The Ascots hailed from the northern Detroit suburb of Pontiac and lasted from 1964 to 1967. The members were between 14 to 16 years old at the time of recording their only single. Frat Records/Watkins Music is the band’s own label-publishing arm. The 45-rpm/7” has no catalog number; the numbers noted on the label are the matrix codes noted in the run-outs and pressed at Columbia’s Detroit plant. Columbia pressed records for smaller labels, such as fellow Detroit imprint, Hideout. The single was recorded in August 1965, but released in April of 1966. Both sides of the single received airplay on Detroit’s WXYZ-FM and Ontario’s CKLW-AM. The band was managed by Jim Baranowsky, who also managed fellow Detroit teen-rockers, the Kwintels.

Chris Chappell — vocals
John Neff — lead guitar
Dale Kath — rhythm guitars
Bob Pelmear — bass
Frank Giglio —drums
Jim Steil — bass (replaced Pelmear; doesn’t appear on the single)

John Neff and Bob Pelmear from the Ascots would later regroup, along with the brothers Joe and Paul Felice, to form the Tribe. Signed to Punch Andrews’s Hideout Productions (who oversaw Bob Seger’s career, as well as the early Detroit bands of the Eagles’ Glenn Frey), the Tribe issued Neff’s second-composed single, “Maple Street Park,” recorded at Ralph Terrana and Al Sherman’s Tera Shirma Studios. The Tribe soon changed their name to Pavement, prior to their 1968 break up.

Dale Kath formed the harder-edged Electric Blues Band while John Neff formed the Toad and the Mushroom; the latter recorded but never released an album with Elektra Records; acetates of those sessions aired on local Detroit radio. While EBB opened shows for the MC5 and Bob Seger, T & M opened the Detroit stops of Fleetwood Mac and the Spencer Davis Group.

John Neff’s later career featured award-winning partnerships with Walter Becker of Steely Dan and filmmaker David Lynch, as well as producing the Arnel Pineda-era catalog of Journey. In addition to appearing on 200-plus R&B and soul singles cut at Detroit’s United Sound in the early ’70s, he toured as a guitarist for country cross-over artist Hoyt Axton, proto-metalers Steppenwolf, and ’70s one-hit-wonder country rockers, Redeye.

Dale Kath worked steadily on the Detroit scene into the early ’70s with the house bands Danny and the Zeltones and White Heat. White Heat’s Johnny Heaton was formerly with the West End. You can learn more about Danny and the Zeltones as part of our exploration of the career of the Coronados.

There are no images or online audio available for the releases by the Tribe and the Toad and the Mushroom. The Pontiac Ascots are not be confused with the 29 other Ascots that released local and national singles in U.S. during the mid-to-late 1960s.

Sadly, we lost John Neff in December 2022. You can learn more about his successful, post-Detroit career with an extensive, January 2023 obituary by Clive Young at Mixonline.com. You can also learn more about  his BlueBOB project with David Lynch at Wikipedia, and his film career in composition and sound at the IMDb.

Article written by R.D Francis.