I remember my first gig as if it took place yesterday. In October of 1966. I was 15 years old and playing in a trio that went by the name of US (the name had something to do with our high regard for such cool band names as Them and The Who). At the time, my family was living in Verdun, France because my Dad, an Army doctor, had been stationed overseas.
My Mom had gotten involved with the church choir and through her connections, I had managed to wrangle a gig at a Catholic Parish Supper which was held in a small party room at the Officer's Club on the Army base on October 9, 1966. The crowd at this gig was a mix of parents, priests, nuns and assorted military personnel. We were hired to be the after-dinner entertainment.
Our PA set up was pretty crude. Basically, we did not own any actual amplifiers for our instruments so we pumped 2 guitars, a bass and a vocal mike thru my Dad’s old Telefunken hi-fi set up. This produced a wall of distortion which, at the time, we thought was what a real rock & roll band was supposed to sound like.
Our first song was a 5 minute "jam" on the rock classic, Little Latin Lupe Lu : "Talkin 'bout my baby...Little Latin Lupe Lu...she's a hot footin baby....there ain't no dance she couldn't do...she's my groovy little baby...Little Latin Lupe Lu"
As I recall, my vocal style back in those days consisted of a high pitched hysterical screech which was accented with the occasional barking sound. To those in the audience, it was immediately obvious that our band's musical enthusiasm outweighed any actual talent we might have possessed at the time. We did not dwell on our meager talents as we played our hearts out. Of course, it was a dream come true to find ourselves playing rock & roll in front of a real crowd of people. Never mind the fact that the look on the faces in the crowd seemed to give forth the expression, "Who hired these guys?!"
After Latin Lupe Lu, in an unintentional homage to The Who, a thin trail of white smoke began drifting out of the hi-fi speaker. The audience was looking at each other nervously. "Is this part of the act?!"
Seeing as the crowd was getting restless, we quickly launched into a 10-minute version of the Van Morrison / Them classic, Gloria. Suddenly, my vocals reached a new height of caterwauling: "G-L-O-R-I-A! Glooooooria!" Thrashing electric guitars and my yelping vocals filled the tiny party room. A waiter dropped a whole tray of drinks onto a table of nuns.
Glancing around the room, I suddenly noticed a priest making the sign of the cross!
As the song Gloria crashed to an end, a fire alarm began to go off in the hallway just outside the party room. Whoo Whoo Whoo! Whoo Whoo Whoo! There was much running about by various officials and two firemen who happened to be attending this event. By this point the stunned audience looked as if we had taken to smacking the back of their heads with ballpeen hammers.
Before we could dive into our third and final song, the master of ceremonies grabbed the microphone and said, "Ok everybody, how about a big hand for these very gifted young musicians!" Gadzooks! I'm pretty sure some of the folks who were there are still talking about how bad we were. Hell, ya gotta start somewhere, right?
Looking back on this time of my life now, I remember how big an impact this one event had on my psyche. My alter ego, aka The Ham Monster, had been let out of its cage! From this point on in my life, I would consider myself to be a real musician.
Shortly after this gig, all live music was suspended from all future Parish Suppers. Imagine that!
Move ahead, don't get left behind...Rock & Roll is a State of Mind!
After Latin Lupe Lu, in an unintentional homage to The Who, a thin trail of white smoke began drifting out of the hi-fi speaker. The audience was looking at each other nervously. "Is this part of the act?!" 
After Latin Lupe Lu, in an unintentional homage to The Who, a thin trail of white smoke began drifting out of the hi-fi speaker. The audience was looking at each other nervously. "Is this part of the act?!" 
