My First Band

[papajohn]

Brian, been meaning to ask you. Do we know each other and if not, how do we know the same people? Sounds like we travelled the same circuit.
John

[brian]

.......The Technics were another 'Surf' Band, Last seen playing in Weymouth during the last Century ! Joe (lead Guitar) passed away around 2004. Tommy (Drummer) still playing. Harry Sandler, of the 'Mods' & later Orpheus, now playing with 'New Orpheus' (Ba da da da....). Any Memories of the Chessmen? Victor Moulton of the Barbarians has a new band , and lives in Abington. The Birches riot had the Weymouth Police in full riot gear trying to break up those 'out of control' hippie types !!! Is it possible that the 'Beach Boys' played Weymouth fairgrounds ??

[papajohn]

Yes, I remember the Chessmen! We shared the stage with them at a block dance at Immaculate Conception School parking lot the night before Ronnie Papa was heading off to boot camp and subsequently off to 'Nam. Mark Papa went on to form another band whose name I can't recall and later bought the Four Seasons in Plymouth. I met "Moulty" Moulton at a recent gig we were doing in Plymouth. No mistaking that hook! Hey, did you ever play at the Cove in Hingham? Used to be our stomping grounds back in the day. Two bands every Friday night. "Stepping Stones" "Pineapple Pillows", The Futz" "The Attic", "Ashbury Park Society", Cascades". "Cascades" had a 45 out with the song "Jaynie". Typical 60's bubblegum rock but they were the first band I knew personally that "had a record out".
Sorry to hear about the guitar player from the Techniques passing on. I remember seeing them at a function in Quincy back in the late seventies. They were playing as a trio; guitar, keys, and drums. The guitar player had a doubleneck; six-string and bass. I thought that was the coolest thing. I actually went on to get a double-neck 6/12 string after seeing him with one.

[brian]

....We played the "Cove" in Hingham, backing up 'The Cascades', and also played Dreamwold, The Rexicana, and CYO's in Germantown, Quincy & at Archies in Braintree..... (leave room for the Holy Ghost !) ;D Played a 'Battle of the Bands' at Quincy Armory where Chas Bean sponsored us. The gave us a WALL of Traynor amps.....we had to stand in front of the stage because the amplifiers took up the entire stage ! People in Hyannis could hear us !! Any memory of 'The Pilgrims' or the 'Four Muskateers' ?

[papajohn]

Wow, talk about some time tripping! Definitely remember the Rex and Dreamwold. Opened for "Second Society" at the Rex. They just released a 45 of their version of "Runaround Sue". We shared the stage with a band called "Forum" at Dreamwold. They covered The Shondells "Crimson and Clover". They somehow managed to get that tremelo effect on the vocals but i never did find out how.
Saw the Pilgrims at a place called the Stairway in Brockton. I think I also saw them and the Four Muscateers at the Surf but that memory might be little fuzzy.
We had Orpheus and the Nazz(Todd Rundgren's old band) at Weymouth North.
Seems I recall a lot of coffe-house type gigs back then. I vividly recall one in Marshfield. I was playing a Vox Super Lynx Deluxe. Basically, a 335 with strat pickups. Halfway though the second set, the pu screws fell out and the bridge pickup fell into the body. Some kid I never met before went home and brought back his Tele and gave it me to use for the rest of the night. World sure was a little different back then.
Funny you mention the CYO gigs. We seemed to be playing an awful lot of them. They used to do block dances at the one in E. Weymouth. I got to meet so many great musicians and got to play so many great gigs at those dances. It wasn't for those CYO dances, this conversation wouldn't be happening! There were some great times back then.
Keep those memories coming, boy. This is fun!
John
Almost forgot. I was playing with the Jimo Claflin Band in Scituate for a few years and met Barry Tardashian(sp) from Barry and the Remains. I guess he still lives in Scituate. The Remains opened for the Beatles at Shaefer Stadium back in the late sixties. I bought their CD after I met him. Truthfully, they were great and I couldn't understand why they never got huge!

[roy]

Mar 8, 2010 17:25:47 GMT -5 brian said:

Hi Guys ! Be sure to check out myfirstband.com . I know that for Sylvan, the Florida Bands will bring back a Host of memories ! I am listed in the Massachusetts Bands (Conquered Grape).

[roy]

Het you guys remember the "First Stop"? We were a Cream cover band that play Holbrook and the infamous "Combat Zone" bars in Boston. We were connected to WMEX when they were a rock station. Our 3 piece combo was hot!

[brian]

I Think that I may have seen your band in Canton. What kind of gear did you play ? Did you ever get paid for the 'Zone' gigs ? Very Dark Neon Lit Rooms.........BUT WHAT A VIEW !!!!!

[brian]

Worst place that I've ever played: 'The Beacon' , across from the old Rexicana in Marshfield.... The owners girl friend asked us to play 'Sonny' by Bobby Hebb, every twenty minutes...the more she drank, the more she asked...very Painful, indeed !!!!

[papajohn]

"Worst place that I've ever played: 'The Beacon' , across from the old Rexicana in Marshfield.... The owners girl friend asked us to play 'Sonny' by Bobby Hebb, every twenty minutes...the more she drank, the more she asked...very Painful, indeed !!!! "

I remember a gig in Rockland a few years back where some drunk blond kept asking us to play anything by Madonna. After about twenty requests I asked her if she saw any blonds with big t**s on stage! She stopped asking.

One of the worst gigs was at a place called the Balcony in the Harborlight Mall. There was reason why they called it the Balcony. You played on a balcony on the mezzanine with a glass wall in front of you. Hit a note, bounced of the glass and came right back at you.The dance floor was under you and behind. Couldn't see the people you were playing to and the crowd couldn't see the band. The stage was so small the drummer had to sit in the hallway behind the stage. Not one of the best gigs but probably not THE worst. I'll have to think about that. I think it might be one involving a little too much alcohol and some vomiting during a song but I'll have to get back to you on that.
John

[Blues Dues]

REQUEST:

There will be no vomiting allowed on the Re-Tunes Stage.

John ... you should stop by when you can. New place is ready ... stage is done.

RCE

[papajohn]

Jun 25, 2010 4:54:04 GMT -5 Blues Dues said:

REQUEST:

There will be no vomiting allowed on the Re-Tunes Stage.

John ... you should stop by when you can. New place is ready ... stage is done.

RCE

You can count on that, Richard. I predict it's going to be a very successful place. Looking forward to jamming with you.
John

[brian]

...was lucky enough to see Barry & the Remains, the Cyrcle & the Ronettes open for the Beatles at Suffolk Downs in August 1966....truly a religious experience ! I recently received a press kit for Barry & The Remains new song "Mombo" .... Drummer for "Second Society" was my drummer from the "Conquered Grape", Steve Johnson !! They were last seen at the Cathay Pacific.......after the Rexicana "Burned Down"?.......Lenny Baker of Sha Na Na & The Pilgrims, recently seen at the Music Circus with Bowzer of late nite commercials fame....... The best part about playing that joint at the Harbor Lite Mall, you could check out all the women from your perch....... ;D

[rfl615]

I have many fond memories of Clem. He moved into our neighborhood in the late ‘50’s into the house that Cathy Rodd (Model for Calvin Klein in Manhattan – but I digress) lived in on Newcomb Avenue. We became good friends pretty much right away.

We put a Cream Cover Band together with Steve Wengler (lived in the house between mine and Clems) on bass, me trying miserably to imitate Clapton and Clem knowing only a simple 4-4 beat that he applied to every song we did – we were pretty bad but had a ball doing it for anyone who’d listen.

A funny story was in 1967 at the Holbrook Armory. Seems Clem called WMEX (1510 AM radio) in Boston and signed our band up without any of us knowing it for a state-wide “Battle of the Bands” – I think we knew 3 songs and only the lyrics to one of them at the time. We had only my Fender Bandmaster to play through – yep that means my lead guitar (some mongrel no name thing I got at a pawn shop on Comm. Ave., Steve’s bass guitar and all our vocals) and yet we were ready to gig! The show was 2 weeks away.

Steve went ballistic but I was blown away at the opportunity, so Clem and I conned Steve with free food for a week and some babe we knew that liked him – so he was on board.

We practiced our 3 songs (knowing that our set was only 30 minutes) over and over again until we thought it sounded a little like the original. Pete came to most of the practices and I am sure to this day he thought we had lost our minds but he supported the effort.

The night of the performance the WMEX DJ (personality name was Boppin’ Robin) was a huge Cream fan and had brought with him the Station Mgr. of WMEX and the booking agent for the main attraction band at the event, Orpheus, to hear us do Cream cover – Clem said to him when he signed us up that we sounded just like Cream in every detail – you guessed definitely piled higher and deeper – we did no know these people came to hear us play otherwise I would have been blowing chow in the bathroom.

We were given the first slot of the night and set up Clems drums and my lonely Bandmaster in the middle of Orpheus’s huge sound system. We plugged in my guitar, Steve’s guitar and my $5 Radio Shack microphone into the bandmaster and got ready to go on but then we had a break.

The stage manager for Orpheus felt bad for us and let us sing through the Orpheus sound system. Excellent! I thought until Clem reminded me that now everyone would know I didn’t learn the lyrics properly (remember we only had 2 weeks just to learn the music and mumbling lyrics through my very overloaded bandmaster was working until then). Pete arrived just as we were setting up to help with my echo chamber – a rebuilt reel to reel tape player that I fed output back into the 2nd channel of a $4 Radio Shack mixer to get an echo effect. It needed constant monitoring because the tape drive motor would change speeds all the time making a funky wowing sound.

We opened with “I’m So Glad”, which was easy to sing because it only has three words in the lyric line and oddly enough we played that very good, which was our downfall. The crowd with prompting from the DJ’s guests, (remember those guys?), now had the crowd shouting Cream songs for us to play – we only knew 3 of them and everything being shouted was not the 3 we knew until we heard someone shout “Sunshine of Your Love”, which ultimately became our theme song but even today I think that’s only because of the trauma it caused.

We cranked up the volumes on the little old bandmaster with my guitar and Steve’s bass and had at it! Things were fine before we turned up the volumes because Orpheus had miked the bandmaster so turning it up wasn’t necessary.

We charged into the song, with me singing the wrong words (Clem laughing his ass off) Steve pushing his bass so hard that the bandmaster amp clipped low frequencies to protect itself from certain flames with a rhythmic staccato that added nothing to the song except more laughing from Clem. During the lead he was yelling Purple Haze, Purple Haze that started me and Steve to split a gut because what we were playing was coming out a little like Purple Haze and that’s what happened, we started with Sunshine of Your Love and ended with Purple Haze that totally through the crowd into certain vertigo or something because when it was over everyone stared at us like the crowd did to Michael J Fox when he performed Johnny B. Good in Back to The Future Part I.

Then the topper, the amp blew up in a blazing flash and puffs of smoke and the crown went nuts while Clem, Steve and I and I think Pete fell down on stage laughing our asses off. We didn’t win, oh by the way but had the laugh of the century and a $60 repair bill for the bandmaster.

[brian]

Over the weekend I was given a letter that was dated October 1967. The contents revealed that my band, 'The Conquered Grape' was being considered for one of the opening bands for "The Young Rascals" at Ridge Arena in Braintree. What a Thrill for a bunch of teenagers !! In the end, we did not get the gig, as it went to "The Rebel Kind", who had just won a recent 'Battle of the Bands" contest. One of the other bands to open for the 'Young Rascals' was 'The Young Ones" featuring Phil Adams and Dennis Angelis.............