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The 1960's British Invasion and The Beatles were quite influential to young Buzzy Beano. This was the beginning of his musical journey. In fact, Buzzy and his friends would strum on brooms and mops, singing to Beatle records pretending that they were the Fab Four.
At the age of ten Buzzy moved from New Orleans to Tucson, Arizona. He was so unhappy about leaving his friends, his Dad thought a trip to the music store would cheer him up. William Langford Sr. purchased a guitar for his eleven year old son shortly after that visit. "It was all I could do just to have some peace around the house. Buzzy's eyes glazed over when he saw a royal blue sparkle guitar from Germany. It was love at first sight", recalls Buzzy's dad.
Buzzy began formal training, learned to read music, and studied classical guitar, all at an early age. At the age of thirteen he started his first band, "The Attic Rafters", and began playing professionally at parties. In 1966, The Attic Rafters, who dressed much like the Beatles, won "The Battle of The Bands" contest in Metairie, La.
The first time Buzzy stepped into a recording studio was as a session guitarist for an Allen Toussaint project. He was only 14 at the time. While still in his teens, he organized and played in two local, innovative groups, "Armadillo" and " The Rhythm Aces". Both groups wrote and performed original music. While in these bands, he spent time playing clubs on infamous Bourbon Street before he was of legal drinking age.
In 1973, while playing in a Bourbon Street club, some friends of Buzzy's, who were members of "Vince Vance and The Valiants", paid him a visit and asked him to join "The Valiants". As a member of The Valiants, a hugely popular 50's show band, at twenty years old Buzzy started touring from coast to coast playing to sold out crowds. He played clubs and college venues where crowds of 300 to 800 people were a common sight.
In 1974, Buzzy decided to leave Vince Vance and The Valiants to start his own band, "Buzzy Beano and The B Notes". This group, headed by "Beano", was off to a good start and was a local success, but Buzzy contracted a bad case of laryngitis which lasted three months. After only a year, the budding group fell apart.
Shortly after the breakup, Buzzy was at a dinner party when he got a call from Vince Vance and The Valiants asking if he could play bass for a couple of months for a member who was injured in a motorcycle accident. Soon the original bass player returned, and Buzzy decided to stay on with the Valiants once again. At this time The Valiants were moving into an artistic direction. The band continued to tour across the country and made three more recordings, which were produced by Beano. Two of the recordings were released to the public.
In 1979, after four and a half years, he grew tired of the road. Some friends, who were members of T.Q. and The Topcats, asked Buzzy to join the group, and he accepted. This popular 50's show band was looking to make some changes. It was in August when Buzzy agreed to meet the band in Memphis, Tenn. The group was making changes in it's line up as well as format. Buzzy's joining was not well received by T.Q. and The Topcats fans, and die hard T.Q. fans blamed Beano for the breakup of the original T.Q. and The Topcats. He even received hate mail, but luckily, he was not discouraged and has been a Topcat since that day in August, 1979.
While working with the Topcats, Buzzy has helped to develop the group while evolving his own guitar and vocal styles. During the 1980's Buzzy owned and operated "The Music Stop", a local music store in Metairie, La., and has owned numerous recording studios over the years. Even though The Topcats work an average of five days a week , Buzzy has always found the time to sharpen his developing, producing, and engineering skills.
Buzzy's latest studio, "Radionic Studios", is located in his home. It is also the home of Four Cats / Radionic LLC.
Releasing two country-rock albums under the pseudo-band name "Hopalong Catastrophe", Beano began a successful solo career in 2003. Over thirty years of song writing is celebrated on his 2008 rock/pop double CD release "ELEVEN YEARS FROM YESTERDAY". This new album digs deep into Beano's soul and provides a glimpse into the past, present, and future of his musical work. "ELEVEN YEARS FROM YESTERDAY" is a significant moment in the career of a celebrated performer, song-writer, and guitarist.
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