Category Archives: Illinois

Categories: Chicago, Den Ric, Illinois, Lemont

Enchanters IV

August 11, 2010 Chris Bishop 13 Comments

Updated January/February 2011

The Enchanters IV (also known as the Enchanters 4 or Enchanters Four) came from Lemont, Illinois, a half-hour’s drive southwest of downtown Chicago.

The band included Bill Shedosky (guitar), Norb ‘Butch’ Polvalish (drums), Drew Hoinacki (organ, guitar and vocals) and Dick Baranowski (bass).

The A-side of their first 45 is “I Don’t Know”, a good pop vocal ballad enlivened with surf-type reverb on the guitars. The flip “Like Tuff” is an incredible rocker, with the guitar line so strong it’s hard to believe this isn’t from twenty or thirty years after its original release date of 1964.

All four members wrote “Like Tuff” and Bill Shedosky wrote “I Don’t Know”.

This release was on Den Ric, a label owned by local jazz drummer Ellis “Stukey” Stukenberg who named it after his two sons, as Sue Shedosky-Apgar comments below. Ellis Stukey had put out his own 45 on DenRic a few years earlier, in 1961 (see Davie Gordon’s comment below). Ellis was friends with with Bill Shedosky’s father, Ed “Smitty” Shedosky, a jazz trumpeter with the Vaughn Monroe and Dick Schory orchestras, which may be why he revived his label for the Enchanters 4.

I originally thought there might be a connection between Den Ric (also given as DenRic) and the Den-Lay label that released a 45 by the Cobblestones which was reissued on Mobie, but that seems unlikely.

The band had a second release, this time as the Enchanters IV, featuring a very different sound on “Lost You”, another original by B. Shedosky. I haven’t heard the flip, a version of “Route 66”.

Bill Shedosky passed away in 2003.

Additional info on Ed Shedosky is at the Vaughn Monroe Society.

Dick Baranowski wrote to me about the group:

This is being submitted by Dick Baranowski, the bass player of The Enchanters IV. To the best of the ability of my memory, these are just some anecdotes of the life of our band.
Originally we were just The Enchanters and we consisted of Butch Povalish, an organist Ed Misenbach, a guitarist Stan Forzley and I. At that time we actually had two guitarists rather then one guitar and a bass. Ed was a polished organist who played an organ that needed a U-haul trailer to carry around to every gig and Butch was a drummer that had taken lesson for quite some time prior to us getting together. Stan and I were more your “learn to play on your own types who lived close to each other. In fact, I actually got the bug to play from Stan. We played all instrumentals at that time since none of us were really singers.
I’m not really sure how long we played together, but eventually I believe that Ed (who was older then the rest of us) went into the service (this is the sixties). So Butch knew a couple of guys who could fit right in and could even sing, so it seemed to be a great match. Along came Bill and Drew. Again, I believe that both Bill and Drew had taken lessons and on top of that Bill’s dad was a trumpet player with some big names in the Chicago area. So the five of us started practicing and playing locally whenever and wherever we could.
Again Uncle Sam intervened and Stan (who was also older then the rest of us) went into the service. I believe it was at that time that we changed to the Enchanters IV (obviously since we now only had four musicians). We still had three guitarists and a drummer, so at that point we decided that we needed to have one of us switch to bass for a more realistic sound. I’m sure I was the obvious choice since I had no formal training and a lot of what I was doing could be easily transferred to the bass. Drew also had talent at the keyboard, so we added that option on some songs to start with and then as time went by I believed he ended up playing more on the organ then the guitar. And thus the “sound” of The Enchanters IV was born.
I think we all started out with non-name equipment (except Butch’s drums) and eventually ended up with a Fender Bass, Gretsch, Gibson, Rickenbacker guitars, Fender and Vox amps. Bill also had an Echo PA system which had an internal tape to create reverb and echo. I really thought it was ahead of it’s time and it did give us a different sound on stage. The 12 string Rickenbacker is very evident on the second release “Lost You”.
Our venues started out as high school dances and evolved to college parties, teen clubs, weddings, bar mitzvah’s, debutante parties, Dick Clark’s Battle of the Bands, pretty much anything that had entertainment like corporate parties in downtown Chicago. Bill’s dad became our manager, which worked out great since he had a lot of contacts in Chicago already. We got hooked up with several agencies that booked us almost every weekend, and some weekends even more then one gig a day.
I think the big outdoor personal parties in the north suburbs of Chicago and the parties in the big hotels downtown Chicago we loved the best. We would normally be booked along with a big band and would rotate playing time with them. We’d be on for half an hour to play for the younger crowd and then the big band would play for the older crowd. It was great pay and limited playing time.
We had some favorite places to play, probably the local venues around Lemont because we knew a lot of the crowd, but it was always great to meet new people and win them over with your music. One of my favorite places was Western Illinois University. My older brother was attending college there and I think he took some of our records (I Don’t Know) to the local on campus radio station. I guess as soon as they started playing our record it became the most requested song at the station. So he easily got the commissary to put one of the records on the campus juke box and again it became the record played over and over again. I Don’t Know (pun intended) if you’re familiar with the movie That Thing You Do with Tom Hanks, but I can really relate, as the band did on the movie, that when you hear your music for the first time being played on a local radio station or in some juke box at a bar or in a school, the feeling is just overwhelming. I can’t thank my brother enough for getting us hook up with the school. We went there for several weekends and played every night to packed crowds.

Bill Shedosky and Dick Baranowski of the Enchanters IV — Bill Shedosky and Dick Baranowski “That [amp] was a Vox and I actually used it for my bass, which I’m sure was a little unusual.”

We also played some military gigs, I believe the Naval station in northern Illinois and a couple of military balls in Chicago hotel ballrooms. I gave up a lot of social activities and sports to play in the band, which required a lot of time between practice and playing, but I’d be hard pressed to say I missed anything because we had fun every night we played. Thinking about it now, I can’t remember any night that we had a bad time. I think our biggest asset was our ability to get people to dance. The dance floor was always full and people were always havin’ fun, and that’s what it was all about.
We had a lot of different outfits and always matched when we played. We had Neru (collarless for those of you under 55) jackets, double breasted pin striped suites, Tom Jones outfits (puffy sleeve white shirts and white jeans) and a series of embroidered tuxedo jackets. We played a lot of the downtown hotels in Chicago and pretty much always had a tux on for them. I think that said a lot about the band in that we were committed to each other and our music.
We did have two studio recording sessions, the first one was on the Denric label, which I believe was owned by a friend of Bill’s dad. The A side was “I Don’t Know”, written and arranged by Bill and the B side was a collaboration of the band as a warm-up instrumental when we practiced. It is a piece that easily showcases Butch’s talent as an outstanding drummer. Unfortunately, Bill and Butch are no longer with us, but I will always remember the great times we had.
The B side of “Lost You” was a cover of the original “Route 66”. It’s a long story, but it didn’t really come out like we would have wanted. Bill’s dad handled all of the details on both recording sessions so I’m not really up on it, although I do believe we paid for the first one because we used to sell copies of the “I Don’t Know” / “Like Tuff” record wherever we played. I think the second session was taken care of by the people who produced it and they had some strange idea to have Drew (back up singer) use a falsetto voice for the back up and we didn’t think much of it. Also, “Lost You” was a little too fast, but obviously sounds completely like a British invasion band (probably the 12 string Rick’ that Bill had). I think that if we would have been in control of it, it would have come out a lot better. Bill was very talented in putting things together. In the second session we actually recorded about 6 songs if I remember right and they were put on a one sided demo LP (only one copy that I know of). I wish I knew what happened to it (or maybe the tape is still alive?), because I can’t remember what else we recorded. It was some kind of demo disk because it was only good for so many plays.
I would call us a R&B 60’s cover band. I think most of our songs were R&B classics like “Mustang Sally”, “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”, “Have Mercy”, “My Girl”, “Grapevine”, etc. Every night we would play what we called our Soul Medley. It was an arrangement which Bill put together that ran six or eight soul songs together seamlessly, taking the tempo up and down without missing a beat. It was probably the best part of every night. The only thing I wish I could change is to have some video of the band from the 60’s. I did actually make an old reel to reel recording at a basement practice session once, but you have to remember that was the 60’s. At one point it got transferred to an 8 track (yes an 8 track) and then from the 8 track to a cassette. Unfortunately, I don’t know (the pun again) what happened to the reel, but I do have the 8 track and the cassette. The quality is pretty poor since I was trying to play and do the engineering at the same time, but it still brings back some memories. I also wonder what happened to my sequined tuxedo’s. I know they wouldn’t fit, but the grandkids might get a kick out of them..
Dick Baranowski, 2011

Thank you to Ken Price for the Den Ric scans and alerting me to this great band, and to Mop Top Mike for the Mal scan and info. Special thanks to Dick Baranowski for the photos, clippings and additional info about the band.

Categories: Chicago, Illinois, Oak Park

The Medallions and the Faded Blue

December 29, 2009 Chris Bishop 29 Comments

The Medallions cut this one 45 on the excellently-named Warped Records, then split up, as far as I know.

“Leave Me Alone” is a tough number, heavy on the tambourine and group vocals. It was written by Ralph Mullin. The flip is “She’ll Break Your Heart”, a Buddy Holly-type ballad written by Byron Penn. Virian J. Wadford produced the 45.

It turns out this group was from Oak Park, Illinois, not Wisconsin as I originally thought, though there was another Medallions from Wisconsin. Members were:

Bill Pappas – lead guitar
Lennie Pigoni – rhythm guitar
Byron Penn – keyboards
Ralph Mullin – bass
Tom Lloyd – drums

I did receive an email from someone who did not give her/his name:

My brother Tom Lloyd was the drummer in the group. The other members were Byron Penn, Ralph Mullens, Len Pagoni, and Bill Pappas. They did only make that one record that you mentioned. It was unfortunately, the draft that broke up the band. Tommy and Len were drafted into the army on the same day. When they returned from the service the guys had gone their separate ways. Byron had moved to Florida for a while, Len got married and Ralph and Bill just lost touch. Sadly, Tommy, Byron and Lenny are all deceased. They sure made some great music in their day, and kept a lot of Oak Park kids dancing!

Ralph Mullin is apparently the same person who appeared in two of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ late ’60s films. In Blast-Off Girls, from ’67, he’s part of a band called the Big Blast. The band was a real group whose name was actually the Faded Blue, a much cooler moniker if you ask me. The Faded Blue’s members were Tom Tyrell, Ron Liace, Dennis Hickey, Ralph Mullin and Chris Wolski.

Blast-Off Girls actually features two interesting bands, first ‘Charlie’ who are shown in the opening credits and scenes doing a song that might be titled “A Bad Day”. ‘Charlie’ consisted of Steve White, Tom Eppolito, Bob Compton, Ray Barry and Tony Sorci.

In the film’s plot, sleazy promoter Boojie Baker rips them off, so the band quits. Boojie finds the Big Blast to replace them at a club called the Mother Blues, and they’re featured through the rest of the film. Stylistically the Big Blast / Faded Blue are a little more sophisticated than Charlie, showing some folk and psychedelic influences while Charlie are a straight rock n’ roll garage band. The Big Blast release a record in the movie, but so far no one’s found a 45 by the Faded Blue.

In another Lewis movie, 1968’s Just for the Hell of It Ralph Mullin has the role of Lummox, one of the gang who tears up the club in one scene.

The band in the foreground of the credits is not the Big Blast (the Faded Blue), but ‘Charlie’, the more primitive garage group that quits the gig and is replaced by the Big Blast.

This turns out to be one of the more awkward cameos in movie history

Charlie mocking Boojie Baker

The Mother Blues Club, where Boojie discovers the Big Blast – was this a real club?

Ralph Mullin of the Big Blast / Faded Blue

Guitarist for the Big Blast / Faded Blue

Bassist for the Big Blast / Faded Blue

Keyboard player for the Big Blast / Faded Blue

The Big Blast in the studio

The Big Blast’s 45, Marvelous Noise!

The Big Blast blowing off their big career opportunity!

Categories: Chicago, Illinois, Mobie, Rockford

The Chy Guys and Mobie Records discography

October 11, 2009 Chris Bishop 20 Comments

Mobie Record Company letter — “If it’s on Mobie, you know it’s a wailer!”

Glenn Tracey sent in these cool promo sheets and transfers of a 45 by the Chy Guys.

The letter lists the members: Jerry Conley, 15, leader and singer; Stan Allen, 13, lead guitarist; Chuck Burgess, 13, rhythm guitarist; and Bob Lindgren, 12, drummer. I’ve read the band was from Rockford, IL, about an hour’s drive northwest of Chicago, though that wouldn’t go with their band name (Chy referring to Chicago).

The band went to MBS Recording Studios in Chicago to record demos of their songs, and the tape led to their signing by James Manning, Jr. of the Mobie Record Company. The letter doesn’t clarify if the band did a new session for their Mobie 45, or if the songs cut at the demo were used. J.H. Manning, Jr. is also listed as producer, but he didn’t seem to notice the imprecise nature of the band’s stops and starts during “Say Mama”, not to mention their tuning.

The top side, “You’ll Never Believe Me” was written by J. Weiss, and while I don’t think it’s an original by the band I don’t know the source for it.

“Say Mama” was an oft covered song since the original cut by Gene Vincent in the ’50s., with versions by Mike Waggoner, the Dicers and others, sometimes under the title “Hey Mama”. It’s hard to know if the Chy Guys were covering the Vincent original, or perhaps the Pattens of Wheaton, IL, who released their version as “Say Ma, Ma” also in 1966.

The promo schedules the release of their 45 on September 30, 1966, on Mobie 3423. They apparently played shows in Illinois, Ohio and even as far as Huntington, West Virginia at that young age.

Though this is a white-label DJ promo, I’ve also seen both blue and black label stock copies of this 45. The other releases on the Mobie label that I’ve heard are two by Bloomington, Indiana Illinois’s Cobblestones: Mobie 3424 “I’ll Hide My Head in the Sand” (written by Jim Jacobs) / “It Happens Every Time” (both written by Jim Jacobs and produced by Wayne Dennis, originally released on Den-Lay) and Mobie 3425 “Flower People” (written by Pearson – Lehmann) / “Down With It” (written by Pearson – McElroy).

Here’s an extensive but still incomplete Mobie discography from Gary E. Myers with additions from Davie Gordon, Chris Gilbert and Margaret Still.

Any help with this would be appreciated:

Mobie – owned by James H. Manning, Jr. (5/?/34; Normal, IL – 11/8/91; Largo, FL)

3419 Ron Jones & C Notes – Goodbye Linda (R. Shemberger) / Why (1966)
3420
3421 Ronnie Jones – Silly Little Fool / Little Jezebel (1967)
3422
3423 Chy Guys – Say Mama / You’ll Never Believe Me (9/67)
3424 Cobblestones – It Happens Every Time / I’ll Hide My Head In The Sand (1967)
3425 Cobblestones – Flower People / Down With It (11/67)
3426
3427
3428
3429 Iron Gate – Get Ready / You Must Believe Me (1968)
3430 Ravelles – Psychedelic Movement / She’s Forever On My Mind (8/68)
3431
3432 Shirt Tale Relation – The Reason Why (Bobby Sharp) / You Don’t Know Like I Know
3433 Summit – How You Move My Soul / Oh, What Can I Do (1968)
3434
3435 Skip Wulf – Soul Lovin’ Baby / Summer Love (1968)
3436 Deanna & The Here & Now Singers – Isolation / Attic Of My Mind (both songs credited to D. Edwards)

3419, 3421: Ron Jones (2/15/43; Davenport, IA) was DJ on Chicago oldies 104.3, had 2 earlier releases on Aurora.

James Manning also wrote a children’s Christmas book.

Thanks to C. Gilbert for the scan of the Shirt Tale Relation 45.

Categories: Centralia, Illinois, KB Records

The Livin’ End

September 16, 2009 Chris Bishop 6 Comments

Centralia, Illinois, about 70 miles east of St. Louis was the base for KB Records. The label usually released country and show-band records. I’m not sure if the Livin’ End was also from that town, but the back of the sleeve has a blurb written by Larry Watts at AM station WILY, also in Centralia, and lists the band members as:

Dave Timmerman (organ)
Mark Warnecke (lead guitar)
Marv Markus (rhythm guitar)
Joe Vander Pluym (bass)
Les Loux (drums)

The A-side has a slow, sludgy cover of the Animals “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”. Luckily the flip is a great original song, “But I’ll Live”.

The sound is sparse at first with drums in the background and a chugging bass line, while the organ carries the melody. I don’t hear any rhythm guitar on the track, but the lead guitar is fantastic, breaking in after verses with bluesy licks in a wailing, sustained sound. “But I’ll Live” is credited on the label to Dave Timmermann (sic), but the sleeve notes also say Joe Vander Pluym had a hand in it.

I have a copy of the record which is scarce enough, but the picture sleeve seems to be almost non-existent. Release date came after May, 1968.

The Livin'End KB Records PS back — back of the sleeve

Categories: AMG, Chicago, Illinois, Palatine

Peter and the Wolves and Synod

July 13, 2009 Chris Bishop 2 Comments

Craig Rutz wrote to me about his first group, Peter and the Wolves, which evolved into Synod:

My brother and I started Peter and the Wolves during my freshman year of high school (summer and fall of 1965) in Palatine, Illinois. We were one of the thousands of bands inspired by the Beatles. The members of Peter and the Wolves included Doug May (now the leader of Yard Fulla Cars), LeRoy (Buddy) Rogers, my brother Glenn Rutz and me.

My father worked for the Chicago Tribune and would take the train home every day from the city to Palatine. He often walked a mile and a half from the station. I was practicing my parts on my Harmony Hollywood guitar through my Kay 5-watt amplifier with one 6-inch speaker (I still have that amp) in the garage where our band sometimes practiced. My father walked through the garage on his way into the house and told me to “turn that thing down! I could hear you all the way from the train station!” I don’t think you could hear me playing that distance today using my Fender Twin or my Marshall, but I always remembered that little experience proudly. I felt like a rock star.

I used 3×5 cards to write down every practice and every performance we had, the dates, even what songs we did. And I still have those cards all these years later. I regret to say Peter and the Wolves never recorded anything. There are some rough tapes of us writing songs, and somewhere there’s at least one recording of us performing, but so far I haven’t been able to get my hands on anything that I could copy. Those were real garage band days.

As the band fizzled a couple of years later, my father actually co-signed a loan so I could buy my first professional guitar, a 1968 Gretsch Tennessean (which I also still have). In those days, the local music store (Olsen’s Music) would let a 14-year-old kid buy a top-of-the line guitar. Olsen’s kept a little box of note cards by the cash register and one would come in every week with some kind of payment, which was written down on the card, until the loan was paid. No interest, either. Just a promise to pay. In my case, I got a job at Burger King and I took in $10 or $20 each week for nearly a year.

When I went to college (Concordia University Chicago) I brought my Tennessean and Sears Silvertone amp with me. I played whenever I had the chance and even borrowed an acoustic guitar to play at a couple of protest rallies. In addition to the anti-Vietnam War movement, it was the time of the first real Jesus-movement of my era. There was a Wednesday night “folk service” at the college, and eventually I had an opportunity to play guitar with half a dozen other students. I didn’t own an acoustic guitar, so I brought my Tennessean and Silvertone. I started throwing in rock and roll lead guitar parts from Chuck Berry, the Beatles and The Beach Boys, and that made people laugh, so I did it more, and we suddenly became The Chapel Band.The Wednesday services got so big they had to move us to larger and larger spaces. At one point, they stopped the services because the couple hundred college kids were causing the floor of the cafeteria to bow. The services were popular and a lot of fun, and of course we wrote our own songs. Later that year the college sent us out for our Easter break to tour Midwest churches as ambassadors for the school. We had a great time, but people kept asking if we could also play for dances. That led us to start Synod, built around John Strege on keyboards, Paul Rogner as lead vocalist and me.

Synod’s first performance was at Concordia’s Spring Arts Festival on April 29, 1971. We’ve been together ever since. There were a few personnel changes, particularly in the first two years, but John, Paul and I have been in it the whole time. The first incarnation included Paul Sautter on guitar, Jack Giles on bass and Harv Mahavolic on drums. Scott King, later mayor of Gary, Indiana, became our bass player for the second performance, but less than a year later Sautter, King and Mahavolic left to start another band and we were joined by two other students, Brad Roche and Kim Kolander. We did some recording with that band, most notably a 9-song collection called “Sent to Reconcile.”

During the couple of years this 6-man version of the band was together we played constantly. We did some very long club dates in Clinton, Iowa and Branson, Missouri (before it became the Branson of today). We had great vocals, in part due to the influence of one of my favorite bands, The Association. One of our cover songs was a hit titled, “White Lies, Blue Eyes.” Along the way we auditioned for an agency called Gary Van Zeeland Talent from Little Chute, Wisconsin, not knowing they represented Bullet, the band that recorded “White Lies, Blue Eyes.” The A&R guy who auditioned us said we were the best band he’d ever seen and that we did “White Lies” much better than their flagship band, Bullet. They offered us a generous contract, and we thought we were on our way, but our drummer, Kim, announced several weeks later that he was quitting to get married. Because of that, Brad and Jack decided to call it quits. But John, Paul and I kept going.

I taught Paul to play bass, and we bought a Fender bass from our former bass player Scott King, and my brother, Glenn, joined us. We actually did some Peter and the Wolves songs, a few of which made it to recordings. Eventually, our part-time roadie, Bob Krueger, became a member of the band.

During the 1970s, Synod did a lot of writing and recording. We had a self-taught manager named Randy Schnack, who stayed with us about 15 years, and we went through a series of booking agents. We toured in 12 different states and performed at National Entertainment Conference showcases, Chicagofest, Summerfest, and dozens of universities, high schools, park districts and clubs.

We have always been primarily a dance band. That’s our preference, anyway. But on one tour of the college circuit we arrived in Houghton, Michigan to play a job and were surprised to see a stage the size of a lot of rooms we played. The university gym was set up with a thousand chairs, and we realized were about to do an unexpected concert. We’d done plenty of concerts before, but usually with some additional planning. The show went off alright, but during the intermission an organizer of the event came backstage to tell us how great we were, but couldn’t we turn up the volume and the lighting? We were on 10. When we got to the hotel that night we called our manager and said, “We’ll be home in 10 days. Buy us a truck.” When we got back, Randy had a new Chevy box truck, and we immediately filled it with gear. We eventually were traveling with two 16-channel sound boards (synched by the manufacturer, Acoustic Systems, for us) in stereo and bi-amped. We had 16 15-inch speakers and four splayed horns with an array of tweeters. We also put together a system of theater lighting using fresnels and ellipsoidal lamps, and even follow spots. At our level, nobody we ran into had the gear and show we had.

One of the agents we worked through, Ken Freeman, got us a record offer from Capitol. Around the same time we also had an offer from Mercury Records. It was a turning point for us, similar to the offer we had from Gary Van Zeeland. Both labels said they loved our original songs and our performance, both wanted to record our songs, but one said they wanted to use other singers (although it would be under our name and we’d still perform live) and another said they wanted to use studio instrumentalists on the records. That was and is a common practice, but it isn’t what we wanted, so we passed. Up until that time, we were working on the staff of Concordia University, but by 1982 I decided to take a job with the local police department.

We all took real jobs, but we kept Synod going. We travel less, and none of us are any good at booking so we play a lot less. But we practice all the time, perform whenever and wherever we can, and someday…. We’ve put together a little web site with a few sound samples at www.synodband.com

Craig Rutz, 2009

Categories: Chicago, Cody, Illinois

The Tills on Cody

April 26, 2009 Chris Bishop 6 Comments

The Tills under their new band name, the Yankee Clipper. Clockwise from left: Paul Strasser, Bob Kruse, Bob Fawcett, Ray Jacobs, and Nick Nizich in front center.

Tom Cleary, one of the owners of the Cody label in Chicago sent me these scans of the Tills 45. Tom writes about the Tills:

“A southwest side Chicago group Cody recorded in 1967 at Sound Studios. I met them at a performance and turned the recording element over to my partners. Stu Black, Chicago’s preeminent sound engineer of the day ran the session. They had limited play on radio station WCFL in Chicago. It exists as a DJ copy only.”

Both sides are fantastic upbeat pop. ”One Sided Love” has a siren-like guitar riff, good harmonies, and sharp drumming. “I Remember” is similar with fine vocal arrangements and a very Byrds-like guitar solo.

Either side could have been a hit with a little luck.

I knew nothing else about the group until Bob Kruse commented below. Then in 2021 Ray Jacobs sent in the promotional photo and holiday card seen here, with the band’s new name, the Yankee Clipper.

Members were:
Paul Strasser – vocals
Ray Jacobs – lead guitar
Bob Kruse – rhythm guitar
Bob Fawcett – bass
Nick Nizich – drums

Ray Jacobs wrote to me:

Started playing along with Bob Kruse in High School rehearsing in his basement 1963/64. A few months later added Bob Fawcett [and] a few drummers that didn’t work out. Paul Strasser then joined the band followed by Nick Nizich.
Bob Fawcett linked us to a manager to book the band and later named the band the Tills, which no-one really liked. We were previously known as The Chosen Few, and the Ragged Edge.
I wrote the songs (copyrighted) as we needed to start moving away from being a cover band. The manager linked us to the people in Cody. We met at a home in Riverside and eventually booked a session at sound studios and got some play on WCFL.
Tills played at various teen clubs i.e. InnMotion, Green Gorilla, The Deep End (Papa Joes) and various school dances, battle-of-the-bands and night clubs in the Chicagoland area and Michigan. [The] band changed its name to Yankee Clipper as advised by manager Michael Degaetano.
Holiday card sent out by Yankee Clipper
Later, personnel left and changed things to the point of breaking up.
I went on to playing Rush Street (thanks to Nick) and various clubs with bands known as Chicago Choir and Rooster. We played throughout Chicago, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan ending in 1987.
Paul went to Colorado. I heard Nick went to Arizona. I know Bob Fawcett was into flying planes as he attended Butler aviation.
Last time I saw Bob Kruse and Nick was in a club called Let It Be on 83rd and Wood, 1970, where they came to see us as the Chicago Choir.

Thanks to Tom for sharing his memories of the Tills and scans of their 45. Special thank you to Bob Kruse for his comments, and to Ray Jacobs for contacting me.

Yankee Clipper holiday card with Ted Augustyn listed as member

Categories: Feature, Illinois, Janesville, Rampro, Rock Falls, Sterling, Wisconsin

The Inspirations and the 13th Precinct

October 28, 2008 Chris Bishop 48 Comments

The Inpirations, from left: Mike Murphy, Keith Newell, Bruce Jensen, Kenny Newell and Dennis Milby

Updated February 2011 with info from comments below and Gary E. Myers book On That Wisconsin Beat

The original lineup of the Inspirations included Keith Newell on guitar, his identical twin Ken Newell on bass, Dennis Milby on drums and Michael Murphy on keyboards. The band was from Rock Falls and Sterling, Illinois, two hours drive west of Chicago.

Bruce Jensen joined on guitar by the time of their 45 on the Feature label. At some point the Newell brothers left the band and Don Dowd came in on bass.

Both songs on their August, 1966 single were written by Jensen and Murphy, with (I believe) Murphy singing lead vocals. “That Girl” has a brittle guitar sound and a loping bass line, with good lead and backing vocals. The organ takes a fine, trebly solo before the last chorus. “Baby Please Come Home” has a moodier sound that works well.

This is possibly the Inspirations without the Newell brothers. Top left is Keith Pratt and bottom right with drum sticks is Steve King. Any help identifying the other members would be appreciated.

Feature Records was owned by Ken Adamany, a legend in the Madison area. Janesville, Wisconsin is about 25 miles southeast of Madison, just short of the Illinois border. Adamany also ran Rampro Records, then became a major promoter of bands in lower Wisconsin and owner of the Factory club in Madison, but he’s best known now as the first manager of Cheap Trick. In an interview with the band back in the 70’s, Rolling Stone described him as “the son of Lebanese immigrants …. a slight, swarthy fellow … with the cool, disinterested air of a camel trader.” Nice profiling RS!

Ken had himself played in a band callled the Nigh Tranes who had one release, “Hangover” (aka “Swamp Fever” / “Rockin’ Abe” on Cuca. That band included Boz Scaggs, Tim Davis, Ben Sidran and Steve Miller in later lineups (as the Ardells?).

The 13th Precinct from left: Mike Murphy, Bruce Jensen, Down Dowd and Tom Kurtz

In 1967 the group changed it’s name to the 13th Precinct, with a lineup of Mike Murphy, Bruce Jensen, Don Dowd and Dennis Milby, and cut some demos in Chicago.

Gary Myers wrote in On That Wisconsin Beat, “These caught the ear of New York producer Paul Tannen who took them to Nashville for sessions that resulted in the TRX release [“Junk Yard” / “You Gotta Be Mine”, January, 1968]. The 13th Precinct worked often in Oshkosh and Appleton, and as the house band at The Barn outside Sterling. Drummer Dennis Milby was forced to leave with an injury shortly before the band appeared on ABC-TV’s Happening ’68 with Paul Revere & the Raiders in Los Angeles.”

Michael Bryan Murphy left the band in 1969 to join the One-Eyed Jacks in Champaign, Illinois, and then went on to sang with REO Speedwagon on their third, fourth and fifth albums.

Tom Kurtz replaced Dennis Milby on drums, and then Tim Dowd joined on guitar and vocals as the 13th Precinct continued into the 1970s.

Thank you to Kevin McLaughlin for the top photo and to Heidi Dowd for the second photo.

Sources include: Gary E. Myers book On That Wisconsin Beat, the FolkLib Index and Like a Rolling Stone: Why Madison’s Music Scene Is Slightly Discordant.

Categories: Chicago, Illinois, Thor, Wilmette

The Fourgathering “You’re Mean to Me”

September 24, 2008 Chris Bishop 1 Comment

The Fourgathering were from the Chicago area, maybe from Wilmette, a suburb just north of Evanston.

“You’re Mean to Me” flies by in just over two minutes. From the opening chords the pace never lets up, with unrelenting drumming and a twangy rhythm on the guitar. The singer moves from one chorus and verse to the next, pausing only for a very brief solo from the guitarist. The fine background vocals are a nice touch. It was written by A. Gilmore and J. Mayfield.

On the flip, the band gives an energetic performance on the more ordinary blues standard, “Betty and Dupree”. It’s credited as public domain, and arranged by Dan Brown.

The RCA pressing code TK3M-6240 indicates this was most likely a mid-late 1966 release, recorded at RCA’s studios in Chicago.

Thor Records also released the War Lords’ stomping “Real Fine Lady”/ “I’ve Got It Bad” (written by T. Jacobs, J. Papelka).

Thank you to Chris Gilbert for the scans of the white-label promo copy of this 45, seen below.

Categories: Chicago, Council Bluffs, Illinois, Iowa, Marina, Nebraska, Omaha, Tonorous

The Royal Flairs and the Unlimited on Marina Records

August 2, 2008 Chris Bishop 29 Comments

Originally from Council Bluffs, Iowa, the Royal Flairs began as the backing band for singer Dick Hodge, cutting one single at Sears Sound Studio in Omaha, Nebraska, “Dream Angel” / “Let’s Go”, in October of 1962 as Nelson Royal, Bobby Williams and the Royal Flairs*.

The Flairs became house band at the Milrose Ballroom outside of Omaha, playing primarily surf instrumentals.

Royal Flairs Marina 45 Suicide Three members stayed with the band through all of their changes: Bob Everhart (Bob Williams’ actual name) on sax and vocals, Dave Krivolavek on guitar and Dave Brubeck on bass. Other early members included Jerry Fleetwood on trumpet, Daryl Hill on organ, Brian Sallozo on sax, Brad Starr and Mike Nelson on lead guitar, and Rick Brown on drums.

Everhart, Brubeck and Krivolavek relocated to Chicago in early 1965, adding Mike Donion on drums and Mel Matthews on lead guitar and organ. In 1966 they cut two 45s for the Marina label, one as the Royal Flairs, and another as the Unlimited.

The first, “Suicide” has a sharp garage sound and a great solo. In the lyrics the singer wants to join the girl who killed herself over him. It was written by Everhart and Dave Krivolavek, with Everhart playing the harmonica. The instrumental flip, “One Pine Box” (misprinted on the labels of one pressing as “One Pink Box”) has an earlier surf style. It’s a gruesome number featuring the sound of scraping and a hammer nailing a coffin lid shut.

The second Marina 45 as The Unlimited was another morbid number “Feelings.” The flip was one I haven’t heard yet, “Gone Away”.

Bobby Williams remained a pseudonym for Bob Everhart as that name appears as the promotional contact on their Marina 45. For the Flairs final 45, they released the folky “Hat On Tie” as by Bobby and Dave on one side, and the killer soul screamer “My Baby Cries” as by Bobby Williams on the other. These were produced by D. Marrone for the Tonorous label.

Bobby Williams Tonorous 45 My Baby Cries According to the notes from Back from the Grave, the band broke up after Bob Everhart was shot when he tried to protect a 350 pound go-go dancer named Miss Temptation from a crazed patron. Bob survived the wound but decided to get out of the nightclubs while he was still in one piece!

In the 1980’s an EP Surfin’ with the Royal Flairs featured five unreleased versions of surf songs recorded in 1962. Another LP, The Royal Flairs, Rare Recordings from 1965-66 contains their singles along with a side of unreleased songs that reflect their change to r&b and British Invasion sounds, recorded in Omaha.

Mike Donian passed away in 2010. His brother Dan sent in the photo below:

Royal Flairs Publicity Photo — Royal Flairs publicity photo, courtesy of Dan Donian

*The Routers cut a version of “Let’s Go” in 1962. Bob Everhart filed a complaint with BMI over the copyright of “Let’s Go”, which caused SAM owner Leona Leivas to release the copyright. However, a 1973 European Warner Brothers release of “Let’s Go” shows song writing credits to Lanny Duncan and Robert Duncan.

Sources: Royal Flairs photo from Back from the Grave 3, Marina 45 scan and transfer of Suicide taken from bosshoss’ Flac Attack vol. 1. Info from the liner notes to Rare Recordings. Thanks to Phil Dirt for the better quality rip of “One Pine Box”.

Categories: Anaconda, Elsah, Illinois, Missouri, St. Louis

The Symbols

May 22, 2008 Chris Bishop 3 Comments

Arthur Herman presents the history of his group the Symbols, creators of the minimalist garage classic, “What You’ve Shown”. All photos are from Ken Johnson’s collection.

In the mid ‘60s the Symbols rode out of St. Louis and settled in Elsah, Illinois. Tax exiles.

The five of us were all actually out of Principia College in Elsah, just across the river from St. Louis. The nucleus of the group did actually start off in St. Louis [as the Squires]. The name The Symbols wasn’t used until Elsah and 1965, but the record was cut in St. Louis so maybe that’s why we were identified with that city.

The classic Symbols lineup is the one that recorded their 1967 single. Well-known for its obscurity, “What You’ve Shown”, re-surfaced on a number of 21st century garage compilation CDs.

The single was recorded and pressed at Technisonic Studios in St. Louis in spring ’67. Technisonic was the site of many noteworthy rock n’ roll recordings including Ike and Tina Turner’s early hit “A Fool in Love.”

We certainly paid for the recording and pressing of the 45. For my money “What You’ve Shown”, an uptempo fuzz extravaganza, beats hands down “I Know That I”, which is kind of an Everly Bros. type ballad.

The 1966-68 lineup was Richard Judkins (lead guitar, vocals) Ron Pearson (drums, vocals), Kenneth Johnson (bass, vocals), Bob Wyman (guitar, vocals) and Arthur Herman (Farfisa, later Vox organ). Judkins, Pearson and Wyman were from St. Louis, Johnson from Cincinnati and Herman from Ada, Oklahoma.

The Symbols of Missouri photo — l-r: Kenneth Johnson, Ron Pearson, Arthur Herman, Bob Wyman and Richard Judkins

Ken Johnson and Rich Judkins of the Symbols — l-r: Ken Johnson and Rich Judkins

Since Richard Judkins is the only band member who remembers the early 60s here’s his take on the group’s beginnings:

In the 1962-63 timeframe, Rich, Bob, Ron, Bill Hibreider (Sp?) and Rick Alt put together a group called “The Squires” and played at various Principia Upper School [in St. Louis] functions until Rich and Rick graduated in 1964. In 1963 or early 1964, The Squires recorded a 45 on Anaconda Records containing a vocal entitled “Wonderin” and an instrumental entitled “Stratford on Avon.” During the 1964-65 school year, Bob, Ron and Bill played in another upper school group called “Buddha and the Idols.” You may also recall that Rick Alt was a vocalist for The Symbols at Principia College during the 1965-66 school year.
Little did we know at the time that 1965 would be the beginning of the mega-group now simply known to rock historians as “The Symbols.”

The ’67 single is also on the Anaconda label. Judkins wrote “What You’ve Shown” and sings lead. Pearson supplies the backing grunts. The two of them shared writing credits on “I Know That I”. Judkins remembers:

The Anaconda label – yes, we used the same label in ’67 for continuity sake and it was a made up label (no real entity except I thought the name sounded neat). By the way, the colors (blue and silver) were inspired by the similar colors used on the Chess label in the 50s/60s (i.e., I remembered it from the colors on my 45 rpm copy of Chuck Berry’s Rock n’ Roll Music).
Ron Pearson
Label problems – the labels on our 45s were reversed and this fact is noted in the liner notes to the Australian compilation Teen Blast U.S.A. Vol. 2.

At the time, I got Terry Bell, a DJ and celebrated Oklahoma garage band drummer, to play the single on KADA in Ada, OK. He was and is with The Monuments and remains a friend. I imagine my colleagues in the Symbols took similar stabs at promotion. But I don’t remember us doing any really hard sell. We divided the 500 copies up and I think a number were just given away to friends.

The photo of Pearson is at a college dance. He must have just been wanting to power up his sound with that microphone. That I remember, we just played pretty much for college events. Everyone had a pretty full schedule, Judkins played varsity baseball, and that limited the time dedicated to music.

The Symbols broke up in May 1968 when Judkins and Johnson graduated from Principia College.

Interest in The Symbols may have been fanned by their 30th anniversary tour in 1998. It consisted of a single performance back in Elsah at Principia College. Pearson could not be lured backed from California for the 1998 reunion tour and was replaced by hot-shot St. Louis drummer Greg Grattan. He got the job through his daughter who played on the same soccer team as Wyman’s daughter. CDs and even DVDs of this event do exist, and I understand they change hands for extremely large sums of money!

Arthur Herman

Also check out Arthur’s band before the Symbols, the Fanatics of Ada, Oklahoma.

Garage Hangover