March 11, 1972: Bethlem Steele
Introducing a loud, loud band that’s still echoing through the ages. Revelations galore in the Footnote:
March 11, 1972
Bethlem Steele:
Original Music
And a Big Sound
No, it wasn’t the loudness that got Rick Hilberger. His
brother was in Magic Ring and they were LOUD.
He was wrapping up his gig as Mother Courage Recording
Service, packing away the mikes and the tape machine after taking down four
tracks of Bethlem Steele all one Friday night at The Pub in
“He told me he couldn’t believe I had only two cymbals,” Bill
says.
* * *
YOU NOTICE
that from the tape playing in guitarist Rich Fustino’s living room. Not loud
enough to catch the bass, though. The bass, Bill says, it goes right through
you. All 950 watts.
“We like to practice as loud as we play,” Rich says as we
duck into the basement for some picture-taking in the practice room. “If you
practice quiet and turn up for a gig, you don’t know what kind of tone you’re
going to get.”
Rich and the group spent five days fixing up the room with
egg crates and acoustic panels last fall, right after Rich moved back into his
mother-in-law’s old place in
That’s what the people next door say. The only thing Rich can
figure is that it must travel through the ground.
Bill explains the stage setup. Rich has two speakers behind
him and one behind bass guitarist Butch Spatazza. And Butch has two behind
himself and one behind Rich. That way they can hear each other.
* * *
“THEY’RE OK
when they’re beside me,” Bill says. “But when they’re behind me, they blow me
off the stage.”
It really doesn’t hurt Randy Carlone’s sax and flute, but the
sound overwhelms the vocals on that middleweight PA. But not for long, they
hope. There’s a heavy new PA system on order for them.
This Thursday night everyone’s in Rich’s kitchen, emptying
wine glasses and filling the four-place kitchen table to about 300 percent of
capacity.
There’s Rich’s two little girls and his wife Bernadette with
her wide smile (“I’m the lady who waits,” she says) and Bill’s gentle wife
Kathy, who’s left their three-month-old son with her mother.
And Randy’s girl – saucy blonde Kathy King, a country singer
looking for a band – and modest Mary Stock, who books Kathy and put up money
for Bethlem Steele’s single.
And there’s the band (Butch polishing off a hamburger-chain
hamburger – a fifth member of the household, he just got in from his store) and
burly equipment man Jack (Jumpin’ Jack Flash) Spats and Kathy King’s brother in
from
* * *
EVERYONE HAS
some sort of related task. Bernadette typed up the promo letters and mailed
them to all the colleges in the state. And she embroidered the patterns on
everyone’s jeans. The women also run a small scale light show when the group
plays.
Rich’s brother is designing their record label (“It’s gonna
be Pork Knuckles Records,” Butch says) and a Bethlem Steele comic book and he
got them into The Pub besides.
Friends in
When their single – the easygoing “Magic Land Man” and heavy
“Hold Onto My Hand” – is ready late this month, they hope to tap a couple
friends in local radio stations.
“We’ve got so much stuff going on,” Bill says, “it’s like
dynamite waiting for somebody to push the handle. When it happens, we’re gonna
explode.”
“You have to put your own stuff first and concentrate on
that,” Butch says. “A lot of groups, they work up one original out of 35 songs
and then they don’t have time to do originals once they get established.”
* * *
RICH THINKS
there’s too few opportunities for them locally. They’re better suited for
concerts, he says, maybe fronting some group on a national tour.
So far local gigs have been few. A short stint at Miller’s on
the
No high-decibel devastation zone around The Pub last weekend.
Bethlem Steele had things balanced just right. A full sound and plenty of it
without pain, even up close.
The killer in most heavy bands is the lead guitar, but Rich,
instead of wailing on volume, goes for that bank of 12 foot switches – fuzz,
distortion, wah-wah, stereo echo for spectacular effects.
“I like the sound of the natural guitar,” he says, “but I
like the versatility.”
* * *
MEANWHILE,
the rest of the band isn’t sticking to subordinate parts. There’s a thick
texture of lead lines – Butch drilling deep resonances through your rib cage,
Randy panting Tull-style flute and matching guitar leads with his sax and Bill
crashing like an apprentice god of thunder.
Their material, they say, has been growing more and more
complex. Chord progressions in their 29 original songs have a way of pushing a
step beyond expectations and growing out from there.
The underpowered PA leaves the vocals buried, but the
constant flow from heavy to straight rock, time changes, solo and coordinated
riffs keeps things from getting dull. There’s even a Jethro Tull set.
The wives and friends crowd the front tables. Kathy Kopcho
emerges from running the lights and asks Bernadette to take over.
“I do the lights most of the time,” she says. “The other
girls got tired of it and I really like it. I get into following the rhythm and
all. And it gives me something more to share with Bill.”
She looks to the stage as Bill bursts through a short solo. Her eyes are full of admiration.
The box/sidebar:
A Dream Come True
The 3½ years Butch Spatazza was away, he and Rich Fustino
wrote hundreds of songs, traded tapes back and forth to Germany and dreamed of
the group they’d put together when Butch got out of the Air Force.
“If he didn’t write me for a week,” Rich says, “I’d bawl him
out.”
They’d grown up together in
* * *
THE TWO OF THEM
had several rock bands in
A year ago February, a month to the day after Butch got out,
they put together a three-man band with drummer Bill Kopcho, who teaches with
Rich at Matt’s Music in North Tonawanda.
Bill’s folks bought him a drum set to keep him from battering
their house and by 1966 he was good enough to win a
* * *
WHEN HE got
married last year, Bill quit (“I really felt bad about that,” he says), even
though he’d helped work up most of the group’s repertoire. In October, when his
replacement unexpectedly headed South, he jumped at a chance to come back.
Randy was in then. Sick of commercial gigs, he wanted
something that would combine jazz and rock when he put an ad in the paper in
August. He once had a group called The Random Four, which included singer Kathy
King. They line up like this:
Rich Fustino, 24, guitar and vocals, Lake Shore High,
Carl (Butch) Spatazza, 24, bass guitar, guitar and vocals,
Lake Shore High, partner with cousin in Marrakesh Express, a North Tonawanda
head shop, single.
Randy Carlone, 27, sax, flute, oboe and harmonica, South Park
High, National Guard, works in father’s Broadway-Fillmore area health food
store, single.
Bill Kopcho, 20, drums, North Tonawanda High,
Right after Rich thought of the name, it won them a job at
With breaks like that, the group thinks they’ll keep the name
– with the spelling altered to avoid possible hassles.
“It kinda capitalizes on something right here in
* * * * *
THE PHOTOS:
Bottom, Butch Spatazza, left, and Rich Fustino. Top, Randy Carlone, left, and
Bill Kopcho.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE: Bob
the Record Guy, who has a vintage record store on
“The single was released in May of 1972 on Pork Knuckles
Records, the band's own label. In name and label design, it was unique, and
unusual for the time. The label was designed by Rich’s brother. The band
planned to issue their own comic book as well! Which was understandable as they
dressed in crazy costumes on stage – Rich Fustino in particular, whose cape and
shorts (!) suggested a superhero. …
“In February 1973 they played their most memorable
gig, opening up for Blue Oyster Cult at the Old Rivoli Theatre on Broadway, in
the Broadway/ Fillmore area. The
“Bethlem Steele continued on, playing the local clubs.
By 1977 they were just known as Steele. The band now was Fustino with Dave Dyck
(keyboards), Will Schulmeister (drums), Jim Van Gelder (bass), and Dave Wild
(guitar). Van Gelder and Wild had previously played together in Angus Wild.
“Eventually Dave Dyck and Dave Wild left, and Randy Carlone
rejoined. The band had always been known for their Jethro Tull covers and
developed a whole show of Tull.
“At some point the band just ended.
“Rich Fustino continued teaching guitar and later
started a business with his brothers called Fustino Brothers Inc. (or FBI),
which develops apps including a guitar teaching app and an official Jethro Tull
app, approved and created with assistance by Ian Anderson, which includes the
whole recorded Tull catalog.”
* * * * *
AND FURTHERMORE:
Fustino Brothers, Inc., gives us even more details on Facebook. This was posted
a month ago, on Feb. 26. 2021:
“‘Hold on to Your Mind’ is soon to be re-released on
Permanent Records. …
“
“William ‘Bill’ Kopcho – drums – worked for John
Deere. He still works on his cars and toured with some big name groups for
several years. Bill still is a powerhouse drummer, performing and recording in
Moline,
“Randy Carlone – flute, sax and oboe – opened a music
store in
“Richard N. Fustino – guitar, synthesizer – went on to
form Steele and Live Steele and continue the live rock music performances for
many years. He also formed a band called Yesterday For Now with the recently
departed drummer Frank Balsano.
“He continues to teach guitar, bass and uke lessons at
Matt's Music in
“Rich continues to write and record original songs and
just finished his 520th song called ‘Jeff A. Blargan,’ a tribute to a piano
teacher at Matt's Music.
“Rich and his brothers Russ and Gary formed a App
company many years ago called FBI apps and have produced the ‘Jethro Tull
endorsed app’ on all platforms and currently are working on other projects with
other groups to produce ‘Living Museum’ apps.
“Rich still keeps in contact with Ani DiFranco. He
even got to meet her backstage a few times and has seen her perform many times
in concert.”
“The Bethlem Steele comic book never was released but it had some very interesting and great stories about the band that were done on story boards!”
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