Freddie and the Freeloaders, from left: Jamie Montana, Bobby Dennis, Fred Prue, Al Roberts, and Dennis BroadbeltThe Volcanoes, Fred Prue at right, the others are unidentified
Updated March, 2022
Left-handed guitarist Fred Prue came from Newport, Vermont, the eldest of thirteen children. His father Frederick Adelbert Prue was also a guitarist, with a record as Fred Prue with Roy Baxter & His Combo – “Don’t Wink at Me” / “Lookin for Joe” (both songs by Prue & George Zorich) on Arctic 45-100 in 1957.
Fred Prue started the Volcanoes, but I am not sure who was in the early lineups of the band. Al Roberts, who had been with the Thunderbolts from Plattsburgh, NY joined sometime around 1964. Prue and Roberts would be constants in the lineups of Freddie & the Freeloaders over the next couple years.
The 1965 lineup of the Volcanoes or Freddie & the Freeloaders seems to have included:
Fred Prue – guitar and vocals Al Roberts – organ Bob Dennis – guitar Joe Seta – bass Dennis Broadbelt – drums
The Volcanoes met Johnny Baylor, probably in New York City while touring. The Volcanoes were among Baylor’s first record productions, their single released on his B&J Records 100 in early 1965.
“Two of a Kind” is a slow weeper with a long dramatic introduction. I prefer the flip, “Someone Like You”, a rocker with swirling organ, a couple good shouts, decent guitar solo and a solid rhythm section. Frederick C. Prue wrote both songs, though Amy Prue told me her grandfather wrote the original version of “Someone Like You”. The red-label stock copy has a different logo at top, and oddly, a second vocal track on “Someone Like You”.
Also in early 1965, the Volcanoes changed their name to Freddie and the Freeloaders, based out of Burlington, VT, but touring constantly. They made another single with Johnny Baylor producing, “Shindig Dance” (Betty Newsome, Eddie Silvers) b/w “Two of a Kind” (written by Fred C. Prue), arranged & conducted by Eddie Silvers.
The only other artist Baylor produced on B and J Records and Baylor Records was Little Dooley and the Fabulous Tears. Baylor would relocate his operations to Memphis, Tennessee, where he started the Koko label in 1966, and would eventually become involved with Stax Records.
Willie Mitchell’s band with Freddie and the Freeloaders in Memphis, circa 1966. From left (kneeling): Willie Mitchell, unidentified, Freddie Prue, and Don Bryant. Top row from left: James Mitchell, six unidentified people, Dennis Broadbelt, and unidentified
The connection with Baylor may have brought Freddie & the Freeloaders to Memphis, where they would cut their next single at Sun Studios. The rockin’ “Patty” is credited to Fred Prue and Gene Simmons, Arkmil Pub. Co., and “The Octopus Song” is by James Mitchell & John Franzese. The initial release was on Crossroad 103/4 out of West Memphis, Arkansas in March, 1966.
Laurie Records immediately picked it up for national distribution as Laurie LR 3334. The single even saw release in Germany on Ariola 18 880 AT.
Freddie and the Freeloaders, from left: Jamie Montana, Bobby Dennis, Fred Prue, Al Roberts, and Dennis Broadbelt
An article in the Nashua Telegraph (Nashua, New Hampshire, not far from Boston) on December 31, 1966 lists the members as:
Fred Prue – lead guitar Al Roberts – rhythm guitar Joe Seta – bass Robert Allen – organ Bob Bennet – drums
Freddie and the Freeloaders from Burlington, VT … have made many records such as “The Octopus Song” and “That’s the Kind of Man I Am.” They were recording in Memphis, Tenn for Laurie Records and came from there [via] the Fred Petty Agency.
Some of their college dates have been at Tufts, Rensselaer and Princeton.
Ranging in age from 20 to 23, the boys, Fred Prue, lead guitar; Al Robert, rhythm guitar; Joe Seta, base guitar; Robert Allen, organ and Bob Bennet, drums, have a style of Rock and Roll combined with rhythm and blues … very much their own.
I could use help identifying the musicians in this photo. Fred Pruce is center.Ad for an engagement at Pal Joey’s Lounge in Somerville, MA, Feb. 13-25, 1967, the band includes Fred Prue, Al Roberts, Joe Seta and Dennis Broadbelt, with an unidentified drummer
A photo from an ad for February, 1967 shows in Somerville, MA includes:
Fred Prue – lead guitar Al Roberts – rhythm guitar Joe Seta – bass Dennis Broadbelt – drums unknown – ?
I am not sure when Freddie & the Freeloaders split up. Fred Prue continued playing music, including Prues Blues. He passed away on February 15, 2020.
Thank you to Amy Prue for the photos & information on her father’s bands.
Thanks also to James for the scan of “Someone Like You”.
There were most certainly not the Volcanoes from Canada, who made “Sympathize” / “Listen to the Clouds” on Sound Inc (and picked up by Sparton in Canada), two songs written by Ron Allan Neilson & Harry Olsen and produced by Getz-Powers.
Also, there were three other Freddie and the Freeloaders acts with records. None of these are related to Fred Prue’s group:
Freddie and the Freeloaders with Fred Halls from Danville, Illinois who recorded on Redd Hedd.
Freddie and the Freeloaders – “Say It” (Freddie W.) / Little Prince & the Freeloaders – “Nursery Love” on M and M 1263 in 1963
Freddie and The Freeloaders from the Baltimore area – “Little One” / “You’re Gone” on Dome SR 4014
1967 lineup, from bottom right: Dennis Broadbelt, Fred Prue, Al Roberts, Joe Seta, and unidentifiedFred Prue at left
The Versatiles were from Mobile, Alabama. They played at The Happening and the Stork Club, among other venues. Members were:
Daryl Huffman – lead guitar, keyboards Jerry Smith – guitar David Smith – bass P.J. Johnston – drums
Darryl Huffman’s distorted tone and wailing lead distinguishes the top side of their first record, “Cyclothymia”. The title refers to a mild form of manic-depression, with lyrics to match.
If released as I’ve read in September 1967, then it was a heavy sound for its time. Of the four songs they released, this was the only one written by the group. The flip is a cover of Brian Wilson’s “Farmers Daughter”.
One unusual aspect about the band is that there seems to be no real lead singer, as they sing all four songs from their singles in unison, both verse and chorus.
Their second 45 on Rickarby, “Somethin’ Like A Man” starts out like “Cyclothymia” with intense drumming and riffing. Huffman plays leads behind the verses, while the lyrics (excerpted below) could be described as anti-war, but seem to me to be more ambiguous:
What is a man? Does he knows what’s happening when he sees, The world and all its atrocities? Yes he does. Now ain’t that something like a man? He only does what he has to, when he can.
What does he do when the world is tilting right? Picks up his gun and he runs to join the fight. Does he know which side he’s fighting for, Or is it just an excuse to join the war? Don’t you agree that he’s something like a man?
Does he know just what to say? Does he get down on his knees and pray? Is he aware of the life that he’ll have to take, To protect his home for his family’s sake? Yes he is. Now ain’t that something like a man? He only does what he has to, when he can.
“Warm In The Rain” has a lighter sound, with ringing guitar notes. Both of the songs on their second 45 were written by Clarence Previto (Tony Previto).
Tom Fortener, keyboard player for Tom and the Tempests sent me this incredible 45 and sleeve and a short bio on the group:
Tom and the Tempests were formed in 1963 by Tom Fortener. Original members were, Randy Debord, rhythm guitar and vocals, Frank Hall, lead guitar, Bill Muncy, drums, Fred Nagle, bass and Tom Fortener, piano, organ. The band was managed by Toms’ Dad, Ray Fortener.
They wrote and recorded “It’s Over Now” and “Play It Cool” in 1964. They sponsored Sunday afternoon dances at GBU hall in Dayton, Ohio. They hired disc jockeys from WING and WONE. A popular promotion there was the Battle of the Bands. In 1965, they played the New State Pavilion, New York World’s Fair in Flushing, New York. They played throughout Ohio and was considered by many the best band in the area.
Tom Fortener
This is a Rite pressing from 1964. Alco’s first two releases were by Sonny Flaharty and His Young Americans, so the Young American Productions credit on the labels of this indicate Flaharty’s involvement. Alco was owned by Arvey Webster on Springboro Ave in Dayton.
Probably best known for backing Mike Ibrahim, The Nitewalkers of Johore Bahru in Malaysia, also backed other singers, such as Milah Hussain and A. Ramlie. With Mike Ibrahim they recorded a number of EPs in the early 1970s that have more of a 1960s feel, one of the heavy variety!
The first three EPs they released all featured one song about Malaysian children’s games, such as “Chong Chong Nai” and “Chok Chok Kundong”. The song featured here, “Bangselebu”, is from there second EP, released in 1971. In 2007 Mike Ibrahim was reported to be preparing a new album.
The Aliens, 1966, from left: Bill Gaunce, Conrad Dedacatoria, John Davis, Robbie House and Rick Hudson
Original bassist Bill Gaunce sent me this early photo of the Aliens. I love the illustration painted on the organ. A couple years after this photo they recorded two 45s, “Love Someone” / “Tobacco Road” on the Telastar label, and “Come Fly with Me” / “Season of the Witch” on the Son of a Witch label. Hear “Love Someone” on the excellent CD, Aliens, Psychos & Wild Things vol. 1.
Here’s the first official band photo taken of The Aliens from Norfolk, Virginia. This picture appeared in Norfolk paper, The Ledger Star, when the Aliens became the house band at the Four Seasons club. We’re all 15-16 years in this pic.
The Aliens played in the 1967 WNOR battle of the bands. There was also an Aliens from Hampton, Virginia which prompted a battle of the bands challenge at Mercury Roller Rink in Norfolk to determine who would keep the name. The Aliens from Norfolk won the battle, but from then on were known as The Norfolk Aliens which had been originally adopted just for the battle of the bands.
The lineup changed in the next few years, this photo is of the original members. Pictured from left to right:
Bill Gaunce on bass Conrad Dedicatoria on drums John Davis guitar Robbie House (front with tambourine) Rick Hudson keyboards
Rick and Conrad asked me to join the band they were forming. Conrad and I “auditioned” Robby House (without his knowledge!) when he was in a band called The Royal Wellingtons. We asked him to join and he did. The Aliens were in a battle of the bands with the Corduroys; Steve Green was the singer/gutarist and really impressed us so we ask him to join. Byrd was a high school friend who basically hung around and sat in enough to eventually be “absorbed” into the band.
Rick Hudson was replaced by Steve Green (guitar/vocals) shortly after this picture and Bill/Claire Sechman (aka Byrd) was added shortly after that. We played at the Four Seasons with this lineup and then I left and formed a band called Quagmire (me on bass, Steve Wilson vocals, Nick Kepics guitar, and Russell Scarborough drums). In ’68-’69 we were a fixture in downtown Norfolk’s seedy bars, most notably The Jamaican Room where we were house band for a short time.
The Aliens expanded their lineup to include Nick Bonis (keys) and PooNeil [Gayle Hollowman] on vocals. With Doug Coward on bass they had their recording lineup. Doug has passed away, Nick Bonus still plays and is the bass player in a band called Big Fun, which coincidentally had Quagmire’s old drummer Russell Scarborough playing with them until just recently. Robbie House still gigs around town doing acoustic stuff, Steve Green is playing bass and guitar in Nashville.
I played live until 2004. Now I write and record my own stuff & I’ve put out a few CDS with my music. I’m getting ready to release a cd of Americana flavored music & the songs are scattered about on my site at www.billgaunce.com.
Bill Gaunce
Later photo of the Aliens, from left: John Davis (Spazz), Pooniel (Georgia Randall or Randell … not sure about spelling), Steve Greene behind Pooniel, Doug Cowert in back (not sure about spelling R.I.P), Morgan Hampton (previously Conrad), Byrd (William Sechman R.I.P), Nick Bonis, and Robbie House. Submitted by the estate of Joanne Tluchak, Virginia Beach
This photo was found with another by the East Coastmen – could there be any connection between the two?
JP suggested I feature this unreleased group from Columbus, Ohio, with the odd name King Clam and the Marine Band. The band recorded four tracks in 1969 that went unreleased at the time. JP said: “These four garage-psych-punk tunes are too hot to handle to just leave them die and rot in the dust!”
My two favorites are “High Strung Woman” and “Inertia” their six-minute tour de force.
I didn’t know anything else about the group until I heard from guitarist, songwriter and leader of the group, Terry Bell:
I am Terry Leigh Bell, the lead songwriter and singer of King Clam. I’m in white shirt. The photo was late 1968, however, in January of 1969, as lead singer and songwriter, I parted ways with the three fellows in the photo and formed a solid garage/rock band which included:
Terry Leigh Bell – rhythm/lead guitar and lead and harmony vocals Mike Wright – vocals and percussion Andy Kowalski – bass Danny ? – drums Mark ? – keyboards
The band got together as all Ohio State University students. All of us were “hippie” types by this time indulging in whatever. We played around a lot in 1969, particularly at and around Ohio State University.
The band played around Columbus and went in to Musicol Studios in Columbus in June of 1969 and laid down four original tracks. I remember when we laid down the four tracks at Musicol, the owner really liked the songs and said they were some of the best he ever recorded to that point, particularly in that style. Our four songs were never released except for some acetates. We never shopped them around to record companies and in hindsight, maybe we should have.
The band was together as a performing and recording band from January 1969 till December 1969 when we all graduated from OSU and went our separate ways.
In the 70s, I had a 4 piece folk group like Crosby Stills and Nash and we played around Cleveland quite a lot as Morningstone. In the 80s, I released two singles on my own label, Down The Road Records (published by Down The Road Music-BMI) sort of in an acoustic rock sound, “Heartburn” & “The Way That I Do”. I hired a music promoter out of Nashville to plug the songs to radio stations but they never hit critical mass. They got a lot of airplay down south and particularly Florida. We played out of Nashville for a while then back to Cleveland.
Currently, my partner and I are playing and recording under the name: The Sages, and our free music download site is www.thesages.net.
There are sadly no photos of the band. I have tried to contact some of the members but they seem to have disappeared or gone out of state.
Terry Bell
These songs are so good, they deserved a proper release on vinyl – and as of May 2014, three of them have been! Now Sound Records has pressed 300 copies on blue vinyl in a color sleeve with expanded notes on the back cover. Order them through nowsoundrecords.nl
The Factree, from left: Rick Gauthier, Chris Smith and Mike WeaverAs the Factory, 1967
Like the Sinners who I profiled last week, the Factree came from the Niagara region of southern Ontario.
Guitarist Chris Smith spoke to me about the group and shared his incredible collection of photos and memorabilia along with a CD collecting the band’s music.
There are some great unreleased songs. The early “Who I Am” was written by bassist Rick Gauthier and drummer Mike Weaver and recorded in Chris Smith’s garage. Chris lets loose three incredible buzzing guitar passages, one after each chorus. Rick’s bass lines lock in with Mike’s drumming for a solid backing rhythm. It must have been a great sound to hear live.
Another self-recorded song was Chris’s original “Blue Shades”. The vocals boom from a distance over rolling drums and a repetitive guitar and bass vamp to give an eerie effect. Chris provides another cutting solo.
There are two versions of another Chris Smith original, “Something Called Love”, and they make for a good comparison. The demo recorded at a Timmins, Ontario radio station has a cool bizarre ending not used on the Sparton 45 version, which is tighter and has good use of echo.
Mike Weaver and Rick Gauthier wrote the other side of the Sparton 45, “Kaleidoscope” which may be the culmination of their heavy sound, from Chris’ dissonant opening riff to the psychedelic lyrics and trippy middle section. After a great sludgy solo, Rick’s bass slows to a final Hendrix-inspired lick enveloped in echo. More than any Canadian or U.S. music of the time, “Kaleidoscope” reminds me of the hard-driving rock being cut by English groups like Tomorrow and the Pretty Things.
The Factree postcardThe Tree postcard
By 1969 the band was going by an abbreviated name, the Tree, and cut one last 45 for Michael Addario’s Canland Records label, a loose, catchy version of the Electric Flag’s “See to Your Neighbor” with Mike Weaver’s drums and the rough vocals standing out. It was backed with a Creedence-style version of Suzie Q.
Left to right: Rick Gauthier, Chris Smith and Mike Weaverfrom left: Mike, Chris and Rick
Chris Smith, RCA Studios, 1968Mike Weaver, RCA Studios, 1968Rick Gauthier, RCA Studios, 1968from left: Rick, Chris and Mike
McIntyre Arena, May 19, 1969
Chris Smith answered some of my questions about the group:
I started playing guitar at age 14 like most my age after seeing the Beatles, we figured that’s cool. There were several groups before the Factory. – the Mercy Beats (’64/’65 – there might have been a bigger band with this name, we were just kids in my garage singing Beatles songs); the Spyders (’65/’66 – British rock); the Executioners and the Silencers (’66 – both pop rock); the Moddels (’66/’67 all the cool mod songs and blues); & the 13th Floor (’67 – Doors, Vanilla Fudge etc).
Q. When you joined the Factree they were still known as the Sinners, is that correct? Or was it started as a completely new band?
The Sinners had nothing to do with Factory. Mike and Rick were playing with the Mood – they broke up. I was playing with the 13th Floor. We were looking for a singer and got ahold of Rick to jam. Rick came out but was really only interested in me as a guitar player and wanted to stay with his drummer Mike, so he asked me to jam on our own. This was around ’66 / ’67 – Hendrix, Cream, etc, three man was in, so we wanted to go in that direction.
We came up with the name The Factory. We later changed it to Factree, later our fans kinda shortened to the Tree. The joke was we decided to Fac off. We were about half original, the rest Cream, Hendrix, usual acid rock stuff of the era. We were friends with the Spartons, The Sinners, The Night Walkers, many others, also friendly rivals of everyone – that’s just the way it was.
I wrote “Something Called Love”. We were messing with our garage recordings on a bunch of stuff. The garage recordings were done using two Phillips stereo recorders, Shure PE58 mics one on bass amp, one on guitar, overhead and snare and kick mikes. Run through a Shure mixer, vocals added on during mix. The reverb is the hallway that led to my basement, no processors at that time. I ran 100 feet of cable from the garage, we sang into the PA in the garage, sent it to a speaker in the hall, mike at the other end back to the recorders in the garage. With such long cables no low impedance, no balanced feeds back then, it’s a wonder the noise isn’t too bad considering. That was my start as a engineer for sure.
Pete Borbolli was the DJ friend of the Mood who recorded them on their 45, “Who Do You Love” and “Train’s Late”. He moved to Timmins and asked us to come up. The radio station was old school had real nice full studio for big band era stuff. We recorded “Something Called Love” and some other stuff there. We played a couple of large dance concerts up there hosted by the radio station.
Pete really flogged the music and it was on the playlist and did #1 in the Top Ten. We had a loyal following there and lots of promo and hype to boot. The demo did lead to the RCA contract.
The RCA sessions were a big thing for us small town boys in a real big studio in the big city Toronto. Everything was done in a few hours, we got there around noon and the studio closed at 5:00 so out the door we went. We managed to get it down, so all was good.
The RCA Sparton 45 was promoted by the company and did get considerable airplay at the time so we were happy. The first single on Sparton was to be followed by the second two songs we recorded that day – yeah we did four. It was unfortunate the masters were damaged before the second release was pressed.
We had a falling out with the producer so we decided to [go with] Canland, a friend who had a small music store and some recording gear in a back room. The Canland recording was more home brew and didn’t get the distribution of the RCA 45. It did keep us current and we had product to promote so the live scene was very successful for us.
Q. Regarding the vocals, were you singing lead on your songs and Rick and Mike singing together on ‘Who I Am’ and ‘Kaleidoscope’? How about ‘See to Your Neighbor’, which sounds very different than any other vocal by the band?
Yes, you are right about the vocals. I mainly sing lead on my own and the same for them. “See to Your Neighbour” was sung by Mike.
Q. Can you recall your setup as far as your guitar sound on the recordings and for live shows? You get a great variety of distorted tones on your leads – were there particular combinations of pedals and amps that you preferred?
The Timmins set up was a ’64 Gibson SG and Kimberly Fuzz made in Rochester, NY plugged directly into an Ampex tube mixer then direct to recorder. The garage stuff was Telecaster/SG and Kimberly through a Bandmaster. My set up at RCA was a ’61 Telecaster and ’66 Bandmaster, Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face. The Canland Tree stuff was Ace Tone Wah, Fuzz Face and Marshall Plexi.
Live, my main Factory/Factree/Tree set up was the Ace Tone Wah, Fuzz Face gradually discontinued in lieu of straight over-driven guitar through the Marshall. For the arena rock and halls I used a Marshall and Bandmaster with Sykes cabinets and a Traynor Roto Master Leslie (“I’m a Man” kinda sound). The guitars ’61 Telecaster, ’64 Gibson SG, later ’66 Burns Nu Sonic, ’67 Rickenbacker. The fuzzes evolved from the Kimberly, Zonk [John Hornby Skewes’ Zonk Machine], Fuzz Face, to none. The Ace Tone Wah most of the way in fact I still have it but haven’t used it in years.
Q. Did the group end with Mike Weaver’s sudden death?
Mike was from the club era and wanted to go more commercial away from acid rock, high school & dance concert stuff, so by 1970 we started play more hotel circuit stuff. I wanted to carry on my concert style and didn’t like the club scene on the road – too many nights in the same spot doing stuff I didn’t like. So I left the band.
They continued for a few months when Mike had his first heart attack. He was off a few months then back at it, he became ill again and died a few months later. Either way that was end of the band. Rick finished with another drummer and guitarist but it was over quick.
With the Spencer Davis Group at the McIntyre Arena in Timmins, May 19, 1969. Back row: Spencer Davis, Chris Smith, Rick Gauthier, unidentified. Front: unidentified, Ray Fenwick (?), Mike Weaver. Can anyone help ID the other members of the Spencer Davis Group at this time? Are these still Pete York and Eddie Hardin, or Dee Murray and Nigel Olssen?
Q. In one of the clippings by Kevin Scanlon he writes that there was a deal with Island Records in the works – what happened with that?
The Island thing never went much beyond the rumor. Spencer Davis was talking about trying to set something up but they were pretty much defunct after our couple of gigs. We were hopeful to go to England and pursue the mission, but our own problems and lifestyles, change in direction and factors I discussed before – well it just didn’t happen. As a recap this inability to keep moving toward larger venues ultimately led me to leave my own group.
When I moved on I allowed Mike and Rick to continue as Factree again. Since the begining I was the leader and as such was paid double and had 50% control of any vote issues as well. Just because I was unhappy with direction, I felt I would let them carry on.
Q. What was your next project?
I was playing my thing with Padlok (heavy ’70s rock, half original) – see my web site www.kingoftheattic.com for details, samples and photos.
I haven’t got much to say about M. Yubi & Dizzy Inspiration because I don’t know much. By the look of the chaps on the cover I would say that this was recorded in the late 1960s.
The song “Dendang Seloka” invites all young men and women to dance and be happy and not worry about things too much, otherwise they will just bring themselves pain. The other songs on the EP are ballads.
“Dendang Seloka” is credited on the label for composition and lyrics to Dizzy Inspiration. I have no doubt that they wrote the words, but the music has more than a passing similarity to the Standell’s “Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White”. Female Malaysian singer Kamsiah M. Ali also recorded a song titled “Dendang Seloka”, but it is totally different lyrically and musically.
The Sinners, clockwise from top left: Al Bartok, Mike Weaver, André Germain, Jack Schaefer and Ritchie Gauthier
André Germain writes about his bands from Welland, Ontario, a short distance from Buffalo: The Sinners, Evan Hunt and the Capris and The Penny Illusion. Demos he recorded with the Sinners now seem to be lost, unfortunately. The Sinners evolved into the Mood, who cut a tough version of “Who Do You Love” for the Cove label after André had left the band.
The Sinners (1965-1966)
Ritchie Gauthier (aka Ritchie Stringer): vocals/rhythm guitar Mike Weaver: drums/back-up vocals Al Bartok: bass (later replaced by Glen Boscei) Jack Schaefer: keyboards André Germain: lead/rhythm guitar (later replaced by Dave Pine)
Jack Schaefer and I playing our Kents at Davis Hall (Fonthill) for a frat dance, 1965. (John Whittaker on drums)
In 1964, one of my younger frat brothers was taking guitar lessons and he could chord along when we’d have a drinking party and get to singing songs such as “Lemon Tree”, “Tom Dooley” etc., as long as he had a music book with the chords and notes in front of him. Unfortunately he had a “tin ear” and could not even tune his guitar properly. Already 22 years old, I bought a cheap $20 Kent plywood acoustic guitar with “shotgun stringing” (really high and tough action) with the intention of learning a few basic chords so I could tell him the chord changes as we sang. Didn’t take long for me to get hooked on the guitar. Blisters on the fingers of my left hand, blood on the fretboard, until finally I developed thick calluses.
I borrowed my friend’s Kent solid-body electric guitar and his Paul amp when the frat rented a cottage for a couple of weeks in the summer of 1964. As luck would have it, we got “raided” by a rival frat from Pt. Colborne. These guys came in and smashed everything including the Kent and the Paul amp. One of my frat brothers got his nose broken when struck by a tire iron and another had a wicked bruise on his shoulder when another guy hit him with a small crowbar.
Fortunately, my friend’s parents’ home insurance replaced his guitar so I got to keep the broken Kent. I bought a piece of mahogany and carved another body for it, fitted the neck and the pickguard with its electronics to it and ended up with a decent playable guitar. I bought Ventures and Shadows and other guitar-based records and wore the grooves off of them trying to learn instrumentals such as “Apache”, “Walk, Don’t Run”, “Sleepwalk”, etc. This guitar played a lot easier than my cheap flat-top. Another one of my frat brothers who was into electronics added an input jack to our old Westinghouse (5-watt all tube) hi-fi so I could play the guitar through it. Nothing fancy but it worked.
I took to hanging out at the Melody Shop, a neighbourhood music store owned and operated by Tom Wright. Tom, in his late 40’s, let me take various guitars off the wall and play them through whatever amps he had in store. Sure was nice to have such access to pro equipment for free…
The Sinners
One fine day in the spring of 1965, a couple of weeks after having been laid off from Atlas Steels, as I was sitting in the living room of our family’s apartment playing my Kent, two young guys showed up at the door. They introduced themselves as Ritchie Gauthier and Mike Weaver, musicians whose band had just broke up and who were looking for a lead guitarist for a new band. Tom Wright had given them my name. They told me that they were planning on doing Top 40 material such as the Beatles and Rolling Stones, etc. They invited me to a practice at Mike Weaver’s mother’s house if I were interested. When I told them I didn’t even have an amp, they told me they’d have one for me to use. So, I agreed.
A couple of days later, I grabbed the Kent and off I went walking across town to Mike’s house. When I got there, they introduced me to Al Bartok, the bass player. Played a Fender P-bass through one of those Ampeg flip-top all-tube amps with a 15″ speaker. Ritchie Gauthier was the lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist and Mike Weaver was the drummer/back-up vocalist. These guys were all a few years younger then me, in their late teens.
Mike and Ritchie played some 45’s on a portable record-player and explained what parts they expected me to play on any given song. Graced with a decent “musical ear”, I had no trouble picking up on the simple chord patterns and the lead fills of most of the pop songs of that era. Most were 3 or 4 chord structures in C, D, E, G or A. And so I was drafted into the band.
My Burns Nu-Sonic, 1965
Of course, one of the toughest things a band back then was faced with was coming up with a good catchy name. We bandied a few monikers around and finally settled on one I suggested, “The Sinners”. We then reworked an old gospel tune, “Sinner Man”, giving it a rock beat, and made it our theme song. “Sinner man, where you gonna run to, sinner man, where you gonna run to, sinner man, where you gonna run to, all on that day?!!”
It took two or three weeks of practice to work out enough songs to be able to play a gig. Our song list included such hits as the Rolling Stones’ “Time Is On My Side”, “Walking The Dog” and “Get Off Of My Cloud”, Fontella Bass’ “Rescue Me” which Ritchie sang in a high falsetto, the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There”, Sam the Sham’s “Wooly Bully” and Sonny and Cher’s “Everyone’s Gone To The Moon”. Ritchie and Mike let me take the 45s home so I could work on the guitar riffs and everything was coming together really well.
That’s when I decided I needed to get a “real” guitar and amp. I went to the Melody Shop and asked Tom what kind of a deal he could do me. He’d just gotten a sunburst Gibson ES-330 in trade and offered it to me for $250 with HS case but at the time, that wasn’t my idea of a R&R guitar. Hate to think what that guitar would be worth today! Tom then pulled out a glossy folder advertising a line of guitars out of England. Well, the UK was big news back then with the British Invasion just taking off in N. America! The guitars were the Burns of London line. Already a big fan of the Shadows, how could I resist? I had Tom order me a transparent orange/red NU Sonic. It listed for $325 but Tom sold it to me for $250 with faux alligator case thrown in. I also bought a new Harmony H-306 all-tube amp off of him. 12AX7 pre-amp tubes and push-pull 6V6’s for the power section, footswitchable “Normal” and “Tremolo” channels, single 12″ Jensen speaker, putting out a hefty 15 WRMS. So, in the immortal words of the Bard’s Julius Caesar, the die was cast.
We played a few high school and teen dances and were going over pretty good. There were a lot of high school frats and sororities around at the time and they often held dances to raise funds. A lot of these dances took place at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Lincoln St. W. in Welland. We played there quite a few times. The Rose Festival Committee of Welland hired us to play a big dance at the Welland Arena where two stages were set up, one at each end. The Spartans, another local band, occupied one stage and we the other. We alternated sets.
One of the highlights for me was when Rick Hales who was president of the Welland High & Vocational School Dance Committee hired us to play a Valentine’s Dance in February 1966 at WH&VS, my old alma mater. At another high school dance (Eastdale Secondary School) Al broke a string on his bass during the first set and had no replacement. He made do with the remaining 3 strings but as soon as the set was over (about 9:40 pm) we phoned Bill Nitranski, owner of Central Music. Bill had been building up his music store business over the previous few years and was one of those really nice guys who trusted everybody. He’d rent out equipment such as P.A. systems just on your promise to pay when you brought the stuff back. When we described our plight to Bill, he jumped in his car, drove back to his store which had closed at 9 pm., got a replacement string and delivered it to the high school auditorium where we were performing, all this within 15 minutes! By the time we were to go back onstage, Al’s bass had the new string on it.
After a few weeks Ritchie and Mike suggested we should add keyboards to the band. Right off, I suggested my good friend Jack Schaefer. Jack had taken accordion lessons for 10 years, classically trained, and won 1st. place in one of those kids’ talent shows that were popular on TV back in the late 50’s. The guys agreed to give him an audition. I called Jack and explained to him he’d have to buy an electric organ and an amp if he were to make it into the band. He said that wasn’t a problem. He immediately went out and bought himself a Hohner organ and a huge Gibson Atlas amp with 15″ driver. Jack had an excellent ear and picked up on our songs in no time. Fit right in. Only trouble was that he liked to play everything flat out full volume. Wasn’t long before I had to upgrade my amp just to be heard. Tom Wright at the Melody Shop told me his friend Grant Carson of The Country Diamonds, a local C&W band, was trading in his ’63 Fender Bandmaster for a Fender Dual Showman so I got the Bandmaster at a good price.
On the Road
Two members of the Inferno 5+1 in front of Club 23, Cornwall, Ontario
Neil Peart, the famous drummer for Rush, describes in his book “Road Music” how he spent a lot of time in his youth at the Lincoln Curling Center grooving to live bands. There’s a good chance we were one of those bands because we played there a few times in 1965. Around this time, we were approached by Mike Addario, the bass player for The Marquis, another local band. Turns out Mike was trying his hand at being a booking agent/manager as well as a recording engineer. He soon got us a full-week gig at a teen club in Cornwall, Ontario. This caused a big shuffle in the band. Al’s mother wouldn’t let him go with us to Cornwall for that gig. We got Glen Boscei to take his place on bass. Jack Schaefer had just gotten a job as a teller at the CIBC in Welland and wasn’t about to jeopardise a burgeoning banking carreer so he opted out of the band then too.
So off we went on a hot August Sunday morning, Ritchie, Mike, Glen and I, with all our gear in a rented U-Haul trailer hitched to the back of Ritchie’s father’s car, to the bus station in St. Catharines. After waiting 4 hours for our bus, we ended up missing it because, having been given wrong info, we were on the wrong loading platform. The Greyhound company ended up having to re-route an Express to Montreal through Cornwall to accommodate us. That was a long day. We’d gotten to the bus station at 8 a.m and didn’t get to Cornwall until 1 am that night. The owner of the club where we were to play had been notified of the bus change and had patiently awaited our arrival. He helped us load our gear aboard a taxi and sent us off to a motel room he’d booked for us. I still have a very vivid memory of stepping off the bus and gagging as the rotten cabbage smell of the town’s air hit my nose. Cornwall’s main industry at the time was a pulp and paper mill and anybody who has ever been in the vicinity of one of those will know what I’m talking about here…
After a bad night’s sleep and a greasy restaurant brunch, we loaded our gear aboard a taxi and went to Club 23 to set up. We were to play from Monday through Saturday, 8 p.m. until midnight and also a matinee from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. on the Saturday where we shared the stage with Wee Five, the band that would be playing there the following week. This was mid-August and Cornwall was in the midst of a heat wave. The club had no A/C so it got hot in there when the local teens filled the place. Ritchie kept tossing back cold drinks in spite of my warnings and by Thursday evening, lost his voice! All that was coming out of him was a croak. Good thing Mike and Glen were able to take up the slack or we’d have been sunk. Between sets, Ritchie helped Mike write out the words to the songs he and Glen would be doing and that got us through the rest of the week. Meanwhile I developed some kind of intestinal infection and suffered bad stomach cramps most of the week and lost about 10 pounds by the time Saturday night came along.
So, that was my introduction to “the road”, and it was enough to convince me this was not the life I wanted, as much as I liked playing music. Our agent, Mike Addario, was supposed to call us and tell us where we’d be going from there, what gig would be next, but by the week’s end we still hadn’t heard from him. Finally, on the Sunday, we phoned him and he told us we could stay put there at the motel (at our cost!) and he’d be sure to find us another gig. Well, I told the guys I was heading back to Welland while I still had change in my pocket. They had a confab and decided that was the smart thing to do so we packed our gear and took the next Greyhound home.
Recording and leaving the band
Mike Addario had set up a rudimentary recording studio in his parents house’s basement and called his company “Canland Recording”. There, we recorded two songs, our original version of “Sinner Man” and “Ten Dollar Woman”, a tune penned by Glen our bass player. Mike did a decent job of the recording with what little he had to work with and the finished result sounded pretty good. Unfortunately, when he tried to register the songs with ASCAP, the B side, “Ten Dollar Woman” was turned down because its content was considered too risqué. The song was about a prostitute who was too expensive for a cheap would-be client (a five-dollar man). I asked Mike Addario if perchance he still had the master tapes of the Sinners songs we recorded but he said they got lost a long time ago, more’s the pity.
It was around this time that I was really getting into the acoustic guitar and folk music, spending all my time trying to learn Tom Rush and Gord Lightfoot tunes. This pissed off my fellow bandmates who were getting ready to go back to Mike’s studio to record another song for the B-side of our record. One day a friend of mine came along and told me he’d just gone by Glen’s house, heard the band practicing and wondered why I wasn’t there. I walked over to Glen’s and sure enough, I could hear the band but nobody’d told me about a practice… I knocked at the door but nobody answered (probably couldn’t hear me over the instruments) so finally I just walked in. Mike, Ritchie and Glen looked mighty sheepish when I appeared. They had a guy playing lead guitar so it was obvious I was being replaced. Mike and Ritchie mumbled excuses about me bing a “folkie” and not fitting in with the band anymore. So that was that! The new lead guitarist introduced himself as Dave Pine. I’d heard of him and knew he was good on his instrument as well as being a fine vocalist, so I wished the guys well and walked out of there.
Some months later I heard that the Sinners, now called “The Mood”, had gone back into Mike’s Canland Studio and recorded the B-side with Dave Pine singing a rendition of “Who Do You Love” [Released b/w “Train’s Late” on Cove Records, produced by Pete Borbely]. And then, the next thing I heard was that Dave had left the group and headed to Toronto to seek his fortune. Over the years, he headed a couple of jazz/R&B groups up there and managed to make a decent living with his music. Then late one night after a gig, he wrapped his car around a tree and suffered some major injuries. He was in a coma for a while, touch and go, and never fully recovered from the accident. He spent the remainder of his life in a wheelchair and died a broken man a few years back. Tragic!
After Dave left the Sinners, Glen soon was out of the picture as well. Ritchie switched over to bass guitar and Chris Smith, a young guitarist out of Port Colborne, took over as lead guitar. The trio changed their name to Factree and later, Tree. They played locally and released a couple of singles. And then another tragedy. Around 1971, the newly-wed Mike Weaver collapsed on stage in the middle of a gig. His doctor recommended at least a month of rest but Mike was back at his drumming within a week. Shortly thereafter he collapsed again but this time, it was fatal. He left behind a young wife and a baby. Sad…
Evan Hunt and the Capris between sets at the Night Owl, from left: Bob Lightheart, Andre Germain, Evan Hunt, Ron Bovine and John Lane. Photo courtesy Ron Bovine
Evan Hunt and the Capris (1967-1968)
Evan Hunt: vocals John Lane: drums Bob Vida: bass (soon replaced by Ron Bovine: bass/back-up vocals) Bob Lightheart: keyboards/back-up vocals André Germain: lead/rhythm guitar/back-up vocals
Meanwhile, about a year after losing my job with The Sinners, another knock at my door. The man introduced himself as Mr. John Lane, manager and agent of a local band, The Capris. He explained the band had just hired Evan Hunt as singer/frontman. Evan had been vocalist for The Liverpool Set, a Canadian “British Invasion” band which had had fair success in the States doing Beatles and Byrds tunes as well as some original compositions. Mr. Lane said he was ready to do anything it might take to make the Capris a successful band. Tom Wright from the Melody Shop had again recommended me. I explained that I’d sold all my gear. Mr. Lane said that was ok, that I could use his son’s gear. Turns out he was firing his one son who had been playing lead/rhythm guitar for the group because he wasn’t cutting it. His other son John Jr. was the drummer for the band. I asked him to give me a couple of days to think it over.
The next day, Evan Hunt and John Lane Jr. both showed up at my door and begged me to come and try out for the band. So, that’s what I did. I used Mr. Lane’s son’s Gibson Firebird and his Ampeg amp for the audition. Right off, after a couple of songs, one of which was Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth”, the guys in the band wanted me to join. I said OK and that was that.
As luck would have it, the very next day, as I was contemplating going to Tom’s music store to purchase a guitar, I got a call from the guy who’d bought my Burns after I left the Sinners. He explained that his band had just broken up and he needed money so wondered if I was interested in buying the Burns back. Of course I jumped at the chance, especially since he was giving it back to me at half the price for which I’d sold it to him!
Up until the time Evan and I joined the band, The Capris had been a pretty “square” band, not hip at all, the guys wearing these preppie dress pants and off-yellow cardigans over white shirt and tie. Mr. Lane explained how he wanted “his boys” to be neat and professional looking. Well, Evan and I told him that just didn’t cut it in 1967! Ok for a polka band maybe, but definitely not for a Rock band!. The “Hippie Revolution” was in full swing and all the wild psychedelic clothing was de rigueur for any would-be hip band. Even The Beatles had forsaken their mod suits, grown their hair long and were wearing sandals and beads. Finally, Mr. Lane caved to our arguments and off we went shopping for wild outfits. Mrs. Lane asked us to pick out material, took our measurements and fashioned us each a pair of groovy bell bottoms. Black slip-over leatherette vests completed the outfits. Evan was the only one in the band with shoulder-length hair, however…
While all this was going on, we were rehearsing almost daily, striving to learn enough top 40 material to play a gig. Songs by The Beatles, Paul Revere and The Raiders, Tommy James and the Shondells, Jefferson Airplane, etc. Soon, Bob Vida, the bass player, decided this was not his trip and wanted out so we got Ron Bovine to take over on bass. Ron worked right in and the band, now called “Evan Hunt and the Capris”, came together and clicked.
Mr. Lane was holding up his part of the bargain and got us some gigs, highschool dances, teen dance clubs etc. in the Niagara penninsula. Evan was the consummate showman on stage and knew how to work the audience and we soon built up a following. When we played the Niagara Falls Youth Center, there were at least 800 teens in the audience and some of the girls, screaming in frenzy, were actually trying to get up on stage to get at Evan. So this was the bigtime (even if the money was still smalltime…)!
And then one day Mr. Lane announced he’d booked us into The Night Owl in Toronto! This club was THE happening place. It was the venue where the Loving Spoonful played when they came to Toronto. In fact, John Sebastian of the Spoonful had composed a harmonica tune, the B side of one of their 45’s, entitled “Night Owl Blues”, named after that club. This place was famous. We were to play 3 nights there, Thursday through Saturday. We rented strobe lights and extra electric gear, a couple of amps etc., to round out our stage gear so that we’d appear pro enough to fit into that venue. We couldn’t afford to rent a place to stay in Toronto for the 3 days so we travelled to Toronto and back, 90 miles each way, in Evan’s ’65 fastback Mustang and John Lane Sr.’s Crown Vic, before and after each gig, getting home at 3:30 a.m. after playing until 1 a.m. We had good crowds all 3 nights at the Night Owl and the audience responded well to our performances. It was starting to look like our careers as musicians, as a band, were about to take off…
Then reality set in.. After we finished up on Saturday night, packed all our gear in the rental U-Haul trailer and headed back to Welland, when came time to get paid, John Lane told us we each owed him $10! Say what???!!! We’d just played a prestigious club for 3 nights, played our hearts out, spent hours travelling back and forth between Welland and Toronto, to find out we’d done this for nothing? No, worse than nothing! All that work and effort and we were each in the hole $10! At the time, music, the band, was my only livelihood. Typically I expected to earn at least $100 to $150 for a 3-night gig. Evan, Bob and Ron were just as taken aback as I was at the news we’d just worked for nothing. John Lane explained that he’d booked us in the Night Owl for next to nothing in order to “open doors to greater things”. Well, possibly it was a good business move but we felt we should have been privy to this decision as it directly affected us. Had we been consulted with the facts, we might have agreed to the terms although I doubt that would have happened because, especially in Evan’s and my case, we were relying on the money from our gigs to live on. We had no other source of income. John Lane owned a motel and was financially secure. His son John Jr. lived at home with his parents and didn’t have to worry about starving. So, for that matter, did Bob and Ron. I didn’t have the $10 to give John and neither did Evan. Mr. Lane told us he would take it out of the money from the next gig but Evan and I conferred and then told him to go to hell! We told John Jr., Ron and Bob that we were leaving and would form our own band. Bob and Ron decided to stick with us and that’s when we found another drummer, Jeff Burgess, to replace John.
The Penny Illusion, from left: Bob Lightheart, Ron Bovine, Evan Hunt, Jeff Burgess, André Germain
The Penny Illusion (1968)
Evan Hunt: vocals Jeff Burgess: drums/back-up vocals Ron Bovine: bass/back-up vocals Bob Lightheart: keyboards/back-up vocals André Germain: lead/rhythm guitar/back-up vocals
We changed our name to “Penny Illusion” (I came up with that name out of disillusionment after being cheated out of our fair pay for that Night Owl gig). We managed to find a few decent paying gigs over the next couple of months but it was tough trying to keep things together, being our own agents/managers/bookers. We somehow got hooked up with a smooth talker, a rep from Top 10 Agencies in Toronto who lived in Pt. Colborne. He promised us the world and delivered nothing. The Penny Illusion never recoded anything, we weren’t together long enough to get that together.
Bob Lightheart and Ron Bovine had both graduated from highschool and were faced with tough career choices. Their parents were pressuring them to get into further education, college or university. The music business, after all, was very chancy at best. Come the fall of 1968, both of them wisely chose to go on to university and that was the end of that band. I’d managed to get hired as a casual worker for Canada Post in late 1967 and in October 1969 became a full-time employee and gave up the music business.
Evan went on to sing for a couple of other local bands while getting work driving a delivery van for a local bakery to support his wife and newborn son, Evan Jr. A while later, another son came along but by then I’d pretty well lost track of what was going on with the lives of the ex band members.
Al Bartok, the Sinners’ original bass player, to the best of my knowledge never played in another band after leaving the Sinners. He came down with meningitis in 1991 and was being treated at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton at the same time that Jack Schaefer, the ex-keyboardist for the Sinners who had pursued a successful career in banking, working his way up to Manager of a business branch of the CIBC in Hamilton, was being operated on for a brain tumour. Al died at the age of 44 on the day Jack was released from the hospital. Then later the same year, after having undergone painful radiation and chemothereapy, Jack also gave up the ghost at the age of 47, leaving behind a wife and two teen-aged children.
Glen Boscei, the bass player, had always had some “issues”. He was later diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia. He lived his life on meds which helped control the disease but at times, when he “went off the meds”, he was not a pleasant person to be around. Finally, a couple of years ago, he allegedly knifed a man in Welland, was thrown in jail and died mysteriously “of unknown causes” there in his cell a couple of days later.
Ritchie Gauthier played in a few bands in the 1970’s and later started his own roofing company, I believe. He retired a few years ago and moved to North Bay.
Evan Hunt died in British Columbia at the age of 59 in 2005. Ron Bovine completed university and became a pharmacist. I have no idea what happened to Jeff Burgess and Bob Lightheart although I suspect that Bob may have taken over his family’s dry-cleaning business.
In the early 70’s some friends and I got together and formed a folk group, “Tobacco Rudy.” We played on weekends at local coffeehouses for a couple of years until the other guys in the band decided to change the format to rock and go off on the road.
I had gotten married in 1971, planned on starting a family and was still working for Canada Post so no way I was going off chasing rainbows. So, I was out of a gig again. I took a hiatus from performing for a few years. I quit Canada Post in 1979 because of an old back injury which came back to plague me. After an ill-fated canoe manufacturing venture, I put the word out and managed to get work playing lead and bass in various local country, country-rock and classic rock groups from 1982 until 1995. Since then, I’ve gotten back into folk music and perform at local coffeehouses periodically. I also get together and jam with a couple of old friends once in a while.
Early September, 2009, the members of Tobacco Rudy had a re-union here at my house along the lake. The only one not present was our drummer, Jim Acursi.
Of the original Sinners, Ritchie Gauthier and I are the sole survivors.
The Other Half at the Greenville Country Club, from left: David Heath, Alex Bauknight, T A Tredway and Carroll Grant. Not pictured: Phil Sudderth.
It’s not often I hear unreleased songs that catch my attention as these two by the Other Half, a quintet from Greenville, Texas, about fifty miles NE of Dallas. “Severance Call” has excellent harmonies over a solid rhythm, fast bass runs, and a good guitar break without effects. “Lost Everything” is even better, as Phil Sudderth sings in as rough and gravely a voice as I’ve ever heard over staccato guitar chords.
Bassist and vocalist T A Tredway sent in the photos, music and story of the band:
We started The Other Half in Greenville, TX in 1965. T A Tredway (bass guitar, vocals), David Heath (lead guitar, vocals), Carroll Grant (rhythm guitar, vocals), Phil Sudderth (lead vocals, tambourine) and Alex Bauknight on drums.
I had been to a band practice and really didn’t know anyone in the band (don’t think they ever played a gig). Started talking to some people in the band and was asked to come back to listen to the next practice session so I agreed. I was not a musician, just fooled around with a six string with a little folk music. Come to find out at the next practice the band decided to break up. I started talking with David and Phil and said why don’t we just start our own band, half kidding … but we started thinking seriously about it. I was 24 at the time.
David (age 17) was the drummer and Phil (age 18) sang but there was a young kid, Alex (age 14), who wanted to play drums so David decided he would play guitar and we would look for a lead guitar player. After a short time not being able to find a lead suited to what we wanted to do, David decided to play lead and we decided on Carroll (age 21) who had been to a couple of practices would fit right in.
David is the tall lanky kid playing the Gibson hollow body and Carroll is playing the Fender to the right in the pics. I was playing a metalic blue Mossrite Ventures bass all the time in the band. David and Carroll changed to a sunburst Gibson 335 and a Gibson cherry red 330E, respectfully, with Super Beatles and I had a Vox Bassman amp with two speaker cabinets. We had four Vox line speakers run through a 50 watt Bogen amp for our speaker system.
Phil Sudderth, David Heath, T A Tredway and Carroll Grant; hidden is drummer Alex Bauknight
We were really in to The Rolling Stones because Phil sounded just like Jagger. We all loved and performed almost every song on their first 3 albums, “Round and Round,” “Little Red Rooster,” “You Can’t Catch Me,” “Route 66” etc.
We started getting jobs playing sorority and fraternity parties from ETSU in Commerce, renting our own halls in Greenville, and playing any benefits when we could. Through word of mouth, sororities at SMU heard about us and we started getting offers to play for them.
I think while playing one of those parties some one recommended we check on this club at Lovers and Greenville called Louann’s. So we went there, auditioned and got to play there shortly after. Louann’s had been a big band venue and decided to change to rock and roll. Then she asked us if we would consider being the house band during the summer of ’66 and later asked if we would continue to be the house band in ’67 which we also agreed to do. It was a great experience. We played Buffalo Springfield, Yardbirds, Beatles, The Who, Mamas and Papas, The Byrds, Sam and Dave, just about anything during those years but the Stones music was our mainstay. More than one person told us that we sounded better in person than The Stones sounded in person.
In ’66 I think it was we recorded two sides at Robin Hood Brian’s in Tyler, TX. I wrote the songs along with Phil and David. They always got great response when we played them live. We had some acetates done at Seller’s studio in Dallas and I still have one of the 45s. They got a lot of play on KGVl in Greenvile and quite a bit of play by Ron Chapman at KLIF in Dallas.
In ’67 Phil joined the army under suspicious circumstances and we were left without a lead singer. We found another guy from Greenville, Matt Tapp who sang with us for a while but it never was the same. We broke up late in ’67 and I haven’t seen or heard from anyone since then until a few weeks ago I got an email from Carroll who now lives in Sandy, Utah. It sure has been great talking about the fun we had in the 60’s with The Other Half.
T A Tredway
Update, December 2010
T A sent in a live set by the Other Half, recorded on reel to reel during a dance at the Greenville Country Club during the mid-60s. The set leans heavily on the Rolling Stones: four originals plus “Around and Around” and “Cry to Me”, and the rest are by the Beatles, Kinks, Animals and Them, along with some US hits like “Little Latin Lupe Lu” and “Mustang Sally”. I’m including a few here:
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
The 1965 lineup of the Volcanoes or Freddie & the Freeloaders seems to have included:
The Volcanoes met Johnny Baylor, probably in New York City while touring. The Volcanoes were among Baylor’s first record productions, their single released on his B&J Records 100 in early 1965.
The Versatiles were from Mobile, Alabama. They played at The Happening and the Stork Club, among other venues. Members were:
