The Shadows Five

Preface

Please indulge an old man who wants to spend some time reflecting on his youth. This building brings back a ton of memories. Let me explain. In my youth, through my twenties, I was fortunate enough to tour most of the western states playing bass guitar in a rock and roll band. We played mostly dance clubs and show lounges. It was hard work and sometimes the travel got real old. We met hundreds if not thousands of wonderful people all over the country. I could sit and tell stories for hours about things that happened people we met or the country we saw. The building in the photo above, in the late sixties, housed one of the best rock and roll dance clubs in the Pacific Northwest. It was called The Canterbury Inn and was located in Spokane Washington. On our recent vacation, Barbara was kind enough to allow me to search out some of the places we played. We went to several cities in the states of Idaho and Washington. This is the only building I was able to locate and be certain was one of the places we played. With the help of a friendly waiter who took the time to research I was directed to the address. It is now vacant. I stood in front of it and the memories just kept coming. I just can’t describe what a feeling it was. It’s been fifty years. I could go on and on but it would be lengthy. Maybe I’ll do another chapter later on. Thanks for listening

 

Introduction

I have been asked by some people to write about our days in the music business. When I was a freshman in high school my best friends Gary Sullivan, Leon Sanders, and Johnny Pannell formed a band. They called it The Rockin Rages. They played a few school assemblies and a few other places. Here’s a Funny story. One time they were gonna appear at a school assembly. John Daugherty was announcing it on the school P.A. In his nasal voice he said, “ there will be a school assembly Friday morning at 11 am featuring The Rockin Rags”. Needless to say The Rockin Rages didn’t like being called The Rockin Rags. Leon proceeded to the office to correct John on his mistake. Mr. Daugherty wasn’t one to get too excited over a little mistake so Leon didn’t get his correction. Sometime later I’m not sure how long they were talkin that they needed a bass player. I jumped right on that and bought a bass guitar and proceeded to try and learn. I was terrible. I kept trying and eventually earned a spot. I think I paid like $125 for my first bass and had to finance that. I think my payments were like $5 per month. Then a little later we added Richard Grissom. We named our group The Shadows. We rocked along as the Shadows for a while then we heard there was a group in England with that name who had achieved a bit of success. WELL we were going to be Rock Stars too… couldn’t have two famous bands by the same name so we had a brainstorming session and came up with The Shadows Five. Our first uniforms were white sports coats with black lapels, black slacks, and black shoes. We had a little red patch sewn on the pocket with a silhouette of a man that looked like a shadow. Now was that cool? Oh yeah, we wore black ties and the funniest thing was we all wore white socks. Later on, we added some gold jackets but we kept the black slacks and white socks. Don’t want to quit a good thing. This is getting long will try and write some each day.

 

The Shadows Five

We would get together wherever we could to practice. Parents weren’t too eager for us to practice at their house.  We got pretty noisy. As we started coming together we were always on the lookout for places to play. There was a strong organization of the Jaycees in Holdenville at the time so they started holding Teen Hops at Teen Town. It was located upstairs over the Reeves locker plant on North Creek. We drew good crowds and had lots of fun. We were beginning to make a name for ourselves and the people around town were really behind us. We were sure we were gonna become big stars. Now what we needed was a hit record. At that time no one in the group sang so we played a steady diet of instrumentals. Mostly featuring the guitar playing of Leon. He was a fantastic guitar player, til this day I’ve never seen anyone with more talent. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen great musicians, some of which were big stars, marvel at his ability. But wait I’m getting ahead of myself. Back to recording. We booked some time at Gene Sullivan’s recording studio in OKC and recorded our first record Dynamic Drums with Gary’s Boogie on the flip side. Now what can I say about that? Of course, they were instrumentals. The experience of being in a studio and recording was exciting. We just knew we were on our way.
When the record came out we had box after box of them. We would sell them anywhere we could around town and at our dances. We began to try and get the radio stations to play it. We did get a little air time but not much. Our target was WKY and KOMA in OKC. We didn’t do so well there but got some play at smaller stations. Somewhere about this time one of our best supporters came to be a vital part of our group. In my next chapter I’ll tell you about him.

 

The Shadows Five continued

I had such a good response to this morning’s chapter I’ll just put out another one. This is fun
There was a popular song in those days by Jimmy Dean named “Big John”. As the song goes he was six foot six and weighed 245. Well by today’s standards that’s not so big but back then that was a big guy. Being convinced we already were, or at least were gonna be big stars, we needed security. Our security came in form of one of our best supporters Tiny Middleton. He was our own Big John. He went everywhere with us and with his size no one was gonna mess with us. In reality, he was a gentle giant, I think, but no one ever wanted to find out for sure. By this time we were playing dances all over the state. We played colleges at Durant, Norman, Altus, and many other places and Teen Hops in places like Prague, Seminole, and Wewoka. Now if you’re gonna travel you need a vehicle to travel in. Someone, I think Gary, found a hearse for sale. We thought that would be a great band bus. We bought it. We painted it bright red and put our name on the side. It was cool and attracted lots of attention. It was in great shape and would haul all of us and our equipment. Most times Gary drove and Tiny was in the passenger seat.
The others would be in the back with the equipment. Most time playing cards. Gary was always the responsible one. It was him that found the hearse, got it painted and pretty much looked after the business side of things. Some of the others, Richard, and I were either fighting or just being a pain in the butt. Johnny was pretty serious about things and you never knew what to expect from Leon. Some days he was a cut up and very funny some days not so much.
One Saturday night we were playing a teen hop in Prague…must have been a full moon. Bad things were happening. First of all, a mad boyfriend came toward the stage, not because he wanted to say hi, but because his girlfriend and I had been flirting all night. It was break time and I was standing over to the side of the stage, he had a clear approach well that is until Tiny stepped from behind the curtain. Man that was the fastest U-turn I’ve ever seen.
Thanks Tiny
Next time. A bump in the road

 

A Bump in the Road

On the same night Tiny saved me from the jealous cowboy we were on our way home from Prague in our bright red hearse it was very foggy. I mean dense fog.  As usual Gary was driving, Tiny in the passenger seat and the rest of us in the back. All of a sudden there was a big jolt. Someone hollered out “hey watch out for the chug holes”. Then we felt the car slowing down and pulling over. Turns out we had been sideswiped by another car. We were all out on the side of the road with other cars whizzing by in the fog. Once again Gary got us loaded up and off the road. Well now we had a severely bunged up red hearse. That would never do. We used it for just a while then abandoned it and had an instrument trailer built. Besides that we had decided Gary should play the organ instead of piano. He had been playing a small electric piano and he replaced it with a full grown organ. Needed more room. Also, more to carry in and out of buildings. Especially up the stairs at Teen Town. Thank you Tiny. Gary had a nice car so we rigged it to pull the trailer. Now we had to all ride in one car. The car had bucket seats in the front. Sorry Tiny. You know during these times we were making good money. I mean this was the late fifties and early sixties we easily made $100 bucks a week. The group would make like $300 for a dance take out $50 for expenses that left $50 bucks each. We always played two nights a week and sometimes three. Man we were doing good. We thought. Enter Bill Teel. I could write a book about Bill Teel. I’m not sure where he came from but he had a line of crap a mile long. He was a salesman for some meat company. I’m not sure which one. He sold us on the idea of becoming our manager. Now I’ll have to say he worked his butt off. He had us convinced we would be on American Bandstand in no time at all. He had no reservations about selling us to anyone. He was all over the place talking us up. Trying to get us recording contracts or just promoting us however he could.
Next up playing Eureka Springs. Boys will be boys.

 

Boys Will be Boys

I really didn’t mean to post the previous edition I hit the wrong button. I mean three in one day is a little much.

It is really difficult to get this in correct chronological order. I’m sure some of it is out of place but I’m trying. Don’t know how it came about but we were booked for a weekend in Eureka Springs Arkansas. It seems to me we played three engagements but it could have been only two. I know for sure one of them was on a Saturday afternoon at an amphitheater. That one went great. I also know we booked a couple of rooms at a motel on the outskirts of town. The Saturday evening job, most people would call it a gig (I never liked that word), was in the ballroom of the hotel downtown. The one that they always say every floor is a ground floor. It went great and we were very well received. After we were all loaded up we went to our motel. Now you gotta keep in mind we were young boys away from home so we gotta act up a bit. Don’t remember who started it but someone came up with some orange and cherry flavored vodka. Uh oh. Well it never took much to get me and Richard drunk, so we must have drunk quite a bit cause we got real drunk. We were in our rooms at the hotel. I don’t remember all of it but I remember seeing Richard sitting in the shower fully clothed with his glass of cherry vodka and someone turning on the shower. He remained sitting and continued drinking. I also remember refusing to go to bed, even though I really needed to. The last thing I remember that night is Johnny holding Richard down on the bed til he went to sleep and Gary doing the same to me. Not sure where Leon was during all this. I know he was there but I can’t remember what he was up to.
Next. Our trip or Fayetteville with The Hawkes

 

Our trip to Fayetteville

There was a group back in the day called Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawkes. They had a couple of hit records and were always touring the country. One record was “Forty Days” another was “Who do you Love”. The group without Ronnie Hawkins later became Bob Dylan’s band and was named simply “The Band” and had a couple hits of their own.
Well they were appearing in Muscogee. We decided we wanted to go. So off we went. Of course we were always together so we were all in Gary’s car. He always had the nicest car. I don’t remember what our “in” was but we had full access to the group. We were in their dressing room before the show. We laughed, talked, and watched in awe all through the show and afterward. As they were loading up they told us they were headed back to Fayetteville, their home base, for a brown bean and cornbread dinner. Their drummer, Levon Helm, was from Fayetteville. The others were from Canada. You may remember Levon later played Loretta Lynn’s, father in Coal Miners Daughter. Anyway off we go to Arkansas. Levon got in the car with us. Which put six in the car. Along the way he insisted on showing me a bass line he made up so we got my bass and there we were going down the highway with six people in the car and me and him trying to play the bass. You know what? I must be mistaken. We must have been playing in that show. Otherwise, why would we have been in the dressing room and why did we have our instruments? Anyway. We went on to Fayetteville and had the big midnight feed and visited for hours then Drove back to Holdenville. Got home the next morning sometime. Now how would you like to have been a parent of this crew? I don’t remember any of the parents being really concerned about our travels. We were either real responsible or maybe just out of control. Sometime later we took a trip to Colorado and Idaho to play, but that’s another story for later.

 

The Shadows Five Saga

Another trip another close call.

There was a college in Altus that often hired us for a private dance. When we traveled there we would spend the night afterward. As I recall we always played the ballroom of an old downtown hotel and that’s where we spent the night. Remember when I said earlier the people of Holdenville were very supportive? Well this is one time it really paid off. We finished our job and went to our room at the hotel. Now as I recall we always doubled up in a room to save money. Well as we are we walking to our room we see two rooms with the doors open. It’s obvious the rooms had been used as hospitality suites or something. They were messy but the beds had not been slept in. Well what would be wrong with having all that extra room? Some of us enjoyed a private room that night. Well the next morning as we were getting ready to leave there were several policemen and a couple highway patrolman at the front desk with the manager.  We just kinda played ignorant but the manager wasn’t having it. That is until this tall good looking OHP trooper stepped up to the manager and said “ come on now sir I know these boys and I know they’re good boys I don’t think there’s any reason to file charges. After all, didn’t you say the rooms were already paid for.?”  Well all of a sudden the manager was agreeable. The Trooper was Elmer Klippell whose previous duty station was none other than Holdenville, Hughes County Oklahoma. He came over shook all our hands and told us how glad he was to see us. No more glad than we were to see him. Thank you Trooper Klippell.

Oh man this is so much fun. Every story I tell reminds me of another one. I so hope some people are enjoying this. If you don’t just scroll on past. I don’t want to bother anyone. I try not to make them so long. I really like your feedback. Keep that up if you enjoy the stories. I have lots more next I’m gonna cover a trip to Colorado and Idaho.

 

Even More Shadows Five

Well I promised to write about our Colorado, Idaho trip. So here goes
I’m gonna clear up a couple things here. First off when this happened most people thought we were off on a “tour”.  Well, that wasn’t exactly right. Fact is when we left Oklahoma we had not one date booked anywhere. This was an idea put together by Bill Teal. He decided and convinced us we should spread our wings and open up new territory. Gary had an uncle in Pueblo Colorado. The plan was to go there and Bill would find us places to play in the area. So that’s what we did. We stayed with his uncle and aunt and would play whenever and wherever Bill found us work. It went fairly well but we all got homesick. So we got some free time and four of us decided to make a quick trip home. Me, Gary, Johnny and Richard.  Now I know why Johnny and Richard wanted to go home… they both had serious girlfriends. Gary and I on the other hand, were at the time unattached. Well we left Pueblo late one evening and drove all night. We were coming through Bethany early the next morning and were broadsided by another car. We were in Gary’s brand new Pontiac Bonneville. It was totaled. Beautiful car. Dark Blue two-door hardtop with beautiful three-tone tuck and roll interior. Loved that car. Johnny’s collarbone was broken Richard was slightly injured but Gary and I were only shook up a little. We somehow found a ride to a restaurant where we waited most of the day for Gary’s mother to come pick us up. We went on home to Holdenville and somehow Gary was able to get a replacement car in a couple days. This too was a 62Pontiac Bonneville Red with White top and solid white interior. Pretty car but couldn’t compare with the blue one.
ASAP we loaded up and headed to Colorado. I remember Johnny played drums with one arm in a sling for a few days. We worked some dates in Pueblo and for some reason we decided to go on to Boise Idaho. Now that’s where the trip got interesting. I’ll cover that later.

 

Continued

Well we just about wore out our welcome in Pueblo so we decided to proceed to Boise Idaho. Yep you guessed it, Gary has uncles there. Hope he runs out of uncles before we wear out his car.
The trip to Boise was an adventure. I’m still not sure of the route we took but it sure wasn’t the right one. We got up in the mountainous part of Wyoming I know that because we saw some beautiful country. We saw various wild animals, deer, elk and the like along the way. When riding six people in a car, the five of us and Bill Teal, one can get irritated. It was usually Richard and me that got into fights but this time it was Johnny and Leon. We pulled over at a roadside rest and they squared off. Johnny took a swing at him and hit him on top of the head. For some reason the rest of us started laughing and first thing you know we were all laughing. We got back in the car and proceeded on to Boise. Leon with a knot on his head. We arrived in Boise and Bill started trying to find us work. We auditioned at a place called The Miramar ballroom. I can’t remember much about it but I can’t remember playing anywhere else there at that time.
When we decided to head home once again we took an odd route. We were almost out of money so we knew it might be risky to head out on the road. A couple times we stopped in towns along the way and Bill would sell some of our records. To jukebox people and things like that. Well we got as far as Nebraska and had no more money. Since I was a teenager I have always carried a silver dollar. Still do. That morning, early in the morning we were stranded. I spent my silver dollar for something to eat. We spent every dime we had.
All of a sudden Richard said he had a Texaco credit card his folks had given him in case of emergency. We were like “and you don’t think this is an emergency?” That card got a work out the rest of the way to Oklahoma. We got home and everybody would ask “How did your tour go?” We would just smile and say. “Oh great”. This all happened in the summer of 1962. Oh yeah after we got home we played some jobs and paid them back. Thanks Goob and Loraine. I have gotten a little ahead of myself. Next, I’m gonna double back and tell you about our record, “Markham”, and a trip to Houston.

 

Backtracking

I’m gonna go backwards a bit. In 1961we worked a lot in clubs in OKC. We worked some nightclubs and some private country clubs. We were spending a lot of time in OKC and met a promoter named H. T Greenhaw. He had something to do with a place called Bryant Center in Midwest City and he also promoted some groups. He told us he could get us a record contract with Peacock Records in Huston. We had recorded another instrumental record we called “Markham”. We had made up the song and played it a lot at Teen Hops. People liked it because they could line dance to it. Where did we get the name? Well, Gary had a sometimes girlfriend and that was her last name. We just thought it fit the song. After sending a demo tape to Peacock away, we went to Houston. We thought to record. The president of the company’s name was Don Roby. We met with him discussed everything. He decided there was no need to re-record it he thought his engineers could toy with it and it would be record quality. Mr. Roby had produced some hit records. One of his artists was a blues singer named BOBBY BLUE BLAND. He had had some hits in the fifties. It just so happened he was doing a concert in Houston that Saturday night so Mr. Roby arranged for us to go. When we arrived at the arena we looked around and there were thousands of black people and SIX white people. We made it to our seats and there we were in a sea of black people. Race relations in the sixties were not so good so we were a little intimidated. However we shouldn’t have been, everyone was very nice to us and we saw a great concert. We returned home with a brand new record deal.  Yep, we were on our way we thought.  Order those matching T-Birds. That’s another story.

 

More Shadows Five Stories
1961 was a very busy year for us. Lots of things happened that year that, unbeknownst to us, determined the future of our group. One of these things was that me and 15 of my classmates enlisted in the National Guard. In those days everyone, if they were healthy, had to do some form of Military service.
Another event that would play into our future was a concert we attended in OKC at The Candystick Lounge. That was a club we played quite a bit and it was a real fun place to go. One Sunday afternoon The Champs were appearing there and we went. The Champs, of the hit “Tequila” fame, was a touring group that was very popular in the day. Little did we know how big a part of our future they would be…? I’ll save that for a later chapter.
Also in 1961, Gary’s mother Maggie decided to go to beauty school. I’m really not sure which of us decided it would be a good idea for Gary and me to go also but anyway we signed up. The idea was to go that summer and finish up the next summer. Well, we started school and I liked it for all the wrong reasons. As usual, Gary took it pretty seriously, but me…well, not so much. I just really liked it because of all the women. Since I was very young I really liked girls and there I was surrounded by them. What’s not to like? As you might expect first thing you know I was involved in a relationship I shouldn’t have been in, but I sure had fun. I don’t think it got in the way of the group. Except we gained some fans.
Quick story and an example of the bull crap Bill Teal would lay on us. I saw a picture of a bright red T Bird convertible in a magazine. It was beautiful. I showed it to the guys and in Seconds Bill convinced us we would be ordering matching T Birds in a very short time. If keeping us positive was part of being a manager he was doing a great job.

This is such fun sharing all these memories. I hope people are having as much fun reading them as I am writing them. Next time. The beginning of the end.