Gary Steffins & the Fugitives 5 “I’m a Lover” / “Back Track” on RMP is an obscure 45 from one of the suburbs of Chicago, from March, 1966.
The lead guitar is strong on both sides, especially the neat instrumental “Back Track”.
A couple of photos have turned up on youtube videos, but I haven’t seen a list of band members.
On August 16, 1975, about nine years after the record, the Atlanta Constitution ran a profile of Daphne’s Lounge at the Sheraton near Hartsfield airport, with an interesting paragraph:
The band of the moment is Crystal Ball, a group formed five years ago in Chicago and now relocating to Atlanta. Gary Steffins handles most of the vocals and plays the congas. Other personnel are Steve Farrell, lead guitar, his brother Bill [Farrell] on drums, Joe Grimm on keyboards, and Greg Curbow on bass.
Surely the lineup changed in the intervening years, but I would like to know the names of the original group on the single.
My name’s Kyle, I’m the one that originally posted the Fugitives 5 tracks on YouTube. I talked to the bassist (he actually played a guitar as a bass, far left in the standing black and white photo, Cameron Krause is his name) and I have more information on them if you’d like to include it. I updated the YouTube descriptions as well. They were based out of Lemont, IL and were only a band for a year or so around 1965. The band members were:
Gary Steffins – Lead Vocals
Cameron Krause – Bass (guitar as bass)
Dennis Crook – Drums
Dave Zahara – Rhythm Guitar (RIP)
and he believes the last guy is Mike Farrell on Lead Guitar.
In 2014 I actually reunited Gary with Cameron who spoke over the phone for the first time in 50 years! As far as we know Dave is the only member who has passed away, but we could be wrong on that. Cameron has been trying to reach other members but hasn’t had any luck. Thanks for preserving rock’n’roll past. Def a cool old obscure record that isn’t easy to come by.
Lead Guitarists name is JIM FERRY not Mike Farrell. Just confirmed with Gary and Cameron. Jim’s dad was the one with the connection to getting the record pressed. It was privately done, not on any label. Not sure how many copies were made.
Cam Krause and I attended Hinsdale South High School in those years and I’ll never forget how it hit me that there was actually a local band besides the Shames, the Buckinghams and some of the others, to cut a record. FF a couple of years when a few of us drove over to Cam’s house after high school, but I hadn’t played together with Dave Zahara since October 1966. I lost track of all those guys after that. BTW: Does anyone know what happened with Dave? He was definitely one of the kindest guys I’ve ever known. I’m sorry we lost him.