Early 70s Rock&Roll scene

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Early 70s Rock&Roll scene

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DropZone Dave
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My first encounter with this band was when I was looking for a room to rent in the early 70s. Word had it that there was a house on Fort Street where you could rent a room for about $40/month so I went over and had a look. Sure enough, there was a small room upstairs in the back and you had to share the bathroom with the other guys living there. In those
days I was living basically hand-to-mouth and I remember eating a meal at least once a week. I had spent 26 months in the tropical rain forest and had been in kind of a bad mood for a few years, so this place was par for the course of life. One thing that struck me immediately was that it was eerily quiet...at least during the day. There was one exception of course: there seemed to be vacuum cleaner running every day for many hours at a time. I remember thinking how odd this was at the time but it was nothing compared to what was about to happen.
The very next morning, I heard several young ladies scurry out of the front door at a very early hour. Once I had lived there for a few months it became glaringly apparent why this scenario seemed to continuously repeat: The house had a 'reputation' and the girls did not want their
reputations ruined by being seen leaving the place after a night of debauchery. This even happened with a lady whom I was seeing..even though I was known for my chastity and not at all like the alleged deviants that inhabited the house.
Sometime in mid-afternoon of the first day I heard a door open on the first floor and then, in a very loud shout....."There's NO HOT WATER!!!!"...... SLAM!! Evidently, someone was less than joyfulabout something and didn't
mind informing the house about it. My curiosity was piqued and I took a walk down the hallway. There were two young musicians living in the front room upstairs...you know..really long hair and looked like they probably hadn't had a meal in months. The smallish chap was a truly great guitarist and the tall, gaunt one was the bass player. I was later to realize what fine people they were, however, at the time they were leaning out of the second floor window and chatting-up some young girls on the sidewalk. The thing that struck me as touch odd was that they both had their pants around their ankles ......
end of episode 1 - Mon, 14 May 2007 8:09pm Edited: Mon, 14 May 2007 8:19pm

DropZone Dave
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At this point I feel that I must point out that I was an un-biased witness to the strange doings of this particular scene. I wear my heart on my sleeve when I tell you that I was a stranger in a strange land here....certainly not from this city and not necessarily from this universe.

Like many in the early 70's, I was always looking for a way
to pick-up a few extra dollars for the most basic of reasons: I liked to eat now and then and enjoyed having a roof over my head. How is this different from any other time, you might ask? Well....not overly different except for the fact that I'd been infected with a nasty tropical parasitic disease that kept my body emaciated....so the need was severe. However, not to diverge from the story too much, I'd been contacted by Michael Judson of Frendlin Page on the spur of the moment. Their band was booked to play at the Club Tango but there was a problem with a shortage of security staff. Rocky Brush (manager) had informed them that they would need to supply a doorman if they wanted to work that weekend. Please don't mis-understand me...at 135 pounds and 6 feet 2 inches I was not exactly bouncer material, beside the fact that I've been cursed with a kind heart, however, Rocky seemed to like me and said that I looked 'kind of crazy' so he hired me for a few nights.

If I recall correctly, it was early august and a very hot summer. The shows were double-billed with Frendlin Page and a band called Morning Star. Rocky put me to work on the door and all I really needed to do was check the stamps on people's hands to make sure that they'd paid to get into the club. Rocky walked me down from his office to the door and said, " watch for the guys from Morning Star and let them in...don't give them any grief, ok?". I'm not sure why he said that but I did bear it in mind. Meanwhile, there I was acting as a combination stamp-checker and hippie goodwill ambassador when a short, fat butterball of a guy came bursting through the front door with fists wildly flailing. I side-stepped this windmill of fists, grabbed him by the back of his collar and used his own momentum to swing him right back the way he'd come. It all seemed so comical at the time and I happened to glance back to see Rocky, who gave me a nod in the best club managerial style, as I laughed uproariously. The same little butterball turkey did exactly the same thing at roughly 20 minute intervals through the night and it became a source of immense entertainment for me. He did not vary his tactics at all. Finally, I tried to talk to the guy and tell him how much I'd enjoyed this game...for that is surely what it was, and even offer to pay his ticket into the club out of appreciation. All I got from the gentleman was a blank and glassy look. Evidently, he was not actually interested in getting into the show at all. Meanwhile, the front doors literally burst open....WHAM!!...and in swaggered a group of people with a large and very bizarre-looking character in the lead. He had very long hair and horn-rimmed glasses
that had been taped with electricians tape into narrow slits. Immediately behind was an entourage of several very striking young ladies and... lo and behold! The two young musicians from the upstairs front room of my house. Now I understood and made the connection.....this was Morning Star.

end of episode 2 - Sat, 19 May 2007 11:27am Edited: Sat, 19 May 2007 11:29am

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