THE TORPEDOS!

Torpedos circa 1981 (from l): Jim Banner, Johnny Angelos, Robert Gillespie, Ralph Serafino, Tom Curry 

Was just sitting in my office the other day and I was thinking about which band from Detroit that was never mainstream, is still relevant today...What band would I share with our overseas readers? A band that is still very cool. They had a punkish attitude and had great singles, like NO PILLS, and CHECKIN OUT

Guitarist Robert Gillespie kicks back and pours another vodka, playing the charming host in his sprawling Pleasant Ridge home. It’s a spacious rock ’n’ roll mansion of sorts — guitars, books and records are scattered amid leopard-print rugs and throw pillows. The basement is jammed with musical gear, ready for impromptu drunken jams.Gillespie has a casual star quality. He plays in the super-group Power Train as well as with Mitch Ryder (since 1983).

Today, however, he’s talking about his “favorite band.” They were called the Torpedos, they were full-on Motown rock ’n’ roll punks, and they debuted in October 1978 at the infamous Bookies 870 club in Detroit.

“Nobody liked us at first,” says Gillespie as he pops in a 1981 video of a Torpedos performance at Harpo’s. He apologizes in advance, saying the tape had no sound. But once it begins playing, it’s obvious that the sound has been mysteriously restored.

Perhaps it’s the work of the spirit of vocalist Johnny Angelos, who is front and center on the video. Angelos, the gangster R&B punk, doesn’t just look out from the screen, he jumps and screams out at you. He sounds cocky and cool and he looks fantastic.He would be dead in three years.

Even though the Torpedos released just one single and an EP, both on Brian Williams’ Four Winds Records, which both sold more than 1,000 copies, they left an indelible mark. Thanks to Mike Leshkevich and his homegrown Motor City Music label, the Torpedos can be experienced fresh and new with the release of the band’s first-ever CD, No Refills.

Gillespie and 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.” He recalls meeting Angelos “in 1969 down on Plum Street at the Red Roach coffee house when I was 14 years old.”

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JAMES JAMERSON: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DETROIT'S REVOLUTIONARY BASSIST!

James Jamerson

James Lee Jamerson was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s and he is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history.

 
Born: January 29, 1936, Charleston, SC Died: August 2, 1983, Los Angeles, CA Record label: Motown Records Music group: The Funk Brothers (1959 – 1972) Albums: Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson  Wiki

Legendary Motown bassist James Jamerson single-handedly revolutionized bass playing. Throughout the entire classic Motown catalog (and some non-Motown sides), Jamerson shaped a new inventive style of bass playing and brought what had been regarded by some as a "minor" instrument to the forefront through the use of the electric Fender bass, powered by his musical genius and amazing dexterity.
 

Jamerson  was the first Motown bassist to incorporate a fresh perspective and intuitiveness along with his own jazz/blues-oriented background to Motown founder Berry Gordy's R&B/pop leanings. The innovative bassist moved R&B/pop bass playing from the standard two-beat root fifth (dum-de de de-dum dum) to an approach that was more dynamic: using zipping passing tones, Ray Brown-like walking bass lines, double stops, and syncopation. Jamerson's playing was nothing short of revolutionary.

James Jamerson Biography by Ed Hogan

DETROIT ROCK ARTIST: CARL LUNDGREN!

 

Carl Lundgren is one of the most innovative American artists in modern time. Carl's love of underground movies, science fiction, comic book super heroes, fueled his mind with amazing color and vision. He creates more than just one genre, he creates art that represents his dreams.

Being quite famous as one of the top rock poster artists of the rock n roll era wasn't enough, fine art has always been his love. Carl brings fantasy to his art and humor as well.

His newest painting is "CONGRESS"

"CONGRESS"

From Carl...

1965 "When I was 18 years old I was co-chairman of the first multimedia convention ever held, The Detroit Triple Fan Fair, (comics, movies, and science fiction). I played folk guitar semi-professionally, but I really wanted to learn to be an illustrator like my idol, Frank Frazetta."

1967 Lundgren began creating posters for such bands as The Who, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane as well as for such Detroit legends as the MC5, Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, The Frost and more. Little thought was given to the fact these Rock 'n' Roll posters would become highly collectible.

  

"

 Lundgren's Grande Collection

"Gary gave me a job and I was able to create posters for such bands as The Who, Pink Floyd, and Jefferson Airplane and more. Little did I know that these Rock and Roll Posters would become highly collectible today. I also published some Underground Comix."

 Carl Lundgren and Gary Grimshaw

1974 I became a science fiction and fantasy illustrator, painting almost 300 book covers in NYC. I also was a founder of ASFA and was nominated for a Hugo Award, the highest honor in science fiction.

 
Carl Lundgren is the most easy going and beloved artists in Detroit. Always so humble and helpful to new musicians as much as the legends. What would the Detroit music scene be without Lundgren's Art? Pretty dull...

Some of our favorites of Carl Lundgren's fine art collection:

TIMELESS CLASSICS

JUNKYARD ANGELS

HUMOR

FAIRIES DU JOUR

MORE ABOUT CARL LUNDGREN

SCHEDULE 2014 

CARL LUNDGREN FACEBOOK
 

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....:)

Detroitrocknrollmagazine@gmail.com

THE LIVELY SPOT: TOM SHANNON SHOW CKLW CHANNEL 9

The Tom Shannon Show on CKLW-TV 9;

 newspaper ad from local newspaper TV guide; 1969. 

(Click on image for larger view).

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.

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!

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."

Original Post HERE