Kent,
It's June here in Florida
and that means you are guaranteed two things ...
One, it's gonna be hot ...
And two, the next edition of the annual Happy Together Tour will be
starting up.
Well, the temp has been consistently in the high 90's for
the last few weeks and Ruth Eckerd Hall here in Clearwater, Florida, once
again hosted the Happy Together Tour.
We were stop number three for the
summer long excursion and 2,130 fans at the sold-out venue could not
have been more delighted. I have attended this annual event for at least
the last seven or eight years and thoroughly enjoy myself every single
time.
There are six bands that play every show
and they are led by the organizers, The Turtles, who now consist of Mark
Volman and Ron Dante of The Archies. This year's bands are The Cowsills,
Badfinger, The Vogues, The Association, Jay & The Americans and, of
course, The Turtles.
Jay & The Americans and Badfinger are new to the
tour this year, replacing Little Anthony and Gary Puckett. I like how
they do change it up slightly each year. I believe one of the reasons
the artists change is because the tour is quite grueling, playing in a
different city almost every night. I talked to Carl Giammarese (lead
singer of The Buckinghams) a few months ago and he said that's why his
band stopped playing (at least for the time being) and they aren't
getting any younger.
You might say, "But what about Paul McCartney, Bruce
Springsteen or The Rolling Stones, who are still out touring?" Well, they
aren't playing every day; they usually take three or four days off
between shows. Those classic legends are also traveling on a charted
airliner while The Happy Together crew has buses. Anyway I digress ... let's talk about the show.
As usual, the show
started off with Shadoe Stevens on a recording counting off the time
till the show started starting at the five minute mark;
Five
minutes ..... Four minutes .... Three minutes ... Two minutes .. (crowd
is getting restless with anticipation) ... One minute ... Thirty
seconds ... and then The Cowsills ran out on stage full of energy and
ready to get to it.
They are probably my personal favorite performers in
this how. They jumped right into The Rain, The Park & Other Things
and it sounded so good. When the song finished, Paul Cowsill announced
that Ruth Eckerd Hall was his favorite venue on the tour and he always
looks forward to playing here. Of course I'm curious if he states this
same thing at every show, so I guess for me to find out, I will have to
go to some other shows.
The
next song was We Can Fly, quickly followed by
Indian Lake. At this point, Paul made mention of the fact he is 73 years
old and his brother Bob is 74. Then he said, "I am not allowed to tell
you
how old my sister Susan is at her request" and at that point, Bob broke
in and started singing When I'm 64 ... and Paul jumped back in and said
"Come on, Bob, she does not want her age revealed." Bob replied that
"All
I said was she was 64 last year ... I didn't say what she was this
year. " At this point, I need to mention what Susan was wearing.
The outfit she was dressed in was
completely white, and my girl friend leaned over and said "I think she
looks like she's dressed to paint our house." I replied back, "She's
hired."
The next song was Love American Style, the
theme to the early 70's TV show and then, of course, came their biggest
hit, Hair. Paul and Susan, both with incredible energy, were running all
over the stage. Paul several times jumped up on the drum riser and then
would leap off. He is four years older than me and I'm not jumping like
that! Great performance and then they were done and ran off the stage.
They put on a high energy great show!
Next up ,
after a one minute break, was Badfinger.
Out came Joey Molland carrying
his guitar, and the best way to describe him is that he looked like a
deer in headlights. He was making his Happy Together tour debut and I imagine that it
was quite different than what he is used to playing.
He is the lone
surviving member of the legendary band and he has been representing
Badfinger on the road by himself for over 30 years.
He looked to me
anyway like he was very nervous and he kept turning around to Godfrey
Townsend (guitarist and musical director of the band) for help.
Anyway,
he said he was delighted to be part of the show and broke into the
Badfinger hit Baby Blue, followed by Come And Get It, Day After Day and
ending with No Matter What. They were all Badfinger hits and were the
perfect choices to play. Even though Joey had his guitar, I believe
Townsend was doing the heavy duty with the guitar work.
Next up were The Vogues.
This was the one group that had NO original
members as part of the band. I am not a big fan of artists touring
around using the name with no original members (looking at you, Guess Who
and Little River Band), but putting it in the context of the Happy
Together Tour, I will let it slide.
And the three members put on a
beautiful performance, singing Five O'Clock World, My Special Angel, Turn
Around, Look At Me and closing with You're The One. Turn Around may
have gotten the biggest applause of the night. It would take a historian
to figure out the timeline of the band members, which I won't do, but
somehow, someway, lead singer Troy Elich got the band trademark from his
father, who was a previous member, so he is in control. The other two are
Royce Taylor and Eliot McCoy (who has been with them for one year.)
Outstanding job, the harmonies were spot-on. Time for a 20 minute
intermission.
The three members of the
Association walked out on stage next and jumped right into Windy,
followed by Cherish. The group was represented by Del Ramos, Paul
Holland and founding member Jules Alexander. A quick pause while a
couple of stories were told and then Del mentioned that his girl friend
had driven up from Naples, Fl (about three hours away),to visit him and
catch the show and he dedicated the next song to her. They sang, what
else, Never My Love, and closed their portion of the show with Along
Comes Mary (after, of course, commenting about the drug references in it.)
Job well done fellows.
Jay & The Americans,
making their Happy Together tour debut, were next.
They started right in
with Only In America and then went back to the very beginning with She
Cried. I saw this band in concert just the previous November (a review
is in Forgotten Hits) and seven months later, they have a new member.
Darren Dowler, former lead singer of Paul Revere & The Raiders, is the
new addition, taking the place of founding member Sandy Deane.
The other
two Americans were founding member Marty Sanders and Jay Reincke (the
third Jay.) Cara Mia and Come A Little Bit Closer were next, ending with
This Magic Moment. Jay sang lead on all the songs (wonderfully, too) and
let Marty and Darren handle all the background harmonies. Another great
performance! Let me say this ... the
voices during the entire show were still at their prime, as if one heard
them 50 years ago on an album for the first time. Their stage presence
and musical command was impressive, admirable, and entertaining.
Now it was time for the stars of the show, The Turtles.
Well, the
Turtle, Mark Volman.
For the I believe fifth year in a row, he was
accompanied not by band mate Howard Kaylan, but by Ron Dante of Archies
fame. I will tell you what ... whatever Fountain Of Youth medicine Ron
Dante is taking, I want to try some. He is approaching 80 but he looks
and moves like a man half his age. Incredible!
Mark Volman, not so much.
Most people have heard about his health issues over the last few years,
but hey, he is still up there giving it his all.
Time for a quick plug ...
Get Volman's autobiography, Happy Forever. It is a great read.
Another
quick plug ...
Get author Charles Rosenay's great coffee table book, Not
Just Happy Together: The Turtles From A To Z. I got a signed copy from
the author himself when I met him at a Beatles Festival a few months
ago. For Turtles fans, these are must haves.
If
Volman finally retires, I don't know what would happen with his tour.
Don't want to think about it.
Ron and Mark (mostly Ron) ran through the
usual favorites ... She'd Rather Be With Me, You Baby, and It Ain't Me Babe
(with Volman doing his best Bob Dylan impression on the second verse.)
Now it was time for Sugar Sugar, the biggest selling record of 1969, as sung by
the man on stage who originally did it as an Archie, Mr. Ron Dante.
The
song is a huge guilty pleasure for me and to my dismay, they cut the song
in half. Boo!
They finished out with Elenore and then, of course, the reason
that they and we are all here, Happy Together. To close out the show, all
the groups came back on stage one at a time to sing a snippet of their
biggest hit and then each one remained on stage so by the time Jay &
The Americans came out, the stage was packed with a bunch of happy,
smiling and waving stars from the past and what the heck, stars NOW! A
final bow and the show was over.
I would be
remiss if I did not mention the great house band led by guitarist and
director, Godfrey Townsend. They have a new addition in world legendary
bass player Kenny Aaronson. Both he and Townsend have played with
numerous bands going back 40 years or more. My only criticism of the
show is that it could be a little longer. Let each group do say six
songs instead of the four or five they do now. My God, these guys have
had so many hits that we would all love to hear again. The show started
at 7:00 and even with a 20 minute intermission, it was done by 9:20. I
doubt that it will change but here is hoping.
The very next day me and my girl Alice headed 100 miles northeast to
catch the Rolling Stones in Orlando. Wow, what a great show as I'm sure a
lot of fans have followed along with the tour. Two pretty, pretty,
pretty good days in a row (as Larry David would say.) But, my review is a
story for another time!
One final plug ...
If you
are a fan of the Carpenters, I caught this outstanding Carpenters
tribute band called Top Of The World a couple of months ago here in
town. What a great show. Debby Taylor sounds about as close to Karen as
you can possibly imagine. They have an excellent seven piece band behind
them who perform every note you hear on stage. Every Carpenters Top 40
hit is played. Kent, this band played at the Arcada last year and is
performing there again later this year. If you haven't seen this how
before don't miss it. And if you have seen it go again.
All of the pictures displayed today were taken by my girl, Alice. She likes to be known as the Linda McCartney of concert photography.
-- Rich Turner
Thanks, Rich!
I don't know if we'll make it to the show this year or not, but it sounds amazing.
And thanks to Alice Lima for all the great photos! (kk)
