The Souls, 1966 l-r: David Smith, David C. Lott, Jay Hausman, Jerry Ebensberger. Not pictured: lead vocalist Allen KirshSouls business card with first lineup and manager Sonny Sparks listed
David C. Lott wrote this history of his band the Souls, known for their 45 on the Pharaoh label as Christopher & the Souls. David also contributed all the photos and newspaper scans included in this article.
Music has a strange way sometimes of transcending time and boundaries. It can seemingly take on a life of its own.
Such is the case of a young garage band from McAllen, Texas during the swingin’ mid-sixties. Nestled about as far down in south Texas as one can get — down in the Rio Grande Valley, right above the Mexican border – was a teen scene that produced some great rockin’ groups like The Headstones, The Cavaliers, The Playboys of Edinburgh and Arturo & Pat and The Invaders.
Souls and the Headstones at the Moose Lodge
In Andrew Brown’s “Brown Paper Sack – Music & Commentary No.1”, from the mid-90’s, he states “but not one of ’em can match the intense dementia of Christopher and the Souls’ “Diamonds, Rats, and Gum”, which is not only the wildest records ever made in the Texas Valley, but also very likely the ultimate antithesis of every sorry-ass love ballad that’s ever dribbled down the proverbial pike.”
A single copy of the 45 recently sold on e-bay for a whopping $1225.
The story of The Souls really begins back in late 1964 when Jay Hausman, a young student at McAllen High School, and classmate David Smith began a collaborative effort. Jay was teaching David new bar chords and David showing him some of the well-known guitar licks of the day (ie: surf music & early Beatles and Stones). David was only a year older than Jay, but had been playing the guitar for several years and was acknowledged as one of the more talented guitar players in town. Jay eventually began feeling confident enough as a guitarist to start making his way onto the local music scene. Jay met Allen Kirsh, who didn’t play an instrument but could sing a pretty good tune and perhaps maybe a little better most. After hearing Allen a couple of times, Jay began visualizing a rock ‘n’ roll band.
The Souls with Tommy McLain, Foamy Brine (featuring W. R. “Dub” Lynch), the Marauders and Our Generation at the Mission Community Center in Lion’s Park, 1966
Brian Voss, another one of Jay’s high school chums and his neighbor could play the bass and had a great voice, and Dee Edwards, a senior at McAllen High had a decent set of drums. Jay enlisted David Smith, his mentor, to join the band as lead guitarist. After a couple of months of practice during the early spring of 1965, the quintet had it down well enough to be thought of as a band. Somebody, nobody remembers quite who, christened the band as The Souls. The name “Souls” was probably a take-off on “Rubber Soul” by the Beatles.
The line-up lasted about six months. Brian Voss left the band for personal reasons. Dee Edwards graduated from high school that year and moved on. Jay, Allen, and David Smith stuck together and in late 1965 added two more classmates at McAllen High – Jerry Ebensberger on bass and David Lott on drums.
David Lott of the Souls
Lott and Ebensberger had been playing for a few months in a little trio along with a young eight grade guitar “prodigy-to-be” Mitch Watkins in a band they called “The Madhatters.” David Lott recalls Mitch having a $35 Silvertone guitar that had its amplifier in the guitar case – but that the guy was amazing. He could pick up most any musical instrument from piano to saxophone and within minutes have it almost mastered. (note: Mitch Watkins, now based in Austin, is still one the finest guitar players in the country www.mitchwatkins.com). The revamped Souls by the spring of ’66 were gigging frequently at church dances, private parties, the Hide-A-Way Club in Harlingen, the National Guard Armory in McAllen, the Moose Lodge and Valley Bowl & Skating Rink in Mission.
Three legendary Texas bands! The United Fund benefit dance in McAllen, 1965 Top row – The Cavaliers, l-r: Mike Dunn, Gary Vandiver, Javier Rios, Jenny Hatfield [Jeanne Hatfield?], (can’t remember), Richard Mancilla Middle row – l-r: The Marauders, with Mitch Watkins on lead guitar at left, Phil Veale, Eric Mancilla, Jimmy Parker, Lloyd Allen. Bottom row – The Souls, l-r: Murray Schlesinger, Jerry Ebensberger, David Smith, David Lott and Allen Kirsh.Surely one of the greatest show lineups of 1966 – The Zakary Thaks, Headstones, Souls and Cavaliers all for $1!
There were several “ages” of bands in the McAllen area music scene hierarchy. At the top end of the spectrum were the Playboys of Edinburg, who recorded several quality tunes, and a great little group who never recorded called The Invaders. Then the next level would’ve been The Headstones, and The Cavaliers – guys in their late teens or early twenties. And then the next age group down would’ve been The Souls, and a band called the Marauders. All ages 14, 15 and 16 years old.
Even though The Souls were like most of the other garage bands of the day – doin’ cover tunes – they felt like they were on the cutting edge of something. They just didn’t know exactly what – but they knew there was something special in the air with the music of ’65 and ’66. One has to remember, this was less than two years after the Beatles had hit America and the British Invasion lit a fire storm of musical creativity with the youth. Everything they did and tried was new and hadn’t been done before. The music of the mid-60’s was taking on a life of its own.
About the time the band was starting to take off – Jay Hausman’s family moved to Nashville, and unfortunately Jay had to go with them. It was hard for the fellas in the band to say “adios” to the guy who’d been the band’s main motivator. However, they soon found a good substitute for Jay in a very talented young kid named Murray Schlesinger, who had been playing rhythm guitar for the Marauders.
About the same time Murray came into the fold, a guy named Chris Voss felt the sudden inspiration to have a couple of song-poems he’d written set to music and committed to vinyl. His younger brother Brian had been the band’s first bass player.
The two song-poems Chris had penned were titled “Diamonds, Rats, and Gum” and “Broken Hearted Lady”. He took them to David Smith and played the basic songs for him on acoustic guitar. David added the fuzztone riffs to “Diamonds, Rats, and Gum”, in the style of George Harrison’s “Think For Yourself” (from Rubber Soul). You can hear some similarities in the downward fuzz-bass progression playing between the verse & chorus. A few days later, David and Chris brought the songs to the band’s practice session at Allen’s house. Chris proposed that the band learn the songs and that they cut a record.
So, the band listened intently as Voss read his lyrics and David tried to get a handle on a melody. After a few hours, the basis of the song started to come together. Each young musician developing their role. A few weeks went by with the band honing and refining the songs in practice sessions until they felt they had it down and was as they all envisioned it.
The Souls showed up at the now legendary Jimmy Nicholls’ Pharaoh Studio one night in September of 1966. Nicholls’ studio had a quarter-inch tape, Ampex machine straight to two-track — mind you — live to two track, no overdubbing.
The band cut the two songs in less than two hours. Allen, the Souls’ regular lead singer, was not singing on the record, but was present for the session and moral support. He later said “If it hadn’t of been for Chris Voss, the Souls would’ve never recorded.”
David Lott: “KRIO Radio, McAllen’s ‘Swingin’ 50′ of December 3 – 9, 1966. The Souls ‘B’ side song ‘Broken Hearted Lady’ was #37 on the chart – rising from #48 the week before. Our song hovered in the low 30’s for 5 weeks on the charts.” Note the Headstones at #16.
Andrew Brown in his “Brown Paper Sack – Music & Commentary No.1” said “Written, sung, and played in a style aggressively defiant to easily digestible pop music clichés, ‘Diamonds, Rats, and Gum’ is one of the most savage parodies of Top 40 idealism ever made, and while it certainly wasn’t intended to be that, just what the song was intended to be remains a mystery to all involved!” By contrast, the “Broken Hearted Lady” flip side is a serious take done as slow sappy ballad.
“Diamonds, Rats, and Gum” is bizarre and fantastic with lines like “I’ll give you rats and five pieces of gum and then you’ll know I’m not a bum”, whimpered over a grinding slurry of fiercely demented fuzz guitar, bass and drums.
Brown goes on to say “Chris Voss’ neurotic nursery rhyme about giving the object of his affections disease-ridden rodents and a prescribed amount of chewing gum as proof of his undying love, is sung in a slurred whine above the staggeringly PRIMAL accompaniment of four teenage punks only slightly taller than their guitars. It is the loudest, greatest insult to the stomach-churning moanings of ‘lite rock’ pigs like Elton and Phil (and their countless bastard offspring choking up the airwaves) ever recorded.”
He continues with “And for this, my friends, we owe the Souls nothing less than our eternal, everlasting gratitude.”
The record was released in a limited custom pressing the following month as a 45 under the Pharaoh label. “Diamonds, Rats, and Gum” as it turns out some 40+ years later is one of the rarest of the rare on a very rare label.
Oddly enough “Diamonds, Rats, and Gum” had been the song the band had intended to promote. However, local KIRO deejay Rusty Bell wanted to push the ballad “Broken Hearted Lady”, and it got a lot of local airplay due to Bell’s friendship with the band.
Sales allowed the record to enter on KRIO’s “Swingin’ 50” at #48 the first week it was out in late November ’66. It then climbed to #37, #35 then #32 by December 16th, 1966. The song ended up at #23 sometime in January 1967. Nobody in the band remembers now-a-days if the song climbed the charts a bit more or if it fell. None-the-less, the song had made the charts.
A few examples of other hits on the charts during those weeks were “Winchester Cathedral” by New Vaudeville Band at #1, “Devil With A Blue Dress” by Mitch Ryder, “96 Tears” by Question Mark and The Mysterians, ” Come on Up” by The Young Rascals, “Steppin’ Stone” by The Monkees, “Mellow Yellow” by Donovan, and “Have You Seen Your Mother Baby” by the Rolling Stones.
Chris Voss made an appearance with the Souls at an Edinburg High School pep rally shortly afterward … and wasn’t heard on stage again. Chris ended up going to college and becoming a successful businessman in McAllen.
KIRO deejay Rusty Bell continued to promote the band through his Teen Dances at the Mission Community Center in Mission, Texas. The Souls appeared frequently on the billing with The Headstones, The Cavaliers, The Playboys of Edinburgh, The Zachary Thaks from Corpus Christi and others and often served as “opening act” for notable groups routed through the area. Such groups were The Classics IV from Florida (with their hit “Spooky), The Five Americans from Dallas (with their hit “Western Union”), Tommy McClain from Louisiana (with his hit “Sweet Dreams of You”) and others.
Early in 1967, Jay Hausman moved back to McAllen and back to The Souls. Murray obliged by leaving and rejoining the Marauders. Unfortunately, Jay’s presence wasn’t enough to keep the band as enthused as they were the year before. The “psychedelic” music trend was in full bloom and the band just couldn’t get enthused. After one last show, opening for the Five Americans and the Cavaliers at the Mission Community Center, the Souls came to a quiet halt. There would be no revivals, no reunions.
Andrew Brown states: “yet the music they’d managed to preserve on vinyl will echo on far longer than they’d ever expected it to, or even wanted it to.”
In September of 2008, a single copy of Christopher and The Souls 45 that featured “Diamonds, Rats, and Gum” and “Broken Hearted Lady” (Pharaoh P-151) listed on the site as “a Texas Garage Band killer” sold on e-bay for a whopping $1225. Only a few copies of the record are known to exist. However, David Lott states that he still has a copy in excellent condition and so does David Smith.
As stated earlier – music “can sometimes seemingly take on a life of its own.”
The line-up and where are they now: (2009)
• David Smith – lead guitarist 1965 – 1967, is a software programmer living in Austin, Texas. He frequently plays guitar in a band called “33 1/3”.
• Murray Schlesinger – guitarist 1966 has an insurance agency in McAllen, Texas and frequently plays guitar in a band called “The Retrorockers” (www.retrorockers.com )
• Allen Kirsch – singer 1965 – 1967 owns Music Makers in Austin, Texas serving Texas musicians since 1988 (www.musicmakersaustin.com)
• David Lott – drummer 1965 – 1967 resides in Medicine Park, Oklahoma and is a freelance graphic designer, website developer, publisher, entrepreneur and concert promoter (www.lawtonka.com) and occasionally sits in during local jam sessions.
• Jerry Ebensberger – bass 1965 – 1967. Jerry owned/managed a newspaper in Mansfield, Texas for many years, and then a restaurant in Victoria, Texas. He and his wife (high school sweetheart) Beverly reside again McAllen, Texas
• Jay Hausman resides somewhere in Los Angeles, CA
• Chris Voss resides in Mission, Texas and is a pastor of Central Christian Church, in McAllen, Texas.
• Slaiman “Chunky” Showery, (equipment and road manager for Souls) resides in McAllen and was a successful car/home stereo entrepreneur in 70’s, 80’s 90’s. Now takes life easy. Works at Rio Radio, a historical audio and radio store in South Texas, the first to sell car stereos in the Valley.
– 2009, David C. Lott – dlott@lawtonka.com
with excerpts from Andrew Brown’s “Brown Paper Sack – Music & Commentary No.1”
Set list from The Souls performance at Padre Island Pavilion for Easter Weekend
One of the most common band names of the ’60s was the Rogues. This particular group attended prep school at Mercersburg Academy, located southwest of Harrisburg, close to the Maryland state line.
I’d be interested in knowing how a band in Pennsylvania came to release their 45 on a label in Roanoke, Virginia, 240 miles away down Interstate 81. Maybe one of the band’s members came from that area.
The only name I can associate with the group is David Anthony, who wrote both songs here, the thumping put-down “Don’t Follow Me” and the sedate “Mr Sandman” on the flip. “Don’t Follow Me” lacks a guitar solo during the break, but the drummer provides excellent fills throughout the song.
Jim Robertson (Vocals) (circa May 1966-circa July 1969)
Tim Forsythe (Keyboards, Harmonica) (circa May 1966-August 1967)
Domenic Angelicchio (Drums) (circa May 1966-circa July 1969)
Danny Barrucco (Bass) (circa May 1966-December 1966)
Dave Hanna (Guitar) (circa May 1966-July 1966)
Don Duncan (Guitar) (July 1966-September 1966, May 1967-August 1967)
Jean Pierre Lauzon (Guitar) (September 1966)
Richard Lasnier (Guitar) (circa October 1966)
Gary Marcus (Guitar) (circa October-December 1966)
Bob Burgess (Bass) (December 1966-May 1967)
Louis McKelvey (Guitar) (December 1966-May 1967)
Ken Duffy (Bass) (May 1967-circa July 1969)
Les Kozichinsky (Guitar)(August 1967-July 1968)
Don Hay (Keyboards)(August 1967-December 1967)
Jerry Carruthers (Keyboards)(December 1967-July 1968)
Dick Stenstrum (Keyboards)(July 1968-circa July 1969)
Roald Longhi (Guitar)(July 1968-circa July 1969)
The original band was formed in the summer of 1966 by former Haunted members Jim Robertson and Tim Forsythe. Robertson was originally from Edinburgh, Scotland where he’d played sax in a group during 1964 before moving to Montreal.
Based in Lachine, Quebec, the band made its debut at the local YMCA.
Hanna left soon after the band started playing live. However, the group went through a succession of lead guitarists, starting with Don Duncan, who left in September 1966, before McKelvey joined in December.
McKelvey’s arrival coincided with that of Bob Burgess from The Haunted. In between Duncan leaving and McKelvey joining, Our Generation featured temporary stopgap guitarists, J P Lauzon, who went on to The Jaybees, Richard Lasnier and Gary Marcus from Oven.
The line up with Duncan, however, was responsible for the first single, a cover of the Muddy Waters blues favourite ‘I’m a Man’, backed by Forsythe’s ‘Run Down Every Street’.
Irish-born and British raised guitarist Louis McKelvey, who had arrived in Montreal around October 1966 after playing with west London band Jeff Curtis & The Flames and later South African groups The Upsetters and The A-Cads, appeared on the band’s second single, before forming Influence in late May 1967.
Prior to joining Our Generation, McKelvey had played with Les Sinners for a few weeks and was later given co-production credit for The Haunted’s third single with fellow ex-A-Cads member Hank Squires.
This line up of Our Generation provided the soundtrack to the Canadian Film Board film, ‘It’s Not Jacques Cartier’s Fault’. McKelvey wrote ‘Cool Summer’ while Burgess composed the A-side, ‘Out to Get Light’.
Burgess left Canada in late 1967 to spend some time in the UK where he recorded, and then returned to form a new band Lilac. In the ‘70s he led Aean.
Angelicchio, Forsythe and Robertson kept the band going bringing back guitarist Don Duncan and adding new bass player Ken Duffy. This line-up lasted until August 1967 when Forsythe left to join Peter & The Pipers and Duncan moved on.
Angelicchio, Duffy and Robertson brought in keyboard player Don Hay and guitarist Les Kozichinsky for a few months. Then in December Jerry Carruthers took over keyboards from Hay.
This line-up settled and performed into the summer of 1968 before further changes.
Keyboard player Dick Stenstrum and guitarist Roald Longhi joined Jim Robertson, Dominic Angelicchio and Ken Duffy and also played Our Generation’s most significant concert date, the Summer Pop Festival held at The Autostade, Montreal on 17 July, which was headlined by The Who, The Troggs, Mitch Ryder & Detroit Wheels and The Ohio Express. The Haunted also appeared at the festival.
The band continued on for another year or so before splitting.
After The Jaybees, Lauzon went on to play with The Carnival Connection, Life, Mylon Le Fevre and ultimately The Wackers. Marcus joined The Haunted.
Recordings
45 I’m A Man/Run Down Every Street (Barry 3461) 1966 45 Cool Summer/Out To Get Light (Trans World 1678) 1967
Selected advertised gigs
February 17 1967 – West Hill High, Montreal February 18 1967 – Stanstead College, Montreal February 24 1967 – Malcolm Campbell High, St Laurent, Quebec February 25 1967 – The Barn (on Du Hamel)
March 3 1967 – Gig in Hudson (Quebec?) March 4 1967 – Salle Espangnola, St Therese, Quebec March 10 1967 – The Jail, Montreal March 11 1967 – Gig in Huntington, Quebec March 18 1967 – St Hubert Inn Club, St Hubert March 25 1967 – Caveman’s Hive, Montreal March 27 1967 – St Augustine’s NDG (Montreal?)
April 8 1967 – The Jail, Montreal April 14 1967 – St Willabroads School (Montreal?) April 22 1967 – St Bartholemew (Montreal?) April 28 1967 – The Barn, Ile Perrot April 29 1967 – Roxboro Chalet, Roxboro May 5 1967 – Hot Spot, Rosemere May 6 1967 – Town and Country, Cote de Liesse with Munks May 7 1967 – Town and Country, Cote de Liesse with The Jaybees
September 24-30 1967 – Garden of Stars, Montreal
Live dates taken from the Montreal Star newspaper.
Many thanks to Bill Munson, Carny Corbett, Louis McKelvey, Bob Burgess, Ken Duffy.
This Rhode Island group cut the demented, organ-driven “Laugh Myself to the Grave” in 1966. The flip is the doo-wop like “Little Girl”. Both sides written by Albert Aubin, R. Lemme, D. Moretti, and thus the label name: ALM.
Satan’s Breed made another 45 as the Angids (or Angi-Ds), “I Like Girls” / “C’mere Woman”. This one is even cruder than “Laugh Myself to the Grave”. No organ this time, just guitars, drums and some bleating saxophone. There’s inane whistling on “I Like Girls”, while “C’mere Woman” has the vocalist delivering some unsavory lines in his a voice akin to the Novas’ “The Crusher”.
The 201 prefix on the labels indicates a Decca custom pressing.
The Changing Tymes, from left: Tom Shapiro, Jimmy Mahoney, Ray Tilli, (not shown: Wayne Tort)
The Changing Tymes came from Philadelphia and cut a great single “You Make It Hard” / “Try a Whole Lot Harder” in 1966. I was struck by the similarity of the opening of the Changing Tyme’s “You Make It Hard” to the Quiet Jungle song “Everything”, but that seems to be a pure coincidence.
Thomas Shapiro and James Mahoney wrote both songs, released on the R.D. #1 label with Don White publishing registered in early December, 1966. It seems the group recorded two other songs at the same session, but these seem to be lost.
Ray Tilli commented below and in 2020 wrote to me with more info and the photos seen here:
My name is Ray Tilli and I was a founding member of “The Changing Tymes” from Philadelphia, PA. We started the band in 1965. The first iteration of the Changing Tymes were (as shown in the photos):
Tom Shapiro – lead vocals, guitar, bass (on live gigs) Jimmy Mahoney – lead guitar, vocals Ray Tilli – guitar, bass (on the record), vocals Wayne Tort – drums (not shown)
The Changing Tymes were founded by myself and Jimmy Mahoney in 1965. We were fortunate to have come of age at a time when we saw and experienced the birth of Rock and Roll, and we were deeply influenced by the greats of that early era. Then in 1964, the Beatles and the subsequent great bands from England and America invaded our brains! Every week there was some new artist, song or album to get really excited about, and to pour ourselves into and absorb. It was a time of great creativity, inspiration, and expression, and it drove us to practice, practice and practice more!
Our record was recorded at Impact Studio, located in Northeast Philadelphia, on or about September-October 1966, and released in November 1966. I lost track of the other two recordings. I don’t think they were put on vinyl.
When Jimmy Mahoney began to play lead, he used his big hollow body Gibson ES-175 guitar with the new Fuzz Tone pedal. It caused a type of feedback they had never heard before – but it was controlled feedback. There was a shout from the control room: “What’s that noise!.” Unfortunately, Jimmy had to switch to his backup guitar to get the sound they wanted. The recording would have been wilder if we recorded it the way we wanted!
The engineers in the recording booth were laughing so hard that they had trouble “slating” the tape for recording because they had to say the name of one of the tunes: “You Make It Hard”! We actually didn’t get the joke; talk about naive and clueless …
The meaning of the record label, R&D #1 Records: the “R” stands for Roy Howell who funded the production, and the “D” for Dave Wilson, our manager. We never heard of the band Quiet Jungle, nor did we ever hear their song “Everything”. The musical universe is huge, and once in a while, similar riffs or parts can occur.
The Changing Tymes, from left: Tom Shapiro, Jimmy Mahoney, Ray Tilli, (not shown: Wayne Tort)
We got pretty damn good, and quickly gained a reputation as being one of the best bands in the Tri-State area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware). Word got around and we were asked to appear on all the regional music TV shows. American Bandstand had just moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles in 1965, so we missed that opportunity. The next most popular TV show was called “Summer Time at the Pier with Ed Hurst”. The “Pier” was the world famous Steel Pier in Atlantic City, NJ.
We appeared on the live broadcast of “Summer Time at the Pier with Ed Hurst” in the summer of 1966 along with Freddie and the Dreamers, and the Ramsey Lewis Trio. After playing the Pier gig, we drove about 20 minutes south to Margate, New Jersey to play our regular five-night-per-week gig at the White House – a club near the beach. During that summer we were the house band at the White House. All TVs in the club that day were showing our live appearance on Steel Pier, so when we arrived back at the club we were greeted with a rousing applause and back-slaps!
A similar occurrence happened when we played a live TV show in South Philadelphia, PA called “Aquarama”. The backdrop was a huge fish tank with hundreds of exotic species of marine life. After the show we had to immediately rush to our evening gig at Penn State University’s Ogontz Campus outside of Philly. The crowd was getting annoyed because we were late, but when we finally arrived we were greeted with cheers and applause! We made about a half dozen TV appearances on regional tri-state television that year.
A funny fact: our looks belied our music. Both Jimmy and I were in college at the time (I was also in the Army ROTC and Army Ranger ROTC training program), and the other guys had jobs that had dress and hair codes. We looked squeaky clean cut, but our sound was wild!
The first discotheque in Philadelphia was the “Underground Discotheque” in the basement of the (giant) Atlantic-Richfield building at Broad and Spruce Streets. It was the beginning of psychedelia – black lights, strobe lights, gel projections etc. We were playing that night with an excellent band called The Down Children. When both bands showed up for setup before the gig, we were thoroughly intimidated by the other band; they were older and looked like a bunch of Hell’s Angels – a look way ahead of any band we’d ever seen in 1966!
They looked like they could (and wanted to) kick our asses – they were scary! Fortunately, the setup went on without incident. When the gig started the Down Children [“I Can Tell” (Jimmy Rowland) / “Night Time Girl” on Philips] went on first. They were a really good band and looked badass tough and cool. When they finished they disappeared into the dressing room. Then it was our turn. Looking rather “preppy” the audience seemed to take little notice or interest when we took the stage. That was until we started playing. We won them over almost immediately – we played our hearts out! We couldn’t help but notice that the other band came out from their dressing room and watched us intently. We weren’t sure if that was good or bad – we wondered if they going to crush our heads after the gig!
After the first set (each band played 2 sets), a couple of the scary dudes from The Down Children came up to us and started asking questions: “Hey man, how did you get that tone?” “How did you get the sound on ….”, “You sounded EXACTLY like the record”! Man, were we relieved – they were impressed by us. Needless to say, we felt validated!
Another sticky situation was when our lead singer got arrested on stage during our stint at the White House. We were all too young to drink: 21 years of age was the minimum age in the tri-state area. We were 19 years old (and had to have special permits to play in the bars). Our lead singer, Tom, acquired a phony ID card to get into a different club the previous night to get some drinks. Somehow, the police were able to track him down to our club, and during our first set, a few cops arrived and came up on stage. They asked Tom his name, then put handcuffs on his wrists and hauled him off to jail.
So there we were, no lead singer who was also the bass player at the time, and the rest of the band still having to play 5 sets per night, 5 nights per week! His bail was set at $500 which neither he, nor any of us had. We improvised the best we could. Once we were finally paid, we took our full $500 cash pay to the courthouse and bailed him out.
There are too many stories of the Changing Tymes to relate here, like the time our cars crashed into each other on the way to a gig and we were 3 hours late! We played gigs at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple, Penn State, St. Joseph’s University and other various colleges and fraternities in the region. Also, many, many rock clubs and bars in the area.
I was fortunate to have had a relative in a high level executive position with RCA Records in New York City. After our record was released, and feeling a rush of confidence, we met in with my relative, John Rosica, head of promotions for RCA. He patiently and intently listened to our new record and said, “The best advice I can give you is to go back to collage and get a good education”!
We were shattered! He then said, you guys need to sound and play like full-time musicians – like these guys who we just signed, they’re called The Youngbloods. He put their new (yet unreleased) LP on the turntable and played “Grizzly Bear”. So we left NYC with our tails between our legs, demoralized, but not defeated.
The second iteration of The Changing Tymes were:
Ray Tilli – bass, vocals Jimmy Mahoney – lead guitar, vocals Nicky Indelicato – lead vocals Mike Laurence – guitar, vocals various drummers (unfortunately, no pictures)
This version of the Changing Tymes added more challenging songs to the repertoire. The nail in the coffin for the group breaking up was the successful recruitment of Nicky Indelicato to become the lead singer of a new group The American Dream. The group was the very first band to be produced by Todd Rundgren. They opened shows for The Doors, Hendrix and many others. They were an exceptional original band. We were sad to see him go, but happy for his success. Nicky passed away in March of 2020.
Jimmy Mahoney went on to do studio work and appeared on the Robert Palmer album, Double Fun. He also recorded at Sigma Sound for Philadelphia International Records. He played with band members from Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea and Larry Coryell. He was also a member of the band Medusa on Columbia records.
I also played with other bands including one with the former lead guitarist from the Bill Black Combo who had a few international hits. Later, I got into the business part of music as an agent, and then as a Manager/Road Manager with a band called Cats who were signed to Electra records. They toured and opened for Van Halen for the entire 1980 US summer tour.
After the Changing Tymes disbanded in 1968, most of us went on to other bands and careers. I became a Psychologist (now retired). Jimmy Mahoney passed away in January 2015. I miss him to this day. We remained close to the very end. He sent some of his memories to me about the band a few years back, and I have included some of them in this Changing Tymes history.
Ray Tilli
Note: this isn’t the same Changing Tymes as the Gate City, Virginia group who recorded cool songs like “Go Your Way” and “The Only Girl I Love” for the Moss label.
Scrugg live, left to right: Chris Demetriou, Jack Russell, Henry Spinetti (hidden) and John Kongos
Johnny Kongos news clip October 1966
Buried in the welter of superlative singles issued in September 1967 was an intriguing release by an Anglo-South African group with a suitably ‘flower power’ name, Floribunda Rose. A forgotten gem, ‘One Way Street’ c/w ‘Linda Loves Linda’, should have been a resounding hit but despite being plugged incessantly by several notable radio stations, it barely made a ripple. Floribunda Rose may have been lost to a bygone age but its lead singer and principal songwriter remains one of South Africa’s most successful exports and would years later become synonymous with one of Brit Pop’s most enduring anthems, The Happy Monday’s ‘He’s Gonna Step On You Again’.
Johnny Kongos
Born in Jo’burg on 6 August 1945 to Greek parents, aspiring singer/songwriter and guitarist Johnny Kongos had formed his first group, The Dukes, when he was 15 years old and began carving out a local following playing at his mother’s club, the Fireplace in Boksburg.
Joined by former Mickie Most & The Playboys guitarist Hank Squires in 1962, the group morphed into Johnny Kongos & The G-Men and over the next three years released nearly twenty singles and half a dozen albums for the Teal and RCA labels.
In late 1963, Kongos made his first exploratory visit to the UK but despite auditioning for a couple of major labels, and running into Hank Squires’s former band leader, Mickie Most, now a fledgling producer, Kongos failed to make an impact.
Empty handed, he returned to Jo’burg and reformed The G-Men. Plans to consolidate his earlier successes, however, were soon thrown in the air when the singer was called up for national defence training in late 1964.
Returning to civilian life six months later, Kongos picked up where he’d left off and recorded a final single with The G-Men, ‘Until It’s Time For You To Go’, which secured a release on Teal, the South African distributor for the Pye label.
Record Express, July 1966
Thanks to these connections, Kongos elected to return to the UK in April 1966, where he befriended Pye’s manager/producer John Schroeder. Sufficiently impressed by Kongos’s audition tape, Schroeder secured a solo deal with Pye’s subsidiary label, Piccadilly.
The fruits of the ensuing sessions turned up on the singer’s debut UK single – the folky, self penned ‘I Love Mary’, backed with the poppy Kongos/Leroy number, ‘Good Time Party Companion’, released that September. Credited to John T Kongos, the single was well received but did nothing chart-wise.
004 in Personality, November 1965
Chris Demetriou, 1967
004
Soon after the single’s release, Kongos was back in South Africa beginning work on a fresh clutch of songs with the intention of recording an album. One night in April 1967, he dropped into the 505 club in Jo’burg’s trendy Hillbrow district and caught British group, The 004 entertaining the crowds (see The 004 page for a closer inspection of this fascinating group). Suitably impressed, he approached the band members after they’d finished their set and asked them to help him cut the planned album as paid musicians.
A hugely popular live act, The 004 had arrived in South Africa by boat in July 1965 on the back of a contract offered to the group’s lead guitarist, Pete Clifford (b. 10 May 1943, Whetstone, London). A former member of Dusty Springfield’s backing group, The Echoes, Clifford had first visited South Africa during 1964 and participated in the singer’s infamous tour where she was deported for refusing to play to segregated audiences.
While the tour had been a PR disaster, Clifford had been promised some lucrative work by Trevor Boswell, husband of South African 1950s star, Eve Boswell, and co-owner of the Keleti Artist Agency, if he could return from London with a new group.
Clifford sought around for suitable musicians and quickly recruited Welsh rhythm guitarist and singer Brian Gibson from The Laurie Jay Combo, who in turn recommended fellow countryman, bass player and singer Jack Russell (b. 29 April 1944, Caerleon, Wales).
Gibson and Russell had known each other for years, having first worked together in The Victors, resident band at the Latin Quarter, one of London’s top theatre restaurants.
“I had a call on the Monday from Brian,” remembers Russell, who was working as a manager for Vox in Dartford at the time. “He asked me if I fancied joining him in a band that was going to South Africa. I said, ‘Yes’ and asked, ‘When do we go?’ He said, ‘Thursday!’”
With Londoner Peter Stember (today a successful US-based photographer) completing the line up on drums, The 004 sailed for Durban and soon shot to local fame as one of the top groups working the clubs, so much so that they landed jobs supporting Gene Vincent and The Ivy League.
During 1966, the band released a handful of singles for CBS, including ‘The In Crowd’ and a decent album, It’s Alright, before Stember returned to the UK in August.
In his place, The 004s recruited Dutch-born, South African raised drummer Nick ‘Doc’ Dokter (b. 24 July 1945, Kampen, Overijsel, The Netherlands), who possessed an impressive musical CV, including a stint with The Leemen Limited alongside South African guitar legend, the late Ken E Henson.
Originally a bass player, Dokter moved to drums early his career after the sticksman in the garage band he was playing in gave up music for a regular job. Working with future A-Cads singer Sammy Evans in a factory making boilers, the pair struck up a friendship and in an interesting turn of events both ended up joining Johnny Kongos’ group The G-Men after the singer was called up for military service.
“We all went and played at John’s place, the Fireplace,” recalls Dokter. “From there I met Kenny Henson, who needed a drummer, so I moved to Durban to join Leemen Limited.”
After two rare singles on the Continental label, including a great version of ‘In The Midnight Hour’ backed by John Mayall’s ‘Heartaches’, it was time to move on again.
“I was just hanging around and Pete Clifford approached me. Peter Stember was leaving The 004 and he just said, ‘Why don’t you just come out and play with us?’ I was really a young kid and I had no experience of playing big clubs. They kinda took me under their wing.”
With Dokter filling the vacant drum stool, The 004 spent the remainder of 1966 consolidating their live reputation. When Gibson handed in his notice in early 1967 (later joining progressive rock band, Abstract Truth, alongside Henson), The 004 briefly recruited guitarist Barry Mitchell from rival band, The In Crowd, but the line up never gelled and when Kongos dropped into the 505, the group had been stripped to a trio.
“John originally offered a job to Jack and Pete,” says Dokter. “I wasn’t included in this. Eve Boswell’s son was originally going to be the drummer. He did some demos with Pete and Jack but it didn’t work out. I happened to be in one of the sessions and just took over.”
As Kongos recalls, he always intended to employ a Farfisa organ sound on his album so when Clifford, Dokter and Russell took up the offer to record with him, they were joined in the studio by a fifth member, Chris Demetriou (more commonly known as Chris Dee).
Chris Demetriou
Former keyboard player with Johannesburg’s finest R&B group, John E Sharpe & The Squires (see the Chris Demetriou interview page for more information on this band), Cyprus-born Demetriou had appeared on all of The Squires’ classic singles, including covers of The Kinks’ ‘Stop Your Sobbing’ and Paul Simon’s ‘I Am A Rock’, as well as the highly sought after Maybelline album.
“John located me through the Jo’burg Greek club,” remembers Demetriou. “I was invited to his house and the next thing I knew we were planning to leave the country and seek fame and fortune in London.”
As Kongos relates, his plan had always been to return to the UK with a band as soon as possible and use the recordings to secure further work. Looking back on the sessions, he dismisses most of the material as forgettable.
“I had written a bunch of songs and I basically wanted to do demos. I went into the studio with all of the guys and wound up taking that ‘album’ of demos to the UK.”
As events panned out, the band got half way through the recording when Kongos made a proposition: rather than pay the musicians for the sessions, he would cover everyone’s fares to UK.
The as-yet unnamed Floribunda Rose in Jo’burg, May 1967. Left to right: Pete Clifford, Jack Russell, John Kongos, Chris Demetriou and Nick Dokter
Floribunda Rose
According to Russell, it made sense to return home and crack the British market, especially when Kongos had connections in the music industry. “He would have been a fool not to do that,” he says. “He had a contract in his back pocket with Pye and a contract with Maurice King who ran the Walker Brothers among others; it was a stable worth getting into.”
Before setting off by boat in May 1967, the newly formed group posed for some publicity photos in Kongos’s Jo’burg house. Then, a few days’ later, set sail for England, writing and rehearsing material, including the Kongos-Russell collaboration, ‘Linda Loves Linda’, in preparing for the assault on the British market.
Throughout the long journey the group struggled to come up with a suitable name. “I wanted to call it Kongos’s Magic Dragon but [John] wouldn’t have it,” says Russell.
In fact, as the bass player explains, the musicians only agreed on Floribunda Rose on the way to their first gig! Having arrived at Maurice King’s office during their first week in London, the manager calmly informed the musicians that they had a gig the next day and studio time booked a few weeks later.
A second hand camper van was hastily purchased in Earl’s Court and the band set off for its debut gig – a small club in Castleford, West Yorkshire on 14 July, stopping off in central London on route to pick the elusive name.
“John and I walked across the street in Baker Street to a book shop, desperate to find a name for the band,” recalls Russell. “Flower power was at its zenith, so we plumped for Floribunda Rose. A bloody daft name but that was where people were at.”
After a handful of gigs in the north and the midlands, including shows in Tadcaster, Burnley and Tamworth, Floribunda Rose made their London debut at Tiles on Oxford Street on 19 August.
Around this time, the group also cut its debut single under Schroeder’s watchful eye – the poppy ‘Linda Loves Linda’ – supposedly a tale of female narcissism, backed by Kongos’s infectious, and rather Beatlesque, ‘One Way Street’. The plug side, with its ‘Everyone is Loving Everywhere’ lyric, ‘fairground’ organ and free-form ending, chimes perfectly with the ‘peace, love vibe’.
Released in September 1967 on Pye’s Piccadilly subsidiary and the same week that Radio 1 aired, ‘Linda Loves Linda’ benefited from its publicity and was heavily plugged by Tony Blackburn and Pete Murray.
“We were very lucky,” says Russell. “Maurice King was an operator. He knew his stuff and employed a plugger who would go round the BBC with new releases.”
“In those days you had to get on the BBC play-list. We were on the first week of Radio 1. Only three singles a week out of the 80 releases used to get on that, which was fantastic.”
To coincide with the station’s launch, the group recorded a BBC Radio 1 session with Brian Matthews on 25 September for a show that was replacing Saturday Club, cutting new versions of ‘Linda Loves Linda’ and ‘One Way Street’, along with covers of Paul Simon’s ‘Bright Green Pleasure Machine’ and ‘59th Bridge Street Song’. None of the tracks have been released and remain buried somewhere in the BBC archive.
Yet despite getting on to the new play list, recording a live session and having a Juke Box Jury appearance as ‘mystery band’ (on 8 September) and being voted a hit, the single stiffed.
The group returned to the daily grind of touring, often travelling hundreds of miles to play small clubs and sharing the bill with the likes of The Zombies, Dave Berry and Lonnie Donegan to name a few.
“Most of our gigs were up and down the M1 at less prestigious venues,” recalls Demetriou. “We did play some university events and supported more well known acts.”
“There are lots of little funny things that happened with Floribunda Rose,” adds Kongos. “It was really corny actually – attempting to jump on the ‘Flower Power’ bandwagon. We did dumb things like throw out flowers to the crowd at the end of a the gig [which] went down really well in Workingmen’s clubs (not!)
“I think the best thing about the band was that we did really intricate medleys of known songs – a little like Vanilla Fudge, in the sense that the versions were very different.”
Book-ending the year, Floribunda Rose spent a month playing at the Top Ten in Hamburg, grafting for six hours a night to a largely unappreciative crowd. While there, Dokter remembers rubbing shoulders with the musicians that would later go on to form the nucleus of heavy rock band, Deep Purple.
Exhausted, the group drove home non-stop, heading straight for the Scottish Highlands in the first week of January where the first cracks in the band’s precarious line up surfaced.
“We did one [10-day] tour of Scotland [and] that was the last thing I did with them,” remembers Clifford, who left after the final gig on 14 January. “I then flew out from the freezing cold to the humid heat of Durban and nearly died. I had a pair of leather jack boots and a Scottish hiking jacket!”
Pete Clifford returns to South Africa and joins the Bats
Back in South Africa, the guitarist joined The Bats, appearing on the highly sought after Image album (which includes the superb ‘Money Ain’t Worth a Dang’) and also playing numerous sessions, most notably providing bouzouki on Freedom Children’s debut album, Battle Hymn of The Broken Hearted Horde. During the late 1960s and 1970s, he became one of South Africa’s most respected guitarists and continues to tour with The Bats.
“[Pete] and John just butted like rams,” explains Russell on the guitarist’s dramatic exit. “Pete was very experienced. He had worked with some major people. He knew his stuff and was a good guitar player but basically John didn’t want a lead guitarist.”
“Pete Clifford was an incredible guitar player and so was John,” adds Dokter. “They were both very talented. It was good for Pete to actually go on his own and work with The Bats and John had the freedom to do what he wanted to do.”
Kongos has the last word: “Pete was not satisfied with the lack of progress in the band – it wasn’t easy travelling hundreds of miles to little gigs and winding up almost out of pocket at the end of the day. Musically too, it was not satisfying for us because we had different ideas. We got on each others’ nerves and could have been the model for Spinal Tap if we’d made it.”
Nick Dokter departs
With Clifford gone and Kongos assuming lead guitar duties, it wasn’t long before Dokter also bailed. “Nick was married and his wife was getting bored with the difficulties of not making money,” explains Kongos on the drummer’s departure in late February after a 10-day stand at the Nova club in Kensington, West London.
A qualified boilermaker, Dokter briefly returned to South Africa where he worked a day job while playing with various local groups. In the late 1960s, he moved to his country of birth, Holland, and returned to school to study engineering. Turning down an offer to join The Golden Earring, he subsequently emigrated to Canada in 1969.
During the early 1970s, he got back into playing and recorded an unreleased album with 5 Man Cargo, which later morphed in Cross Town Bus. Through this group he met promoter Bruce Allan and ended up working for his agency for nearly two decades, although Dokter did make occasion trips back to South Africa where he played with his old buddy Kenny Henson in his duo, Finch & Henson among other projects.
“Needless to say, being on the road for 20 years, six-to-nine months at a time, took its toll and I became a studio/session drummer,” says Dokter, who retired from playing full-time in 1989 and currently lives in Vancouver. In the summer of 2009, he plans to visit the UK and catch up with Jack Russell, who he hasn’t seen since early 1968.
Scrugg, 1968, left to right: Jack Russell, Chris Demetriou, John Kongos and Henry Spinetti
Scrugg
With Dokter out of the picture, the remaining members returned to London where Russell and Demetriou found themselves caught up in a police raid at their shared flat. “Unbeknown to us, while we were away in Germany and Scotland our road manager had been renting our rooms out,” says Russell, recalling the tragic event.
“People had been using our place as a doss house and these guys had been dealing. We hadn’t a clue the police had been watching the place and we arrived back the morning they hit the place. We were fitted up and forced to plead guilty. We were fined £50 and got front page of The Sun.” (Ed. the incident was reported the Marylebone & Paddington Mercury on its 9 February 1968 issue, page 11).
Putting the loss of Dokter behind them, Russell returned to the Welsh valleys and brought back 16-year-old wonder kid, Henry Spinetti (b. 31 March 1951, Cwm, Wales), younger brother of Victor Spinetti and today Katie Melua’s drummer.
With two weeks’ work lined up at the Top Ten in Hamburg, kicking off on 1 March, the group headed for the continent bearing a new name – Scrugg. “I chose the name because we wanted a more earthy image and I was a fan of Earl Scruggs the banjo player,” admits Russell.
“That was a suggestion that we all made,” chips in Clifford, who believes the name was discussed while he was still a member. “We were all trying to think of a new image and I think I left on the verge of Scrugg because I’ve got a picture of Floribunda Rose and then in brackets it says ‘Scrugg’.”
Under its new guise, Scrugg returned to the studios with John Schroeder to work on the first of three classic singles, which, as David Wells rightly points out in the liners for the John Kongos’s compilation album, Lavender Popcorn, “remain exquisite examples of the psychedelic pop sound.”
Scrugg’s debut outing, released on Pye in April 1968, coupled two John Kongos numbers – ‘Everyone Can See’ backed with ‘I Wish I Was Five’. The latter is undoubtedly the stronger of the two and is notable for Lew Warburton’s stirring string arrangement (based directly on Russell’s bass line) and Demetriou’s moody organ playing, which heightens the tension, building to a dramatic climax. A yearning for the innocence and honesty of youth, ‘I Wish I Was Five’ should have been the side to plug and perhaps not surprisingly the single went nowhere.
Two months later, Pye rushed out a follow up, a cover of Scott English’s poppy ‘Lavender Popcorn’, backed by the Kongos penned ‘Sandwich Board Man’, which the singer says was inspired by said character who he used to see regularly on Oxford Street.
A noted songwriter, English, had serious pop credentials and had scored hits with covers of ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’ and ‘Bend Me Shape Me’, but the group was uncomfortable recording such a blatant teeny-bopper, bubblegum track. The band’s producer, however, overruled any objections and even contributed to the recording by playing piano with a plectrum! “John Schroeder said, ‘You’re doing it’,” remembers Russell. “‘You’ve had two of your own and you’re doing one of mine now, so shut up!’”
Tailor-made for the pop market, ‘Lavender Popcorn’ should have been Scrugg’s commercial breakthrough but like its predecessors faded into obscurity.
Scrugg on stage, left to right: Chris, Henry (hidden on drums), Jack and John
Forced to make a living on the road, Scrugg resumed their busy touring schedule travelling the length and breadth of the country and taking in towns as far as field as Newcastle, Birmingham and Penzance. Debuting on 3 August 1968, the band also became regulars at London’s renowned nightclub, Scotch of St James, returning again for shows on 7 and 14 September and culminating with a two-night stand on 27-28 September. During this hectic period of touring, Scrugg participated in a historic moment in rock history, opening for a “mystery” band of superstars at a show at Sheffield University on 23 November.
“We opened for them and then watched their show,” says Kongos. “We all agreed that these guys would probably not make it because ‘who needed another Cream?’ so we gave them the thumbs down. They were called Led Zeppelin!”
With Zeppelin’s star in the ascent and Scrugg’s future looking bleak, the end was in sight.
John Kongos and Jack Russell on tour in ScotlandClockwise from top left: John Kongos, Henry Spinetti, Chris Demetriou and Jack Russell
In early January, Scrugg’s final single was released and coupled the Kongos’s rave up, ‘Will The Real Geraldine Please Stand Up and Be Counted’ (a song originally recorded for the album session in Jo’burg in 1967), with the singer’s ‘Only George’, a kitchen sink tale about break-up and divorce, introduced by Russell’s freakily distorted vocal.DJ John Peel remained a huge fan and opened his show numerous times during its first week of release but despite the publicity, it failed to chart. Dispirited, the musicians decided to call it a day, bowing out with a two-night stand in Margate, Kent on 18-19 January.
In the aftermath of Scrugg’s split, Kongos went on to establish a successful solo career in the early Seventies, scoring hits with ‘He’s Gonna Step On You Again’ (co-written with Demetriou) and ‘Tokoloshe Man’. He currently resides in Arizona and is preparing material for a new album.
The others meanwhile maintained a less visible, albeit rewarding careers. Spinetti became a top session drummer, working with the likes of Roger Chapman, Bill Wyman and Eric Clapton while Demetriou co-wrote several songs for Kongos’s debut album, Confusions of a Goldfish, and later oversaw recordings for Mike D’Abo and Cat Stevens among others. He currently lives in Esher, Surrey and is a pastor in a local church.
Russell, who gave up playing music in 1969, later ran a successful specialist advertising agency before retiring in 2005. Aside from a brief reunion with Pete Clifford and Brian Gibson where they played at a theatre in Hampton Hill, Middlesex to celebrate Russell’s 6oth birthday, he currently plays solo sets at the Rising Sun pub in Twickenham.
Aficionados can expect to pay hefty prices for Floribunda Rose and Scrugg singles. Mercifully, Castle compiled an excellent CD in 2001 called Lavender Popcorn, pulling together all of the recordings, including the previously unreleased Scrugg track, ‘Patriotic’, although regrettably the BBC radio sessions were omitted.
Despite that small oversight, the CD is recommended to anyone who feels the urge to savour some of the most exquisitely recorded British psychedelic pop.
A huge thanks goes to Jack Russell for his generous assistance in pulling the story together and for offering the use of his private photo collection and live gig list. Thanks also to John Kongos for his insights into the group, Chris Demetriou, Nick Dokter, Pete Clifford and David Wells.
Floribunda Rose: Linda Loves Linda / One Way Street, Picadilly 7N.35408
Scrugg: Everyone Can See / I Wish I Was Five, Pye 7N.17492 Lavender Popcorn / Sandwichboard Man, Pye 7N.17551 Will the Real Geraldine Please Stand Up and Be Counted / Only George, Pye 7N.17656
Floribunda Rose gigs (thanks to Jack Russell for diary dates):
14 July 1967 – Crystal Ballroom, Castleford , West Yorkshire
15 July 1967 – Boulevard, Tadcaster, North Yorkshire
18 July 1967 – Burnley, Lancashire (no venue listed)
22 July 1967 – Brierfield, Lancashire (no venue listed)
4 August 1967 – Crow’s Nest, Tamworth, Staffordshire
19 August 1967 – Tiles, Oxford Street, London
26 August 1967 – The Boogaloo, Crystal Ballroom, Castleford, West Yorkshire (according to the Sheffield Star and Wakefield Express this was with The Magic Lanterns)
29 August 1967 – Luton, Bedfordshire (no venue listed)
2 September 1967 – The Rover, Solihull, Warwickshire
3 September 1967 – Cromer, Norfolk (most likely Olympia Ballroom)
8 September 1967 – Clouds, Derby, Derbyshire
9 September 1967 – Cesar’s Club, Bedford, Bedfordshire (according to the Bedfordshire Times)
15 September 1967 – Tiles, Oxford Street, central London with Simon Dupree & The Big Sound
22 September 1967 – Crystal Ballroom, Castleford, West Yorkshire
23 September 1967 – Majestic Ballroom, Wellington, Shropshire with The Opp Art (Shropshire Journal)
24 September 1967 – Cosmo, Carlisle, Cumbria with Root and Jenny Jackson and The Hightimers
25 September 1967 – Radio 1 recording
29 September 1967 – Wigton Rugby Club, Wigton, Cumbria with Zora Floy’s Machine (Cumberland News)
30 September 1967 – Boulevard, Tadcaster, North Yorkshire (according to the Yorkshire Evening Post and Yorkshire Evening Press, this was with The Flowerpot Men)
1 October 1967 – Clayton Lodge Hotel, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire with The Pink Variety
7 October 1967 – Cleveland Arms, Wolverhampton, West Midlands (according to Express & Star)
12 October 1967 – Penny Farthing, Hanley, Staffordshire
12 October 1967 – Crystal Ballroom, Newcastle Under Lyme, Staffordshire
13 October 1967 – St Helens, Lancashire (possibly The Co-Op)
14 October 1967 – Leicester University, Leicester, Leicestershire
20 October 1967 – Kendall Town Hall, Kendall, Cumbria
21 October 1967 – Royal Ballroom, Ripley, North Yorkshire
22 October 1967 – Cofton Country Club, Birmingham (listed in Fabulous 208 but not in Jack’s gig list)
28 October 1967 – Public Hall, Barrow, Cumbria (The Mail – Millom and South Copeland ed)
29 October 1967 – New Tredegar, Wales (no venue listed)
2 November 1967 – Nottingham (no venue listed)
5 November 1967 – Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire (possibly The Revolution)
7-13 November 1967 – Birmingham, West Midlands area gigs (booked through the Astra Agency) (see below)
9 November 1967 – Kingfisher Country Club, Wall Health, West Midlands with The Californians and The Barmy Barry Show (according to Express & Star)
10 November 1967 – Waggon and Horses, Wall Health, West Midlands (according to Express & Star)
15 November 1967 – Hucknall, Nottinghamshire (no venue listed)
18 November 1967 – Walton Playhouse, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey
December 1967 – Month in Hamburg, West Germany (Top Ten Club on Reeperbahn)
5-14 January 1968 – Ten-day trip to Scotland (see below)
12 January 1968 – Ballerina Ballroom, Nairn, Scotland with The Rebel Sounds
13 January 1968 – Victoria Hotel, Forres, Scotland (Forres Elgin & Nairn Gazette) This is missing from Jack Russell’s gigs
Peter Clifford left Floribunda Rose in Scotland after the final gig and flew to Durban, South Africa to join The Bats
27 January 1968 – Dreamland Ballroom, Margate, Kent with The Amboy Dukes (Russell has this as 20 January but must be mistake)
28 January 1968 – Rendezvous Club, Margate, Kent (Thanet Times) This is missing from Russell’s diary
3 February 1968 – Barrow Public Hall, Barrow, Cumbria with 4th Coming
16-25 February 1968 – Nova Club, Kensington, London
Nick Dokter left immediately afterwards and the musicians brought in Henry Spinetti. At some point the group changed name to Scrugg but did also continue to be billed as Floribunda Rose for some shows.
1-15 March 1968 – Top Ten, Hamburg, Germany
31 March 1968 – Sunderland, Tyne & Wear (no venue listed)
1-6 April 1968 – Sunderland, Tyne & Wear (possibly gigs at various clubs in the area)
7-13 April 1968 – Wolverhampton, West Midlands area gigs (see below)
The following are confirmed from the Express & Star newspaper (and billed as Floribunda Rose):
7 April 1968 – Albrighton WMC, Albrighton, West Midlands
8 April 1968 – Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, West Midlands with The News
11 April 1968 – Essington WMC, Essington, West Midlands
12 April 1968 – Oasis Club, Wolverhampton, West Midlands with The Dunes
13 April 1968 – 3 Men in a Boat, Walsall, West Midlands
20 April 1968 – Mr Smith’s Club, Winsford, Cheshire with T Bunkum Band and The Hideaways (billed as Floribunda Rose)
21 April 1968 – Coventry (no venue listed)
Around about now, they change name to Scrugg
3 May 1968 – ‘Tik Tok’ Discotheque, Grimsby (billed as Floribunda Rose) (according to Grimsby Evening Telegraph) There is another listing in this paper from 10 May that has the group returning to this venue on 12 July, which is missing from Russell’s diary
4 May 1968 – Dorothy Ballroom, Cambridge with Bob Kidman & His Band, The Break Thro’, Jubilee & The Sacremento “B”, Mildenberg Jazz Band (billed as Floribunda Rose)
10-19 May 1968 –Elgin area gigs in Scotland (see below)
13 May 1968 – Two Red Shoes Ballroom, Elgin, Scotland (Northern Scot, Moray & Nairn Express)
24 May 1968 – Victoria Hall, Selkirk, Scotland with Catch 22 (Border Telegraph Galashiels)
25 May 1968 – Miners Wallace Institute, Kirkonnell, Scotland
27 May 1968 – Wall City Jazz Club, Quaintways, Chester, Cheshire with Peter & The Alphabet, The Morockans and The Wall City Jazzmen (Chester Chronicle) This is not in Russell’s gig list
31 May 1968 – Ringway, Birmingham, West Midlands
1 June 1968 – Sheffield, South Yorkshire (no venue listed)
2 June 1968 – Club Cedar, Birmingham, West Midlands
14 June 1968 – Milnthorpe, Cumbria (no venue listed)
15 June 1968 – 400 Ballroom, Torquay, Devon (Herald Express)
16 June 1968 – Jack’s diary says Birmingham 6 Ways but confirmed as Queen’s Beat Club, Six Ways, Erdington, West Midlands (billed as Floribunda Rose; see below too)
21 June 1968 – Eastbourne, East Sussex (no venue listed)
25 June 1968 – Oxford (no venue listed)
29 June 1968 – Queen’s Beat Club, Six Ways, Erdington, West Midlands (billed as Floribunda Rose)
3 July 1968 – Olympia, Scarborough, North Yorkshire with The Minority Soul Sound and The Urge
26 July 1968 – Sunderland, Tyne & Wear (not sure this happened as I have found Scrugg billed to play Steering Wheel, Weymouth on this day)
27 July 1968 – Newcastle (no venue listed)
1 August 1968 – Cromwellian Club, Bolton, Lancashire (Bolton News)
2 August 1968 – Reading, Berkshire (no venue listed)
3 August 1968 – Scotch of St James, Mayfair, London
5 August 1968 – Club Cedar, Birmingham (Birmingham Evening Mail)
10 August 1968 – Sibyllas, Swallow Street, London
11 August 1968 – Abercarn, Wales (no venue listed)
16 August 1968 – Lon Crom (most likely Cromwellian, South Kensington, London)
17 August 1968 – 6 Ways (most likely Queen’s Beat Club, Erdington, West Midlands)
18 August 1968 – Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire (no venue listed)
24 August 1968 – Crom Lon (most likely Cromwellian, South Kensington, London)
7 September 1968 – Scotch of St James, Mayfair, London
8 September 1968 – Ilford, London (possibly The Angel)
14 September 1968 – Scotch of St James, Mayfair, London
15 September 1968 – Playboy, Hyde Park Corner, London
16-18 September 1968 – Wales gigs TBA
21 September 1968 – King’s Hall, Aberystwyth, Wales with The Shakedown Sounds (this is missing from Jack’s gigs and comes from the Cambrian Times but may not be the same band)
26 September 1968 – Cromwellian Club, Bolton, Lancashire with Barbed Wire Soup (Bolton News)
27-28 September 1968 – Scotch of St James, Mayfair, London
29-30 September 1968 – Wales gigs
1-4 October 1968 – Wales gigs
5 October 1968 – Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire (no venue listed)
10 October 1968 – Commall Hebton (not sure this is correct)
11 October 1968 – Penzance, Cornwall (possibly Winter Gardens)
12 October 1968 – 400 Ballroom, Torquay, Devon (Herald Express) It is missing from Jack’s diary but they also play here on 19 October
21 October 1968 – Quaintways, Chester, Cheshire with The Pearlettes, The Elastic Band and Wall City Jazz Men
2 November 1968 – Ilford, London (possibly The Angel)
4 November 1968 – Sibs London (most likely Sibyllas, Swallow Street)
15-17 November 1968 – Scotland dates
23 November 1968 – Sheffield University, Sheffield, South Yorkshire with Led Zeppelin
7 December 1968 – Ilford, London (possibly The Angel)
14 December 1968 – Rotherham (no venue listed)
28 December 1968 – Stage Club, Oxford
18-19 January 1969 – Margate, Kent (most likely the Dreamland Ballroom)
The gig list cuts off here so not sure if there are any others
Grant Smith & The Power, spring 1967, shortly after their formation. Left to right: Brian Ayres, Val Stevens, Charlie Miller, Ralph Miller, Jim Pauley, Mike Harrison, Wayne Stone and Grant Smith
Grant Smith (Vocals) all line ups
Val Stevens (B-3 Organ) line up ABCDEHI
Jim Pauley (Guitar) line up AB
Mike Harrison (Bass) line up ABCDE
Wayne “Stoney” Stone (Drums) line up ABCDEF
Charlie Miller (Drums) line up A
Ralph Miller (Trumpet) line up ABCDEFGH
Brian “Otis” Ayres (Saxophone) all line ups
Jon Palma (Guitar) line up CD
Steve Kennedy (Saxophone, Harmonica) line up DEF
Kenny Marco (Guitar) line up EF
William “Smitty” Smith (Organ) line up F
Sonnie “Jiggs” Bernardi (Drums) line up GHI
Gord Baxter (Guitar) – line up GH
Rick Berkett (Bass) – line up GH
Wulf Stelling (B-3 Organ) – line up G
Ted Stack (Trumpet) – line up GH
Bert Hermiston (Saxophone/flute) – line up GHI
Josef Chirowski (Keyboards)
Frank De Felice (Drums)
Joe Agnello (Bass)
Terry Aubertin (Guitar)
Pedro Cortez (Keyboards)
Pierre Galipeau (Trumpet)
Former Weepers member Val Stevens together with Mike Harrison and the Miller Brothers had been playing with Toronto band Eddie Spencer & The Power when a decision was made on 1 January 1967 to shake up the band.
New lead singer (and former drummer with The Missing Links) Ellis Grant Smith (b. London, Ontario), together with guitarist Jim Pauley from his previous band, E G Smith & The Express and sax player Brian Ayres, who’d previously played bass guitar with Brantford, Ontario groups, The Galaxies, The Marque-Royals and The Beau Keys were brought in.
Two weeks later, another former Express member and second drummer, Wayne Stone joined. Stone had also previously played with London, Ontario band The Sticks and Stones with bass player Jim Laramie before the pair joined Grant Smith in E G Smith & The Express with Jim Pauley and keyboard player Vernon Pickell, who went on to briefly record with the mid-1967 version of The Mynah Birds at Motown before reuniting with Laramie in Natural Gas (with former Mandala singer George Olliver).
The first line-up remained together until mid-1967 and initially gigged as E G Smith and The Power before adopting the better known, Grant Smith & The Power.
Canadian music publication RPM Music Weekly featured a short article and photo of the group in its 10 June 1967 issue on the front page. The article notes the group first started playing at the In Crowd in Toronto’s Yorkville Village.
RPM Weekly article in June 1967
After Charlie Miller’s departure in June, the group went to the United States, now working with only one drummer, and played on the Atlantic Seaboard, including playing at the Number 3 Lounge in Boston.
After returning to Canada, Jim Pauley quit and was replaced by Jon Palma in September. Palma had previously played in The Weepers alongside Val Stevens and Charlie Miller.
The band’s debut 45, a soul version of The Spencer Davis Group’s ‘Keep on Running’ coupled with Smith and Stevens’s ‘Her Own Life’, came out in January 1968 and featured line up C.
Both singles were recorded (with Steve Kennedy on the sessions) at Toronto music mogul, Art Snider’s Sound Canada studios in Toronto. Kennedy, a former member of Diane Brooks, Eric Mercury and The Soul Searchers, joined the group as its musical director in January 1968.
RPM Music Weekly’s 20 January issue notes that the group opened their second US tour in Revere, Massachusetts on 15 January, with follow up appearances in Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago. The first half of the tour was due to end on 9 March and then they returned to Toronto.
The band, spring 1968. Left to right: Mike Harrison (missing), Jon Palma, Wayne Stone, Val Stevens, Ralph Miller, Grant Smith (front), Steve Kennedy and Brian Ayres. Photo used for front cover of their LP.
While in New York in May 1968, Palma left to join Mary Ann Brown & The Good Things and guitarist Kenny Marco, who had played alongside Brian Ayres in The Galaxies, The Marque-Royals and The Beau Keys joined.
Grant Smith & The Power, summer 1968, shortly after Kenny Marco (second left) joined and before Mike Harrison (second right) and Val Stevens (far right) departed
With Marco on-board the group recorded their second single, ‘Thinkin’ About You’ c/w ‘You Got What You Want’ at Art Snider’s Sound Canada studios in Toronto. The tracks were picked up by MGM and released that autumn. (Ed. Stone thinks Jon Palma was the guitarist on these two tracks and not Marco).
In October 1968, Harrison left to join McKenna Mendelson Mainline.
Stevens also left at this point and William Smith, who’d previously worked with The Soul Searchers came in, covering bass on Hammond organ.
November 1968, left to right: Brian Ayres, Kenny Marco, Wayne Stone, Grant Smith, Steve Kennedy, Ralph Miller and William Smith. Photo used for back cover of their LP
Line up F was responsible for recording the bulk of the group’s album on Boo in November 1968, which also included the band’s debut single and a few tracks recorded by earlier line ups.
However, Marco, Kennedy, Smith and Stone weren’t happy with the recording and its reliance on cover material and left in mid-January 1969 to form Motherlode.
Four members of Franklin Sheppard & The Good Sheppards took their place. Gordon Baxter had started out with Kitchener, Ontario group The Counts Royale.
In mid-1966, however, Wulf Stelling, who had played alongside Brian Ayres in The Marque-Royals in the early 1960s, invited the guitarist to join a new band he was forming in Brantford, Ontario that also featured former Jay’s Rayders members Rick Berkett (aka Ric Barker) and sax player Glen Higgins.
After rehearsing for several months with another singer (Larry Lewellan), Stelling’s group was picked up by Franklin Sheppard in October; Sheppard had broken up the original Sheppards following dates in Vancouver the previous month. In August 1967 Sonnie Bernardi joined from Mary Ann Brown & The Good Things and The Sheppards toured the US before splitting in mid-1968.
Franklin Sheppard & The Good Sheppards, August 1967. Left to right: Chuck Slater, Rick Berkett, Glen Higgins, Frank Sheppard, Wulf Stelling, Gordon Baxter and Sonnie Bernardi. Photo: Gord Baxter
Baxter had started to put together a new R&B group in Kitchener when Stelling called him to join Grant Smith in January 1969 alongside Bernardi and Berkett. At the same time, Smith added two more horn players, Ted Stack on second trumpet alongside Ralph Miller and Bert Hermiston on second sax and flute.
Following several weeks of rehearsals at the Hawk’s Nest in Toronto and playing some local gigs, line-up G headed to the Boston area in the first week of May 1969.
Sonnie Bernardi next to gig sign for 30 June to 6 July 1969 at Mill Hill Club, West Yarmouth, Cape Cod. Photo: Gord Baxter
However, Grant Smith soon clashed with Stelling and Val Stevens was brought back into the group around July.
Left to right: Rick Berkett, Ralph Miller, Val Stevens and Gordon Baxter. Photo: Gord Baxter
The revised line-up continued to gig around Boston and the Cape Cod areas before returning to Toronto in August 1969. Smith then briefly disbanded The Power because he wanted a break. Baxter then reunited with Wulf Stelling in The Wulf Pack.
The Wulf Pack, 1970. Clockwise from left: Blake Barrett, Wulf Stelling, Gordon Baxter and Stacy. Photo: Gord Baxter
When Smith reformed The Power as a sextet in September 1969, he retained Brian Ayres, Bert Hermiston, Sonnie Bernadi and Val Stevens. However, the line-up remained fluid throughout 1970 and Smith expanded the line-up again to an 11-piece.
Former member Kenny Marco re-joined during this period as well after Motherlode split up and the group played in Las Vegas at Caesar’s Palace.
Grant Smith & The Power, 1970. Left to right: Brian Ayres, Bert Hermiston, unknown musician, unknown musician, Sonnie Bernardi, unknown musician, unknown musician, unknown musician, Val Stevens and (front) Grant Smith.
During 1970 Bernardi left and subsequently worked with Ronnie Hawkins, King Biscuit and then Crowbar. Hermiston did sessions with Heaven and Earth among others while Stevens formed his own trio before travelling to England in late 1970 and played with Clown, Tucky Buzzard and Steve Hillage’s Khan.
Marco subsequently joined former member William Smith in Los Angeles backing David Clayton-Thomas.
At some point (most likely late 1969/early 1970), keyboardist Josef Chirowski, who’d previously played with The Mandala and The Power Project worked with Grant Smith & The Power briefly. Also, another former Franklin Sheppard & The Good Sheppards member Frank De Felice was a brief member before forming Jericho.
Grant Smith continued to front various line-ups of The Power throughout the 1970s and beyond.
Former Leigh Ashford bass player Joe Agnello recalls playing with Grant Smith & The Power around 1971-1972 before he formed Fullerton, Little and Agnello Group (Flag). He says that former Power member Wayne Stone was on drums alongside guitarist Terry Aubertin and organist Pedro Cortez. He also remembers two trumpet players Pierre Galipeau and a guy called Benoit.
Stone subsequently worked with Johnny Otis in Los Angeles in the early 1970s and then returned to Toronto to play with Dr. Music, a band that had previously featured Kenny Marco and also included Steve Kennedy.
In the mid-1970s, former members Kenny Marco, Wayne Stone and Val Stevens (after he had returned from England) returned to play with Grant Smith in a line-up that also featured sax player Leo Sullivan.
Recordings
45 Keep On Running/Her Own Life (BOO 681) 1968
45 Thinkin’ About You/You Got What I Want (MGM 13979) 1968
LP Grant Smith & The Power (BOO 6802) 1968
RPM, 28 October 1969RPM, 17 March 1969
Selected advertised gigs
5 February 1967 – The Syndicate Club, Toronto, Ontario (formerly Club Isabella) (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
11 February1967 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
18 February 1967 – Gogue Inn, Toronto, Ontario with Franklin Sheppard & The Good Sheppards and The Wyldfyre (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
4 March 1967 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
10 March 1967 – Gogue Inn, Toronto, Ontario with The Five Good Reasons, Dana and Sunny & Peter
24 March 1967 – Avenue Road Club, Toronto, Ontario
26 March 1967 – Avenue Road Club, Toronto, Ontario
9 April 1967 – Crang Plaza, Downsview, Ontario with R K & The Associates (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
14 April 1967 – Club 888, Toronto, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
29 April 1967 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
6 May 1967 – Broom and Stone, Scarborough, Ontario with Luv-Lites and The Tiaras and The Syndicate Five (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
13 May 1967 – Whitby Arena, Whitby, Ontario with Shawne Jackson, Jay Jackson & The Majestics, Bobby Kris & The Imperials, The Last Words, Jack Hardin & The Silhouettes, The Tripp, The Ugly Ducklings, Roy Kenner & The Associates and others (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
2 June 1967 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto, Ontario
2 June 1967 – Annadale Country Club, Pickering, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
9 June 1967 – Don Mills Curling Club, Toronto, Ontario with The One Eyed Jacks
16 June 1967 – Whitby Arena, Whitby, Ontario with James and Bobby Purify, Shawne Jackson, Jay Jackson & The Majestics, Jack Hardin and Stitch In Tyme (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
27 June 1967 – Broom and Stone, Scarborough, Ontario with The One Eyed Jacks and Who & The Blazers
The band travelled to the United States for the summer
6 September 1967 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto, Ontario
23 September 1967 – Club 42, Stratford, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
29 September 1967 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
30 September 1967 – Broom and Stone, Scarborough, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
Grant Smith and the Power RPM 2 October 1967
14 October 1967 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto, Ontario
21 October 1967 – York University, Toronto, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
22 October 1967 – Teddy Bear Club, Toronto, Ontario
10 November 1967 – Club Boogaloo, Chandelier, near Wentworth, Hamilton, Ontario (Hamilton Spectator)
11 November 1967 – Broom and Stone, Scarborough, Ontario with The Taxi
17 November 1967 – Club Shade Blue, Hamilton, Ontario (Hamilton Spectator)
18 November 1967 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto, Ontario
1 December 1967 – Club Shade Blue, Hamilton, Ontario (Hamilton Spectator)
8 December 1967 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
15 December 1967 – Club Trocadero, Toronto, Ontario
22 December 1967 – Club Boogaloo, Chandelier, near Wentworth, Hamilton, Ontario (Hamilton Spectator)
23 December 1967 – Bunny Bin, Toronto, Ontario with Christopher Edward Campaign and The Village Stop
26 December 1967 – Hidden Valley, Huntsville, Ontario
31 December 1967 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto, Ontario
6 January 1968 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto, Ontario
12 January 1968 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario
The band’s second US tour begins on 15 January and concludes on 9 March, according to RPM Music Weekly’s 20 January issue. It also says they will record most of their Boo LP from 11-23 March.
22-26 January 1968 – Buttercup Hill Club, Lunenburg, Massachusetts (Fitchburg Sentinel)
28 January 1968 – Buttercup Hill Club, Lunenburg, Massachusetts (Fitchburg Sentinel)
29 January-2 February 1968 – Buttercup Hill Club, Lunenburg, Massachusetts (Fitchburg Sentinel)
4 February 1968 – Buttercup Hill Club, Lunenburg, Massachusetts (Fitchburg Sentinel)
8 March 1968 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario (may not have happened if US dates correct above)
10 March 1968 – Teddy Bear Club, Toronto, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
17 March 1968 – O’Keefe Centre, Toronto, Ontario with The Hollies and Spanky & The Gang (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
19 March 1968 – Club Riviera, Norval, Ontario with Stitch In Tyme and The Lords of London
20 March 1968 – Civic Centre Auditorium, Brantford, Ontario (The Expositor) Advert says they are leaving for Los Angeles next week but this seems unlikely
23 March 1968 – London Arena, London, Ontario with The Entertainer
24 March 1968 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto, Ontario
29 March 1968 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario
30 March 1968 – Neil McNeil Student Council, Toronto, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
31 March 1968 – Intersection, Windsor, Ontario with The Amboy Dukes (Windsor Star)
RPM Music Weekly’s 20 January 1968 issue says the second half of their second US tour starts on 25 March and ends on 15 June. It looks like the start date may have been pushed back though to early April.
Mid-May 1968 – Trudy Heller’s, New York, USA (Toronto Daily Star)
14 June 1968 – Memorial Centre, Kingston, Ontario with The Varmints and Paper Dream (Kingston Whig-Standard)
16 June 1968 – Broom and Stone, Scarborough, Ontario (billed as E G Smith & The Power and says just back from US tour)
20 June 1968 – Huron Park Recreation Centre, Cooksville, Ontario with The Lords of London, The Five Shy and The Cat (billed as E G Smith & The Power)
21 June 1968 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario
22 June 1968 – Club Commodore, Kawarthas, Ontario
23 June 1968 – Summer Garden, Port Dover, Ontario
25 June 1968 – London Arena, London, Ontario with The Entertainer with The Soul Agents and The Grass Company
29 June 1968 – Balm Beach Danceland, Balm Beach, Ontario
2 July 1968 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto, Ontario
5 July 1968 – BCI, Brantford, Ontario (billed as EG Smith & The Power) (The Expositor)
6 July 1968 – The Cove, Long Beach, St Catherine’s, Ontario (The Standard)
12-13 July 1968 – Sauble Beach Pavilion, Sauble Beach, Ontario (Sun Times from Owen Sound)
14 July 1968 – Summer Garden, Port Dover, Ontario
29 July 1968-18 August 1968 – Tony Marts Somers Point, Ocean City, New Jersey, US with The Shades and The Shadettes, The Aerodrome and The Pop Explosions (Courier-Post/Press of Atlantic City)
24 August 1968 – The Hawk’s Nest, Toronto, Ontario
25 August 1968 – Summer Garden, Port Dover, Ontario with The Federation (The Expositor)
28 August 1968 – The Glenbriar, Waterloo, Ontario with George Olliver & His Children and The Web & Dover Street (Waterloo Region Record)
1 September 1968 – Hidden Valley, Huntsville, Ontario with The Private Collection
10 January 1970 – Pillar Square, Hamilton, Ontario (Hamilton Spectator)
Early February 1970 – Lakeview Manor Hotel, Centennial Room, Kingston, Ontario (Kingston Whig-Standard) Week-long residency; advert says it’s a six-piece
13 February 1970 – Jubilee Auditorium, Oshawa, Ontario
3 April 1970 – Town & Country Palace, Toronto, Ontario (Toronto Daily Star)
13 April 1970 – Town & Country Palace, Toronto, Ontario (Toronto Daily Star) Advert suggests longer residency. Last Canadian appearance before opening at Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas
30 May 1970 – Grange Tavern, Hamilton, Ontario (Hamilton Spectator) Advert suggests long residency
6 June 1970 – Grange Tavern, Hamilton, Ontario (Hamilton Spectator) Advert suggests long residency
13 June 1970 – Grange Tavern, Hamilton, Ontario (Hamilton Spectator) Advert suggests long residency
22 June 1970 – Town & Country Palace, Toronto, Ontario (Toronto Daily Star)
25 June 1970 – Town & Country Palace, Toronto, Ontario (Toronto Daily Star) Advert says it’s an 11-piece
23 October 1970 – Town & Country Palace, Toronto, Ontario (Toronto Daily Star)
Early November 1970 – Choo Choo Stop, Guelph, Ontario (Waterloo Region Record)
21 December 1970 – Grange Tavern, Hamilton, Ontario (Hamilton Spectator) According to article in Hamilton Spectator, 22 December, p36, this is the start of three-week stand
Thanks to Carny Corbett, Mike Harrison, Sonnie Bernardi, Craig Webb, Gordon Baxter, Joe Agnello, Wayne Stone and Grant Smith for their help. Thanks to Grant for some band photos and gig posters.
The source for most of the live dates listed here was the “After Four” section, published in the Toronto Telegram and RPM Music Weekly unless otherwise noted. RPM images courtesy of Ivan Amirault. I’d also like to credit John Mars’s article on Kenny Marco in Blitz magazine, published in 1982.
Splitsound was a Tucson, Arizona label owned by Dan Gates, DJ/Program Director at KTKT and Dan Peters. Splitsound is best known for the Dearly Beloved’s great “Flight Thirteen”, but it also had fine 45s by the Lewallen Brothers, the Buckett City Distortion Rackett and the Grodes.
The Whose Who were actually a vocal group from Dayton, Ohio Des Moines, Iowa. Dan Gates recorded their tracks at Audio Recorders in Phoenix in return for doing background vocals for another artist produced by Gates, Rena Cook.
James Hagerty of the Whose Who wrote to me, “The group was from Des Moines, IA and included James Hagerty, Kathy Mazzola, Darrell Chrystle, and Al Jinx. We came to Tucson to record at the request of a former member of the group, Steve Harris who had recently moved to Tucson. I don’t know how he met Dan Gates.”
Fans of moody pop should dig “Don’t Let Her See You Cry”, written by Grodes vocalist Manny Freiser. The breezy flip, “The Fun We Had” was written by J.J. Hagerty.
Usually Splitsound releases have a catalog prefix “SSDG” with the DG standing for David Gates. The Whose Who was produced by Steve Harris, so it has the prefix “SSSH”, unique among Splitsound 45s as far as I can tell.
any help with this discography would be appreciated!
Splitsound discography:
SSDG 1-1/1-2: Lewallen Brothers – I Think I’m Glad (Cal Lewallen) / It Must Be Love
SSDG 2-2/2-2: Rena Cook (with The Grodes Orch. & Chorus) – Once in a Lifetime Love (Manny Freiser) / The Lovelost (featuring Reggie Arvizu) – Lost Love
SSDG 3-1/3-2: Buckett City Distortion Rackett – I Can See It’s Coming / I Lied (Steve Lewis)
SSDG 4-1/4-2: Grodes – Give Me Some Time / Background of Give Me Some Time (both by Manny Freiser and Rich Cota Robles) (December, 1967)
SSDG 6-1/6-2: Lewallen Brothers – Only A Dream / Somethin’ On My Mind (March, 1968)
SSDG 7-1/7-2: Butterscotch – Your Own Love / Three-O-Nine (Fred Porter)
SSDG 8-1/8-2: Spring Fever (The Grodes) – Sand / Give Me Some Time (June 1968)
SSDG 9-1/9-2: Greylock Mansion – Over My Shoulder / Dedication (1970)
SSSH 1-1/1-2: Whose Who – The Fun We Had (J.J. Hagerty) / Don’t Let Her See You Cry (Manny Frieser).
Max Waller writes about Greylock Mansion that it “was released in 1970 but had been recorded in December 1969 at the same time as the ‘Catafalque’ / ‘Amazon’ pairing that was released first in Jan 1970 on Dynamic Records.”
Shep Cooke? – or is that a mix up with the Rena Cook 45?
Sources include: 60sgaragebands.com interview with Dan Gates.
Thank you to Max Waller for his help with this discography.
top row from left: Beto Perez (bass), Oscar Garza (drums) and Rolando Tanguma (guitar and keyboard) bottom row from left: A. Charles (sax) Simon Reyes (lead guitar and vocals) and ? Garcia (sax)
The Pharaoh label is famous for some great Texas garage 45s by the Cavaliers, the Headstones, the Playboys of Edinburgh, and Christopher & the Souls. Owning none of those pricey records at this time, I’m choosing to feature another side of Pharaoh: Simon Reyes.
His first Pharoah 45 is bluesy pop number with a female backing group and an extended electric piano solo “My Baby Hurts Me”, with a ballad, “Mistake Number Three” on the flip. Simon Reyes wrote both songs and is backed by the Outerlimits.
I haven’t heard his second Pharaoh 45, “Broken Hearted Fool” / “What Now My Love” but I expect it covers similar ground to this one.
There’s not much info out there on Reyes, but he had at least a couple records on Huey Meaux’s various labels, including a very good version of “I’m a Hog (For You)” on Rival, and both English and Spanish versions of “Mama, Mama” on Tear Drop.
Simon’s brother Noe Reyes reports that Simon died in November, 1973.
Jimmy Nicholls owned the Pharaoh label and also a studio in McAllen, TX where many bands recorded, including the Zakary Thaks and Bad Seeds for their early singles. Simon Reyes wasn’t the only Mexican-American crossover artist on Pharaoh, there was also The Cruisers featuring E.J. and Bobby Ledesma.
See the list of releases of Pharaoh Records on this site for more info on the label.
Special thanks to Noe for providing the photos.
Simon and the Gypsies in New Orleans, Simon on the left.Simon Reyes
Gemcor was a short-lived label based out of Bill Bell’s studio on Melrose in Los Angeles. It had one of the coolest label designs of the 60’s. There were only three releases on Gemcor, and two are very well known to fans of garage rock.
One of these is the Rumors 45, “Hold Me Now” / “Without Her”, among my very favorite 45s of the ’60s. (I still don’t have a copy of it. Anyone have a spare?) Another is the common and excellent Beckett Quintet 45, “No Correspondence”.
Billboard, July 31, 1965
The very first 45 on the label is almost unknown, however, with Eddie Burkey performing two of his original instrumentals. “Stepping Stones” is a melange of surf, brass and strings, but Eddie cuts loose some ripping guitar lines here and there. The flip is the lighter “Emerald Shadows”.
It turns out Ed Burkey is credited with arranging the Rumor’s “Hold Me Now”, and actually played lead and rhythm guitar on both sides, including the wild reverbed solo on “Hold Me Now”. That solo alone ensures his musical immortality in my book!
Billboard, September 11, 1965
I’ve read that Ed Burkey played with the Ventures but can’t find any confirmation of that. He did cut three instrumentals for the Downey label that went unreleased at the time, now compiled on the Ace CD “Intoxica! Strange and Sleazy Instrumentals From the SoCal Suburbs”. Two of these are loaded with overdubs and experimental sounds. Interestingly, the third is labeled “Dreams of Downey” but seems to be identical to “Stepping Stones”.
Eddie’s early groups included drummer Jim Lewallen, related to the Tucson, Arizona Lewallen Brothers who recorded for Splitsound Records.
Gemcor discography:
5001 Eddie Burkey – Stepping Stones / Emerald Shadows 5002 Rumors – Hold Me Now (Ben Turner) / Without Her (written by Norman Prinsky, credited to “Richards”) 5003 Beckett Quintet – No Correspondence (Tim Taylor) / It’s All Over Now Baby Blue
Sources include: Norman Prinsky’s article on the Rumors. Billboard mentions Herbert L. Sokol and Walter Nelson as other executives with Gemcor.
Since writing the above summary, I heard from Eddie’s longtime collaborator, Les Roberts, who kindly gave a fuller picture of their music and shared his personal photos:
“Eddie (with my Gibson), my Mom and younger sister”Tony Taylor, Les Roberts and Eddie BurkeyOur business cardAngelus 45 recorded at Whitney Recording, courtesy Jim LewallenLes Roberts onstageThe Del-Tones, circa mid-1970sLes Roberts and Dick Dale
Hmmm, don’t know where to start, except from the beginning!
Eddie was born 1945 in Akron, OH. I was born 1947 in Middletown, OH (between Cincinnati and Dayton). We are not brothers, but might as well have been.
We moved to Downey, CA in 1960. I had been learning guitar for a while and Eddie finally became interested when I learned to played “Bulldog” & “Torque” by the Fireballs. We only had the one guitar and to the surprise and wonderment of family and friends, we were both playing songs, simultaneously on the one guitar. We would switch off on lead and rhythm. It was pretty cool.
December of that year I bought a Gibson Melody Maker solid body ($89.00). Now we had two guitars!
We began playing for friends, BBQ’s and finally a “sock-hop”. Eddie and I were the GoldenAires. By 1964 we had incorporated a drummer (Jim Lewallen) and bass player (Tony Taylor), both from Twenty Nine Palms, CA. They had some connections in 29 Palm and we started getting Friday and Saturday night gigs in the area. Up to and including Disneyland. Most of our music was Ventures, Duane Eddy, Dick Dale, and lots of surf music. He became “Eddie Ladd” and I “Les Roberts”. It was fun, no big deal and we were getting paid to do what was easy! By this time each of us had bought custom made Fender Jaguars and Fender Dual Showman amps. His was Candy Apple Red and mine was Metal Flake Blue.
I had started a carpet cleaning business which was making a lot of money and spent a lot of time involved with that. I knew the Chanteys band members and the Rumblers because of some business I had done with Downey Records, which was run by an interesting individual Bill Wenzel. Bill had a record store, Wenzel Music Town, and in a backroom he had set up a small 6’ x 10’ sound room to record in. He had an Ampex recorder and the local groups would come in for $30/hr to record their music. Eddie had bought an Echo machine (tape loop-like that used by Jordan Ingman – “Apache”) and was doing some great licks. The Rumbler’s even used him in some of their recordings.
at Whitney Recording: (l-r) Tony Taylor, Les Roberts, Eddie Burkey and Jim Lewallen
The studio photo was taken at Whitney Recording Studio in Glendale, CA. around December 1964. Tony Taylor was the bassist. Eddie and I traded lead/rhythm. The studio was a gas! The main studio was almost 50’ x 50’. Great acoustics! At the time our manager, Herb Sokol, was financing the group: recording cost(s), uniforms, musical necessities etc. He had sold Scott Seely (Accent Records) on a recording contract. At the time we had finished recording “Madhatter”, “What He Said”, “Watermelon Man” and “Soundin’ Loud”.
The Goldenaires’ Angelus Records 45, recorded at Whitney Recording courtesy Jim Lewallen
Eddie and I were not yet of legal age to sign contracts, so the matter went to the parents and Herb Sokol. Being the fact Herb fronted the money for almost everything, the contract showed the greater percentage of “artist” royalties would go to him until he had recouped his investment (I thought this was reasonable). The parents did not agree. As a result, even though Scott Seely had already signed the contract, to our dismay, it later ended up being trashed.
Not a big issue with Scott Seely, as he had just signed Buddy Merrill. Man, what talent that kid had! He was recording pretty much in the same manner that Eddie and I was doing (Les Paul-type sound-on-sound recording).
Eddie and I were recording some various songs for “future” work. On a couple visits when I could not make it to the studio, Eddie would start laying down the tracks for “Emerald Shadows” and “Thunderhead”. “Thunderhead” was the song that Eddie later edited and called: “Stepping Stones”. (Years later he renamed it; “Memories of Downey”). I loved “Emerald Shadows” as I was a big Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman fan and thought we could edge our music more toward a “tropical” sound.
A few months later Eddie briefly teamed up with Gemcor Records and released the songs around 1965 (Stepping Stone & Emerald Shadows). Another piece of info: Eddie designed the GEMCOR label. If he was involved in any other aspect with Gemcor, I was not aware of the arrangement.
To my knowledge Eddie never worked for or played with the Ventures. They opened an office in L.A. next door to the Mosrite Guitar business office, where we met Semie Moseley, the owner and shortly thereafter Don Wilson and Jerry McGee (who did keyboard and backup guitar work for the group).
Eddy was drafted in 1965 and I enlisted in 1966. Eddie married his high school sweetheart Karen in 1966, while on leave and before going to Vietnam. He settled down in Monterey, CA after the Army and I, after my discharge, in the L.A. area. Eddie was doing some graphic arts design, I was unsure of what I wanted to do, but not too long after Karen gave birth to Brandon, Eddie and Karen moved down to the L.A. area where Eddie and I started Town & Country Apartment Care – something to finance our waning music business.
One Wednesday night we heard of a night club that had a talent contest and opted to go. The house band (which was country) asked if we would like to go to an after-hours jam. Sure! we said. There we met up with Dewayne [Quirico] (drummer for the Bobby Fuller Four), plus some other well know country entertainers who we ended up jamming with for the rest of the night and many times thereafter. It was as if we were an overnight success! We backed a young lady named Trudy Martin and another gent named Ralph Raymonds.
Within a few weeks we were Trudy and Ralph’s back-up band, along with Paul Crum on flat-top guitar and Bobby Fierro on drums. We became: “Rockin’ Country” and was hired as the house band for a nightclub in Azusa CA. We did this gig with great success, for about two years. Ralph and Trudy went in one direction, Eddie and I in another. We tried some gigs as a Trio but things had changed and the “sound” just wasn’t there. I was offered and accepted a job to go on the road with Dick Dale; Eddie took a job playing lead for Barbara Stanton.
Dick Dale’s producer/manager was a cool gent named Jim Pewter, who was also the producer for Jan & Dean, so needless to say we did appearances together. Dick Dale was under contract to perform in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe, which is what I did up until I realized I was going nowhere. Making great money, but going nowhere! I had moved to Lake Tahoe because it was a reasonable commute between Reno and Las Vegas but had lost track of Eddie. Finally, in 1977 I decided (at 30), I was getting too old for this, and with the approval of my wife, stopped the music business (cold turkey) and went back to college, under the GI bill, finished my degree and took my life into a different direction.
I seldom play music, as I have left that to my two sons, both of whom are heavily involved with the trade. I now live in Madera County, just a few miles from Yosemite Nat’l Park (south entrance), and work as a Safety Consultant for Pacific Gas & Electric Company.
I ran into Eddie in 1983 (in L.A.), he had teamed up with a very talented young lady (Leslie) who played piano, wrote music and they clicked (so to speak). They had a lounge act that lasted for a spell and then, for whatever reason, dissolved. Eddie remarried and to my knowledge still lives in the L.A. area.
Eddie Burkey was one hell of a guitar player, with an imagination to go with it. I have hundreds of hours of recordings, we made between 1963-1974, which I sometime load on the old TEAC and listen. I had pictured him going far, but that was our teenaged dreams.
As I look back, it all seemed to have started with that one song: “Bulldog”.
This site is a work in progress on 1960s garage rock bands. All entries can be updated, corrected and expanded. If you have information on a band featured here, please let me know and I will update the site and credit you accordingly.
I am dedicated to making this site a center for research about '60s music scenes. Please consider donating archival materials such as photos, records, news clippings, scrapbooks or other material from the '60s. Please contact me at rchrisbishop@gmail.com if you can loan or donate original materials
About the time the band was starting to take off – Jay Hausman’s family moved to Nashville, and unfortunately Jay had to go with them. It was hard for the fellas in the band to say “adios” to the guy who’d been the band’s main motivator. However, they soon found a good substitute for Jay in a very talented young kid named Murray Schlesinger, who had been playing rhythm guitar for the Marauders.
So, the band listened intently as Voss read his lyrics and David tried to get a handle on a melody. After a few hours, the basis of the song started to come together. Each young musician developing their role. A few weeks went by with the band honing and refining the songs in practice sessions until they felt they had it down and was as they all envisioned it.
One of the most common band names of the ’60s was the Rogues. This particular group attended prep school at Mercersburg Academy, located southwest of Harrisburg, close to the Maryland state line.
The Changing Tymes came from Philadelphia and cut a great single “You Make It Hard” / “Try a Whole Lot Harder” in 1966. I was struck by the similarity of the opening of the Changing Tyme’s “You Make It Hard” to the 
