As long as I can, I will continue to remember my best friend Dennis every year. Today marks 5 years from the day he passed away. I miss him. I miss texting jokes back and forth. I miss his sense of humor. He was always in a good mood and always fun to be around. He was an accomplished guitar player and taught me everything I know. He taught me so many songs as we played in various bands over the years. Meeting Dennis in the back of that 10th grade Geometry class was fate. There would be no guitarist Chuck without him. I miss him.
Kids Who Rock (dude camp) showcase day! My band kids, The Flying Forces, did an awesome job on their song “Crazy Good” We had a huge crowd for all the bands. A great nonprofit organization run by great people.
Monday, July 8, was my first day as a Camp Leader for the Kids Who Rock (Dude Camp). The camp is all about teaching kids the joy of music by learning an instrument, playing in a band and writing a song together.
The ultimate goal after 5 days is to have the band play their song for their parents in a showcase. Kids are divided by age group for the bands. I am helping out with the Bass players and 8-9 year old band.
We learned our instruments each morning and then separated into our bands by age and started working on writing a song.
On this particular day we had a visit from the legendary Chuck Rainey, bass player extraordinaire. Just google him and you’ll see, he has played bass on over 1000 songs and has worked with so many in the industry. His band opened for the Beatles during their 1965 tour. So cool. He has played on many of the TV show themes you may have heard including Sanford and Son and Barney Miller.
This is the continuation of a series of posts – select Category LIFE AS A BAND MEMBER to read in sequence.
Starting 1982 I was still living in my one room apartment. My college classes at Central Texas College (CTC) were going good and the band, Second Chance, continued to practice and play local bars. We would hang out at Steve’s (bass player) parent’s house almost every night. The band would practice in a spare bedroom and then sit around the TV watching Star Trek reruns to the point of repeating the episodes word for word. My girlfriend (future wife) had gotten her real estate license and was working on selling houses in the Killeen Texasarea. My day job was a full time warehouse/manager at an Army Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) Shoppette (like a 7-11) on Fort Hood. Those were fun times. Dennis and Steve were/are brothers to me.
In early June I quit my nice AAFES job. I don’t remember why, but I think it was because I planned to leave for the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in August. My Dad had put forth the idea of me coming to Mississippi and finishing up a four year degree. Two of my brothers were now out of high school and thinking of getting a college degree. I would share the house Dad had purchased in 1967. I said OK. The girlfriend was not going to be happy but it was for the best.
After quitting my day job I was now free for the summer, I spent it clearing cedar trees with Steve, Dennis and Mick. The “job” was to clear cedar trees off a ranchers land out in Leander Texas and, for payment, we could sell all the firewood we could find on the land. We would get up early every morning and either head out west to cut cedar or we’d head to a Killeen hardware store intending to fix the chainsaws that always seemed to be broke. I learned what a cord of firewood was. I think we only sold maybe 3 cords that summer. Not much money was made and what we did make went to fix chainsaws. But it was fun.
We’d break at noon and eat our bagged lunch that Steve’s Mom had made for each of us. There was a bull named Doo-Dah occupying the land we were clearing and I remember Steve tried to ride him. For that moment I wish we had cell phones with cameras back then, but glad we didn’t for most of our adventures. That summer I lost one of my cherished Mo-Ranchstaff shirts. I often imagine it still out there stuck on the limb of a tree, waving in the wind. A faded yellow flag marking one of the best summers I ever had.
August 1982 rolled around and I received my Associates Degree (2 year degree) in computer Science from CTC. It was time to head to USM to finish my degree. The girlfriend was not happy but it was one of those life choices that has served me, and her, very well. A college degree was a golden ticket back in the 80’s. Not sure if it helps much these days but it certainly doesn’t hurt. Dad and my brothers, Johnny and Tony, drove from Mississippi in Dad’s light brown Dodge truck, a 500 mile trip one way. We loaded up my meager possessions and they took off. I followed in my maroon Chevy Monza. I moved to Hattiesburg. It was the end of Second Chance version 2.0.
In the Spring of 1981, my post high school band Second Chance played my high school alma mater Ellison High School (EHS). At that point in Second Chance’s history we were doing a lot of Rush songs. Our set at EHS started with Rush’s Xanadu.
If you’ve ever heard the song you’ll now that the beginning of Xanadu has tweeting birds and an underlying synth drone which we wanted to include via a recording from the album (vinyl) onto a cassette tape. We hooked up a cassette player to our mixing board and played the cassette tape with the recorded intro. Eventually the recorded intro fades out while Dennis (lead guitarist) replicated the intricate guitar lick intro while our drummer Mick replicated the album drum hits seamlessly. Steve (bass player) and I (rhythm guitarist) would join in on cue with bass and guitar chords.
It was an impressive epic start to our gig. The band’s playing meshed seamlessly with the tape intro as we kicked into the full song. HOWEVER… our sound guy at the time, George, forgot to press the stop key on the cassette tape player. About 30 seconds into us playing Xanadu we heard a completely different song playing along through the monitor and main speakers. The cassette player was still playing and the cassette tape we had used to record the Xanadu intro had previously recorded music on it. That pre-recorded music was coming through the speakers with us. I don’t recall what song was playing but George quickly realized what was happening and stopped the cassette tape player. I don’t think many people realized what had happened and we continued playing Xanadu.
This is such a vivid memory and we had a great laugh afterwards. The story became a classic Second Chance story that we stilled told thirty years later. For this reason I chose A Farewell to Kingsby Rush as this month’s Album of the Month.
NOTE: I’ve changed the name of this column to Album of the Month (formerly Vinyl of the Month) because future posts will include not just vinyl records. I have close to 500 vinyl albums but I have over 900 CDs so it makes more sense to include all formats. Also, with the advent of Millennials collecting vinyl (some don’t even listen to what they buy), thus driving up the price of vinyl albums (both new and used), purchasing vinyl records has become an extremely expensive hobby to maintain. So I have dropped my consumption drastically.
New song announcement on my Facebook artist page Chuck Sturgeon Music. Released on the usual platforms (Spotify, Apple music, YouTube, Bandcamp, etc.). Here is the YouTube link if you care to listen.
It’s… ok I guess. My first time to play harmonica on a song. I was tired of tweaking and just said F it and released it. On to something new.
You can buy the song on Bandcamp if you’d like by clicking link below. Also follow me on Bandcamp.
I’m sorta back. I’m retired and this social media stuff started feeling like a job. Posting YouTube videos and blog posts weekly was just getting to be “WORK”. I decide to take a step back and just be retired. So YouTube video making has not happened since April 23rd, two months ago. I’ve been doing a bit better with the Blog posting. Last blog post was May 30, so almost a month ago. I’ve come to a point in my Life As a Band Member where I haven’t mapped out further stories. Lazy I guess.
Anyway. This post is a return to posting with something that I was going to discus on YouTube but I’m really not inclined to do videos anymore. They’re a lot of work. Here is a list of the concerts/bands I’ve seen. This list only goes from my first concert to end of 1984 when I graduated from college. Expect another posts with another list 1985 and onward.
Listed by year, month. Bands are listed in order of appearance with the headliner listed last.
1979 6/1/1979 Yes – Frank Erwin Center (Austin TX) 10/29/1979 Peter Frampton – Reed Green Coliseum USM (Fall 1979)
1980 2/1/1980 Heart – Frank Erwin Center (Austin TX) 2/7/1980 Max Webster / Rush – Austin Municipal Auditorium (Austin TX) 6/22/1980 The Godz / Triumph – Austin Municipal Auditorium (Austin TX) 6/26/1980 Pat Travers Band / Foghat – Austin Municipal Auditorium (Austin TX)
1981 10/5/1981 Pat Benatar – Frank Erwin Center (Austin TX)
1982 8/5/1982 Pat Travers / Ted Nugent – Frank Erwin Center (Austin TX) Fall 1982 Eli – USM Student Center (Hattiesburg MS)
As mentioned previously, my family moved away in June of 1981. My father was reassigned to Montgomery Alabama. I could’ve gone with them but the band was taking off, my girlfriend had just graduated from high school and things were going great with her (after all she would become my wife in 4 years) and I needed a few more classes to get my Associates Degree in Computer science from Central Texas College (CTC). I got a one room (literally one room with separate bathroom and small kitchen) apartment in Killeen off of highway 190 and Willow Springs Rd. I don’t think the complex is there anymore.
my Monza parked outside my apartment complex
I had already completed a Certificate of Completion for Computer Operator that would allow me to find a job in the computer field but there were no computer operator jobs to be had in Killeen. So I continued with my job at the Army Air Force Exchange Services (AAFES) shoppette. I was promoted to warehouse manager, moving me from a night shit grunt to a 40 hour, Monday through Friday, day shift job. It was the perfect job, allowing for night practices and playing weekend gigs. It did affect my college courses. I had to take classes in the evening or Saturday mornings.
Second Chance 2.0 enjoyed playing the daytime gig at Ellison High School. We started booking gigs at various bars around the area. As mentioned before, we played the Crazy Horse Saloon for the first time in Fall 1980 and in 1981 we would play there a number of times throughout the year. It was the premier place to play for a rock band. Probably our biggest gig, besides EHS, was playing a lake “festival” show the summer of 1981.
Me with spaceman helmet, Mick on drums, Steve with derby on bass, Dennis on guitar
I call it a festival because there were four bands scheduled to play on July 4th at a bar out at Lake Belton, Texas. The venue was the Crossroads Tavern and the festival was billed as a Rooftop Jam. The band lineup included Runnin’, Texas Rail Band, Second Chance and the headliner, Prater Zychek Project. I had never heard of any of these bands much less knew any of the members. I don’t recall how we got this gig either. I’m guessing Dennis and Steve hunted this one down.
Meet with derby on, Steve on bass, Mick on drums, Dennis on guitar and looking like Jesus
Crossroads Tavern (not to be confused with the one located in Port Lavaca Texas where a massacre took place in 1981) was a dive bar. Small on the inside, like a double wide trailer, but the draw was that it was out at the lake. In order to have a festival, the bar had built a stage outside above the bar. This allowed bands to play on the rooftop while the audience was spread out in a field that sloped down toward the lake. I wish I had gotten more pictures. The pictures we have (included in this post) were taken by my girlfriend (future wife) I think. She doesn’t remember much of the gig except that it was packed with Grunts (military personnel).
Me and my Ibanez Les Paul, Mick on drums, Steve on bass, Dennis on guitar
Things I remember from the gig –
It was hot up on the roof.
Looking out over a good size audience.
We played pretty good though I don’t remember what we played but it had to have included Rush and Ted Nugent. Those were our staples.
During this time I was prone to wearing hats on the stage. I had a derby and a space helmet, both purchased from 6 Flags over Texas. It was was my shtick
After we played, I was approached by a G.I. who had watched us. He gushed over how good we sounded and how the Rush was perfect and how I sounded exactly like Geddy Lee. I didn’t know how to accept compliments like that and I was/am an introvert when it comes to social engagements. So I said thanks and moved on. I should’ve stayed and discussed more about the band and solidified a fan, but I didn’t.
Things I don’t remember from the gig:
I don’t remember watching the other two opening bands
I don’t remember setting up for the gig. I can’t remember what amp I had at the time but it looks like I was playing my brown wood Ibanez Les Paul.
I remember staying long enough just to see what Prater Zychek Project sounded like since they were the headliner. I Googled them for this posting but there was nothing directly related to that band name. However there was a Dave Zychek who gigged in Texas at the time and there was a David Prater, but they didn’t get together to work on things together until 1993. So, was this a precursor to that? Is Google missing information? Don’t know.
I found no information with regard to the Crossroads Tavern on Belton Lake. It’s like it didn’t exist. Second Chance would spend the rest of 1981 playing gigs at a number of local bars. Many I don’t recall their names. We were having a great time. I was enjoying the apartment living and hanging out at Steve’s parents practicing. I have many fond memories of this time of my life. 1982 would be a year of change for me.
I’m Chuck. I am retired as of December 31, 2023. I like playing guitar, listening to music, recording music, reading books and comic books, portrait and toy photography, writing and playing Pokemon Go. I don’t miss work at all.
Retirement Ain't Easy 