LA Music
"The Story"
As was mentioned on the Bands Page of this site,
when Phil Katz left the band 'Sad Apple', Magic called Mike Fleetwood
from his earlier band 'The Distortions' to cover
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guitar in the band, with Dave Masline on bass, and Chuck
on drums. This is from Magic's
recollection.
Jerry recalls that he and Chuck were playing together
with Tony Alfrey on bass and Jerry on keys, and that they came to
hear us play(Sad Apple), we then sat down he and I, and
decided to put the bands together. Jerry had seen Mike Fleetwood
play at a Jr. High dance, and recalls that this is
how Mike came into the band.
From Chucks perspective, he was playing with Magic
Phil and Dave, and then when Phil left the band, I had called Mike.
But he also recalls playing with Jerry prior to 'Sad Apple'
with a Greg Bar and a Steve chudy.
It seems we all recollect that Tony Alfrey, do to his
school requirements could not stay with the band, so Jerry played
bass. And that Chuck had to go back to school, and
Jerry introduced Gil to all of us.
It's important to mention now someone that made
all of this not only possible but pleasurable. Namely,
John Rosenthal
He was not only our friend through all these times
but he also helped us with all of the particulars, of getting ourselves
to the gigs and seeing to it that our gear arived and
worked. And as the good friend that he was, he never asked anything
in return. He was the best and most comfortable
friend to hang with, tell your concerns to, and trust with your girl
friend. It seems that apart from ourselves, John, and
his great memory has documented our lives and times during
this period.
To you John, from the bottom of our hearts
we all say THANK YOU!!!
And now on to a few,.....
Memorable Stories
In the words of Jerry Field, Years ago, my brother Jeff
and I were talking. He had become a very successful pharmacist.
But he told me "Jerry, you've lived my dream life!". And even today I talk with
folks at my gigs from all walks of life, and they tell me that they gave up on
music in their late teens.... and wish now that they had not.
Merced
Mike and Jerry get to the hotel ahead of
Magic and Gil. The Hotel looks just like the worst horror story nightmare.
Long darkly lit coridors that smelled of mold. Mike put
a long rubber snake in the air conditioning vent of our room, and when we
came in commenting, "wow, what a broken down place",
Mike says lets look around, gets up ona chair and pulls open the vent
makes like the snake bit him and is hanging on to his
hand as he chased gil and I, all around the room and out the door.
I think Gil turned white that day,....we didn't want to
come back in, let alone sleep there!
One night in Merced after the gig, Mike had somehow
pissed off a couple of guys in a Chevelle. "WE" were pretty convinced
we could handle the situation. We all came running out
of the restuarant and lined up next to Mike until this BIG MF started
climbing out of the car!!! Well I, (Jerry) knew just
what to do.... I turned and ran inside the Denny's and told the
waitress to call the police because "we" were going to
get killed!! LOLOLOL Then I came back outside to see if any of you
were dead yet. Turns out, they were drunk and didn't want
the police to catch them, so they left.
Good work Fuzz, cause I (Magic) think we were
definetely about to get our butts kicked. Me and Gil were trying
to maybe inch around behind them, and I was
imagining two of us on his back swinging around, some one tripping
them,........hitting the pavement, blood, bottles, Police.
we were not going to be in great shape.
Stockton
The Stockon Bowling Alley. I think were like
4 weeks up there. There were many fights, but the first one was the
best. I (Jerry) can still see the badest MF biker (with real bullets
in his bandalaros) staring at you (Magic) at the keyboards,
with a big teethy smile, giving you the finger. I laughed as you just
waved back at him. LOL. I (Magic), remember one fight
there with beer bottles hurdling around the room. I remember taking
down the ARP, and protecting it behind the drums until
they threw that guy out the front window,...ouch! During other fights
there Jerry remembers us just playing right through
in old musician tradition. One night near the end of our run there, we
were escorted to our cars by the police. Bikers were
on one side, Police (in riot gear and dogs) on the other.
Colorado
Ok... We have to add our thoughts about Grand Junction, Co.
The first of many funny things, was as John and I (Jerry), in my Mustang
hauling the trailer watching Mike's car pass us.... and then doing
three "360's" in the middle of the ice covered highway!! Yep, us "LA" boys
knew just how to drive on snow and ice!!
I (Magic), was sitting in the middle of the front seat,
and I think Gil was in the passenger seat. And Mike was clowning
around swevrving on the iceat 60 mph. I'm looking at
these big ditches on either side, telling Mike, "stop it",.....he keeps
on. So I grabed the wheel to stop him from swerving,
....the wheels broke loose, and all of a sudden I'm seeing
the world going around and around out the side
window, until we came to a perfect stop in the middle of the raod.
We got out of the car amazed we didn't crash, flip or end
up in the Ditch.