June 12, 1971: A band called Bridge
A new start for remnants of an already-established band, but it didn’t last. It did, however, serve as a stepping stone for keyboardist Paul Ferguson. See the Footnote below.
June 12, 1971
A Bridge to More Satisfaction
Bass guitarist Tom Karl generally picks out what the five
male members of Bridge will wear, but the outfits today – black shirts and
purple pants of some sort of corduroy velour – were for picture-taking and so
everyone felt it should be a group decision.
While everybody sitting happily throwing maple seeds at each
other between blasts of the fire siren in Williamsville’s
That was when Tom, guitarist Denny Schooley, singer Charley
Priore and drummer Mike Sisti were The Sterlings and the whole show was
breaking up.
* * *
IT WASN’T
for lack of work. They had done five nights a week for eight months in one West
Side Buffalo club, plus whatever else came along.
One string of 22 straight nights left everyone with heavy
colds and Denny with an aching back from when the organ Leslie unit fell on
him.
“It was like working in a plant,” Denny says. “The potential
was always there in the old group, but because of factors like overwork and not
getting to go on the road like we wanted to, we were frustrated.”
* * *
SO THEY
split. Tom and Denny went off to
But by December they were meeting and then they were
rehearsing again. This time convinced, as Charley says, that “the ideas that
people connected with the old group were stale …”
“Obsolete,” Tom amplifies. “Invalid.”
“The old group,” Charley explains, “was just a group on
stage. There were attempts at presentation, but they were unpolished. In order
to get what we wanted on stage, we knew this time we’d have to go about it
intelligently.”
“We didn’t realize before how we could work together,” Denny,
the leader, money-taker and “ethics enforcer,” remarks. “But even when we DID
get back together, we didn’t know what direction we were going until Mona came
along.”
* * *
THAT WAS
January. Actually, she was just plain Janis Hall then. She says that her stage
name came from a guy she hitched a ride to practice with one day:
“He says to me, ‘You are really beautiful. You remind me of a
girl named Mona.’ The group had told me to be thinking of a stage name, so that
was it. Mona. Like Mona Lisa.”
Mona’s strong voice and high range give extra kick to their
four- and five-part harmonies and it’s led them into the Roberta Flack, Carole
King, Sly & The Family Stone and Laura Nyro numbers they do now. She also
adds a few dimensions to Bridge’s bridging.
“It works,” Mona says. “As far as everybody’s concerned, I’m
just one of the guys.”
In the job-handling scheme, however, Mona’s happily by
herself. Mike handles the “show.” Paul learns the songs. Tom takes care of
clothes and equipment. Charley takes complaints and talks to agents. But Mona’s
assignment is to handle Mona.
“I handle myself like a lady,” she says proudly.
“We all submitted for the job,” one of the group grins, “but
we were all turned down.”
By February, the group was trying out a set or two in
They’re at Williamsville’s Suburban House through July 4,
nightly except Mondays and Tuesday. After that, it’s on the road, like they’ve
always wanted.
* * *
MEANWHILE,
the group has discovered a new kind of musical satisfaction – making Bridge a
success – and a new onstage mission – to project friendliness, happiness and
good times. When they aren’t doing it with music, they’re doing it with an
assortment of groan-producing puns.
“Toward the end of the old Sterlings,” main punster Tom says,
“we’d play a tune and then spend five minutes talking to whoever would listen,
‘cause we’re all crazy in our own kind of right.”
“It’s supplemental communication,” Paul puts in.
“When you play off the crowd like we do,” Tom explains,
“sometimes the best response is to the worst jokes. A really good joke may get
a few laughs, but a bad one will get a lot more groans.”
* * *
“We just sorta let loose one night when people didn’t seem to
be getting it,” Denny says.
“You’ve heard of the term ‘getting your idea off the stage?’”
Mike asks. “Well, this is it.”
It comes in the third set, usually, and it brings Denny and
maybe Mona and Charley down among the dancers for a communal dancing, chanting,
arm-around-each-other experience.
“It’s a thing of enjoyment,” Mike says. “We get to know more
people on a personal level now. It’s now because Denny’s the best guitarist in
The box/sidebar:
Spanning the Gap
Pertinent and impertinent
information about Bridge:
Janis (Mona) Hall, 22, vocals,
Charley Priore, 21, vocals, sax and flute,
Denny Schooley, 22, guitar and vocals, Kensington High,
attended Erie County Technical Institute, Bryant & Stratton graduate,
single.
Tom Karl, 22, bass guitar, vocals and “limited” piano
(“limited by the band as much as possible”), Cleveland Hill High, 1971 Buffalo
State graduate, single.
Paul Ferguson, 20, organ, piano and vocals, Griffith
Institute (Springville), attended
Mike Sisti, 22, drums and vocals, Kenmore West, senior at UB
(philosophy-sociology), single.
* * *
BRIDGE’S
foundation is in a Buffalo rock band called The Sterling, which broke up last
summer from frustration, hassles over taste and a work schedule that had them playing
as many as 22 days in a row.
After seven years of The Sterling, Denny was the lone
original member left. Tom, Mike and Charley were the rest of the band. Tom was
a veteran of The Looking Glass and, with Mike, another group called simply
Lunch. Charley had been with The Roadrunners and The Lonely Souls before they
became Chenango.
Mona arrived in January, shortly after the group regathered.
A singer since childhood in
Paul, formerly with Springville’s Midnight Shadows, heard
Bridge two months ago, liked the sound and called manager Frank Sansone. They
weren’t exactly looking for a keyboard man (Denny and Tom were stepping to the
piano occasionally), but the combination of piano and organ was too much to
pass up.
* * *
THEY SAY the
name Bridge, conceived by Charley, expresses on many levels the aims of the
group. Among other things, the bringing together of rock and commercial music
and the closing of the distance between performer and audience.
* * * * *
PHOTO CAPTION:
The group Bridge at
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE: According to organist Paul Ferguson’s website, he
has had a lifelong career in music. From 1974 to 1990, he teamed with Andy
Taylor to form Ferguson and Taylor, a comedy and music duo that played hotels,
resorts and casinos across the country, including the 1980 Winter Olympics in
Lake Placid and Disney World.
He found a new partner after that, did
studio and stage work out of
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