Nov. 4, 1972: After Dark with singer Jerry Hudson from The Road

 

When we previously met singer Jerry Hudson, the leader of this band, it was April 1970 and he was idolized by thousands of Buffalo teens. 

Nov. 4, 1972

        After Dark Group Formed Almost Overnight 

It’s a somewhat different Jerry Hudson sitting with this new band over by the stage of The Cross Bow, that Tudor-trimmed oasis in the drive-in expanse of Sheridan Drive east of Niagara Falls Boulevard. Mellower.

Brown horn-rimmed glasses, quietly fashionable clothes, the old cascade of curly hair styled into easygoing waves – a far cry from two and three and four years ago when, as lead singers for The Road, he and younger brother Phil were knocking out teenage Buffalo with their remakes of The Zombies’ “She’s Not There” and Three Dog Night.

You’d warm up to Phil’s semi-shy smile and the smooth way he moved. Jerry you’d take to for other reasons. His intensity, the haughty command of his performance, his tightly-wound power.

The Road broke up, had a reunion to make a second album, then played maybe six months before disappearing altogether last winter.

Jerry’s tried a couple bands since then, with a short stint as a WKBW deejay in between.

* * *

THE FIRST, Jerry and The Hornets, had a couple of guys from the local group Flash and worked up some Humble Pie and other assorted heavies. They played one mammoth St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute dance, then disbanded.

The other, called Alacazam, took in several players from the old Parkside and specialized in laid-back choogling rock before it splintered a couple months ago. This new band, however, looks like it’s going to last for a while.

“It’s called After Dark,” says Jerry, “and we’ve been together a month. Mike (Romano, the bass guitarist) and I were in Alacazam together and we wanted to get another group.”

* * *

PUTTING A BAND together isn’t usually quick and easy, but this one materialized almost overnight. It started with Jerry’s newspaper ad.

Guitarist Mike Kucharski and organist Peter Viapiano of the rock band Junction West answered it. And they called in Eric Malinowski, a friend of theirs, to be the drummer.

Jerry was up for going after the lucrative commercial-rock clubs. Mike Kucharski and Peter, who’d struggled to soften the hard-rock elements in their old band, felt the same way.

There was little argument over repertoire. And no disagreement with booking agent Fred Saia’s suggestion that they try out this girl singer who came into his Great Lakes Booking Agency office looking for work.

Petite Donna McDaniel turned out to be a double blessing. Not only did she fill the almost obligatory show-group female lead spot, but she also had a place for them to practice – her parents’ house.

“I feel like I’ve got five brothers now,” she says.

Three weeks to prepare for their first outing – this six-night stint at The Cross Bow – and they threw all their energies into it. Some days they’d work from 10 in the morning till 10 at night.

“Freddie’d come down to see how we were doing,” Jerry remarks. “‘How many songs you got?’ he’d ask. ‘Twelve songs? Good, keep going. Remember, you’re at The Cross Bow the 24th.’”

* * *

WAS IT MUCH of an adjustment – going from rock to commercial?

“The difference isn’t the music, really,” says Mike Kucharski. “It’s the way you present it.”

“We do mostly rock ‘n roll songs,” Jerry says, “a few Top 40, some milder songs like ‘My Way,’ but it doesn’t come off like Frank Sinatra. And a lot of pop oldies I’ve heard no other groups doing.”

Mike and Peter say that overall, what they’re doing now is as musically valid and challenging as what they did before. Fewer instrumental solos, less jamming, more concern for appearances and a well-polished performance.

They were ready for that first night, but they weren’t ready for the enthusiastic response they got. All week they played late – until 2:30 a.m. – and people stayed late.

“It was amazing for a new group,” says Mike Kucharski.

When they take the stage, it’s apparent right away that they’ve worked hard. All that’s needed is an occasional head-turning instrumental solo. That’ll come, the band explains, but when you learn 40 songs in three weeks, solos get put off until later.

* * *

ON STAGE Jerry is spokesman and a forceful performer who’s more inclined now to rivet a crowd with his expressive voice and energy instead of overpowering them.

The Doobie Brothers’ “Listen to the Music” and Cornelius Brothers’ “Too Late to Turn Back Now” are done up full and cheery with four-part harmonies, Mike Kucharski and Mike Romano on backup, tight rhythm overlaid with organ and an upbeat stage presence, especially Pete Viapiano, who goes into head-bobbing ecstasies behind the keyboard.

Donna gets to belt Chi Coltrane’s “Thunder and Lightning” and belt it she does. She can sing as strong as Jerry and when they blend voices, as in the Roberta Flack-Donny Hathaway “Where Is the Love,” they seem well-balanced.

* * *

AND THERE’S oldies. Jerry doing an impassioned “I Call Your Name” over a Beatllic rhythm, another retread of “Doesn’t Anybody Know What Time It Is” that sounds amazingly fresh, and a good Jerry-Donna duet on “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.”

Still to be worked out is Jerry’s single, “Gillian Frank,” a song about a hired gunfighter which he recorded in Buffalo’s Act-One Studios before the group formed.

“My contract with Buddah Records runs out this week,” Jerry says, “and the single’ll be released locally under my own name in mid-November. Whether it goes national depends on sales here.

“It’s got an interesting story and real nice harmony in it. And it doesn’t sound like anything that’s come out of Buffalo before. I have faith in it. I think it can be a hit.

“The group right here, they didn’t even know anything about it until now. You know how it goes, sometimes things go wrong and I didn’t want to have everybody get their hopes up before I knew for sure it was coming out.”

* * *

ELSEWHERE, hopes are high. That first week and Jerry Hudson’s fame have insured After Dark of engagements for all but two weeks from now until New Year’s.

Presently they’re in the middle of a two-week run at the Night Owl on Hertel. (“It’s gonna be strange,” Jerry says, “wearing tuxedos.”) Beginning Nov. 14, it’s two weeks at The Cross Bow and then to Keystone 90s near Lockport.

“Right now what we’re doing until January,” says Jerry, “is playing locally. January’ll be the big turning point of the group. We’ll be starting a big commercial tour, you might say.

“A couple people in the group have school and they’re gonna take a leave of absence. We’re gonna work our way down to Florida and get out of the cold, get rid of the winter pollution in our bodies.

* * *

“I WAS in Florida when I was 14. It was nice. I remember my brother Phil got sun poisoning.

“What’s he doing now? I don’t see him to talk to him that much, but he’s writing songs and putting a group together with Joe Hesse of the old Road.”

Would Jerry bring him into this group? “No, that’s pretty sure,” says Mike Kucharski. “It’d be like playing between two giants.” 

The box/sidebar 

Started Down the Road 

Pertinent information about After Dark:

Jerry Hudson, 23, vocals, Cardinal O’Hara High School, attended Bryant & Stratton, single.

Donna McDaniel, 19, vocals, North Tonawanda High, single.

Mike Kucharski, 20, guitar, flute and backup vocals, Maryvale High, junior at Canisius College, single.

Mike Romano, 21, bass guitar and backup vocals, Kensington High, attended Hilbert College, single.

Peter Viapiano, 20, organ, Cleveland Hill High, second year student at Erie Community College, single.

Eric Malinowski, 21, drums, Kenmore West High, Navy veteran, attends Erie Community College nights, single.

Jerry, of course, sang with The Road. Mike Romano, who he met in another group this year, hadn’t played with a major band before.

Mike Kucharski and Peter have played in bands together for 5½ years, most notably Soft Stone and Junction West. Eric played with The Country Gentlemen and Sudden Hush, plus a Navy rock band on his aircraft carrier that got to play in a bunch of European ports.

Donna, although she’s sung for years, had worked with groups only on occasional dates – weddings and the like. Last year she acted with the NOW Repertory Theater doing children’s plays at the Studio Arena.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Front, Jerry Hudson and Donna McDaniel; rear, from left, Peter Viapiano, Eric Malinowski, Mike Romano and Mike Kucharski.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Jerry Hudson’s “Gillian Frank” single became enough of a regional hit to get picked up for national release by Big Tree Records, home of Lobo and Brownsville Station. Billboard magazine listed it as Bubbling Under its Hot 100 in February. Polydor released it in Canada and After Dark became the Jerry Hudson Group.

After about a year, however, this chapter in Jerry’s career was over. He broke up the group and headed West. After several years in L.A. and the Bay Area, he came back home, wrote short stories and poetry and acted in local theater, notably as Bob Cratchit in the annual production of “A Christmas Carol” at the Alleyway Theatre. “Gillian Frank” was one of the songs he performed in the memorable Road reunion show in July 2012 at the Hard Rock Café in Niagara Falls. He died following a stroke in 2019.

Buffalo Sabres fans fondly remember Donna McDaniel as that powerhouse singer on the original 1975 version of “We’re Gonna Win That Cup.” She wound up in L.A. too, singing backup for Billy Idol and Toto. She also appeared prominently in the 1980s cult films “Angel” and “Hollywood Hot Tubs.”

She left a gig at Disneyland to successfully audition for the heavy metal monsters Motley Crue in 1987. As one of their Nasty Habits backup singers, she performed at the legendary Moscow Music Peace Festival in 1990 and wore a black leather bustier. Her own habits, though, were not at all nasty. As she told Rock Candy magazine: “I didn’t do drugs. I never did drugs and it was an interesting concept, to be in the throes of all that.”

These days she’s Donna McDaniel Pavlock, lives in Woodland Hills, Calif., and since the early 2000s has run a catering business in Canoga Park, Bella Donna Special Events, with her husband Tom. Check out the company’s Facebook page. They do some amazing cakes.

        Meanwhile, still in town and still playing is drummer Eric Malinowski. You’ll find him with a blues band called 12PackJack. He’s also part of the trio on the Blues Cruises hosted by Niagara River Cruises from the docks in North Tonawanda.