Thursday, February 2, 2012

The Shillings - Ft. Wayne

The Shillings - another story of a band that I know nothing about, save that they were from Ft. Wayne, circa 1967.
Pretty interesting promo shot with a collection of odd artifacts, with seemingly no rhyme nor reason.

Our mission, identify these guys. They need to be remembered, as maybe they went on to greatness elsewhere!

Thanks to Wil of the Jersey Chains for the generous use of the photo!

10 comments:

MBM said...

Small world. This is Mike Mankey of the Olivers, Triad and Music By Mike. The Schillings were from my old neighborhood in Fort Wayne. The guys in the band were Jack Vaubel on bass, Don Vaubel on guitar, Jerry Vachon on lead guitar Dick Vachon on drums and I can't recall the keyboardists name but will eventually. I'll get back to you.

Anonymous said...

how do i dowenload these?

MBM said...

What do you mean by download these?

Anonymous said...

The Schillings became the definitive local Jimi Hendrix tribute act, playing a superb evening of Hendrix one night when I attended at the Fort Wayne Hullabaloo Club out near Harris Rd. Extremely accomplished act at the time. -- S.T. (keys) formerly Surf Suns/Boston Creme Pie/Walden etc.

Gene Cothron said...

I remember Jerry, Dick & Jack. Jerry was a kick-ass guitarist, played a vintage Les Paul that would be worth a bundle today.

They played Le Scene in Indy fairly regularly.

MBM said...


It's Mike again. I finally found out the name of the keyboardist, it was Bob Sharon. All of the members were good friends of the Olivers.

Mike Hatch (originally of Crystal Illusion) said...

Any idea where Don Vaubel is Now? Don, a Bassist, and myself started working on some stuff around '77, until I left Indiana.

Unknown said...

My name is Linda and I managed and booked the Schillings all over the Midwest including Indiana and Ohio Hullabaloo Clubs, Michigan, the LeScene in Indianapolis, concerts in Iowa, etc. in the later 1960's. In fact, whenever we played in Ohio, we crashed at the apartment of the James Gang who had a really great lead guitarist named Joe Walsh (pre Eagles). WOW, wonder whatever happened to that guy. . . LOL At that time, Jack was the bass guitar player, Jerry played lead guitar, Dick was the drummer and Bob was the organist. We were all very good friends for years and Jerry was one GREAT lead guitarist. It was sad days when I heard about Jack passing away in California and then Dick and Jerry were gone too. I truly believed in them . . . .they definitely had the talent . . . they could have been very very famous.

Lauren said...

Dick was my father and Jerry was my uncle! This is so neat to see and read all the comments.

Dave Davidson said...

Howdy. Dave here near Easton, PA.

Today I am looking at online stuff about the Shillings. This started when I was doing some research on the prices of vintage guitar cases. I came across a 60s Fender white Jazzmaster case emblazoned with " The Shillings" on the front.

My friend Al Michailoff was the guitar player in the Allentown, PA The Shillings band. I didn't know there was an Ohio/Indiana version of the Shillings until I saw this article.

Al left us in 2008. I had known him for many years and we played music at the blues jams and stuff. He mentioned his band The Shillings and how they had a development deal with Mercury record in 1969. Needless to say it didn't work out. The PA Shilling were British Invasion and the Indiana version sounds more like the Stones to me. Pretty cool.

Anyhow, I'm trying to figure out if a guitar case belonged to my friend or to the guys in the Indiana version of the Shillings. I've sent an email to the author of the article with a pic of the case.

Anyone know if any of the Shillings from Indiana are still around? I'm sure they would remember the case. It is on Reverb for sale. If the lady that booked them wants to contact me please do.

Thanks, Dave