As well as given us reason to resurrect a series we did almost exactly ten years ago spotlighting The Ides / Shames Union.
Read on!
Kent,
In the mid-70’s a friend and I went to a place on the east side of
Milwaukee called Humpin’ Hannah’s to see a band from New Orleans. The place was
in the basement of an old building, with a low ceiling, multiple support
beams, and a stage about 12 inches raised off the concrete floor. We were about
to pay to get in when we learned that the scheduled band had been in a car accident
and had to cancel. They were being replaced by some Illinois band we had never
heard of called REO Speedwagon! We went in, listened to one song I recall as
being pretty “hard” and got our money back and left. Who knew?
Bob Verbos
REO Speedwagon certainly paid their dues before reaching the overwhelming national attention they achieved with their Hi Infidelity album in 1980/81.
Prior to that "mainstream" album, they were a power-house bar band who really rocked the scene with early classics like "Ridin' The Storm Out," "Keep Pushin'," "Roll With The Changes" and "157 Riverside Avenue."
It wasn't unusual for me to see REO up to three times a month back then in the early-to-late '70's ... I swear they seemed to be the opening act for virtually every major group that passed through town!
Being from Champaign, IL, they certainly played their share of college town bars ... and I remember them also being extremely popular in Rockford (where I saw them at least three or four more times) and even across the border in Wisconsin.
Their switch over to more melodic pop probably cost them a few die-hard fans at the time, feeling that the band had "sold out" in exchange for stardom ... but it gained them MILLIONS of new ones in the process. There literally wasn't anybody hotter throughout 1981 when REO scored four straight Top 20 Hits with "Keep On Loving You" (#1), "Take It On The Run" (#5), "Don't Let Him Go" (#24) and "In Your Letter" (#20).
Think about it for a second ...
You can't even recall the name of the New Orleans band you went out there to see ...
Yet REO Speedwagon became a household name. (kk)
Very cool stuff!
I could
read about Chicago clubbin' all day if I had the time!!
I am working
on a little Dex Card tribute to send in, but want to make it as good as
possible, so it's still in the works.
One funny item I found involves Clark
Weber and Dex Card that I was going to share in my tribute, but will
pass along now instead.
The Shattertones (?) performed at an Illinois
State University dance in 1967 and (according to the 1967 school yearbook) Dex Card was there to emcee while also apparently doing an impersonation
act as Clark Weber!!! With Dex being well known as "the crew cut fellow
in the first row" and Clark being known as "old chrome dome" (by
Riley's Rebels), it's a bit hard to mistake Art for Clark or vice
versa.
It could be that Dex was supposed to emcee the concert but Clark
replaced him late and they did not realize it, but I doubt it.
Dex
left WLS mid year, 1967, so maybe he was supposed to be there but did not because
he left. I doubt it tho, as Dex was still on Chicago radio and opening
clubs. Anyway, at least it's a good laugh!
Hmm ... were the "Shattertones" REALLY the Shattertones???
Here's a Yellow Balloon and Cryan Shames gigs ad. Whomever did this ad wasn't great on spelling teen group names.
Clark Besch
That's OK, I guess ... WLS used to mangle the group names and song titles on their Silver Dollar Survey every week, too! (lol) kk
It's kinda hard to imagine that in addition to their regular tours of major venues (often as park of packaged acts) so many of these really popular artists would show up to play on the bar circuit as well ... but this was often the case. I guess a gig's a gig ... but in hindsight many of these artists were totally accessible to the fans sitting right there with them in front of some of these rather small stages. (Damn, I wish I had been old enough to experience some of this first hand ... but then again I guess I feel like I'm plenty old enough now as it is!!! lol) kk
Kent,
Enjoyed
today's FH in which you and other readers were reminiscing about clubs
you used to go to back in the good old days. When I started reading
this, I immediately began to think of records that came out through the
years which were about clubs per se. For example, the Pastel Six in
1963 had a tune with CINNAMON CINDER. It was a very nice dance according
to the song, but I believe the CINNAMON CINDER was a club out on the
west coast. Also, Freddie King's instrumental of 1961 HIDEAWAY, was a
name for a club as well. There were probably just a few more but I can't
think of any at the moment.
Larry
Don't leave out "The Peppermint Twist," popularized by the infamous Peppermint Lounge, where everyone from Joey Dee and the Starlighters to The Young Rascals to a very young Jimi Hendrix played! (kk)
>>>I remember seeing the short-lived Ides and Shames Union perform at Rush Up downtown ... what a great show that was! Also, the place in Milwaukee where FH Reader Jean Theel got to hang
out with The Jimi Hendrix Experience was called The Scene ...
evidently a BIG spot just 90 miles north of here, where any number of
big name acts appeared. Imagine walking into the little club and catching The Jimi Hendrix Experience playing there!!! (kk)
The Scene was still going strong in 1970.
On 10/23/70, I
borrowed the family car, a 1965 4-door Pontiac Star Chief with a 390
cubic inch engine and a factory installed Hurst 4-speed. This car was so
large you could sleep six in the trunk!
I filled it up with friends and
we headed up to Milwaukee on a Sunday night. The Scene was basically a
bar with a bandstand and dance floor.
The opening act was The Faces with
Rod Stewart. The supporting act was Fuse from Rockford, IL.
Fuse
traveled with a full array of power equipment, most notably stacks of
Sound City amplifiers. When Craig Myers hit his opening power chord on
their first song it blew the fuse / breaker to the stage. This happened
about five more times before they got it corrected.
This was my first Faces /
Stewart show and it was absolutely incredible. Five nights later the
same line up played at Dewey’s bar in Madison, Wi.
The bottom line is
that you could see just about every major act ... B.B. King, Alice
Cooper, The Faces, MC5, etc. at these bars and they were just bars. It
was much better than spending lots of money in a large venue like you do
today.
Question:
What was the line up of the Ides / Shames Union? I remember seeing them
at a bar in Beloit, WI, but I can’t remember exactly who was in the
band.
Robert Campbell
An exciting time for sure, as alluded to above. (Can you even imagine going to a BAR ... and seeing The Cryan' Shames open for The Who?!?!? That's just BEYOND bizarre!!!) kk
Interesting that you inquired about The Ides / Shames Union ...
We covered this is great depth almost exactly ten years ago ... and, reading through it again today after all this time, I have to say that we did one HELL of a job capturing their brief legacy on the Chicago scene in the early-to-mid '70's. (Damn good coverage if I do say so myself! lol And, of course, the fact that we had many of the actual participants helping us to piece together the story certainly didn't hurt!!!)
You can check it out again here ...
Where you'll find several other related pieces on both The Ides Of March AND The Cryan' Shames from around the same time.
(And, by the way ... c'mon, Guy ... it's been over ten years now ... where the hell is your Chicago Rock Scene coffee table book?!?!) kk
And, speaking of The Ides Of March, the full episode from last Sunday is now available online (along with some bonus footage), spotlighting Jim Peterik's incredible guitar collection ...
And, finally, I found a few more pictures of Jimi Hendrix from that gig he did at The Scene back in 1968. Thanks again to Jean Theel for sending us these all those years ago to share with our readers! (kk)
