Oct. 24, 1970: The Charles

 

Here we meet John Valby, back before he became the supremely scatological Dr. Dirty and started singing endlessly hilarious choruses of “Waltz Me Around Again, Willie.” He released his first album in 1974 and now has more than 50 of them.    

Oct. 24, 1970

The Charles

Friendly, Lively, Talkative 

        If you stand at the living room window of the upstairs apartment that serves as headquarters for The Charles, it may take you about a minute to scan the landscape.

        You may try searching vainly for a tree or a hill or even Walden Avenue in that ocean of shingled gray rooftops, but all around you is Subdivision, U.S.A.

        Your perspective weakens a little more when Charles manager Steve Tice and guitarist John (Adam Lee) Adams tell you Cheektowaga looks a lot like their native subdivided Florida.

* * *

THE CHARLES says that except for the tourist havens, clubs in Florida are small and so is the pay. Music is a weekend hobby mostly and you just can’t get anywhere that way.

        “That’s where we picked up our style,” bass player John (Willie) Wyatt remarks, “playin’ for 21-year-old rednecks.”

        So a year ago last summer The Charles decided to head up to Rochester, where guitarist-organist John Valby comes from. They figured they’d raise their standard of living.

        “We played in a big place there – The Club,” Willie recalls. “It was twice the size of the places we played in Florida and we all wore these little blue coats with frilly shirts. It was a disaster.”

        “Plus,” John Valby puts in, “the Rochester audience is kinda, well, they’re reserved. Either you’re in with them or they’re cold.”

* * *

BY FALL, Buffalo was giving them more jobs than Rochester. By winter, they moved here, but their troubles weren’t over.

        Their old manager left and the group discovered they had several thousand dollars in debts. Later in that same winter, Steve’s brother, Mike Tice, a bass player and the group’s foremost showman, went back to Florida to be with his wife.

        Willie and drummer Eric Bach (real name Eric Stumpf) knew Adam from college, so they summoned him to take guitar while Willie moved over to bass.

        “Formerly,” John says, “we were a really show-type band, a gimmick band. Now the kind of music we play has broadened a lot. Adam likes heavier stuff.”

* * *

THEY TALK about recording. They’ve done some in Rochester and have been told they’re too diverse, that they need a single style. They toy with the idea of being a country-western band.

        Already they have a couple of their own country songs – “Honeysuckle Blues” and “There’ll Be a Barbecue in Heaven When I Get There.”

        “We could play as a backup band,” John proposes.

        “Actually,” he adds, “we want to do as much of the planning and as much of the groundwork as we can ourselves so we don’t wind up going to a promoter and saying here we are, do something with us.”

* * *

MEANWHILE, they’re working at least six nights a week. Tonight they’re at Orchard Park High School. Tomorrow and every Sunday, it’s Club Lakewood in Youngstown. Mondays it’s Gilligan’s. Wednesdays and Thursdays, the Keystone 90s near Lockport.

        Next Friday and Saturday, they’re at Club Lakewood again. They’ll be at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., Nov. 6 and 7, and at Bishop Neumann High School, Williamsville, Nov. 16.

* * *

ONE OF The Charles’ specialties – left over from their “show band” days – is playing requests. They know some 250 songs, but that doesn’t mean they like to play all of them. They prefer a place where requests aren’t too heavy.

        “There isn’t much musical value in some of those songs,” Willie says. “People expect us to be enthusiastic, lively, full of jokes. Most of the time we are, but sometimes you don’t want to smile.”

        “I think that’s the image most people have of the group,” Steve elaborates. “Friendly, lively, talkable. We’ve never promoted it, but that’s the way it works. If Willie feels good, he runs his mouth and he digs it. The idea is to make the evening enjoyable.”

* * *

TO DO THAT at Gilligan’s, all a band has to do is overcome that converted warehouse while standing five feet above the crowd.

        And this particular Monday, they also were under orders to keep very quiet.

        “I have to tell them to turn down again,” Steve moans. “I feel like I’m going them black coal for Christmas. And what they’ll do now is play a soft song instead of playing a loud song soft.”

        In spite of that, the second set begins with a Creedence Clearwater song, the country influences hidden unless you’re looking for them.

        Next they launch into the Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Even the bleary kid at the next table sings along.

* * *

THEN, BECAUSE, John says, “it’s all us,” they do “I Fought the Law and the Law Won.” Beautiful.

        John leaps from guitar to organ, does much of the singing and looks like a relaxed John Lennon. Willie’s earthier. He wisecracks between songs and gets to sing things like “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Born on the Bayou.”

        Adam sings an occasional song, an occasional third part of a harmony, but he generally stays back with Eric.

* * *

THERE’S a great rocking “Back Door Man,” a weak “Our House” and a joyous oldie, “Tossin’ and Turnin’.”

        “I’m having a nervous breakdown,” Willie announces. “Help me out. Just do this.” He starts clapping and the band takes the beat right into “Honeysuckle Blues.”

        As they finish “God, Love & Rock ‘n Roll,” a guy yells to John to do it again. They take the key another step up and roar through another chorus.

        They close the set with John vamping “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” which turns into a request – the Mickey Mouse Club theme song. The front tables sing along and wave their arms, overcome with nostalgia. 

The box/sidebar 

Started Playing Rock at Duke 

Pertinent and impertinent information about The Charles:

        John Valby, 24, organ, piano and guitar, Rochester native, Middlebury (Vt.) College graduate, attended Duke University grad school, single.

        John (Willie) Wyatt, 23, bass guitar, native of Fort Myers, Fla., attended Florida State, University of Florida and University of Southern Florida, single.

        John (Adam Lee) Adams, 24, guitar, native of Cocoa Beach, Fla., Florida State University graduate, single.

        Eric Bach (Stumpf), 22, drums, native of Fort Myers, Fla., attended Florida State and University of Florida, single.

        The group’s beginnings trace to when manager Steve Tice’s brother, Mike, and John Valby met at Duke and played rock together. Then Mike went home to teach and John went into the Army.

        When John was released, he and Mike rounded up Willie and Eric and formed a band to play around the Tampa area. They came to New York State in mid-1969. Adam, whom Willie and Eric knew in college, joined last winter after Mike returned to Florida.

        As for the name, they were trying to think of something that wouldn’t typecast them. Willie explains:

        “A band is like a thing, you have to give it a name, so I said why don’t we call it Charles or Fred or something. We took Charles because it sounded better than Fred.”