I thought so ... our son graduated from there in 1984 ...

Monsignor Farrell was the pastor of our Parish (St. Peter's) when I was a kid ... He used to hand out the report cards when I was in grade school ...

As I recall, as the school was being built, they taught the first Freshman class in the grade school our kids went to - St. Sylvester's in Concord SI ...

Donny ... you are SOOO right ... had a 'reunion' with two of the guys from the band two weeks ago in LBI, NJ ... we were talking about how fortunate we were to have had a band from 1958 to 1984, when we could play the "top 40" in 'our' style and people loved it and appreciated it ... we started out at the end of the 'big band' era, and finished - due to a company move that sent me to RI - at the beginning of the 'backing track'/synth'/DJ era ...
Unless you lived it as a musician, you can't appreciate the VALUE of what we had ...

I agree Tony.......

Actually I am playing bass on the left back in 1981 ... 1864 was a little before my time. You will notice a distinct change in hair color ( white ) now lol. And the photo of me on my profile was taken in a band shot about 3 years ago. It was before a gig and was face on which always works better for me. Profile shots of me a few hours later in the night look much older

Here is our Red Rhythm promo clip and the opening band picture is the one I took my profile picture from.

You guys sounded terrific, Nigel...I solved the grey hair issue by shaving it off. Ha ha! I call it my "Mr.Clean" look.

What a great "pro" sound...your band was very tight...harmonies especially.

Ian

Nigel...
Great looking and sounding group. Thanks for posting the clip. Red Rhythm Rocks.
Eddie

Fabulous stuff, guys! Such stories. Great promo, Nigel - very similar to the last band I ended up in - no vids, though, unfortunately.

Couldn't have said it better than Donny and Tony Mads. Our generation came along at exactly the right time. I turned 13 in 1956, a brand new teenager at the beginning of rock'n'roll. It has been the best of times all along the way.

Thanks Ian. We are still together. I just made this clip last year for venue owners to hear us playing to help get new gigs.

We recorded the songs in our rehearsal space with a Tascam 2488 MKII digital recorder which cost us what the time in someone elses studio would have cost to do the same thing ( I think it was around $600 ... great what you can buy to record on nowadays ). But now we have a 24 track recorder set up all the time in our rehearsal room.

Almost missed this, 124, and it is so cool to have a treasure like this from the past. I have several "live" VHS clips of a few of the groups I played with and need to get them converted to DVD etc.

Watkins "Telstar" organ...not a common instrument back in the day, and maybe worth a bit to a collector...any idea where it ended up?

http://www.combo-organ.com/Others/others.htm#Wem

Your band really had a great look, and a polished presentation...not to mention that you sounded pretty cool too.

My first combo organ was a "Howard Combo Organ" by Baldwin...once described as the "57 DeSoto of the Combo Organ world"...not as screechy as the more common and popular Farfisas (Fast 4/5's) of the day...far more mellow.

What did you use to amplify the Watkins?

There's more on this great site about combo organs: http://www.combo-organ.com/

Ian

Hi Ian,

I bought the Watkins in 1964(?) having gone the usual route of playing whatever piano happened to be in whatever venue we were booked - you know how that goes. I ended up selling it in order to raise the down payment on my first Hammond, an L102.

Most of the groups in the UK at the time had either a Farfisa Duo or a Vox Continental. Never really liked either of those, so went for the Watkins, which was a bit of a rarity even then.

I can't say I'd ever heard of a 'Howard Combo Organ'. I don't think they ever appeared over the pond. Thanks for that link, looks like a very interesting site. I'll be delving into that one.

Yes, it was a great band, we'd all been friends for several years - still see a couple of them when I'm over there. Everybody was a natural singer, and those harmonies all came so easily. You may have noticed early in the clip where two young fellas appear and one says, "they're playing our song!". That, pre-Small Faces, was Steve Marriott. In the dressing room that morning he told me he was putting a band together and asked me if I'd like to join. I said I was happy enough with the band I was in and turned it down.

We were doing pretty well, anyway. We recorded it with Shel Talmy who was producing The Kinks and The Who at the time. The single of that song was out on CBS in the UK, getting heavy radio rotation (7 plays a day), and reached no.32, not huge, but a no.32 record then was probably selling more than a top five song now.

Following that, in 1966, we had the original demo for Black Is Black, created the now-familiar arrangement and recorded it ready for release. Some internal corporate squabbles at CBS in London led to it being shelved (trust the suits - NOT), and the next thing we knew was that Los Bravos had copped it, our arrangement an' all, and had it out within three weeks and was the no.5 selling record in all of Europe that year.

Such are the stories of the biz.