Monday, March 31, 2008

Mercury Rocket 88

I get a nice quick e*mail today from the creator of the Mercury Rocket 88 site. It's a site developed for Mike Mercer (Mercury) and his gang of musicians and friends from the early to mid '60s Columbus & Edinburg area bands featuring:

Garry & The Twiliters
The XLs

Lots of great pics abound and although I didn't see a guest book, please leave a comment show your appreciation for the bands, and the time it took to do all the work!

I'll leave a link up to it on the right (the list over there that probably no one ever looks at!)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Royal Blue - Royal Blues ? Kokomo '67 Mystery Band


Another mystery band from 1967. All I know is the drum head says "Royal Blue", or "Royal Blues", I suspect Royal Blues by the spacing. Photo is from a Kokomo, Indiana area high school yearbook.
As always any help in sleuthing for this combo is welcome! We've had great success honoring these bands, don't let us down now! If you're googling your band name, please fill us in.



This just in:

"Among the members of the the Royal Blues, as I recall, were Paul Harvey (deceased) and Garnett Carter (Greentown). Garnett is associated with THE GOSPEL SINGING MESSENGERS EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION INC "

Thanks Mark!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

International Silver String Submarine Banned - ISSSB

International Silver String Submarine Banned. The name was "borrowed" from the "Little Rascals / Our Gang" shows, but this band certainly was real. Not many bands had a girl in them, but fewer still had a lead guitarist that was a "miss"!

Pictured members:
Back row, left to right-
Dave Smith - rhythm guitar
Mike Kelley - lead singer / guitar
Randy Barnes - bass guitar
Front row-
Randy Steenbergen - drums
Laura Stout (now Harmon) - Lead guitar / backup vocals

Here's the skinny straight from Laura:

We are all from Howe High School, graduating classes of ’67, ’68, and ’69. We first formed in March of 1967 as the Ogres Bridge. Some of the band members were previously with the Other Side, disbanded a few months earlier. As the Ogres Bridge, we established what we wanted to do but had a change in personnel, so we renamed the band to the ISSSB, which was often used in acronym form for advertising purposes.
At that time, there were many Battle of the Bands contests and we entered a few of them, doing quite well. We took 3rd at the Marion County Fair in 1967, although audience reactions said we had the 1st place. Judges didn’t like the bit of acid rock we were doing. This was at a time when “Let’s Spend the Night Together” was banned from a lot of radio stations. Then we played at the Young America Fair (remember that?) at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. We took 1st place the night we played, and I think 3rd at the finals, I’m not really sure about that. The audience voted by using tokens and putting them in the band boxes. I still have a few tokens from then. We also played at Carnegie Music Store battle of the bands contest in 1968 and took 1st place. The store was on Madison Avenue in Indy. I had played there 2 contests before, not placing, so this was very exciting to me. What we won was a $500 recording time there in their studio. One of the things that helped us win was by writing our own song for this, called Paper Airplane. We never did use the recording because the store closed down. It was a good store while it lasted.
We all hung out at Le Scene, in Fountain Square. The Other Side had performed there many times and the lead player that had, Jack (Sean) Jones, joined/formed the Cardboard Bachs. They were so good, as were Sir Winston and the Commons, Bomarcs… all friends of ours. By the way, Jack Jones - Sean, as most people knew him, was, in my opinion, the best lead player out there. He had the magic! Probably still does.
Throughout the years after high school, we stayed together as a band, playing in and around Indianapolis. We landed a job at the Village Inn Pizza Parlor on Indy’s South side, being the house band for nearly 2 years, playing every Friday and Saturday night. We had a blast there! Eventually the place became The Midnight Sun and a few other club names, as ownership changed.
I previously was in a band (and was next-door neighbor) to Jeanne Schuller. That band was called The Bitter End, with Pat and Mike Finnegan and the drummer was Jay (something?). When I went on to join the ISSSB as lead player, Jeanne went on to join The Shy Ones as their lead player. Jeanne! Where are you?

Thanks Laura! And of course, Laura is now kickin' with a new band R & R Classics, doing 50’s and 60’s and some later tunes. I'm sure she'll have them doin' some early '70s psych soon! If you have a chance to see them, do it! You'll most likely meet the missus and me too!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Triad - Whatever happened to the Olivers? 1969

Earlier we experienced the Olivers blistering 2-sider on Phalanx, later on RCA. We know they had a few member changes (Vietnam was calling, and Jay was asked to join the party). But whatever happened to the (then) young men that soldiered on, Mike Mankey, Billy Franze, Carl Aldrich, and Chuck Hamrick?

Well, now we know the Triad rose from the ashes of the Olivers. Obviously Triad implies three. So, what happened? Chuck had some health issues, and drummer Kent Cretors was recruited. Then organist Carl didn't want the same musical direction as the rest of the team. So now there are three, and the Triad is born.

But this is not our typical Indiana band story. The Triad relocated to the happenin' Minneapolis szene in the late '60s. Then recorded on a Canadian label (Franklin) in '69.

Hear the tunes:
Border Line
Only way to fly

They broke up soon after, and the Serfmen, Olivers, Triad chain was broken.

Thanks for all the info so graciously donated by Mike Mankey. Especially cool is his "One man band gigs". I'm diggin' his "Just Like Me" video. Check it out, and call e*mail him to set up a great party!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Sceptors - Knycks - Jeffersonville, Indiana '66 - '67

If you look in the past notes, one of my first posts were the Sceptors of Jeffersonville, Indiana. It's short but you can look at it here.
A couple of band members have chimed in and we know who is whom:

Front row - L to R

Clyde Miller - Vocals
John Payne - Organ
Back row - L to R
Sonny Lemaire - Bass - vocals
Joe Brown - Drums - vocals
Garry Bowyer - Guitar - vocals
Warren Glotzbach - Lead Guitar - Vocals

We find they DID cut a 45, but it was credited to the Knycks, a transitional name for the band. It was an Ep really, 4 songs! I'll bet it was hard to buy the record when you didn't know the band name!
And for your listening pleasure, we have all the songs available for the first time anywhere (unless you have the 45, then for God's sake, e*mail me!!)


Do wah diddy diddy
If I Needed Someone
Moanin'
What's Your Name


Thanks to Garry and Warren for the info, and Sonny for providing the tunes! You guys are the best.