March 25, 1972: A band called Flesh & Blood, a manager named Weinstein

 

Appearing in a cameo role – a certain dark eminence who currently is cooling his heels in the penitentiary out in Alden: 

March 25, 1972

Music Is Danceable – Crowds Keep Dancing

Flesh & Blood Mixes Rock, Commercial Sounds 

WHEN ALLENTON, Pa., lost its spice for Flesh & Blood sometime last year, they called up a guy they used to know from another Allentown band, the Hi-Keys.

        “We’d been around too long, you know?” guitarist Tom Lombardi says. “People were taking us for granted.”

        The friend was in with a booking agent, booking into New Jersey, New York and New England. If Allentown was going to take Flesh & Blood for granted, well, it was time to hit the road.

        After two months of it, early November or so, their yellow van pulled into the Yellow Monkey out at Main Street and Transit Road for a week they expected would melt into their next week in Burlington, Vt.

        Except that Bob Rebadow, a UB student from the Town of Tonawanda, dug them and told Ray Tyler, the singer, that he thought he could get them some gigs.

* * *

THE GUY who would help was Harvey Weinstein. He and Bob and Corky Burger, another UB student, lined up bands for the Democratic voter registration festival in Delaware Park last August.

        What helps is that Harvey’s on UB’s University Union Activities Board Music Committee, where aspiring rock concert promoters get a chance to wheel and deal with music biz heavies like Premiere Talent’s Frank Barcelona.

        Harvey’s picking up the style, even though he only gets to book in local groups for dances and such. And that came in handy for leverage when they tapped not just one, but both of Buffalo’s two major booking agents for local club dates.

        “Don’t write anything about that,” Harvey grins modestly. “That’s just business.”

        Working for fees on a sliding scale, the threesome got the group into Keystone 90s, the Landmark, the Night Owl, Canisius High School, UB, a showcase night at the Executive with the Coincidentals, Snow Angel and Gingerbread Express for an agent from Las Vegas.

* * *

FLESH & BLOOD, having come in on one of the top steps of the local scene, showed they could do what it takes to stay there.

        “Our music is all danceable,” Tom Lombardi says. “We try to pick our material in that order. Like any of the cuts on ‘Aqualung’ might be outasight to do, but there’re too many breaks in it. We couldn’t do it for a dancing crowd.”

        Keeping the crowd dancing, that’s what got them invited back to the Yellow Monkey. They did the mandatory “Higher” so effectively that one of the owners got on stage and did it with them.

        At Kenmore East last Friday, there was plenty of dancing even in the final set when the band, exhausted from a quickie visit back home and an early performance at the Clutch Artists Autorama, held the Chicago tunes and the Ballinjack number and the original song together – not with excitement, but with sheer basic precision.

* * *

UNDER RAY Tyler’s slightly throaty vocals and the touches of three- and four-part harmony, Tom Lombardi’s guitar predominates, pushed by punches from horn players Danny Altieri and Don Mickel over the familiar slap and tumble of bassist Bob Maloney and drummer John McLaughlin, backed up by the faint gluey thread of Lee Mellor’s Hammond organ.

        On the bleachers was Janice Hall, looking about as comfortable as an Ebony model in that big-shouldered sheared-look coat and those ostrich feather eyelashes.

        Once a singer with local commercial rock groups Bridge and The Difference, she was spotted by Harvey, Bob and Corky one day last week and they thought she might fit right into the band’s next move.

        “We had a girl back in Allentown,” says Tom Lombardi, “but she couldn’t go on the road. She had a kid and a good job that was too much to give up. Besides, in this business, you never know what’s going to happen. One day you’re around, the next day, wham!

        “When we came up here, we heard so much about United Sound, United Sound. Why are they so popular, we wanted to know. Because they got a show, they do choreography.

        “So we’re going to branch out into some softer things, a Fifth Dimension medley, some dance steps. Besides, that’s where the money is. We’ve gotten as far as we can go in rock clubs.”

        Rehearsals with Janice were to start Tuesday, except a more attractive offer suddenly took her to New York City. The group still wants to add a girl, but they’re sure their music already can flex enough to fit both commercial and rock demands.

        Tonight and tomorrow they’ll be at Keystone 90s. All next week except Wednesday it’s the Yellow Monkey and the week after that they go to the Night Owl.

        Meanwhile, Harvey, Bob and Corky have big promotion ideas, so big that they make the group’s cramped Niagara Falls Boulevard motel apartment jump with anticipation.

        Over Easter, Bob and Corky will scour Florida for jobs while Harvey checks out Las Vegas and California possibilities. John McLaughlin’s eyes light up: “A tour with Buddy Miles?”

* * *

BUT THE biggie is April 17 in New York City’s Lincoln Center, a State Democratic fundraising show (remember the voter registration festival?), where Flesh & Blood will precede Peter Duchin.

        In the audience, sitting with Harvey, will be Apple Records’ Pete Bennett and an A&R man from Epic Records.

        They’d record Ray’s songs. The group has music to half a dozen ones and Ray has lyrics for maybe 40 more. Love songs, sentimental things, dance stuff, things like Sly Stone.

        “If we can get a record,” Tom says, “that’ll get us into better clubs. You saw us the other night, well, a month from now you won’t know it’s the same group.”

* * *

The box/sidebar: 

A Versatile Group 

Pertinent information about Flesh & Blood:

        Ray Tyler, 25, vocals, native of Easton, Pa., single.

        Tom Lombardi, 29, guitar, backup vocals and group leader, native of Phillipsburg, N.J., single.

        Don Mickel, 29, sax and flute, native of Phillipsburg, N.J., single.

        Lee Mellor, 18, organ and backup vocals, native of Allentown, Pa., single.

        Bob Maloney, 19, bass player and backup vocals, native of Allentown, Pa., single.

        John McLaughlin, 20, drums and jaw soloist (In “I’m a Man,” he does it by cupping his hands and hitting his jaw with his mouth open), native of Washington, N.J., single.

* * *

THE PRESENT group got together about a year ago (although some, like Ray and Tom, have played in bands together off and on for 10 years) and all live within a few miles of each other.

        Most of them have gigged in New York City (some in a promo group for Dawn) at places like Cheetah, the Felt Forum and backing a rock revival at Madison Square Garden.

* * *

“IT WAS another showcase thing,” Tom says, “and we won it because of our versatility. We backed up a bunch of people, including Chuck Berry.

        “He tore up his own guitar cord and then he borrowed one of mine and tore that one up too. He’s gotta have the biggest fingers I ever saw.”

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Guitarist Tom Lombardi appears to be going strong. I found a couple notices for his most recent band, Inch and the Echoes, which plays oldies from the ‘50s and ‘60s, in and around his native Phillipsburg. “Inch” is his nickname. The Echoes include a couple of his bandmates from the mid ‘60s and their Facebook page says they reunited to perform at a high school reunion in 2006.

        Facebook indicates that saxman Don Mickel also is back in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley and still playing.

        As for young Harvey Weinstein, we’ll be seeing more of him.