Flo and Eddie of The Turtles:
Very few rock performers have remained as vital through the 1960’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s as have Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman… and as The Turtles, featuring Flo & Eddie, they continue to maintain a vigorous tour schedule.
Two guys from Westchester. That’s how Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (AKA Flo and Eddie) refer to themselves. Two slightly bewildered kids thrust into the fast lane of rock ‘n’ roll stardom – hits, fame, national tours, hanging out with the Beatles, joining the Mothers of Invention, acting in the “200 Motels” movie, and on and on … Two guys from Westchester.
Howard Kaylan (changed in 1965 from Kaplan, because that’s how he always wrote his name) was born June 22, 1947 in the Bronx, and spent his first eight years in Manhattan before his father took a job with General Electric in Utica, New York. After the family moved there for a year or so, they moved to the Los Angeles area, settling in Westchester. Mark Volman was born April 19, 1947. After a brief period living in Redondo Beach, his family moved nearby to Westchester.
Chuck Negron (courtesy of Allmusic.com):
Vocalist Chuck Negron grew up in the Bronx in the 1950s, pursuing his talents in basketball — for which he was recruited by colleges nationwide — and singing, which he explored with his doo wop group the Rondells. After playing basketball for Santa Maria, CA’s Hancock College and California State University in Los Angeles, Negron was ready to pursue his musical career. He remained in Los Angeles, eventually connecting with fellow singers Cory Wells and Danny Hutton and forming Three Dog Night in 1968. They met with massive success, scoring 18 consecutive Top 20 singles, including number ones like “Mama Told Me Not to Come,” “Joy to the World,” and “Black and White.” With success came the trappings of the rock & roll lifestyle, which for Negron focused on drugs: by the time Three Dog Night split in 1977, he had a 2,000-dollar-a-day habit.
Remaining in the grip of addiction for almost two decades, Negron wasted away to 126 pounds and attempted 36 rehab programs unsuccessfully. His stay at the Cri-Help center, however, found him truly rehabilitated and ready to perform again — with an extra octave added to his vocal range. Negron restarted his career by opening for Howie Mandel’s 1994 Atlantic City show, and the following year he released his debut album, Am I Still in Your Heart. Negron now divides his time between raising his family, performing, lecturing, and working with anti-drug organizations like Musicians Assistance Program (MAP), MusiCares, and Cri-Help. 1999 saw the release of his biography, Three Dog Nightmare, and his second album, Long Road Back, the book’s musical counterpart.
Gary Puckett and the Union Gap:
Gary Puckett and The Union Gap had six consecutive gold records and sold more records in 1968 than any other recording act …Including The Beatles. Gary is one of a few artist whose first five releases went gold. Not even Elvis accomplished this. Mr. Puckett played a command performance at the White House for Prince Charles and Princess Anne by special invitation of the President. Gary has made more than 50 television appearances and has performed in a Made for TVmovie. PBS will be airing a special in August 2001 in which Gary appeared. Gary Puckett and The Union Gap achieved prominence worldwide.
“Young Girl” was reissued by popular request in England where it reached number one and achieved a Silver Record Award for the second time. This is a full six years after the song was intially released. The Gary Puckett and The Union Gap’s “Greatest Hits” album is one of CBS’s best selling “Collector’s Series” albums today. Gary was a founding member of the incredibly successful “Happy Together” Tour Playing to sold out performances in over 100 cities nationwide.
Gary was invited to tour with the Monkees on their national reunion tour, which established itself as the major box office success of the 1986 touring season. In 1992 he went to Europe and recorded “In Europe “, now released in the US in 2001. In August 2001, Gary released his first ever Christmas CD, ” At Christmas.” Gary performs to standing room only crowds doing over 150 performances each year. He currently resides in Clearwater Florida with his wife and family.
The Cowsills: (courtesy of Allmusic.om)
The real-life inspiration behind the hit television series The Partridge Family, the Cowsills — comprised of teen siblings Bill, Bob, Barry, John, Susan, and Paul in tandem with mother Barbara — were one of the biggest pop acts of the late ’60s, scoring a series of hits including “The Rain, the Park and Other Things” and “Hair” with their angelic harmonies and sun-kissed melodies.
Spencer Davis:
This rock star from Wales, who created the famed Spencer Davis Group in 1963, has close to twenty top 10 hit songs, including “Gimme Some Lovin“, “Somebody Help Me“, “I’m A Man”, and “Keep On Runnin“, helping to bring British rock ‘n roll to the rest of the world. The popularity of his songs live on as he continues to tour throughout the world. Starting out with degrees in modern languages (fluency in German, French and Spanish) Spencer left his teaching career to begin his music career in Birmingham with drummer, Pete York and brothers, Steve and Muff Winwood.
Touring with the Rolling Stones and The Who when they were still working in clubs, having after- hour drinks with the Beatles, jamming with Charlie Watts, Long John Baldry and Jack Bruce were heady days for Spencer. When the hits started to come one after the other, his momentum spurred major US success.
Moving to America in 1970, Spencer went on to record a now-hard-to-find solo album, played in an acoustic blues band, which included Richard Landis (former Juice Newton producer and manager) and Peter Jameson, who later recorded with John Lennon. By the mid-’70s Spencer worked at Island Records (his group’s label) as a record company executive, and furthered the profiles of artists, including Robert Palmer and Bob Marley.
In the early 80’s Spencer was head of A&R for Allegiance Records, a Hollywood-based independent label but the itch to play in a band again came back again, after encouragement from his mate Bill Wyman. That’s when he made his next album, “Crossfire”, with guests Dusty Springfield, Flo and Eddie, and Booker T. Jones.
In 1984 Spencer was back on the road with his own band in America. He toured Europe and The Middle East with Pete York, plus British rock legends, Brian Auger and Chris Farlowe. It was during this time he recorded CDs for German and Swiss releases.
Days on the road increased, as did the number of fans, and by 1987 he was performing well over 100 shows a year. He made guest appearances with the Grateful Dead, Gary US Bonds, Levon Helm, Springsteen’s E Street Band, Peter Noone, The Downchild Blues Band, and Alvin Lee.
In the early 90’s, audiences watched Spencer pick up the pace on club and concert tours. His stature as a rock and roll “legend” opened doors to a wide variety of benefits, telethons and special TV and radio appearances — criss-crossing throughout the US and Canada with forays into Europe, guesting with Hall & Oates and the Marshall Tucker Band.
His guest appearances on TV and radio talk shows increased throughout most of 1990 as Spencer became involved promoting the definitive photo collection of Michael Cooper’s book, “Blinds and Shutters,” — Spencer being one of many contributors to the book. His tours during that time took him through Australia, the US, Canada and Japan with his own group.
In 1993, Spencer united with three other famed musicians to form one super group, The Classic Rock All-Stars. (Mike Pinera – Iron Butterfly, Jerry Corbetta – Sugarloaf, and Pete Rivera – Rare Earth) The group released a CD together, simply titled, “The Classic Rock All-Stars” and they toured the US, Canada and Japan.
Davis left the Classic Rock All-Stars in the summer of 1995, and continued touring in Europe and the US, the rest of the year and then into 1996 and 1997. In Europe, he played with drummer Pete York (the original drummer of the Spencer Davis Group), and the Spencer Davis Group’s popularity in Europe put Spencer on a World Tour with his European members, hitting Japan, the Far East, Middle East and Scandinavia. Spencer also signed a record deal with CMC, who released the recording throughout Europe. It consisted of a mix of many originals, old hits and classic songs.
In the fall of 1996, Spencer teamed up with the World Classic Rockers, similar in concept to the Classic Rock All-Stars but with a larger line-up, comprising of Carmine Appice – Vanilla Fudge, Bobby Kimball – Toto, Denny Laine – McCartney and Wings, Randy Meisner – The Eagles, and Michael Monarch – Steppenwolf. Spencer also contributed to the release of World Classic Rockers-Double CD and toured extensively with them.
Spencer’s songs continue to live on in today’s movies, such as Iron Eagle, The Big Chill, Mr. Destiny, Days of Thunder, Top Gun, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Notting Hill and Flight of the Phoenix, just to name a few! The mid 90’s also landed him on television commercials, documentaries and the TV Special “The History of Rock n Roll” as well as a co-starring role in the hit series “Married With Children.”
2001 proved to be as busy as any of the mid and late 90’s. From state fairs to casinos throughout the USA and Canada, the Spencer Davis Group continued entertaining millions with their classic repertoire. Along with their spring and fall tours, Germany and Europe were thrown in for good measure.
Spencer undertook another marathon tour with the Spencer Davis Group during the spring of 2002, with 47 shows over 60 days, up and down The U.K. Drawing upon his teaching skills from the past, Spencer was invited on the famous cruise ship QE2 in the summer of 2002 as a guest lecturer and performer with the “60’s British Invasion”. He then headed straight to Alaska, followed by a foray into the Middle East, with a mini tour of Europe right behind it.
The first half of 2003 brought Spencer through tours of Italy, side-stepping into the studio to record three new songs for his upcoming CD, and then back to Italy and Germany. There were more state fairs and concerts in the park, where Spencer next hooked up with friend Alan White of Yes to guest with him in the Washington State area.
The 2004 Tour Season took him to Illinois and Florida, through Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, and Austria up until spring. After a brief rest, the Spencer Davis Group headed out for a month-long tour of the U.K. starting in Southern England, going as far north as Scotland, and west into his native Wales. He finished up in the Royal Festival Hall in London with his friends, the Yardbirds, before heading back to Hungary and Germany again.
In 2005 Spencer teamed up with the Rock and Roll Army, consisting of Felix Cavaliere, Mitch Ryder, and Rick Derringer. He went to New Zealand in June, playing acoustic shows with Ed Tree for the British Lions Tour, then on to Australia in July 2005 with his own Spencer Davis Group. He rounded out October and November with tours in Germany.
The Grand Finale of 2005 was a special guest appearance New Year’s Eve at the Cologne Arena with Cologne’s own Black Foess in front of 12,000 people – a great time was had by all! In 2006 Spencer made a special guest appearance at David Fishof’s “Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy Camp” at SIR in Hollywood, followed by a Battle of the Bands at the HOB (House Of Blues) and a concert with Roger Daltry, Neal Schon, Jack Blades, among others.
SDG made a quick foray into The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Scandinavia. In August 2006 Spencer was a counselor at the “Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp” in New York, followed by a three-week tour of the U.K. He wrapped up the year with three appearances in California in September, returning to Germany in October, followed by an extensive tour of Australia in November.
Highlights of 2007 were The Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy camp in London at Abbey Road Studios and ending the year teaming up with the Animals and Friends for a tour of Europe.
In early 2008, Spencer performed at the NAMM convention in Los Angeles, started a world tour with an SDG date in Kent, OH,and a visit to Dusty Street at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. He played in Florida and went on to a Central American Cruise. In June of 2008, he toured New Zealand and Australia, rounding out the end of June, heading straight to Las Vegas beginning of July to perform at Beatlefest, along with Donovan, Billy J. Kramer, Mark Hudson and the band Liverpool. August through November took him back to Europe dividing his time touring partially with the SDG and teaming up once again with the Animals and Friends for dates in Germany, Austria, France and the UK. In October of 2008 Spencer took the stage for the BMI Awards at the Dorchester Hotel in London to accept an award for over 4 million airplays of “Gimme Some Lovin”.
Spencer also completed twelve tracks, all original, for a new CD/DVD, titled SO FAR that was released in August of 2008 on Fuel 2000 records.
Mark Lindsay: (courtesy of Allmusic.com)
Singer, saxophonist, songwriter, and producer Mark Lindsay is best known as the frontman for Paul Revere & the Raiders, who scored a series of hits from the 1960s into the early ’70s. Although the band was named for keyboard player Revere, it was Lindsay who was the most identifiable member, and as time went on, he took over songwriting and producing chores for the group. Lindsay left in the mid-’70s, after which he pursued a career largely out of the limelight, though he periodically performed his old hits, and by the 1990s he was back to recording independently.
