The Shandells, from left: Sean Ryan, Joe Stanley, Tom Nyquist, and Tom Blomquist
The Shandells came from Mount Prospect and Arlington Heights, Illinois, adjacent suburbs about 20 miles northwest of Chicago. The Shandells cut one treasured record, “Caroline” / “Mary, Mary” on Sizzle SS-5130 in August, 1965. The label reads “That Fabulous Four Sean, 2 Toms, Joe”. Members were:
Joe Stanley – lead guitar Sean Ryan – bass Tom Nyquist – guitar Tom Blomquist – drums
Crypt Records included “Caroline” and “Mary, Mary” on Back from the Grave volumes 3 and 6, respectively.
A feature in the Chicago Tribune on August 5, 1965 includes three photos of the group in the studio (which goes unnamed, unfortunately), and even quotes a verse of “Caroline” a little different to what was on the record:
The last time I saw her she said to me She’d be mine if I wanted her t’ be I said ah-Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! YA-A-A-OWWW!
The band downplay rock music in the article, presenting a wholesome image.
An article from Arlington Heights Herald notes how they would regularly fill the Knights of Columbus Hall. It goes on to say that Sean Ryan was leader of the group and primary writer of their original songs, and that he was an Irish citizen. He was a senior at Prospect High School.
Joe Stanley also wrote for the group, was a sophomore at St. Viator High and “has a B average.”
Tom Blomquist was class president at Arlington High School, wrote “Caroline”, and also averaged Bs in school.
Tom Nyquist is “lead rhythm guitarist” and a sophomore at Prospect High School.
When they cut their single, the group were 15 years old, except for Sean who was 17.
Thank you to Mikael for alerting me to the photo of the group, and to Mike Markesich for pointing out the articles.
This little known rock club was opened around late June/early July 1967, according to Disc & Music Echo, which noted in its 1 July issue (page 2) that the venue had opened recently. Ginger Baker from Cream and Mike Wilsher from The New Vaudeville Band appeared at the club reception.
One of the earliest dates I have is 14 July 1967 when Carl Douglas & The Big Stampede, The Ford Foundation and The Survivors appeared late in the evening (see poster).
I would welcome any additional information about the club, which was located at 70 New Bond Street, including details of acts that played over the years.
I have found the following and included the sources:
1968
23 January – Jimmy McGriff Quartet (Melody Maker)
24 January – Jimmy McGriff Quartet (Melody Maker)
25 January – Jimmy McGriff Quartet (Melody Maker)
26 January – Jimmy McGriff Quartet (Melody Maker)
27 January – Jimmy McGriff Quartet (Melody Maker)
30 January – Jimmy McGriff Quartet (Melody Maker)
31 January – Jimmy McGriff Quartet (Melody Maker)
1 February – Jimmy McGriff Quartet (Melody Maker)
13 February – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
14 February – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
15 February – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
28 February – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
19 March – Cliff Bennett (Melody Maker)
25 March – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
26 March – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
27 March – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
19 April – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
20 April – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
29 April – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
30 April – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
1 May – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
2 May – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
3 May – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
5 May – J J Jackson (Melody Maker)
12 May – Edwin Starr (Melody Maker)
17 May – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
24 May – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
5 July – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
7 July – Tuesday’s Children (Bob Hodges’ diary)
15 July – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
16 July – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
17 July – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
18 July – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
19 July – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
6 August – Selofane (Fabulous 208)
7 August – Selofane (Fabulous 208)
8 August – Selofane (Fabulous 208)
9 August – Selofane (Fabulous 208)
10 August – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
According to The Stroud News, Gass played Rasputin not long before 14 September
6 September – Tuesday’s Children (Bob Hodges’ gig diary)
7 September – Selofane (Fabulous 208)
8 September – Selofane (Fabulous 208)
12 September – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
13 September – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
17 September – Selofane (Fabulous 208)
18 September – Selofane (Fabulous 208)
19 September – Selofane (Fabulous 208)
24 September – Ferris Wheel (Time Out)
9 October – Ferris Wheel (Time Out/Fabulous 208)
18 October – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
19 October – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
21 October – Cats Pyjamas (Colin Pullen’s gig diary)
15 November – Tuesday’s Children (Bob Hodges’ gig diary)
Here’s a great rocker from Paul Allen. According to his daughter, Paul Allen was born in Kansas City, Missouri and grew up in Little Rock. He later moved to Malvern, Arkansas.
“Cash for Your Trash” has a great wild sound, and the guitar break is top-notch.
The flip is a recitation, “From Viet Nam With Love”, telling his mother not to worry.
This was recorded in Little Rock, Arkansas, the base for the E&M Recording Company, which had a studio there. E&M put out close to 20 singles, including one by the Light Brigade. Rain Music published much of the original songs out of Little Rock, including songs by the Romans.
I notice there sounds like a jump in the track about 40 seconds into the song. I’ve heard it on both this video and also my copy of the 45, so it may be a flaw in the original tape or mastering.
Paul Allen contacted me in 2023, sending me an account of his career, which I’ll excerpt here and answering my questions about the record.
Paul Allen:
I guess you can say it all started on July 4th, 1957. That was the day I traded my horse, “Rex”, along with my saddle to my cousin for a Buescher True Tone, silver alto saxophone. It was a sax that my grandfather had purchased for my uncle in 1926. I played that wonderful 92 year-old sax until I retired completely in 2018.
My grandfather, who had purchased the sax for my uncle Jim, was a true cowboy from the old west who used to help drive herds of cattle to Dodge City, Kansas. He and my grandmother had lived in Osage County, Oklahoma before moving to Kansas City, Missouri.
1957 was also the year that I met the love of my life, Joyce. I was only sixteen and she was only fifteen but knew after knowing her only a couple of weeks that she was the one I would spend my life with.
I played cornet in the high school band so getting started with the sax was pretty easy. Our school band was very small and only had one saxophone player. It wasn’t long before I was playing sax in the band.
I was contacted by Chuck Brooks who had a band called Chuck Brooks and the Sharpies. He had a record out: “Spinning My Wheels” and “You Make Me Feel Mean” on the Dub label. Chuck asked me if I would be interested in playing for him. I was thrilled and, of course, the answer was yes.
I asked him when he wanted me to start. This was on a Wednesday and he wanted me to start that Friday night. He wanted a tenor sax player. I didn’t have a tenor sax; in fact I had never played one. No problem – I borrowed one from the high school and played my first job that Friday night.
Later, I formed a band of my own, “The Fortunes”. The Fortunes consisted of myself, sax, trumpet and vocals; Tommy Taylor, piano and organ; Kenny Davis, guitar; and Pat Gibson, bass and guitar.
We played all over the region. We played the major places like Little Rock Air Force Base, The Top of the Rock, the Skyway Room and others. We moved to the Chicago area where I played on the south side until Joyce and I decided we would be better off to move back south. Sometimes, I played seven nights a week for seven and a half hours each night. I always said, “The only way to have a better edge on your horn than playing six nights a week is playing seven nights a week.”
We lived in the Chicago area during the Viet Nam War. To do something in support of our troops, I wrote a recitation called “From Viet Nam With Love”. I needed a “B” side for the record so I used “Cash For Your Trash”. I had written it after taking some songs to publishing companies in Nashville. It was futile and it seemed to me that they were only looking for trite trash.
The Fortunes were not the musicians on the record. Chuck Brooks played bass on the record. I don’t remember who the other musicians were.
Earl Fox, owner of E & M records had a small recording studio in Little Rock. The song was recorded there and Earl wanted to put it on his label.
When we left Chicago, we moved to Nashville, Tennessee and it wasn’t long before I was working with a group. I was playing a regular “house band” job at the Derby Club. We went next door to audition at the Embers Gourmet Room which was one of the finest establishments in Nashville.
I played several tunes for Bob Carney who was the manager at the Embers and they hired me on the spot. They got me into the Nashville Musician’s Union and made me buy clothes to perform in that cost more than the car I drove to work. I soon found myself doing three shows a night with Roy Hamilton, a recording superstar who was Elvis Presley’s idol.
I also held down a daytime job as Chief Programmer at the Mid South Baptist Medical Center in Nashville. Joyce and I had four wonderful and very young daughters. I quit the job in Printer’s Alley and gave up a pretty sure shot at “stardom”. I have never regretted it for one second. I thank God for helping me realize that I already had everything I needed.
For over fifty years, I went to work with my three tools: my Buescher alto, my Selmer Paris tenor and my trumpet. Commercially, the three horns were an advantage. Musically, I would have been better off to have chosen one and concentrated on excelling with it.
Paul Allen
Thank you to Paul Allen for sending me the account of his career in music.
The Steps Beyond came from Rosebud, Texas, a small town east of Temple. The group cut one signle on Mark VII D-1021 in late 1967 or early 1968. Their version of “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” has a relaxed moodiness to it. The flip is an original song, “Go on Your Way, Girl”, by Holtman, Surovik, Holtman, published by Ramsgate Music.
One member of the Steps Beyond was James Holtman, and the other Holtman on the credits may have been his younger brother Tommy Holtman.
Surovik turns out to be Bruce William Surovik who drummed for Kenny & the Kasuals among others, and who passed away in November, 2006.
An April 11, 1968, a Rosebud News page profiling local teens notes James Michael Holtman “now plays second, or rhythm guitar, in the Steps Beyond, who, by the way, recorded a record a few months ago.”
However, almost a year before, in May of ’67, the Rosebud News wrote “Ray Welch, Alan Pelzel, Steve Slovacek and Fred Borden (The Steps Beyond) made the long trip to Lake Texoma last Saturday to play at a dance”.
To make things confusing, a clipping from April 4, 1968 includes Alan Pelzel and Fred Borden among a list of teens who went to hear the Steps Beyond at the Catacomb Teen Club in Cameron. So were Pelzel and Borden out of the band by the time the group recorded their single?
As Mikael points out in his comment below, it seems the Rosebud News made a mistake, and that Welch, Pelzel, Slovacek and Borden were actually in the Gestures, not the Steps Beyond. The only mention of the Gestures comes from a Waco paper, and I don’t believe they recorded.
The Steps Beyond first news notice, a Hootenanny in March, 1967, with C.J. and the Jewels, Roy Robinson and the Availables, and the Wullables Ltd
The earliest mention of the Steps Beyond I can find is from March of ’67, when they play a “Hootenanny” at the Rosebud school gym with Roy Robinson and the Availables, C.J. and the Jewels and the Wullables, Ltd.
I can find several ads for other Steps Beyond appearances, including June 24, 1967 at the Westphalia Hall, at a Christmas Dance on December 23, 1967 on Main St., and on March 1 and 8, 1968 at the D. Brown Library.
If you have any photos or info on the Steps Beyond other local Texas bands of the ’60s, please comment below or contact me.
At the Katacomb Teen Club on 1st and Houston in Cameron, TX
The Fugitives are a San Antonio band that recorded two singles. Their first, I believe, is “Louie Go Home” backed with an original by Fugitives guitarist David Fisher, “You Know She’s a Woman”, recorded at Alamo Audio and released in the spring of 1967 on Alamo Audio 45-108. “Louie Go Home” made #28 in KTSA’s Top 30 of May 6, 1967.
An article on teens working summer jobs profiled David Fisher as a guitar & banjo teacher at Platter Palace. I don’t know who else was in the group.
The Fugitives had a second single, also from 1967, “Till The End Of The Day” / “Ferry Cross The Mersey” that I haven’t heard yet. Produced by Fisher – Alexander for release on Roun Soun Records 69/70-FK, with the address 5506 Keystone, San Antonio. There was a Roun Soun label out of Houston, but that seems like a different company.
I found an ad for the Fugitives at a “Teen’s Day Dance” at the McCreless Shopping City on May 27, 1967 with the Spidels and Laughing Kind, and also a June ’67 “rock and roll show and dance” at Turner Hall in Yoakum, about 100 miles to the east of San Antonio, with DJ Ricci Ware and a few other bands: the Laughing Kind, the Configurations, the Mad Mods and the Burbons (Bourbons).
Anyone have a photo of the group, or good scans of the Roun Soun single?
More info on the Fugitives or other local bands would be appreciated.
“Louie Go Home” reaches #28 in KTSA’s Top 30, May 6, 1967
Omnibus came from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The psychedelic styling on the B-side, “Take Your Only Chance” led me to think this single was from about 1970, but it seems to come a few years later, 1973 or 1974.
Omnibus members were:
Dan Glasse – vocals and percussion Jeff Morrison – lead guitar Jimmer Pontz – bass, guitar and vocals Kenny Kaye – keyboards, guitar and vocals Biair King – drums and vocals Gail King – vocals and hand percussion
A good summary of the band come from Blair King’s Youtube channel:
Central Pennsylvania’s Omnibus had its origins in 1970, while Jeff Morrison and Jimmer Pontz formed a band called San Juan Hill, playing throughout their sophomore years at Hempfield High School, Kenny Kaye was touring with Store Records’ Geoffrey Stoner Band supporting a regional hit with a reinterpretation of The Bee Gee’s “To Love Somebody” and Blair King, a sophomore at JP McCaskey High, was performing with another local favorite “Exit”.
In February of 1972 the high school musicians were asked to audition for a new band in its infancy. Founded by keyboardist Kaye it also had vocalist Dan Glass, a recent transplant from Nashville, and Gael King, King’s folkie sister.
The band recorded it’s only single “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise” b/w “Take Your Only Chance” on the POT label out of Philadelphia, taping at Virtue Studios under the helm of Central Pennsylvania producer and Pee Vee Records label owner, Pancho Villa.
Omnibus was to be the last act to be signed to the Pee Vee label before the company moved to Delaware in 1974. The 45 single … was a minor regional hit and afforded the band the opportunity to tour in their funky converted delivery truck gigging from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Lowell, MA.
Dan Glass’s name is spelled Glasse on the label of the single. I’ve also seen Blair King as Blaine King, and Gail King instead of Gael, so maybe someone could clear up the correct spellings.
Kaye and Morrison wrote “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise”, which includes harmonica and was designated the A-side. I prefer the flip, “Take Your Only Chance”, written by Glasse and Morrison. Released on Pot Records P-100, a “Farr-Vil Promotion”; it seems to be rare now.
Both songs published by Pan-Vil Music BMI.
Kenny Kaye wrote “Let’s Go Steady” for the Shaynes, who were produced by Pancho Villa (Charles Miller), like Omnibus, but I don’t believe he was ever in the Shaynes.
The Fredericksburg Standard of July 7, 1965 published a photo and profile of the Crossfires, a band that would go on to become the Fountain of Youth.
The Crossfires won seventh place among 78 groups at a battle of the bands at the Surfers A Go Go club in Dallas. They were all students at St. Mary’s School in Fredericksburg.
Gary Itri – bass guitar Gary Jenschke – lead guitar Jimmy Panza – drummer and vocalist Kenneth Molberg – rhythm guitar
Two bands from Dallas won the top prizes: the Green Men, (I believe that would be Johnny and the Green Men) won first place and the Soul Rockers second. The Briks from Denton came in third.
The article notes that the Crossfires were the youngest group in the contest, and placed ahead of the LaVelles. The Crossfires started in March 1964 as the Fugitives, and had guidance from KNAF DJ Johnny Almon.
Although the article states that the Soul Rockers “have cut several best selling records”, I am unaware of any by that group name.
The Crossfires cut a version of Robb London and the Rogue‘s “Who’ll Be the One” / “Making Love Is Fun” on Tower 278 in 1966. I’ve seen a copy with a stamp from the Itri Record Shop in Fredericksburg!
The band relocated to California and with a name change to the Fountain of Youth, had four singles on Colgems. Billboard ran a full-page ad titled “Fountain of Youth has been discovered in Texas” to promote their first Colgems single, “Livin’ Too Fast”.
I’m a big fan of the B-side of their second Colgems single, “Don’t Blame Me (for Trying)” from June of 1968, by a somewhat obscure song writer, Ken Walker. “Day Don’t Come”, the B-side of “Sunshine on a Cold Morning” is also a standout.
Ken Molberg had left the group by the time of their last single. “Witness People” is the only recorded song that the band wrote themselves, by Itri, Panza and Jenschke. It’s one of their best, with a heavier sound than the earlier singles.
The group had a Kickstarter campaign to remaster & reissue their singles on CDR and vinyl, which has some additional info about the group.
Gary Itri passed away in January, 2014.
If anyone has photos or info on any of these groups please contact me. This photo from the Fredericksburg Standard is not bad by microfilm standards, but better quality photos must be out there.
The Gatesville Messenger and Star Forum ran this profile of four groups who competed at a battle of the bands at the Gatesville National Guard armory on January, 26,1968.
The Slow Motions won the event. Members were Ronnie Bond, Marshall Brown, Johnny Moore, Larry Bruton and Larry Hughes.
Marshall Brown, who played drums with the Slow Motions wrote to me with the photo below and the better-quality news clipping at top:
The Slow Motions played in about a 60-80 mile radius of Gatesville in 1967-1968. Usually on Friday or Saturday night we would be playing in Copperas Cove, Belton, McGregor, Hico, Hamilton, Waco, Gatesville or other surrounding small towns.
The Slow Motions played in about a 60-80 mile radius of Gatesville in 1967-1968. Usually on Friday or Saturday night we would be playing in Copperas Cove, Belton, McGregor, Hico, Hamilton, Waco, Gatesville or other surrounding small towns.
Ronnie Bond – Singer Larry Bruton – Rhythm/Lead Guitar Penny Spencer Massingill – Organ Marshall Brown – Drums Larry Humes – Lead Guitar Johnny Moore – Bass Guitar
Most of us moved on after graduating from Gatesville High School. I went onto college and played the drums.
Johnny Moore played around in some C&W bands. Larry Humes went into the Army. He was a great guitarist back in the day. He lives in the greater LA area now.
The Slow Motions and friends at the Gatesville High School 1968 Band Follies. From left: Ronnie Bond (with mic, standing on table), Larry Bruton (guitar), Al Pearce (dancer on stage), Penny Spencer Massingill (organ), Deborah McCoy, Marshall Brown (drums), Larry Humes (guitar), Johnny Moore (bass) and Paul Edwards (boy in silver outfit on far right)
The Rebellions won second place, they were Bob West, Tom Easley, Ernest Ochoa and Bobby Thrasher.
The Wanderers won third, members included Glen Henderson, Richard Schcrimsure (Richard Schrimsher ?), Bruce Arnold and Paul Street.
This was the same Wanderers who recorded “Higher Education” / “I Feel So Blue” on T.R.C. Texas Record Company 2067 in 1966. The record added Ronnie Cole as vocalist and song writer. The Wanderers came from Waco, 35 miles east of Gatesville.
Fourth place went to the Creatives: Jerry Ochoa, Monte Bush, Abel Ochoa, Randal Haferkamp and Nicky Ochoa.
An article announcing the event doesn’t mention the Wanderers, but lists another group, the Relations (Ernest Ochoa, Nicky Ochoa and Jerry Ochoa – no wonder the band name), and notes that the groups are all local.
I don’t believe any of the Creatives, the Rebellions or the Slow Motions recorded.
If anyone has more photos or info on any of these groups, please contact me.
1 April 1966 – Target, High Wycombe, Bucks (Melody Maker)
2 April 1966 – London Welsh Rugby Football Ground, Richmond, west London (Melody Maker)
Image may be subject to copyright
2 April 1966 – New All-Star Club, near Liverpool Street, east London (Melody Maker)
Image may be subject to copyright
21 July 1966 – New All-Star Club, near Liverpool Street, east London (Melody Maker)
10 August 1966 – Oscar’s Grotto, Ilford, east London (Redbridge & Ilford Recorder)
Image may be subject to copyright
15 October 1966 – New Central Ballroom, Aldershot, Hampshire with The Total (Camberley News)
13 November 1966 – El Grotto, Ilford, east London (Redbridge & Ilford Recorder) Played every Sunday
20 November 1966 – El Grotto, Ilford, east London (Redbridge & Ilford Recorder)
Image may be subject to copyright
26 November 1966 – Starlight Ballroom, Boston Gliderdrome, Boston, Lincolnshire with The Original Coasters, Motivation and Ronnie Jones & The Blue Jays (Lincolnshire Standard)
27 November 1966 – El Grotto, Ilford, east London (Redbridge & Ilford Recorder)
24 December 1966 – El Grotto, Ilford, east London with The Worrying Kynd (Redbridge & Ilford Recorder)
Image may be subject to copyright
26 December 1966 – Toft’s, Folkestone, Kent with The Kingpins (Folkestone, Hythe & District Herald/Melody Maker)
1967
1 January 1967 – El Grotto, Ilford, east London (Redbridge & Ilford Recorder)
8 January 1967 – El Grotto, Ilford, east London (Redbridge & Ilford Recorder)
15 January 1967 – El Grotto, Ilford, east London (Redbridge & Ilford Recorder)
22 January 1967 – El Grotto, Ilford, east London (Redbridge & Ilford Recorder)
Image may be subject to copyright
11 February 1967 – The Catacombe, Eastbourne, East Sussex (Eastbourne Herald Chronicle)
Image may be subject to copyright
18 February 1967 – Blue Lagoon, Newquay, Cornwall with The Jaguars (Cornish Guardian)
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
