Lost 50's Rockers From Florida

Here we have a collection of singers and musicians from a TV show called "The Velda Show" on WFGA-TV of Jacksonville Florida circa 1958. The names are unknown aside from one exception. It's assumed they were aall local amateurs, most of them are clearly young again with the same exception. The teens are reportedly from Paxon High School. It is possible some of them might have recorded for a small local label as singer Johnny Tillotson who would have a few minor hits appeared on the same show.

UNKNOWN GIRL SINGER ~ "I AIN'T GONNA WORRY";


This girl is doing a number in a Rockabilly hiccup style. While she seems a little nervous she does a good solid job here. If she is indeed a student she's clearly senior but it's eqaully possible she's a bit older and not a student at all and may actually be a semi-professional singer and she's good enough that some label might have recorded her. The song is a cover of a Gale Storm hit from a few years earlier. There is also a Mississippi Fred McDowell song with the same title from around the same time that would be covered by contemporary Skiffle bands but it's a different song.

GALE STORM ~ "I AIN'T GONNA WORRY";



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UNKNOWN BAND ~ "STEEL GUITAR BOOGIE";


The band here is almost certainly Johnny Tillotson's backing band judging by the "Johnny" logo on the bass drum. They are obviously not students. They are clearly an experienced band and they have no less than three solos. The song is basically riffing on Arthur Guitar Boogie Smith's 1949 insturmental hit "Guitar Boogie". Steel guitar player Bill Echols (1930-2001) would go on to a successful career as a session musician. The other players are unknown but the studio records from Johnny Tillotson's recording session for Cadence Records that year would probably name them assuming those records survive and he used them on the session. In fact as of this writing Johnny is still alive so he might know.

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UNKNOWN DOO WOP GROUP ~ "THE BOOK OF LOVE";

We can safely assume these guys were students. They're doing a version of the 1957 hit by the Black Doo-Wop group the Montones but it's pretty obvious their roots are not Black Doo-Wop but White vocal groups like the Four Freshmen and Four Lads and Country vocal groups like the Jordinaires and the Blackwood Brothers with their stiff four part harmonies showing no actual R&B influences and this song is probably outside their normal comfort zone. By 1958 a many of these White Vocal groups hwere trying their luck with Doo-Wop after the success the Crewcuts had had in doing so. While the older White style of harmonizing was still popular of the campuses of White schools and colleges for a little while yet however it's days as a Pop hit genre were over so it's unlikey these guys went anywhere. Note the sound cuts out halfway through.

THE MONOTONES ~ "THE BOOK OF LOVE";


Note the dramatic differences in the vocal styles between the original Montones version and the cover. It's not just that the Monotones is better, which is clearly is, but their vocal influences are completely different. One is classic R&B Doo-Wop the other is basically Barbershop Quartet. Note also that the top ten hits chart shown at the start of this video shows that not only "The Book Of Love" but also "Lollipop" and "Who's Sorry Now" were all on the charts and would also be covered on this show. These sort of opportunistic covers were not unusual at the time.

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UNKNOWN GIRL GROUP ~ "LOLLIPOP";


UNKNOWN GIRL GROUP ~ "ALL I HAVE TO DO IS DREAM";


This group do a cover of the Chordettes 1958 Pop hit "Lollipop" and the Everly Brothers hit "All I Have To Do Is Dream" although the melody being used on the latter is also taken from an early 50's pop piano instrumental hit I can't remember the name of. Once again their influences are more from the pre-R&R era white Pop acts like the Chordettes and McQuire Sisters than R&B girl groups like the Chantells.

THE EVERLY BROS ~ "ALL I HAVE TO DO IS DREAM";


THE CHORDETTES ~ "LOLLIOP";


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UNKNOWN GIRL SINGER ~ "WHO'S SORRY NOW";


This girl looks a bit older than the others and she sings this Connie Francis hit in the style of a 1940's torch singer where the original was done in a more smooth crooning style. Mind you it would have been hard to croon this one with that out of tune piano honky tonk piano backing. The Francis version was a hit in

CONNIE FRANCIS ~ "WHO'S SORRY NOW";


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The main guest for this show was Johnny Tillotson who the same year would be signed to Cadence Records and would go on to hae some minor Pop hits into the early 1960's

JOHNNY TILLOTSON ~ "BLUE BLUE DAY";


JOHNNY TILLOTSON ~ "I'M GONNA WALK & TALK WITH MY LORD";


JOHNNY TILLOTSON ~ "SEND ME THE PILLOW THAT YOU DREAM ON";


JOHNNY TILLOTSON & UNKNOWN GIRL SINGER ~ "GIVE ME A LITTLE KISS";


The material here ranges from a R&R ballad, a C&W ballad, a Country Gospel song and a Pop duo. He's using the teens from the previous numbers as backing vocal groups but the girl he's doing the duet is not from the earlier songs and seems to be a professional who is used to working with him. Maybe he remembers her name. Tillotson would have hits into the R&R era but he was always more of a Pop Teen Idol than a Rockabilly singer.

JOHNNY TILLOTSON ~ "TALK BACK TEMBLING LIPS";


JOHNNY TILLOTSON ~ "EARTH ANGEL";

Lost Toronto Bands; Sleeze

Back in the summer I stumbled across some photos of all-girl Toronto band from the 70's band called the Sleeze which had originally been posted on Facebook by a photographer who couldn't remember anything about them. Intrigued I reposted them asking if anybody knew anything about them and while nobody did plenty of people were fascinated (especially the gals in the Curse, B-Girls & Toronto) so I kept digging. I contacted the photographer who had worked for "The Agency" (Toronto's biggest music bookers in the 70's) but he didn't have any more info but he's still digging through his files though and promised to get back if he finds anything else. Then somebody found an article about the retirement of Lesley Soldat who had worked in radio which mentioned that she had been in such a band in the 70's so I tracked her down, sent her the pics and asked if that was indeed her band and she got back (probably after getting over her surprise and deciding I wasn't a total weirdo) and confirmed that it was.



So after a few more emails here's the story; Lesley was a model, artist & scenester in early 70's Toronto who decided to form a band with some friends circa 1971 in spite of not being an actual musician (yet). Once they figured things she would play bass she bought herself a second hand Fender Jazz Bass and went to work. There were a few lineup changes over the course of a few years. The orignal band was called Mama Rues Jive Band with members Lesley Soldat (bass), Christine Bissonette (drums), Dee McGraw, Martha Smith and Gail Moss. The line up for the band in the promo shot were; Lesley (bass), 16 year old Lucy Faiella (guitar), Charni (last name unknown at present) (keys & vocals) & Christine Bissonette (drums). Leslie explained that when she started the band she didn't actually play an instrument so until she could afford a bass she jammed on spoons which is somehow both Punk Rock AND Hillbilly (or Newfie) at the same time. By contrast Lucy who was only 16 had been playing guitar since she was eight. The pictures already posted show her new Strat but she already had a Tele and practiced 8 hours a day.


L-R; MOIRA CONNOLLY (vocals & guitar), LESLEY SOLDAT (bass), LUCY FAIELLA (guitar)

The rehearsal shots were an later lineup with Patti Burns (drums) and Moira Connolly on vocals. There was also a new keyboard player Pam Marsh who may not have been present at that date. Lesley says that Marsh & Faiella were more experienced musicians describing Lucy's guitar as "Red Hot" calling her the star of the band and described them as having a "Punk Rock attitude" even if the term wasn't commonly in use for a few more years. They predated the Runaways by a few years and gigged regularly for the next few years but mostly in Scarborough at clubs like the White Castle, Knob Hill & Running Pump although they did play Larry's a few times in it's early days as it switched from being a strip club.


LUCY FAIELLA

They never released anything although they did record some demos which are probably long gone and broke up some time in the mid-70's. The fact that they spent most of their career in Scarborough (when the subway stopped at Vic Park BTW and it was literally a different town), never released anything and broke up just before the Punk scene really started around 77 explains why they got forgotten until now.


PATTY BURNS

I told her if they had just stuck around a few more years they would have been part of that scene and those recordings would be collector's items now (so would the drummer's t-shirt, I would totally wear that) but what are you gonna do? Lesley went on to play with McKenna-Mendelson Mainline before moving into radio and becoming a painter. At least a couple of the other girls continued on in music in some way but she's lost track of them.


L-R; MOIRA CONNOLLY & LESLEY SOLDAT

After the initial post a couple of the gals did in fact get in touch or turn up. First we have a colour band pic sent by keyboardist Pam Marsh who stumbled onto the original post and sent it in. In this lineup we have left-to-right; Pam Marsh (keys), Lucy Faiella (guitar), Lesley Soldat (bass), Patti Burns (drums) as Pool Sharks in all their 1970's Scarborough glory.


L-R; PAM MARSH (keys), LUCT FAIELLA (guitar), LESLEY SOLDAT (bass), PATTY BURNS (drums)

Also guitarist Lucy got in touch and shared a couple demos of her next band she formed with drummer Patti called Lupa (name taken from their names Lucy and Patti) later adding singer Shirley Neuman and Windsor bassist Lynne Wilson (AKA Lynne Serridge) who had played in Detroit with the Quatro Sisters in their band Cradle after Suzi Quatro left for a solo acreer in the UK. Lupa recorded some demos around 1975. More importantly for everyone who wanted to know what they sounded like while the demos Sleeze recorded are probably long lost Lucy did forward these two Lupa demos being as close as we are likely to get as the original Sleeze demos are considered long lost and of poor sound quality anyway.


LUCY FAIELLA

The first is "Brush Cut" which was a Sleeze song written by the teenage Lucy about their manager who she was pissed at. Thus it's a reasonable facsimile of Sleeze's basic Punky approach although the sound quality is not great and both insist that the Sleeze version was far angrier and more aggressive. It shows them as a proto-punk band like early Flamin Groovies, it has a good groove and some blazing guitar and strong drumming. Lucy insists it's really missing Leslie's aggressive bass though and the Sleeze version was stronger.

LUPA ~ "BRUSHCUT";


The second "Hold On" was a 70's rock ballad Lucy was less happy with. By this point their manager was probably trying to mold them into a Canadian Fanny who were getting some buzz at the time (although it didn't last). It's OK and would have made a decent album track and it does have not one but two classy guitar solos but if their manager thought this type of 70's FM radio fare was going to get them their break he was a) completely missing the coming trends as this sort of 70's stuffiness was about to be blown out of the water by the coming hordes of Glam/Glitter, Punk & Power Pop and b) didn't understand what he actually had here. At any rate Lucy was not impressed and they broke up too.

LUPA ~ "SHIRLEY J";


Various members did go on to other thing with drumer Patty and singer Moira starting an all-girl Hair Metal Apple Viper in the 80's which gigged regularly. Lucy and Lupa singer went on to play as country rockers Lynne & the Rebels until Lynne moved on to Windsor and went on to record a couple Country albums in the early 90's.

LYNNE & THE REBELS ~ "IS IT OVER";


Lesley as stated worked until recently in the industry side of things with consoderable success. As one might expect they all ended up getting married. Original members Martha Smith and Gail Moss died years ago.


LUCY FAIELLA

Speaking of Scarborough I actually grew up a few blocks away from the White Castle on Kingston rd (which is not be confused with the American hamburger chain) where the Sleeze played a lot of gigs. Of course it wasn't a club anymore by then. I think it's condos now because of course it is.


THE WHITE CASTLE TAVERN PROBBALY IN THE 1950's

The Knob Hill was on Eglington rd and was a notorious dive bar that had strippers during the day and at night became the place in 1970's and 80's Scarborough to see bands like Teenage Head, Max Webster, Moxy, Toronto, Goddo, Arson and Lee Arron and was commonly referred to a the Knobby. In the 90's it became a strip club under the name Caddy's in the 90's and was finally demolished in 2020. Anybody who went to the Knobby, Larry's or the White Castle more than once is now considered immune to COVID and most other infectious virises.


THE KNOB HILL BEFORE


AND AFTER

Incidentally if any remaining members of the Sleeze should read this (Hi BTW) you may want get in back in touch. As for everyone else who showed an interest; meet Lesley Soldat and Lucy Failela and thanks to everyone who chipped in with clues, this was a fun piece of musical detective work now we just have to find those demo tapes🎸

CRADLE ~ "LAST LAUGH";




APPLE VIPER