, by the way, recorded a record a few months ago.”
However, almost a year before, in May of ’67, the Rosebud News wrote “Ray Welch, Alan Pelzel, Steve Slovacek and Fred Borden (The Steps Beyond) made the long trip to Lake Texoma last Saturday to play at a dance”.
To make things confusing, a clipping from April 4, 1968 includes Alan Pelzel and Fred Borden among a list of teens who went to hear the Steps Beyond at the Catacomb Teen Club in Cameron. So were Pelzel and Borden out of the band by the time the group recorded their single?
As Mikael points out in his comment below, it seems the Rosebud News made a mistake, and that Welch, Pelzel, Slovacek and Borden were actually in the Gestures, not the Steps Beyond. The only mention of the Gestures comes from a Waco paper, and I don’t believe they recorded.
The earliest mention of the Steps Beyond I can find is from March of ’67, when they play a “Hootenanny” at the Rosebud school gym with Roy Robinson and the Availables, C.J. and the Jewels and the Wullables, Ltd.
I can find several ads for other Steps Beyond appearances, including June 24, 1967 at the Westphalia Hall, at a Christmas Dance on December 23, 1967 on Main St., and on March 1 and 8, 1968 at the D. Brown Library.
If you have any photos or info on the Steps Beyond other local Texas bands of the ’60s, please comment below or contact me.
The Fugitives are a San Antonio band that recorded two singles. Their first, I believe, is “Louie Go Home” backed with an original by Fugitives guitarist David Fisher, “You Know She’s a Woman”, recorded at Alamo Audio and released in the spring of 1967 on Alamo Audio 45-108. “Louie Go Home” made #28 in KTSA’s Top 30 of May 6, 1967.
An article on teens working summer jobs profiled David Fisher as a guitar & banjo teacher at Platter Palace. I don’t know who else was in the group.
The Fugitives had a second single, also from 1967, “Till The End Of The Day” / “Ferry Cross The Mersey” that I haven’t heard yet. Produced by Fisher – Alexander for release on Roun Soun Records 69/70-FK, with the address 5506 Keystone, San Antonio. There was a Roun Soun label out of Houston, but that seems like a different company.
I found an ad for the Fugitives at a “Teen’s Day Dance” at the McCreless Shopping City on May 27, 1967 with the Spidels and Laughing Kind, and also a June ’67 “rock and roll show and dance” at Turner Hall in Yoakum, about 100 miles to the east of San Antonio, with DJ Ricci Ware and a few other bands: the Laughing Kind, the Configurations, the Mad Mods and the Burbons (Bourbons).
More info on the Fugitives or other local bands would be appreciated.
