Showing posts with label Johnny Angelos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Johnny Angelos. Show all posts

1.31.2018

DETROIT DRUMMER MIKKI STEVENS HAS DIED

Mikki Stevens Rikki St James Sirius Trixon Glenn Dean and Jim Jam photo: S. Rynski

MIKKI STEVENS: R.I.P.

Detroit rock drummer Mikki Stevens (Michael J. Gerbino) passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on Thursday, January 25, 2018, at the age of 64 while undergoing treatment for acute myeloid leukemia.

Mikki and Rikki rip (photo: retrokimmer.com 2013)

Mikki Stevens was the former drummer for the legendary Detroit rock band Sirius Trixon & The Motor City Bad Boys, he replaced Dennis "Machinegun" Thompson of the MC5. He also played drums with Johnny Angelos & The Reputations, Moose & Da Sharks, The Motor City Rockers and The Randy Volin Blues Band.


photo: S. Rynski

Mikki Stevens will be sadly missed by his friends in the Detroit music community and those who shared his passion for restoring vintage cars.

Memorial Service at Wujek-Calcaterra & Sons funeral home, 36900 Schoenherr at Metro Parkway (16 Mile Road), Sterling Heights, Michigan on Saturday, February 3rd at 7:30pm. Visitation from 3-5pm and 7-9pm

5.16.2014

THE ROCKETS AND THE TORPEDOS: JOHNNY A AND JOHNNY BEE

The Rockets

The seventies rock & roll in the Motor-city... An amazing time to be playing in the bar scene. Between Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Toledo there where only a handful of clubs and they would be packed every night.

I started a new band called The Rockets featuring Jim McCarty on guitar who was also a band mate from our first band Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels. And on bass was John Fraga, and Marc Marcano on keyboards. We had no vocalist at the time and so I sang from behind the drums.


There were many musician friends who would always stop by and wanna sit in, we only allowed the musicians we knew who could play to sit in. There was a young lad that would always be hanging out and asking us to let him sit in, he had a cropped haircut like the English musicians ala The Faces and he always had on a Burgundy Velvet suit.



He was like the Mick Jagger of Detroit. Before he would sit in he'd walk into the restroom and wrap wads of toilet paper around his neck and as we started to play he would grab the mike and start singing while ripping piece's of the paper off from around his neck and he'd be throwing piece's of it at the girls on the dance floor.


 Johnny Angelos (photo) Sue Rynski

And believe me I'm talking about a lot of toilet paper. The dance floor would be covered. He had it all, a rock star in the making. At the time The Rockets were managed by John Sinclair and Pete Andrews who lived in Ann Arbor.


Johnny Angelos and Robert Gillespie
(photo courtesy of Robert Gillespie)

After playing the Red Carpet one night and Johnny sitting in with us, the next day I had to go to a band meeting in Ann Arbor. It was early afternoon and I was in heavy traffic, as I was flying down I-94 just passing Metro Airport I did a double take because out of the corner of my eye....

I saw Johnny Angelos hitch-hiking on the side of the freeway with his Burgundy Velvet suit on and messed up hair in the hot sun, and I'm thinking damn that's one crazy mf. He never even went home yet and the man is heading out to sing on another gamble with love in his eyes. Johnny was a bad-ass singer who never reaped the awards he was due.

RIP my brother. Much love, Johnny Bee Badanjek



From Ricky Ratt's Article: Fallen Angelos


Detroit Guitarist Robert Gillespie and Johnny Angelos formed the Torpedos in October 1978, fusing their love of classic Motown soul and blues with elements of Heartbreakers and Sex Pistols punk. Gillespie says the Torpedos stood out from an emerging pack of new bands because “we had killer songs and a excellent front man in Johnny, who was like Rod Stewart, but more deviant.”

They developed a following, label interest and landed choice shows with the Romantics at venues such as Cleveland’s Agora ballroom and Detroit’s Masonic Temple. They got some radio support from Doug Podell and Steve Kostan. Yet it was not enough.

The Torpedos broke up shortly after Angelos split in 1981. He went on to form the Reputations with guitar slinger Bobby East. The Torpedos tried to continue with Thomas Anonymous, a singer from New York.


Thanks Bee and Robert!! xxKim

Stay tuned for more...

Post from: Retro Kimmer is a talented and widely-respected writer, show promoter and multi-media event designer. Kimmer's blog, Retrokimmer.com,  is about pop culture and it's evolution into today's hottest trends.

1.18.2014

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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