Line Up: Jim Wilson - Lead Guitar Charlie Henley - Drums Alan Avery - Bass Brent Guardhouse - Keys (not on the bands record) Scott Morris - Rhythm Guitar replaced by: Ronnie Blank - Rhythm Guitar (on the bands record) later replaced by: Mark Waldrop - Rhythm Guitar
The Avengers goofing around in Jim Wilsons new car...
The Avengers were formed in early 1965 by a group of MacArthur High School freshmen in San Antonio, TX.
Band member Alan Avery had been inspired to learn to play guitar after going to see The Beatles movie "A Hard Day's Night." He was stunned by the fact that he couldn't hear the movie over the sound of girls screaming during the films screening! After placing a request with his father for a guitar, he received an Airline electric guitar the following Christmas.
The band came together quite organically, as the members had all known each other since Jr High.
They played their first show together for a crowd of 1000 people at an early location for the famous teen club, the Teen Canteen, at the time simply located inside the Wonderland shopping mall.
Subsequent gigs included stops at Lackland and Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Ft Sam Teen Club, the Purple Onion A-Go-Go in Kenedy, TX, Holiday Inn at Lake McQueeny, Teen clubs in Seguin, New Braunfels, and Columbus, and even a girls graduation party on a ranch in Crystal City, TX.
The Avengers 1st show at an early Teen Canteen incarnation...
The Avengers also got to perform live on popular local TV show Swing Time, which was produced and directed by Mel Adcock and hosted by popular KTSA disc jockey Bruce Hathaway. Alan was working at the set of the show during that period working security at the front door. He had also played Santa for a taping of the annual Christmas show for the Mission Road Children Home.
The Avengers performing a KTSA radio event
In early 1966, Alan borrowed $135 from his grandmother to pay for studio time to record their lone 45 single. The dead wax at the end of the grooves on the record has a Texas Sound Studios code which indicates that the record was pressed on January 14th, 1966.
He recalls that they pressed up around 100 or 200 copies of the record.
One side is an edgy (and largely unknown) driving garage punker with unison vocals, and the flip a mid tempo ballad based around a reverb-y jangle pop guitar riff.
"Some Day"
"Our Love Was Real"
By mid 66, the group underwent line up changes and decided to change their name to The Other 1/2.
The Other 1/2 posing in Alan's parents pool
Their line up consisted of:
Scott Morris - Lead Guitar Alan Avery - Bass Mark Waldrop - Rhythm Guitar Mike Button - Lead Singer Jerry Pollock - Drums
The Other 1/2 at a teen club in New Braunfels (possibly The Freak Out)
The Other 1/2 in psychedelic outfits at south side SA club Teen Town
This group parted ways sometime in 1967 and Alan continued to play in bands such as The Brass Rail and Milkwood.
Formed around 1970, the line up of Milkwood was: Bob Rountree - Lead Guitar Charlie Henley - Drums Alan Avery - Bass Mark Waldrop - Rhythm Guitar/Lead Vocals Go-Go Gomez - Organ
Milkwood opening for Wink Kelso at the Pusi-Kat (a groovy place for groovy people) in San Antonio
The Islanders were a band from San Benito, TX who made one fantastic dreamy surf flavored garage 45 back in the mid 60's. I was recently able to do a short Q & A style interview with original band member Jack Morgan, and here are the results:
The band members were: Creep Gosser - Singer/Rhythm Guitar Jack Morgan - Lead Guitar Kenneth Greer - Drums Ray Lynch - Bass Terry Kaufmann - Percussion Q: How and when did The Islanders come together as a band?
A: We came together as mutual friends and a common interest. To make music! I think we got together in 1964. '64 to '65 were the "formative" learning years, I guess, practicing almost daily after school. My mom used to teach kindergarten and had a small frame building built in our back yard as a classroom. She had gone back to regular teaching at this time and we took over what we used to call "the garden" as our practice hall. We started out our first gigs solely instrumental playing surf music and Ventures type stuff. We played some high school banquets for for starters and a sock hop or 2, as they were still called. I guess we came to realize our rhythm player could sing and we started covering Beatles, Kinks, Stones and the like. We didn't have time to develop much original music as we ended sometime in 67 due to the Vietnam war and the draft as two of the guys had to go in the service.
Q: What were some local venues the band would frequently perform at?
A: High school sock hops, Saturday night dance at the skating rink in San Benito. We used to have impromptu dances at South Padre where we would just set up and play at what was the public picnic area at the time. I kinda think we were among the first, if not the first to do such a thing down there. My folks had a permanent trailer down there at "The Point" and we spent a lot of time there. Hence the name of the band I suppose. Shortly after that the county built an event center that was called the Pavilion which is still in use I think. We would then rent that place out about once a month an have dances. We would do trade out with radio station KRIO in which we would play a gig for them occasionally for which they would promote our gigs on the radio.
Q: Did you guys travel much outside of the Valley for shows?
A: Rarely. We played a Catholic school in Corpus Christi once I think... My later bands did some college stuff...
Q: Did the band have a manager?
A: I guess my parents kinda acted as manager when we started having those dances at the (Padre) Island... They would would look after the door and concession for those. We (kids) got whatever was left after expenses.
Q: How did you guys get hooked up with recording at Phil York's studio in Dallas? What do you remember about the session?
A: I had a cousin who was friends with Phil York so he hooked us up. It was an exciting experience; a very nice studio. We were self promoting so we just registered a record label and paid for the studio time and a pressing of 500 records.
Q: How many copies did you guys press of the record?Did it get any airplay or local attention?
A: 500 copies... We did get airplay on the only English rock station that was on at the time. I guess this was 1964 or '65. KRIO were the call letters. They would do cross promotions with the local bands, promoting our gigs and/or record. In exchange the radio station would have dances and we would play for them every now and then for free. It was really a win/win for all involved because we would get added exposure from this and we would sometimes open for road bands like Jay & The Americans and The Music Machine. KRIO would have a phone-in "battle of the bands" over the radio and people would phone in and vote on our records. They pitted us against The Playboys of Edinburg one weekend and I guess a bunch of our friends were listening as we did pretty well. The Playboys were very good, very tight and we really admired them but I guess we had kind of a raw appeal. I later became friends with most of them.
"King Of The Surf"
"When I'm With You"
Q: Who were some of the other local bands you remember from San Benito or neighboring towns?
A: The other bands from San Benito that came along shortly after us would be The V.I.P.'s and The Intriguers. One of our contemporaries from Harlingen were the Malabus of which their drummer and I are very good friends to this day.
Q: When and why did the band break up?
A: I believe we broke up in late 1967 when our singer and drummer got drafted. Viet Nam was getting hot and heavy and was sucking a lot of guys up.
Q: Any other interesting or funny stories to tell about your time in that band?
A: My family lived right across from the San Benito High school football field. We had a small building in the back yard that my mom had built from which she had used to teach kindergarten. She no longer taught any more so we commandeered it as a practice hall. We would usually practice most weeknights and people would park in front of our house both to watch football practice and to listen to us play...
Q: Lastly, did you play with any other bands after The Islanders during the 60's or early 70's?
A: After the guys went into the service I moved to McAllen and was going to college at Pan American. During this time I played with a McAllen group called The Foamy Brine for maybe a couple years. When my guys got out of the service we made an attempt to reform but but I had a night job at the local TV station which I didn't want to quit so that was pretty much the end of that. Kenny, the drummer went on the "Holiday Inn circuit" for several years and Creep, the singer bounced around in various duos and such.
Thanks a ton to Jack Morgan and Terry Kaufmann. Keep a look-out for an upcoming article on Foamy Brine!
Being that my blog is named after the A side masterpiece of the lone psych-punk 45 by Corpus Christi's Stereo Shoestring, I couldn't possibly betray my obligation to research them and write an in depth piece on the band itself! I had the pleasure several years ago of meeting and befriending lead guitarist Jim Howard. By a strange twist of fate, I was referred to Jim while interviewing the drummer for a band called St. John's Wood who recorded for the Mark VII label. While on the phone, the ex drummer for this Waco band told me his wife was related to a guy who had also recorded a record down in Corpus which featured a cover of The Zombies "Tell Her No" on one side... NO WAY! Later on, I also located and spoke with the Shoestrings ex vocalist, John Coco. His memory was foggier so only a few bits from that conversation will be featured here.
From Left to Right: John Coco, James Noe, Richard Lalor, Steve Schultz, Jim Howard
The band members were:
John Coco - Vocals
Richard Lalor - Guitar
Jim Howard - Guitar
Steve Schultz - Drums
James Noe - Bass
Jim was about 15 or 16 years old when he had been taking lessons from a well known local guitar teacher named Chester Rupe. The teacher eventually caught wind that a new band was seeking a lead guitarist, and suggested that Jim go try out with them. He heeded the advice, and went and met with the band at bass player James Noe's parents garage. Jim was intimidated by the fact that all the other members were about 3 years older than him, out of high school already.
Along with his already nimble guitar abilities, Jim was aided by a nifty state-of-the-art fuzz box built for him by a man named Smitty who worked at the Horn Shop music store. It was a similar pedal that Smitty had also famously custom built for local scene kings The Zakary Thaks after they performed with The Yardbirds.
Although he never got a direct confirmation that he made the grade, the band must've been impressed, as they continued to invite him over for the next 3 weeks leading up to their first live engagement.
Shortly before Jim's entrance, singer John Coco had been brought into the fold.
John was born in Hawaii and subsequently lived all the US due to his father being in the Navy.
Just prior to moving down to Texas, John had been attending college in Wisconsin and spent his spare time singing with various cover bands. He recalls one day in 1966 riding in the car with friends when he heard a song on the radio which completely shook him out of his seat. He waited intently for the DJ to announce who this radical new group was... It turned out to be a little ole group called The 13th Floor Elevators! He knew at this point that he needed to end up in Texas, and that he did just a few months later when his family was relocated to Corpus Christi, TX.
By early 1967 John was enrolled at Del Mar University in the city by the sea. He very quickly found himself a spot during the daily lunch hour sitting at a table with the misfit kids. Several months later, one of those kids asked him if he sang and if he would come and try out to replace their current vocalist.
Within just a few short weeks of settling the line up, the group was to participate in a big battle of the bands event at Memorial Coliseum. The band had only prepared 7 songs by this point and played before a huge audience. To their surprise, they won first place and had to perform another set of songs for an encore... They had no other material worked up, so they just played the exact same 7 songs again!
On the subject of how the band came up with its wild psychedelic name, it came about one day when the guys got together to hash out the tedious task of naming their new project. Jim was staring down at his two shoes and slowly uttered "Stereo.... Shoestring!" The "Stereo" part was dropped after about a year of playing, as they considered this addition to be too lame.
Coco's girlfriend at the time was a young Del Mar student named Vicki Jones, who took on the duty of managing the band and helping them book shows. She was instrumental in landing the group a lot of their live performances and even took on tasks like designing their business card (which featured a neat Warhol-esque logo with a banana). She also was the one to reach out to KEYS radio DJ Gilbert Garcia and request that the band use his English Records label to release "On The Road South."
The band began playing gigs all over town at places such as The Carousel Club, Beach Club, Stardust Rollercade, Our Lady Of Perpetual Help, The Dunes, etc.
At one particular performance in Robstown at Motts Steakhouse, the proprietor came up to the band at an intermission and irritatedly pointed at Jim's newfangled effects box and said, "You guys can keep playing, but please don't use that thing anymore!"
On another occasion the band found themselves playing a Methodist church youth dance. The folks in charge kept asking the band to turn down to the point where the guys decided to pull a sarcastic prank on the directors.
They unplugged their electric guitars and proceeded to start "House Of The Rising Sun". All you could hear was the planking of the un-amplified strings and the softly tapped drum set. While still playing the song, the guitarists began a march towards the exit as Steve grabbed his high hat stand. They walked out the front door and didn't come back to finish their set!
Indeed the band must have been quite loud, as their bassist and musical genius of the group James Noe was constantly blowing his amps out. Steve was described as one of the best and hardest hitting drummers in town and was also regularly replacing broken drum heads.
The band had an 'equipment manager' and personal mentor by the name of Ashley Johnson.
Ashley's record collecting habit was what indirectly lead the Shoestring to use a riff from an obscure Pretty Things import recording called "Defecting Gray."
That manic fuzz riff lead to the creation of the Shoestring's classic song...
Pre Stereo Shoestring band Clockwork Orange, featuring a young Ashley Johnson on bass, Richard Lalor on guitar, and David Odem (of the family who founded the small town of Odem) on vocals...
Details of the groups first recording session are a bit fuzzy. They remember traveling out to ACA Recording Studio in Houston to record. Jim recalls there being mattresses on each wall to provide sound insulation. He thinks there were only about 3 microphones used to track the whole band live. Once the engineer got the sound dialed in, they nailed their two songs in the first couple takes.
While recording "On The Road South", Jim would keep his volume knob on his guitar down in between each lead guitar line he would play. At one point towards the end, you can hear him accidentally turn up the knob too soon and his amp emits a loud screeching feedback noise which is on the final take. He was terribly embarrassed of the mishap, but the wild noise arguably only added to the frantic beauty of the recording!
That same night, the guys happened to stay at the same hotel that Paul Revere & The Raiders were staying at after their big concert that night. To the Shoestring boys astonishment, they watched as a long line of beautiful women waited in line to be let into the Raiders hotel room...
The band pressed up between 100 to 500 copies of the single. Not surprisingly, folks were not ready for the insane attack of "On The Road South", and the record got little airplay aside from legendary KEYS DJ Charlie Brite playing it a couple times.
One interesting note is that, unlike most garage bands who would never perform their originals songs off their records, the Shoestring would usually open their second set with "On The Road South".
"On The Road South"
"Tell Her No"
Not everyone in Corpus was appreciate of the "long hairs" and their rock music during that time...
One night while playing the Stardust Rollercade for a particularly defensive audience, the Shoestring took a break after their first set. Jim went to the use the bathroom and while at one of the stalls, felt a guy tap him on the shoulder. Jim turns his head to face the stranger, and this young cowboy says "I don't like the way you play guitar!" and punches him out cold! His bandmates find him laying on the ground and somehow Jim is able to come to his senses and play rest of their set.
Floyd's Restaurant was a 24 hour establishment which was THE after hours place to eat. All the local rock bands would go there after gigs, including the Thaks, Bad Seeds, Smokestack Production, etc. Leaving the restaurant was often a scary process though, as any late night dinner there was usually accompanied by heckling and threats from the tough cowboy crowd that would usually fill the majority of the establishment.
In mid 1968 the band opened for Austin's Baby Cakes at the Dunes club in Port Aransas. They were completely blown away by this out of town band who had never made a proper recording. That same night, they were introduced to the music of another local band that they would cross paths with, The Children.
Some time later, Jim recalls going to see The Children perform at a private party with his band mates. This was a very exciting night, as the Shoestring boys were all big fans of the band and knew all their songs by heart. The next thing he knew, his band mates were bringing in their gear and he was being informed they were about to play a few songs during the Childrens intermission. They proceeded to blast through their own versions of the 4 songs they knew of the headliners "Rebirth" album, and the Children members all went up the front of the stage and enthusiastically cheered them on!
The Stereo Shoestring also got to perform on Corpus Christi's response to American Bandstand, a TV show called Teen Time. Outraged to hear that they couldn't actually play their song live, they decide to make a mockery of the whole thing and went around the corner to the Horn Shop to borrow a couple cheap guitars with no strings on them. With the price tags hanging off their unstrung instruments, and Steve exaggeratedly swinging his arms out of beat behind his drum set with the song, they taped their performance of "On The Road South"! Boy, don't we all wish this footage was still out there to be seen!
In their later stages, the band moved their rehearsals over to a huge empty cathedral which was offered up by a charitable Episcopal priest named Jim Kilpatrick. The building had been essentially abandoned and Kilpatrick saw its use as a way to reach out the youth. This spot came to be known as The Crossing, and it became a hip hang out spot were several other rock bands would rehearse.
The Shoestring would frequently play for free at dances held there as thanks for use of the building. They would set up in the choir loft and put on a psychedelic light show as the audience would watch from below while they sat on floor, since all the pews had been torn out.
The city wasn't happy about this arrangement, and they eventually got the building torn down.
Around this time Jim quit the band, Steve enlisted in the air force, and the band would reform later on as The Red House... Read more on that at the great Garage Hangover website.
Many Thanks to everyone who made this piece possible: Jim Howard, John Coco, Vicki Jones Jackson, Peter Buesnel
(for use of the Shoestring band photo and show flier), Erik Carter (for use of record label side B scan), and Garage Hangover (for use of record label side A scan and business card scan). Sound clips coming soon!
It is extremely unlikely that a band would have been started as the result of a boating accident, but here is possibly the only 60's garage band to have formed as the outcome of such a thing.
In May of 1966, Chris Scaff, a very talented 14 year old surfer from King High School (in Corpus Christi, TX) ended up hospitalized after injuries while out on the water.
Determined to stay productive and quite certain he would never surf again, he decided to sell his board to buy himself a guitar. He did so, and within a few weeks he inspired his younger brother Steve to learn the bass guitar.
Two months later, while Chris was still confined to a wheelchair, they sought out to find more members to form a full band. They added their older brother John Jes Scaff (who was then on his way to Del Mar College) as vocalist.
Ray Gootee was also older and was added as the drummer. Presumably a classmate of Steve's at Cullen Jr High (7th grade!), Rod Woodard was added as organist to round out the group.
They decided to call their band The Monarchs. They rehearsed more heavily than the average teen combo, putting in about 12 hours a week spread out over 3 nights per. By the following February, the band was ready to play its first gig.
With the new era of psychedelic music ushered in, the band decided it was time to change their name to The Purple Haze.
In December 1967, they traveled out to Jones Sound Recording Studio in Houston a recorded a single. One side was a cover of The Mindbenders tune "It's Getting Harder All The Time," which had recently appeared in the Sidney Poitier film "To Sir, with Love." The flip side was a fairly psychedelic instrumental original called "Electrocution," which featured some nice use of fuzz guitar. It was released on the JMS Productions label, which was basically run by the three Scaff brothers father, Ray Scaff. Ray was also acting as the bands manager by that point.
"It's Getting Harder All The Time"
"Electrocution"
The band had begun to travel outside of Corpus and would frequently play military bases such as Randolph, Lackland, and Laughlin in Del Rio. They would tour out to nearby towns such as Austin, Raymondville, San Antonio, Bishop, Kingsville, and Dome Shadows in Houston.
The Purple Haze opening for The Yellow Payges and The Animals!! June 15th, 1968
Enterprising as he was, Ray helped the band acquire what was probably one of the most impressive light shows around, which included black lights, strobes, and color wheels. By their own account, they spent thousands of dollars on custom made equipment.
On August 22nd, the Scaffs and company opened up their very own teen club: The Web.
As most of these kinds of venues would go, this place didn't last too long. It was closed by the following summer/fall. However, they did manage to book several great local bands such as The Moving Sidewalks, Ginger Valley, and Bubble Puppy. Plus it was a great place for The Haze to do their own residency.
The Web! Located at 1720 South Staples.
The band split apart when the brothers decided to move to California in December of 69, and at that point the trail goes cold...
If any of the Scaff brothers are out there reading this story, Id love to hear from you and learn more about this bands story! Many thanks to Ray Gootee for telling me what he could remember, and to my buddy (and Corpus music historian) Rene Sandoval for sharing a couple of these news clippings.
Johnny Gidley and I first spoke about three years ago. I took thorough notes from our phone conversations but had lost them in a notebook which had lots of precious details about local bands transcribed. Thankfully we were recently able to regroup, and this time Johnny emailed me the full story on his various bands based in Bell County during the 60's. The Salados are known for having made several records on Joe Treadway's TSM record imprint. Although Johnny was out of town at the time, The Buccaneers also made one great late-period fuzzy garage rocker... That band was speculated to be from the Dallas/Fort Worth area due to the label that pressed their record. Below is the story...
I got started playing music in 1964. My dad had bought an old un-named acoustic guitar from an old black man in Jarrell, Texas for $5. He had wanted one of his sons to pick it up and learn how to 'second' to him as he played the fiddle. Well... None of us took a serious interest in doing that so it just sat in the closet for how long I do not know until the night of The Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in February 1964. I watched how the girls just screamed for joy at them and thought... "well that's the way to get girls isn't it?" After their performance I immediately went and got that guitar out of the closet and began figuring out how to play it and I never put it down for three straight months until I had learned how to play it.
My first band was called Johnny & The Silvertones.
L-R: Tom Brown, Johnny Gidley (his Elvis pic), and Berry Evans.
I began our band in 1964 when I was a junior at Salado High School. My fellow classmate, Berry Evans, had a big electric Silvertone hollow body guitar and I had acquired my first electric guitar, a little solid body Silvertone from a pawn shop in temple for $25.00.
So...we called our beginning group Johnny & The Silvertones. From there things began to mushroom.
We weren't able to get into the recording business until around 1965-66 when we tied up with Joe Treadway, our very first manager. The history expands a lot from that point.
We obviously needed a drummer and a bass player to make 'a band' so we asked our fellow classmates Harold Mersiovsky and Tom Brown if they would be interested in joining. Harold on drums and Tom on bass. Of course Harold had no drums and Tom no bass. Each thought he could come up with something to suffice.
Harold had a single snare drum and a cymbal. He would set his snare on a chair and nail his one cymbal to the top of that chair and he was all set. Tom convinced his mother to order an inexpensive bass guitar from Sears by telling her that it would keep him out of trouble. How appropriate to be Johnny & The Silvertones when all our guitars were Silvertones from Sears!
We started out learning songs of The Beatles, Buddy Holly, and really just any song that one of the guys would bring to practice and asked to learn. Our very first job that I remember was a 'sock hop' in Holland where we received no pay but got exposure. We played a lot of those! Another was The Tiger Den in Belton, Texas where we vied with The Twilighters and other local groups. We did not make any real records in those days. I do however still have some of the very early tape recordings from that era when we changed our name from Johnny & The Silvertones to The Keats.
L-R: Johnny Gidley, Jerry Naylor, and Berry Evans
This was very much my band from the beginning. I chose the players and the names. Berry and I would go through encyclopedias and whatever else we could find to come up with something that resembled The Beatles and I thought we had it when I came upon the name of John Keats, the poet. So...we played as The Keats through the Junior and Senior banquets and a Salado High School stage show/talent contest. We were getting better but still not making any money. I of course was writing songs along with Berry. We were the new Lennon/Mccartneys we thought.
Tom Brown of course was hard of hearing. He wore a hearing aid. I had to teach him how to play bass which he did very poorly in those days. It was a real challenge for as long as we were together! In later years he used to tell me often how much he appreciated my patience in teaching him the bass guitar. He would say that if I hadn't done that he probably would have wound up in prison!
The Keats and Joe Treadway! Well...
Tom being hard of hearing had begun going to Temple Hearing Center around the time of The Keats. This business in Temple, Texas was owned and operated by Joe Treadway, the step-father of Jerry Naylor. Naylor of course had taken over Buddy Holly's spot in The Crickets after that fatal 1959 plane crash in Iowa that took Holly's life.
Well as it turned out, Tom had begun mentioning to Treadway that he was involved in a band in Salado and talked of his challenges on bass guitar as it pertained to his hearing. Treadway, of course having been involved in music in one form or another for most of his life began to get interested in our group. He invited us up to his offices in Temple for an audition and tape recording session after the Hearing Center had closed for the day. Treadway had his tape machine running as we went through several of our original songs and others as well. He was very much impressed with my rhythm guitar playing on a song Berry and I had written, an instrumental, called "Silver Eagle". He liked the sound my pick was making against the strings and the pick guard of my guitar. A slapping kind of sound that I was doing quite unconsciously.
From that point he became our official manager. He then arranged a recording session for us in Waco at a studio run by Goodson McKee, a DJ at the time at one of Waco's radio stations. We performed a similar set of songs and McKee had specialized equipment that actually 'cut' a record. There was only one copy of that session work and it got passed from one person to the next over the course of our career. Lord only knows whatever happened to either of those two sessions. It would be wonderful to ever find those recordings 'alive' somewhere!
From the Temple Daily Telegram
The Salados
In the winter of 1966 we were called to Hamilton, Texas- Joe Treadway's home, to begin working on both a real record and a series of stage shows throughout that west Texas area. I don't know that much about Joe but I do know that he spent a lot of his early life in west Texas and had been involved with several radio stations. Jerry Naylor, his stepson, was to be the star attraction and we were to back him up as well as perform our material. Joe also had us take in his son Dickey Treadway as a saxophonist. So... that winter rehearsals began. We worked with Jerry in Joe's living room. I remember two songs in particular that Jerry liked and wanted us to back him on. One was Ray Charles' "I Can't Stop Loving You," and the other was Johnny Rivers' "Son of the Seventh Son". There weren't many photos taken in those days. I wish there had been. I have one with me, Jerry and Berry lookin' out over Joe's front fence and thats it!
I took a chance and took Joe up on his offer to live with them and work a little at his Hamilton based Hearing Center. It was there that, acting as his 'secretary' I saw first hand how he was putting all this together: the shows and the recordings and the changing of our name to The Salados. Since we were all from Salado he thought that would be a better name than The Keats. I didn't like the name change but for a real record to be the prize... I went along but not real happily.
Treadway chose my song, "Got No Love" as our single B/W my song, "All For The Love of A Woman". The thing that really got my goat though was the fact that he didn't allow me to sing it... He told Berry to just play anything as I and the rest of the band played the rhythm etc. He then changed the name of the song to "Spider Walk" and gave his pseudonym, Calvin Haskin, as its writer. That still bothers me to this day.
I don't want to get too far into the weeds here but we did go to Longhorn Studios in Ft. Worth and 'cut' our first real record: "Got No Love". We also played as the backing group on two other performers of Joe's: Ray Adams, who recorded 'Little Rose of Reynosa' and Bill Holley, "Who Flung That Mater". Bill was no relation to Buddy.
Joe promoted our record throughout central Texas: Belton, Temple, Waco, Hamilton etc. and I remember what a thrill it was to hear my song, our record on KTEM radio in Temple! What a thrill! As far as sales... We never thought of making money on it and we never found out how many were sold but I do still have a copy of that one thank God!
Note the Ramsgate Music publishing name, same as on the Mark VII records from Waco...
"Got No Love"
"Spider Walk"
The stage shows were well received and drew big crowds, even in Salado where the home folks now were knowing us as The Salados. It would not be long however that Joe would start trying to change our image and our style of music by requiring us to play more and more country & western. That did not sit well with me and the only thing I could think to do was to leave Joe behind and hope that my band members would follow me which they eventually did. I left the Treadways after only about a week or two as I realized that was not what I needed to be doing. It was not long and we were back together again and this time my bass player Tom would be moving forward and asking us to let his dad, J. E. Brown, manage us. He had picked out the name The Buccaneers as our name and uniforms that would propel usinto the height of our popularity in central Texas.
I liked our uniforms a lot. We wore gold corduroy back pocketless pants, red silk puffed sleeve shirts and black leather- look vests which were buttoned upwith red yarn. They looked great! We took group photos at Tiners Photography in Belton but I have no idea what ever happened to them. What I wouldn't give to find some of those photos today!
Dicky Treadway with a mystery band labeled as The Salados. Who were these guys? Was Mark Scott in that band?
"You Can't Believe It"
"One To Ten"
The Buccaneers
As best I can remember, that's been a long time ago, we started out playing beer joints in Temple. Mr. Brown believed that was the most immediate way to get us going and boy it sure did. At that time he booked us into the Starlite Club, down by the train tracks in Temple. He worked with the owner, Harold Hoelscher, to negotiate a good price for us and we started out playing there acouple times a week. In addition he got us gigs at the 'in' spots at the time: Flag Hall, Seaton Hall, Wesphalia, Beyersville and the S&S Club. It was at that time we figured we needed an organ player because so many of the groups had them so we chose a guy named Glen Henderson from Rogers, Texas. He fit right in with us and was a great asset even though he could not sing... neither lead or harmony.
Johnny and Tom performing at Sefcik Hall
Then, after performing for several weeks at the Starlite Club in Temple, Tom and his dad Mr. Brown decided it would be a great idea to haul our gear over to the S&S Club after we finished at the Starlite and just perform for free for the folks. This worked out great as it got us into that place which previously had only booked country western bands and groups like Jimmy Heap. We also kept going back to the Starlite Club and to all these other venues on a pretty steady rotation and kept a new audience in front of each week. Then trouble hit. This was 1967 by then and the Vietnam War was raging. I got drafted intothe Army but chose to join the Navy instead. This essentially broke up our little band again. I was sworn in a sent to San Diego for training. To shorten the story... I had problems with my back on board the ship The U.S.S. Cabildo and was taken to the Naval Hospital in Long Beach, California and was subsequently given a medical discharge in 1968. I came home and immediately reconnected with the band as The Buccaneers lead singer again. I had only been gone 7 months! We regretably never made a recording during the best years of The Buccaneers... Before I left for the Navy. Why I'll never understand. Mr. Brown just didn't push us in that direction and none of us I guess had any idea how to begin recording on our own.
Johnny in his groovy outfit with the Buccaneers
By 1968-69, Tom had added a couple of people new to the group. I'm not sure of the exact order of their arrival but he had added a new drummer, Kyle Mains, a new lead guitarist, Lee Copeland, and a new orgainist, Norman Stout. We became so popular at the S&S Club that the owner, Mr. Shirley, wanted us 5 days a week at such and such money. Mr. Brown negotiated with him and that put us at a semi permanent gig where we could each earn enough money to make music our full time job.
Radio station KTEM wanted to do a live performance with us with George Franz, the station's sales manager as the MC...and we did! Would be wonderful to have a copy of that turn up somewhere also but alas...I do have a transcript of Mr. Franz announcing and elaborating on each song right before we performed it. There was a young man, Jessie Birdsong, who used to follow the group back then and he taped us live on his big reel to reel one time...the entire four hours! Years ago I tried to find that tape and I called Jessie's dad. Regrettably, he knew nothing of the tape and stated that Jessie had died years before in a motorcycle accident. Sad but there was a lot of tragedy back then. Along with Jessie there was 'Big John' Ellis from Troy and our drummer Kyle Mains who both committed suicide. The girl friend of our light show man and a beautiful girl that I had been in love with as well, got run over by a car and killed at 15 years old. I wrote a poem about her after that called 'Scarlet Leigh' It's in my new book of poetry entitled In The Arms of Morpheus and other works.
"You Got What I Want"
"Standin' In The Shadow Of Your Love"
From the highs to the lows. I began to sense with the changing of the guard so to speak with all the new members coming in and out that it was about time for me to leave the group and take out on my own. I was married to Debbie Bruce of Temple in 1971 and took a full time regular job and began playing single jobs all over Temple, Belton, and Killeen... Wherever I could get a booking. Tom continued to go on with The Buccaneers but as mentioned... He was the only 'original' member left by then. Things had changed. No more uniforms. No more direction and Mr. Brown had given up in frustration with it all. Tom was a stubborn man however. He hired all these new people and took the group on the road up north for a few weeks. Somehow... THAT group managed to make a recording of which I don't even know the name of... I had absolutely no involvement with it... That the BEST Buccaneers did not do. I however had been writing songs continuously since 1964 and had a huge array of original songs that I wanted to record and so in 1976 I released 'On My Daddy's Farm' b/w 'Until Love's All Gone' on my own record label: Prairie Land Music and so ended the best musical group that at least ever came out of Salado, Texas. I guess it just was not in the cards to take it higher than we did. I do have regrets of course: That the recordings were not saved or were so carelessly handled by the person that possessed them; that the photos were lost and that we were not successful at taking it to a higher ground in the state of Texas. But for that little dash of time, 1964 to 1971 we felt like we were the best of central Texas. Long live the memories.
Johnny Gidley
Triple thank you to Johnny for taking the time to write out all of his 60's bands stories, and for emailing me all of the band photos.
Though the record label that released their lone vinyl waxing would have you believe they were from San Antonio, The Pack had their roots firmly planted in Austin soil. Over the course of a couple years, original member Bob Snider and I exchanged various emails regarding that band and the previous one- The Moonglows. Following is a composite of several of his emails…
"Zilker Hillside Theatre 1963. The Moonglows was the precursor band to The Pack. There were 5 of us in this original iteration of The Moonglows. Jim Mings, around whom both of these bands revolved, Bruce Kirtley, bass guitar, Tee Bowman, guitar, Mike Leet, Drums, and me, Bob Snider, guitar, joined with Jim Mings, guitar. We were a band put together by legendary Austin guitar teacher Wayne Wood. If you played guitar in Austin Texas, chances are your learned from Wayne Wood. Wayne taught out of his house on Avenue G. Several years after my days at Wayne Wood's studio he would teach Eric Johnson in Eric's beginning days. Eric mentions Wayne in the liner notes of one of his albums.
Following this gig at Zilker the band thinned out, dropping Tee Bowman. The remaining 4 of us carried on and did quite well for a bunch of kids.
I don't remember exactly why, but we were called to be photographed for The Austin American Statesman. I guess we were pretty popular, and a novelty since we were so young. We were all 16 years old in this photo, Jim and Mike I think were actually 15. Times were much different. Austin was not "The Live Music Capitol of The World." There were only a handful of garage bands like us, and really only 3-4 professional "adult" bands as far as I can remember.
We played at high school and junior high dances, The Teen Canteen, and several Battle of The Band competitions. We always placed, and won first place once.
I think the novelty of our young age, our song selection, and the fact that we took our music seriously gave us some notoriety. We were well practiced, Jim and I both being perfectionists. We played a wide variety of songs that appealed to both adults and kids.
For reasons I don't clearly remember, The Moonglows broke up. I think it was a combination of Mings wanting bigger and better, and my girlfriend was putting pressure on me to quit because she got tired of either staying home on Friday and Saturday nights and/or being a "band girl" and sitting and watching us play every Friday and Saturday night. Anyhow, The Moonglows dissolved and I thought nothing about it for several months. Jim formed another band, The Pack. I don't really know how he met the new members as none of them were former Moonglows. Anyhow, Harry Buckholts on bass. He was from Travis High School. There was a second guy from Travis on second guitar. I'm blocking on his name at present. Mike Christian from McCallum High School on drums. Mike Christian was friends with The Moonglows drummer, Mike Leet as they both went to McCallum and I think were in band class together.
The organist was Doug Balfour from Travis HS. He was getting serious and wanted to go to medical school I think, and quit The Pack. Jim, in need of another second guitarist visited me to see if I would "come out of retirement." I said yes, and The Pack now consisted of the members, the equipment of whom, is in the photos I sent you of my mother's living room at a band practice. Jim Mings lead guitar and head honcho. Me rhythm guitar. Harry Buckholts bass. Mike Christian drums. I was not with the original band when they cut the 45. There was actually a guy named Clay Smith who was on guitar before Doug joined.
There was a competing band of our age group, The Trojans. We convinced their keyboard guy, Doug Harmon, and their drummer/singer, Bill Gossett, to quit The Trojans and join us. There were now six members, so we changed our name to The Six Pack...quite controversial for high school guys in the 1960's. So, the line up was Mings lead and honcho, me rhythm mostly, some lead, Harry bass, Doug Harmon keyboards, and Bill Gossett singer and front man. Harmon's dad, for unknown reasons, had what he called a recording studio in a separate room...away from the house. Actually nothing there but an old reel to reel. Anyhow, we practiced there. We played high school parties, some frat parties, The Jade Room and Club Saracen. At the end of our senior year of high school, we went to different colleges so The Six Pack dissolved."
Bob later went on to play with Georgetown Medical Band, who are known today as being one of the handful of local rock bands who recorded at the Sonobeat Studio. Their summer 1969 session went unissued.
I was also able to speak with Doug Balfour, and I pieced the following information together from a phone conversation we had earlier this year:
Doug Balfour was in 10th grade at Travis High School when he caught an early live performance of The Pack at a local YWCA dance. The band was a 3 piece at that point and lacked a bass player and keyboardist. Doug enjoyed what he saw enough to ask the trio if he could join the band as their organist.
After Balfour joined, he suggested they add his classmate and friend Harry Buckholts on the bass guitar. Harry did not own a bass and had little experience playing, but that was no problem!
Doug recalls the whole band being situated in front of the TV at Jim Mings parents house the night that The Beatles debuted on the Ed Sullivan show.
Now bearing a full line up, the band started out playing benefit events but quickly graduated up to playing wild frat parties where they would get paid up to $100 a night (remember, that was good money for the time) and all the beer they could drink. This was heavy stuff for high school kids.
"Baby I Ask You Why"
"Time"
Around September 1965, the band drove down to San Antonio to record a couple songs at Jeff Smith's Texas Sound Studios. The chose the studio because they had heard that Sunny & The Sunglows had recorded their hit version of "Talk To Me" there.
For $100 they were able to obtain a tiny pressing of 100 copies of their 45 record, which featured a crude garage rocker called "Baby I Ask You Why" backed with a ballad simply called "Time."
Both songs were written by Jim Mings.
Take note that the dead wax inscription bears the number code of 650929, which was Jeff Smith's dating system for when he would master a record: September 29th, 1965.
The record got some airplay on long defunct Austin radio station KAZZ-FM, mostly thanks to DJ Jim Vern. Otherwise, it went unnoticed.
Sometime after that, Doug went away to science camp and when he returned, Clay Smith had been replaced by Bob Snider.
One of Doug's last memories before he moved to the east coast for college was a battle of the bands event where they came in 2nd to the legendary Baby Cakes.
Many thanks to Bob Snider, Doug Balfour, and Harry Buckholts!
