Oct. 10, 1970: My old group Lavender Hill

 

After a relationship breaks up, when is the right time to go back and visit? After I left Lavender Hill in July 1970, I knew that sooner or later I’d want to write about them, but I fretted over what would be the proper interval. As it turned out, about three months.

        By that point, I was firmly settled into being a music writer and my bandmates were enjoying an unaccustomed stretch of good fortune.

They continued playing the clubs through 1972. Then Kathie and Bill headed west, settling down together in a cottage in Ocean Beach, San Diego’s hippie haven. For several years, I took marathon Cannonball Run drives out there to partake in one of our band traditions – a communal Thanksgiving.

Ron packed up his 12-string guitar and got a job as a City of Buffalo building inspector. He died unexpectedly about 20 years ago. Carlo became owner of a dental lab in Lockport. And nobody is quite sure what happened to Joe, the guy who replaced me on bass. I searched the internet for him at Kathie’s request a couple years before she died in Seattle in 2016. I think that was him I spotted in Arizona. 

Oct. 10, 1970

Lavender Hill on the Upgrade

Group Wins Crowd Approval 

Lavender Hill had another run-in with Murphy’s Law last Saturday at the Free Store benefit at UB, but somehow they beat it again.

        The benefit began on a bummer when Barbara St. Clair & the Pin-Kooshins didn’t show up. Lavender Hill, expecting to be third, was the first band to arrive.

* * *

NOW Murphy’s Law goes something like this – if anything can go wrong, it probably will.

        Sure enough, bass guitarist Joe Kress disappeared for a few minutes with the group’s van and a couple of guys who wanted to get some light show equipment over at Buffalo State.

        Forty minutes later, Lavender Hill was ready, aching to go. Stillwater had come to play next. But no Joe. The crowded Fillmore Room took the explanation in stride. Music was coming. It’s all right.

        “Hey, Dale, you want to play?” singer Kathie Notley said from the stage. No. It’s been three months since I quit Lavender Hill and I haven’t TOUCHED a bass. No.

* * *

WHEN I left, the group was in a giant depression which began two weeks earlier when we thought almost everyone sounded better than us at the Ashford Hollow Festival.

        Carlo Cavaiuolo, the drummer, wanted to go play with his old Lockport buddies and Kathie was suggesting: “Why don’t we just give up the group?”

        About that point, I conceded that the hassles of the group were too much for me. Besides, Joe was around. HE could play the bass.

        I was just beginning to enjoy my extra 35 hours of spare time a week when good things started happening to Lavender Hill. The first was a free concert at UB. Ethos said:

        “Lavender Hill opened the afternoon with good, driving hard rock and a repertoire electrically culled from several of the better-known groups. Especially appreciated … were CSN&Y’s ‘Ohio’ and the Airplane’s revolution song ‘Volunteers.’”

* * *

THEIR NEXT good thing was the WYSL-FM Woodstock concert in Delaware Park Aug. 20. It was especially good because the day before that, Fred Saia, who has booked the group on and off, called them to his office for a little conference.

        “He told us we didn’t know how to play bar gigs,” Kathie recalls, “and he told us we didn’t know how to play for the people. He said that’s why he couldn’t get us jobs.

        “Now The Road presented a far better musical show that day,” she adds, “so the only alternative was to get to the people, turn them on. If you have enough liveness, there’s something to it, you really get to them.”

* * *

THE UNDERGROUND press pretty much told it all:

        “The first group, The Road, was just pretty loud and not too good – but then Lavender Hill came on and a train of people started dancing around. Before you knew it, everybody was dancing and jumping around. Lavender Hill was really good and the woman who sings with them was freaking out from all the applause.

        “It was a good concert – everybody was … full of energy after Lavender Hill played ‘Gimmie Shelter.’ Then the WYSL deejay got up to (announce) how the permit only went until 7:30 and we had to leave. Everybody got pretty (mad) …

        “Anyway, one of the guys in Lavender Hill got up (it was lead guitarist Ron Magrum) and said how if we cool it, we can keep coming back and get to know each other and form (a community.)”

        “It doesn’t take much to see,” Ron says now, “that when you’ve got a lot of power, you’ve got a lot of responsibility.”

        “Ever since then,” Kathie puts in, “we’ve been more relaxed on stage. Sooner or later, if you’re honest with people, they’ll KNOW. That’s our thing now.”

        “I wouldn’t say the music is all that better,” Joe says, “but the emotional impact is so MUCH better.”

* * *

THE GROUP seems happier and more communal than they’ve been in two years and WYSL-FM loves them. But even the upswing isn’t without problems.

        They walked into their regular Wednesday night gig at The Club in downtown Niagara Falls one week and found a poster saying they were playing for a free outdoor festival. They didn’t and they’ve turned down a couple other freebies.

        Part of it is because Kath has a throat problem. Her vocal cords are inflamed and the doctor said she shouldn’t sing at all for six weeks.

        “I told him: ‘Look, I’m in a group. If I don’t sing, I don’t eat,’” she says hoarsely. So she tried to take it easy and hasn’t been singing in the free-form afternoon practices at her house.

* * *

AND BOOKINGS. Tonight they had first chance at a $400 gig at Allegany High School, but turned it down because Fred Saia had already booked them for a $200 night at Satan’s Roost. This week, Fred calls and says it isn’t his fault but Satan’s Roost is out. He gives them the Surf Club on Chautauqua Lake for $150, which is less than they like to take.

        If nothing comes along, they have a standing invitation to play at The Club in Niagara Falls weekends with Parkside Revival, which is guaranteed income and always fun. And they’re playing Nov. 6 at D’Youville College.

        For the Free Store benefit, there was the extra bother of tearing down equipment after a gig in Youngstown, then taking it all back for Saturday night.

* * *

THE GROUP cheered as Joe returned. Lavender Hill opened with Ron singing a song he wrote.

        First time I’ve really heard them since July. They sound really strong. The instrumental breaks have honest drama. The weak points, singing and harmonies, are so much better. And Joe plays bass like a demon.

        By their fifth number – the Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” – the crowd almost screamed with the first chord. Incredible. Then Kath put some new curves in James Taylor’s “Country Road” while Carlo and Joe chunked out a rhythm you thought you’d only hear from The Band.

        There was a hand-clapping, foot-stomping “Only You Know and I Know,” followed by a stately “Ohio,” which faded, as usual, into a wild “Volunteers,” which began, as usual, a little too fast.

        When it ended, there was lots of applause.

        “I guess things are getting better,” Kath said hoarsely afterward. “But you know something, Dale, it’s still a hassle.” 

The box/sidebar: 

Started as a Folk Trio 

Pertinent and impertinent information about Lavender Hill:

        Kathie Notley, 27, vocals and flute, Lackawanna High School, attended Buffalo State and UB, quit last winter after six years as teletypist, single.

        Ron Magrum, 26, vocals and lead guitar, Newfane High School, attended Fredonia State College, single.

        Bill Rehberg, 28, vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica and trumpet, grew up in Penfield, near Rochester, Army veteran, attended College of Emporia, Kan., and Fredonia State, single.

        Joe Kress, 19, vocals and electric bass, Newfane High School, attended Niagara County Community College, single.

        Carlo Cavaiuolo, 21, drums, born in Italy, Lockport High School, attended Niagara County Community College, single.

        Lavender Hill began as a folk trio in Alvin’s Hideaway, a Dunkirk coffeehouse, five years ago and turned to rock. By mid-1968, everyone had moved to Buffalo.

        Kathie, Ron and myself were among the original band. Bill replaced guitarist Dan Cudney, who was drafted in 1967. Carlo came as a friend of a friend during the Drummer Crisis of March 1969. Joe, also a veteran of Lockport bands, joined in July.

        The group name went through changes until summer 1968, when everybody gave up and accepted a former manager’s “Lavender Hill Mob.”

        That was shortened after too many persons said “What?” when told the name. They don’t say “What?” as much any more. – Dale Anderson