1.24.2014

ATTENTION MUSIC WRITERS!


We are enlisting authors to become team contributors for Detroit Rock n Roll Magazine. If you love writing and would like to join a fast paced emag...please email us right away....:)


THE LIVELY SPOT: TOM SHANNON SHOW CKLW CHANNEL 9



DETROIT — “The Lively Spot,” hosted by CKLW deejay Tom Shannon, bowed here on CKLW-TV (channel 9) on Monday, September 30, replacing the Robin Seymour “Swingin’ Time” show. The show was aired 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6 to 7 p.m. Saturday when it will be known as “The Tom Shannon Show"



Elmer Jasper, director of programming for CKLW-TV, predictrd Shannon would become a great favorite of Detroit young people on TV. Shannon joined CKLW in 1964. A song-writer, he wrote the 1963 hit, "Wild Weekend" was by the Rebels, aka the Rockin' Rebels.. He also wrote “Soul Clappin’,” a local hit  in Detroit on the radio charts, was performed by the Buena Vistas on the Marquee record label.


1.23.2014

JAPANESE NEWS TEAM INTERVIEWS TINO GROSS OF FUNKY D RECORDS

 
 Tino Gross with the Japanese News team

Tino Gross owner producer of Funky D Records is the most tireless team leader of Detroit Rock n Roll.  His faith and energy to promote and nurture all that is great about the music of Detroit, led a Japanese news team to find him and feature his recording artists in a news story. We translated the page for you to get an idea of what their focus was...Nothing Stops Detroit.... Go Tino Go!

1.20.2014

BOOKIE'S CLUB 870: DETROIT PUNK


SCOTT CAMPBELL:

Back in the mid-70's, Detroit was a vast arid wasteland for bands playing their own music. The coffeehouse and ballroom scene of the mid-60's had disappeared. No band got a bar gig without five sets of Top 40 mainstream radio covers. Bar owners would actually give song lists to bands with the condition that they had to play those songs if they were going to play at all. Stages were short and tiny or nonexistent and no bar had it's own PA.


Then, disco reared its ugly head. It was cheaper to hire a deejay than a band and bar goers seemed to like it. Original rock bands had nowhere to play unless they were huge national acts. Even mid level bands from outside Detroit had nowhere to play if they couldn't pull in 4,000 people. One band that was willing to do something about it was The Sillies.


They formed in 1977 and did their first show second-billed to Rob Tyner's new version of The MC5, renting a theater for the show. The crowd topped 1,000 but the band lost money due to a curious lack of money at the door. Something smaller and on a weekly basis was needed to kick start the local music scene again. By early 1978, The Sillies did a few shows in closed bars that were open one night for the event. They soon got an invitation to play Frank Gagen's, an old supper club on West McNichols (Six Mile) that was operating as a gay disco.


The bar down the street (Menjo's) had taken most of their business and the owner Sam Stewart was willing to try anything. Though the sign said "Gagen's", the place was known as "Bookie's Club 870" after Stewart's nickname and the address, 870 W. McNichols. Two weeks before the scheduled show, Don Fagenson, better known now as producer "Don Was", came in with his Motor City Revue and his attempt at a punk band, The Traitors. The Sillies bided their time and did their scheduled shows on March 17 and 18. By the end of the second night, Bookie handed the bar over to The Sillies to book as they chose.


After that, every weekend was a concert with three bands doing a set of their own music instead of one band doing five sets of radio hits. Detroit acts like Wayne Kramer, The Romantics, Destroy All Monsters (with Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton, Niagara, Rob King and MC5 bassist Mike Davis) would headline some weekends while bands such as The Police, The Damned, Ultravox, The Cramps, The Dead Boys, and many others made Bookie's their one and only Michigan tour date.


Bowie parked outside the front door in his limousine the night he played Detroit in 1978, but only his band actually came inside to hear "punk rock disco" for an admission price of 50 cents (it was a weekday with no live band).

The music before and between the live sets was the only place people could hear the latest punk and New Wave records in Detroit as no radio station would play them. Sillies vocalist Ben Waugh would bring his own records from home or borrow others from friends and bar regulars, then stop the music and run to the mixing board to run sound for the live band.
 

Radio deejays like Sky Daniels of W4 would occasionally come to the club and hear "Roxanne" by The Police before it was ever released in the U.S. Eventually, Bookie's was a victim of it's own success. A concert promotion company took over the club and The Sillies concentrated on touring the U.S. and Canada.


A succession of promoters ran the room for varying periods of time until Bookie sold it to someone who thought it would be a good idea to turn it back into a drag show bar. The building mysteriously burned to the ground in 1991 and was torn down. Now only a parking lot exists where J. Geils played to a packed house after a three day sellout at Pine Knob.


A handful of unreleased recordings, videotapes, and photos are all that is left of that brief moment of creativity and originality. On the other hand, Bookie's inspired the opening of Lili's, Paycheck's, and an endless stream of like-minded clubs that exist to this very day. Bookie's itself disappeared before its ashes were cold, but its legacy as a showcase for Detroit music continues to this very day.


"It wasn't huge, but it had a faded elegance about it that gave it a lot of character. After I left in late 1979, they gutted it to shoehorn as many people as possible. It was awful. It was like they stuffed and mounted Syd Barrett and put him on tour. I saw what they did to it and it almost made me cry."


1.19.2014

BOOTSEY X MEMORIAL AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF SISTER DYNAMITE

Sister Dynamite aka Valorie Synwolt

I skidded into the parking lot at @ 9:00 (I owe the parking guy a beer, or two...). I took off my glasses, got out my contact lense case, popped them in, changed from my flat boots to my over-the knee heels. -When I finally tipped into the doorway of the Tangent Gallery, I saw that it was packed full of people, who were there to honor the life in music of Robert Mulrooney, alias Bootsey X.

There were two rooms, all filled with folks taking pictures of each other with one another. Nobody seemed to notice that the great Sister Dynamite had indeed entered the building. In the large area, where the main stage is located, tables were set up all around, with a large standing area, just in front of the stage.

Cool... looked around for somebody familiar, but saw no one.

 
 Gerald Shohan Bootsey's best friend forever

I was specifically looking for Gerald Shohan, who was Bootsey's best friend forever and in charge of the totally proper sendoff for the Bootman. Didn't want to just barge uninvited past everyone to get to the dressing rooms.

The DRs were located way on the other side of the room. So,  lugged my bag to the other room, which had no chairs, but tables filled with the 400+ pizzas that had been ordered. People were socializing, lining up for pizza, and some were watching the video that was being projected onto the wall behind that stage.



Once again I saw Bootsey... then, after I sat my bag on the floor and choked down a slice, I noticed another familiar face... my own playing on the big wall screen.

There we were... doing "Soulmobile", at Alvin's in the mid '80's (according to Dana Novak, who taped the show, and later, gave me a copy-I still owe him a beer-).

Stood alone, propped against the wall, watching myself and the great Bootsey singing "Pony Down". I got a little teary-eyed, thinking of how I last saw sweet Bob, about two weeks before he passed.

He told me that that next time the band played, he wanted me to sing with them. I replied that we would play again together soon.

 Kelly Valorie and Bootsey X

I had not seen anyone from the old days for almost 30 years. It all happened so quickly-last year, I got onto fb looking for Bob. There, I found his Boosey'X fan page, from which I came in contact with Retrokimmer.  She hooked me up with Gerald.

Since then, Gerald has gotten me back into the mix-singing with Brian McCarty, introduced me to two very cool ladies, Liz and Chrissy, who are now honorary Sugarbabies -Sister Z, Sister Chee. As I stood there watching people watching me dancing on the wall, I began to notice that a few alert scanners finally had made the connection.

 
First, the bald guy across the room suddenly appeared next to me . Then, more, and more folks seemed to come from frozen positions throughout the room, to say hello. I finally got to the dressing rooms through a passageway behind the big stage.

I was approached by my present band member, bassist Kevin Perri, who can make anybody feel at ease. After a hug from him, he introduced me to his entourage. Sophia, the first Sugarbaby, aka ' Lambchop'/'Sister C', came up to me, and we hugged. "We loved Bootsey, didn't we?- they just don't know", she. said to me. "Yes, we did."


The show began....then it finished so quickly. We sent Bootsey on his journey... It was obvious that his influence, music, spirit, and love for fun was acknowledged and appreciated by those who loved him, in grand style!-Val Synwolt/aka Sister Dynamite

1.18.2014

30 DETROIT GARAGE ROCK GEMS OF THE 1960S MC5-RATIONALS-BOB SEGER


**THIS IS FROM THE MICHIGAN BRAND NUGGETS BOOT ISSUED IN THE 1970S

01_The Woolies - Who Do You Love (Detroit, 1966)
02_Bob Seger & The Last Heard - East Side Story (Detroit, 1966)
03_The Rationals - Respect (Ann Arbor, 1966)
04_MC5 - Looking At You (Detroit, 1968)
05_The Unrelated Segments - Where You Gonna Go? (Detroit, 1967)
06_The Shy Guys - We Gotta Go (Oak Park, 1966)
07_Underdogs - Love's Gone Bad (Grosse Pointe, 1966)
08_Terry Knight & The Pack - What's On Your Mind? (Flint, 1966)
09_The Human Beings - Because I Love Her (Detroit, 1965)
10_MC5 - Borderline (Detroit, 1968)
11_The Tidal Waves - Farmer John (Roseville, 1966)
12_Bob Seger & The Last Heard - Persecution Smith (Detroit, 1966)
13_? & The Mysterians - Can't Get Enough of You Baby (Flint, 1967)
14_Southbound Freeway - Psychedelic Used Car Lot Blues (Detroit, 1967)
15_The Rationals - Sing (Ann Arbor, 1967)
16_The Wanted - In the Midnight Hour (Detroit, 1966)
17_The Rationals - Leavin' Here (Ann Arbor, 1966)
18_The Bob Seger System - Lookin' Back (Detroit, 1971)
19_MC5 - I Can Only Give You Everything (Detroit, 1966)
20_The Amboy Dukes - You Talk Sunshine, I Breathe Fire (Detroit, 1968)
21_Underdogs - The Man In the Glass (Grosse Pointe, 1965)
22_MC5 - One of the Guys (Detroit, 1966)
23_Bob Seger & The Last Heard - Chain Smokin' (Detroit, 1966)
24_Dr. Jack Van Impe - An Important Message (Troy, 1966)
25_Bob Seger & The Last Heard - Heavy Music, Pt. 1& 2 (Detroit, 1967)
26_The Rationals - I Need You (Ann Arbor, 1967)
27_MC5 - I Just Don't Know (Detroit, 1966)
28_Tim Tam & The Turn-Ons - Wait a Minute (Allen Park, 1965)
29_Ormandy - Good Day (Lansing, 1970)
30_The Beach Bums (Bob Seger)- Ballad of the Yellow Beret (Detroit, 1966)

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THE AMBOY DUKES


 



Members of the band over time:

Ted Nugent, Rusty Day, Steve Farmer, Rick Lober, Andy Solomon, Greg Arama, Bob Lehnert, John Drake, KJ Knight, Dave Gilbert, Johnny Angelos, David Palmer, Gail Uptadale, Dick Treat, Gary Hicks, Bill White 







 
The Amboy Dukes were an American rock music band of the late 1960s and early 1970s from Detroit, Michigan, best remembered for their hit single "Journey to the Center of the Mind", and for launching the career of Ted Nugent. The band's name comes from the title of a book by Irving Shulman. Bassist Greg Arama died in 1979. 


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