Should Of Been Rock Stars
My 1st set of drums was a jet black five piece set of Roger’s drums. That was December, 1965. Unfortunately my father did not know that the bass drum required a bass drum pedal. So for about a week I literally kicked the bass drum with my foot, cuz you had to play the bass drum along with all the other drums … I soon got a bass drum pedal and was good to go!
My first band was a typical garage band, PLAY LOUD… we did, and sometimes we were all even playing the same song. We played a number of high school parties, etc…We had my good friend and neighbor Don Albrecht on rhythm guitar, his friend Kees Stenigan on keyboards, another friend of mine, Tim Kasper on bass guitar and another neighbor Dave Desbarr on lead guitar.
I can’t remember why we disbanded but think it was because we weren’t maintaining a “B” average in school. I wasn’t affected because I think my parents knew that a “C-“, “D+” was as good as I was going to get. They could only hope music was an option, or flipping burgers, so I continued to play the drums.
I didn’t get into another band for about a year or so. I had spent the down time practicing on my own, learning Stones, The Who, Santana, Beach Boys, and of course Beatles songs. It paid off because the next band I was in played all the songs I had learned previously. That was 1970.
We played a lot of colleges, private parties, clubs in Manhattan & Hermosa Beach. We became pretty popular. The name of the band was “Pacific Turmoil”, and trust me, most of the time the band was in turmoil. We took 1st place in a battle of the bands in Hermosa Beach. We were supposed to get to go into a recording studio to record some original tunes, never happened…
The players in Pacific Turmoil were Doug Verkike lead vocals, Tom Brenner rhythm guitar, Barry Balderson lead guitar, Steve Halloc on bass guitar, and me on drums. There were some personnel changes and eventually that band too, disbanded.
I saw an ad in the paper “band seeking drummer” and answered it. I met Larry and Roger Nelson. They played me some original tunes they recorded on their Teac 3340, 4 – track RTR and I liked the tunes, reminded me of early Birds, Badfinger, and a little CSN&Y, Moody Blues, etc…
We jammed a little and Larry asked me if I’d record a few tunes with them. At that time I had not met their bass player, so when we, Larry, Roger, and I got together to rehearse, I met this guy name Paul, (not Mc Cartney) who was playing bass. We started playing a couple of tunes and I noticed his playing was nothing like the bass player I had heard on the tapes. I asked Larry and he told me that the other bass player had quit. We rehearsed for about a week or so, and truthfully, the bass player was just not working. I asked Larry again about their old bass player and he told me he didn’t think he’d play with them again. I asked if I could talk to him.
I met Dennis Hageman a day or so later at Denny’s on Hawthorne Blvd and we had dinner, a couple of chile patty melts (not sure why I remember that, but I do). I asked Dennis if he’d consider playing bass with Larry, Roger, and me and he said he’d give it a try. I remember the 1st song we recorded, “I Believe” and will always remember the chorus… and do believe it is 100% true and correct. The chorus is “I believe that we could easily make it, if we just had a little luck and the time to take it easy”!!! I can’t tell you how many times I repeated that line in everyday living.
That takes me up to Grin, which I think is already covered in the website, as are the other bands I played in with Dennis. Flashpoint, Gil Estel, Merlin, and the Bush Boy’s.
Someone asked me if I had it to do over again, would I? Yes, in a minute!
As Bob Hope used to say, “Thanks for the memories”
Special thanks to the guys in Pacific Turmoil and a very special thanks to Larry, Roger, and Ricky Nelson, Richard Bianchi, Darryl Reynolds, Pete Okada, Ted Keffalo, Richard Crawford, Mickey Bordonaro, Steve Rush and a very, very, very, special and sincere thanks to my good friend and one of the best bass players ever, Dennis Hageman.
Mike Bartlett
Mike Bartlett