John Good @ DW Drums, Elvis, Gene Krupa, Sandy Denny, American Bandstand in Philly, Beach Boys, Dave Lauser, Yardbirds, James Brown, Motown, Shindig and Hallabaloo, Michael Lanning and the Hilton Brothers, Tower Of Power, Kool and the gang, Chet McCracken, Buddy Miles, Jeff Porcarro, Jim Ketltner, Russ Kunkle, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, Frosty and Lee Michaels, Little Feet, Elliott Quinton-Thomas Reed, Katie and Jame K Guthrie, Jack Reed, Michael Mason, Rob and Lynn Weaver, Tim Kelly, Garry Fish, Christie Alsbury, Jill Starr, founder of Life Savers Horse rescue...Ian Paul Lanning,
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I guess this is where ya pat yourself on the back for the things you've done and the things you can do. To start off and be clear, I was a fringe player in the music industry from 1973 through 1990. My clams to fame are that I introduced Stevie Nicks to Christie Alsbury who designed the first layer stule dresses and with Margi Kent helped transform Stevies style into what we see today. I Took Stevie to Jon Garrett who had been doing may hair and they were a great match also. That meeting saved me the price of a hair cut for 5 years. I milked it as long as I could.
My life in music was to ride the coat tail of Michael Lanning from Berdoo (San Bernardino) Ca to North Hollywood and Echo Park. We were school mates that ran with different music circles, him with the Nam radical folk singers and me in the rock band circle..................
My start was with garage bands playing the bubble gum hits, Yardbirds and some blues. Sometimes I played with some older kats at 1% biker partys in East Highland orange groves. I was 15-16 and these were some very tough dudes. They loved the guys I was playing with so I was safe as part of the intertainment, but one huge guy named Bear made sure no one fucked with me. The only time I got in trouble was when he wasn't there and I skipped jail only because Bob Rasuchi. Someone gave me 3 red pills and I took um. Bad idea, I was 90lb wet and I took three reds. For the times I was a good solo player and those guys liked that. but stoned? No way. The cops always showed up to close it down and when they did they found about a dozen reds under my cases. I went white and sobered up for as long as it took to pack and drive past the cops. After that I went into stupid mode and Bob had to drive. Needless to say it was my last 1% club party and Id like to say my last run in with the red capsules........................
I started going to gigs the Hilton brothers that played with Shylock in the San Bernardino mountains. Bob Hilton wanted to play a Boogie and Bill Hall the drummer didnt. Bob started pulling me up to play it and I was glad to play with the better players. As time went on, they mad me do my solos and I got good enough that Bill stopped letting me play.................
John Lynn was a guitar player that spent some time playing with them and he wanted to start a band with me and Jim Montgomery the Shylock bass player. We asked Michael Lanning to join and we were off. It was real rocky at first because we some how ended up with an extra singer that we didnt count on. We loved the guy and had to let him go after forming the act at his house. The friendship went real cold after that.............
The band took the name Tolbekin and moved into Elanore Lannings front room to salvage what we started. She was a very straight mother of four talented kids and was there for me more times than I have fingers. We played in her front room for years and I never heard her play her piano, only the organ and it was hymns. Well, let me tell ya. She played piano with the boys and Lee Shaffer doing barbershop songs one year and we got to hear another side. When they took a booze brake she laid down a boogie that would drive Jerry Lee Lewis out of the room. She was hot and the house stopped to watch her burn it down. I miss that women and her grand son Ian too.
So back to the story. After getting a few sets down we set out to mold a big fish, small pond following. We played 10 to 15 gigs a month around the southern california area. The band was OK, but it was Lannings voice that opened the doors...................
We had a big family of friends that took to the Alice's Restaurant movie and started having dinners with or fans. It turned into dinners with 2 and 3 turkys and hams, and 50 to 80 people. We did it all at The Hilton house 2 ta 3 times a year. Big Bob and Marge were always there if we needed them. They took on the roll as band parents. We spent alot of time there singin songs aroud the piano out back. The Hilton brothers were a good group of singers they did it every chance they got.
When we got introduced to Jack Reed he took us under his wing and took us to LA to make ago at it. He moved us to North Hollywood where we found we were minnows in the ocean of musicians that were much better than I was. I didnt think so at the time. I thought I was real good and I was still just a beat player...................
After 6 months of limited gigs we split up. Gazaries was one of the only places that hired unsigned oraginal acts. By this time we did 75% of our own shit. Some was OK for those days too..............
So in early 1972 I went south where Paul Shaffer took me in and gave me a place until Lanning called again for a drummer. This time it was Lanning, Hilton and the natural Kats. Gil Carson played bass and he was the first real bass player I'd ever played with. He taught me more about part playing and grooves, but I was still not as good as he was and it showed..........
The band was out of sink again. We called it quites after a booking at Lead Betters went real bad. We were two acoustic guitars, bass and drums and in Hollywood. If we had been in Topanga we would have fit right in with the scene that was going on at the Corral and Sundace Salon. I went back south and then back to Berdoo. I was in the mountains being a bum and a waste of life when the call came again. The boys had George Negrette go find me in the mountains and drag my ass home to play a gig. The boys needed to pay some bills and had a weekend booked in town............
Tom and Mike came up to the cabin and we played some old tunes and picked it right up again. We worked out some of the new stuff and did the gig. It was tough, but everyone liked it. As usual I ran back to play with Lanning. We had a love hate relationship that has grown into a true brother hood. Lanning met Adrian up there and they had 2 great kids..............
They asked me to move to Echo Park again and I was too happy to join. It was a hippie house and some times flop for world travelers that were Primies.... What the hell had I got myself into. There was Rainbow and Sunshine who would steel your teeth if ya left them out, and Goo McDuff a wild haired sax player along with some strange people that drove me crazy.............
In the center of all this was a spirituel adventure that I would never had had if not for Jack, Michael and Tommy.................
We rehearsd every day in the basement and got real tight. We played mostly free gigs for the DLM until someone gave us studio time to do a record. It was a tiny place in North hollywood owned by Greg Ladany, whom had been the doorman at Gazarries when we 1st got to town. He was a dick to us and would rush us to get out when we had to pack up. I worked with him again and fond him to be the same, but I leared enough to make it worth it.
The record was By His Grace and it found its way to Alan Pariser. He knew George Harrison and they came to the corral to see us. The next monday the phones were ringing off the hook. We were going to be artists on Dark Horse.
George got us on the Fleetwood Mac tour that was Stevie first tour with them. Because of politics the tour lasted 2 months and we were on our own. We hooked up with Donovan and did a short tour and I did some tracks with him for Atlantic. I got to work with Barry Beckit and Jerry Wexler, but the recordings were shelved (politics) and released on 3 different Cd's in the 80's.
I took a job working for the montage music group and signed Bobby Walker and Bowin Ridon. Bobby was signed to Casablanca and Bowin to WMOT, but they never recorded him. I take the blame for stopping him from getting a real deal. After that I didn't sign anyone else. I didn't want to screw any more artists.
I had started Randolph Scott with Michael Lanning and Patric Pearsal useing midle names of Michael and I. We invited the youngest Hilton brother to join us ..board and Kasye Alsbury on guitar. Michael took up the bass and he was great at it. He didn't like to limited to that, but we made a great section. I tried getting us a deal with RCA and Cassablanca, but they dedn't want a country rock band. By the time the local talant being signed was Country rock I was out of the band and no longer with Maontage.
I left the band as it was starting to come together and Susan Richardson conviced us to be her backup band with empty promises and money. I couldn't get along with her and I quit putting a riff between the band and I. I quit them too and played with The Rude band that had Walter Egan on bass and Marti Davitch ..s. Marty does TV sound tracks now with one of my favorite drummers Michael Mason. Walter is off some place in the south writing and raising his kids. The rudes and I kept intouch and ended up taking me for a large amount of money but introduced me to Winona MN. So now I live here with a bunch of ferrel cats, a dog and a blind gold fish. Its an island in the Mississippi River and it is wonderful. A resort that no one comes to. I've been disabled with neck, back and wriste trouble for years and the docters here are slowly putting me back together. If you're messed up, this is the place to be. Its a wonderful energy and a trafic jam is 10 cars waiting for the train.
So back to the history lesson. I wasn't into playing Annies songs anymore and it showed and they fired me. Michael had been Playing at the Sagebrush Cantina in Calabassas with Ronny Mac on drums. They invited me to come and sit in on percussion and it started a new fire in my musical intrest. Ronny and I made a great team and played with Larry Keen aswell as Michael. Between the 2 bands we played the Cantina every weekend and a few week nights. I loved playin with Ronny and Brion Lavitsky. Brion had joined Randolph Scott after I left so Michael could go back to guitar. Soon Ronny took a road gig and I was back to just drums.
My friendship with Brion and Larry grew and we built a place to rehears that grew into a cluster fuck. We spent way to much money and decided to rent it out. I was unable to get it to make money and felt guilty for lossing so much money that wasn't mine, so I went my own way.
I was building Military antennas when Danice Mays called me and beged me to bail him out on a Zoo gig. He was doing sound for Mick Fleetwood's Zoo and the one Tech they had got stopped up north and put in jail. Dennis got the gear to the Palamino and needed help with Mick's drums. My room mate Mush took the calls and told me to go do it. I owed Dennis at least one gig.
Micks drums were in real bad shape and the heads were wat to old to have any sound, I got them set up and went home for heads. I guess they sounded the best out of all the shows and they offered me the gig. I know now that I would never have lasted doing everyones gear, but I sad yes after Mush convinced me that was where I belonged.
They had set up rehearsals and told me where to get the gear. Monday I was working with the Zoo. Tuesday the mac was reforming. Wenesday it was the zoo because Lindsey wouldn't do a tour. Thersday it was the Zoo again. When I got up Friday it was the Mac again.
I got the gear on Friday and took it to the Roger Corman lot in Venice and Ray Lindsey was there with the rest of the mac gear. Ray and I didn't like each other because he had had an afair with my girl friend when she went on the road with the Mac. We both did what we needed to do as if there was no history. He wasn't slated to do the tour at that time, nor was I. That night we heared it was off again and to come back the next day and strike the gear.
When I got there it was changed again. They were going to adition guitar players and Rick Vito and Billy Burnette were coming in. They set them up and started in and it was great. I was impressed with how well it sounded. John was rusty but played great. When I left they told me to come back sunday and they'd tell me what was next.
Sunday they decided to go with that lineup and I was the drun tech. The rehearsals didn't go as well for a week or so as they worked out the kinks. Ray was stuck between Mick telling him to make Vito sound like Lindsey and Vito not wanting the to hear it. I felt for Ray and we started to have a good working relasionship. I had alot of respect for him as a tech and as the guy who had suported Christie out on the road. He kept her from going crazy. She was not into drugs ore the party thing and he was all she had. I had to resoect it even though it hurt me.
To make things worse for him, Micks manager was Dennis Duston one of the body gaurds from the old days. At first it was OK but soon he started telling Ray what to do so he had Dunstan and Mick hounding him and Vito ignoring him. I had to step between Ray and Dunston at an out door show that rained through the set and made the guitars go out of tune just by taking them out of the case. Dunstan was yelling at ray as if it was his fault. I straped on my balls and steped between them and said" If your not working, get the fuck of My stage". The shock of this guy that was 130lbs and soking wet stoped the argument and we went back to work. it took 38 hours to do a 3 hour show.
So back to the rehearsals.
After we got comformation of who was going on the road, we started to get things started. My first week I got on the phone to Remo and Paiste to get new stuff. JC who had been the road manager when Jiva was on the road with them was the road manager and Christiens personal manager. He came in the production office where I was on the phone and yeld at me to get off the phone. He hadn't told me that the phone was neede, but acted as if I was doing something wrong. I finished the call with Remo drun..m heads and hug up. I don't remember much after that, but I found myself in my tool box with a large hammer in my hand and ready to beat JC with it. When I realized what I was doing, I put it down and left. The next day I was telling Dunston that I might not want to do this gig. Stevie over heared what I was saying. She might not see well, but she can stiil hear. She asked what I was talking about and I told he nothing realy. Well to my surprise she said " when I ask you a questio, you tell me" So I told her and she said not to worrie about it. It turned out that she went to JC and told him if he fucked with me again he was fired. I found out at the first gig when he asked me if I was going to hit him with a pipe? I told him know I'd beat him to death with my hands if he disrespected me again, I was being funny, but he got the idea and never treated my bad again. I still respect and love the guy and would do anything for him.
I found out on that tour that part of Micks show was getting mad at the tech. He would find something wrong with the kit and beat it til it broke. That was hard for me to get past, but we did. One of his things he liked to do was have me give him beer in the midle of a song and I was great at it. I never spilled a drop. Id start it at his mouth and then hold it a foot over his face until he would start closing his mouth. I'd bring it down to his lips and then stop it. It was fun to do, He always gave me a grin. There was alot of love from that Kat. He got crazy more than a few times, but all in all, he was more like my big brother and I love him as much as anyone I know. I miss the shit out of him and I've not seen or heared from him in 17 years.
Here is where I'm going to stop and reflect on what happend next.
Chapter 2 to come soon.
*********biker prayer***********
FEEDINGTHEDESIRE
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1P5e34nlv4
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Behind the mask link.
http://discog.fleetwoodmac.net/discog.php?pid=76
Greatist hits link
http://www.discogs.com/Fleetwood-Mac-Greatest-Hits/release/783640
Peace Sunday, June 5, 1982, Rose Bowl, no nukes - nuclear disarmament - stop nuclear madness concert - NYC - Central Park - June 12, 1982, 1,000,000 person march and rally for Nuclear Freeze. Photography and presentation by Curtis Rainbow. 'Give Peace a Chance' music by Achim Schultz. Inspiration by Yoko Ono. Dedicated to John Lennon.
Ever wondered what to do in the event of a nuclear threat?
A while ago I found stuff that inspired me to make this film:
Living Under the Shadow of the Nuclear Umbrella
Both artistic (ensure you get the background music!) and educational, it primarily comprises official British government civil defence advice.
Though source materials are quite aged, much remains relevant today.
I encourage all to visit the YouTube page to learn more (Show support! Rate! Comment!) and responsibly circulate as widely as possible, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaIim3Rj7L4
Played a couple of local festivals last weekend. My bass player reminded me of the staged beer drinking antics of Mick Fleetwood and I replied..."Hey!!!...I went to high school with that cat!"....peace out ...stay cool!
Good to have you as a friend! So great to see the internet in action this way, shortening distances between people.
I hope all's well with you and that you enjoy checking out my web site some time.
For occasional, new, refreshing, insightful and (possibly?!) valuable content, I encourage you to sign up for my free newsfeed/email newsletter (using the form on site at page right - high quality, low quantity, no spam!).
You might enjoy watching some of my films (use the on screen controls to skip between them):
Reedo ... can you hit us up with your ... GAZZARRI'S ... stories? We'd love to add them to the site?
Also, ... what are the names of the bands you were with? We couldn't figure who was who in you pics section ... and we'd love to have those in our promo pics!
do u like sea ? sometimes it looks calm and peace but sometimes it makes waves
did u got covered with spray ? maybe u wonder why does i ask so .. well , coz just now i have finished my newest tune named spray :)
spray is very beautiful and thrilling in the twinkling of an eye it's so out of control that we r hard 2 catch its come and go
what's ur come and go ? i sincerely invite u 2 listen ( or experience ) and leave me a review if u r willing 2 share ur personal spray in life also welcome 2 my newest blog "New Tune Release : Spray"
Hello! Just wanted to drop in and let you know that pre-orders for my new jazz standards album "Bittersweet" are now taking place! The first 100 pre-orders will receive a signed and numbered copy! Release date is set for May 19th, but you will get your copy a few days earlier! Kate and I are very excited about the record, and we can't wait for you to hear it. Head over to www.bittersweetthealbum.com to pre-order! Thanks! ~Mark
Drop by my page my friend. I posted a video and MP3 of me doing one of the hottest versions of “Voodoo Child” that you’ll ever hear.....guaranteed to make you smile! …..and you can download the MP3 for free!
Drop by my page my friend. I posted a video and MP3 of me doing one of the hottest versions of “Voodoo Child” that you’ll ever hear.....guaranteed to make you smile! …..and you can download the MP3 for free!
Just stoppin by to show some support! I'm here to ask you to check out my new video on www. youtube. com type in frontline & the Brotherhood of sound! LMK!
Peace
Frontline
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