Charly Cazalet wrote “I’ve Got Time”, while “Who Needs Tomorrow” is credited to Cazalet, Nelson, Platania, and Ward.
Cash Box gave it a favorable review in April, 1968. It was also released in the UK on London Records.
Supposedly the group had more songs completed for an album when Bert Berns of Bang Records passed away on December 30, 1967. If they still exist, I’d love to hear them!
Members were:
Reggie Ward – lead vocals and rhythm guitar
John Platania – lead guitar
Charly Cazalet – bass guitar
Michael Nelson – drums
An unsigned profile of the Silver Byke appeared in the May 4, 1968 edition of the Kingston Daily Freeman:
Silver Byke Rolls Along Sporting Guitar and Song
The Silver Byke is a recording group out of Poughkeepsie …
The Silver Byke was the last group to be signed to a recording contract and become proteges of the late great Bert Burns [sic] of Bang Records. Two of their recent releases on this label are “I’ve Got Time” and “Who Needs Tomorrow”.
Among the many successful college concerts where the Silver Byke has made its sound are Vassar, Harvard, Bard and Finch…
Founder of the group is Michael Nelson, a drummer who began his career several years ago with the Lost Souls. He later recorded with Bobby Dylan. After a stretch on the New York music scene he returned to the Hudson Valley where he had spent most of his life after coming over from his native England.
Charlie Cazalet [sic], bass guitarist, immigrated here from France and stepped right into the music scene at 17. After accompanying well known groups here and in Canada, he joined Mike in The Silver Byke, then under the name of The Meek and Obscure.
Most recent member of the Byke brigade is 20-year-old John Platania, lead guitarist. A well known instructor in upstate New York, John gained fame as lead singer and guitarist with the big city group, Love’s Body.
Formerly a member of the Dirty Elbows recording group, Reginald Wald [sic], also 20, does honors as lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the Bykes. He also switches from guitar to trumpet and does a good deal of horn dubbing for the Bykes recording sessions.
Recent engagements have been two weeks at the Discotheque Arthur in New York City and weekend performances at the Dew Drop Inn, Eddyville.
Then in October 1969, an ad for the Pleasure Yacht in Eddyville announces the Bak Steppe, “including members of the Famous Silver Byke”.
Charly Cazalet wrote a partial history of his career for his release Rough Mix-NYC, which I’ll excerpt here:
My first professional performance was with my first band ‘The Outsiders’ at the Steve Paul Scene nightclub in New York City, the fall of 1964. I was sixteen years old and the band had already recorded two songs at Mirror Sound for a couple of writers from the infamous Brill Building. Soon after we signed with Audio Fidelity Records. Over the next few years I continued to perform in NYC clubs, The El Mio, Ondine’s, The Phone Booth, Arthur’s, The Bitter End and The Salvation to name a few.
In May 1966 after a four month tour in Quebec with French Canadian rock star Tony Roman I came home to NYC and met the band ‘The Left Banke’. They had just recorded “Walk Away Rene” and were looking for a guitarist to join the band. I didn’t join the band but maintained a professional and personal relationship with some of the band members until today. I played bass guitar on most of the tracks for The Left Banke’s third and last album ‘Voices Calling’ around 1978 that was released in Britain in 1988.
The Left Banke lead singer Steve Martin Caro co-wrote and sings lead on track 1 and 4 and sings harmony vocal on track 8 [on Rough Mix-NYC]. The Left Banke drummer George Cameron plays on track 5, 6, and 8. These five songs were recorded between 1978 and 1979. Reginald Ward sings lead on Track 5.
Reggie and I performed in a four piece band called The Silver Byke with John Platania and Mike Nelson between 1967-1970. We signed with legendary music producer Bert Berns, but Bert passed away before we recorded and released a 45 rpm for his label Bang Records. Chris Houston from the British rock band The Undertakers produced the session.
I asked Charly about how he joined the Silver Byke and he wrote to me:
I met Mike Nelson around early 1965 at a club called Ondine in midtown Manhattan. He was playing there with his band The Lost Souls. When they finished the set I went up to him and started talking with him.
At the time I was in a band called The Outsiders and we were the house-band at the El Mio club not to far away from Ondine. A short time later he quit his band and started spinning records at El Mio for a while. My band left El Mio and broke up soon after and some time after that I ran into Mike and he didn’t have a place to stay so, I took him to my parents and they said he could stay with us. To make a long story short, he got a recording gig with Bob Dylan and made a bunch of money $500, so we got an apartment together.
After playing in a number of bands together we formed The Sliver Byke. When the lead guitarist quit we got John Platania to fill in. We broke up in Jan. 1969. I played with John for a while, until he sent on to play with Van Morrison. Mike and I parted ways.
John Platania would go on to play on albums by Van Morrison, Chip Taylor and Genya Ravan, among many others. See www.johnplatania.com for more info on his career.
The Los Angeles Times profiled Mike Nelson in January, 1987, describing his move to California while playing fusion jazz, then leaving music to become a sculptor.
Thank you to Reggie Ward for sending in the photos of the group seen here. Reggie was in a group called Easy Street in the 1970s.
