May 31, 1975: Talas

 

When the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame got started in 1983, these guys were the first to be inducted. 

May 31, 1975 

Talas, 3-Man Dynamo, Rockin’ Crowds 

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL ROCK BAND in the Buffalo area this year is a three-man dynamo called Talas. The bumper stickers proclaim it, the crowds attest to it and the group reaffirms it six nights a week onstage.

          “You’d better get there early,” their manager Fred Saia advises in advance of a Tuesday night appearance at the Barrelhead in West Seneca. “When they play, it gets filled up pretty quick.”

          Saia, who’s guided plenty of big local groups in recent years, thinks Talas may well become the biggest. They’re even selling out high school dances.

          “You could tell it last year,” he says. “It was like a solid … monster. They’ve got this following. You could feel it.”

          Beyond Saia’s enthusiasm, there’s evidence everywhere of their unique attainment:

          – The fact that no other successful three-man band has sprung up in their wake. It’s not as easy as it seems, either on the playing level or the appreciation level.

          “One of the biggest problems we ran into,” says bass guitarist Bill Sheehan, “was that people wouldn’t accept what we were doin’. They used to tell me I wasn’t playing the right bass parts. Now they want theory lessons.”

          – The truck they rent by the month for their amplifiers and not one, but two equipment men, Larry Spenn and Sal Julian, to set them up in a different hall every night.

          The coming week will find them in Lockport’s After Dark tonight and next Thursday, in Rochester’s Orange Monkey Friday.

          In Salamanca High School next Saturday and on their regular weekly gigs Sunday at He & She’s in Tonawanda, Tuesday at the Barrelhead and Wednesday at Mickey Rat’s in Angola.

          – Jealously guarded days off. After doing as many as 23 straight nights at one point, they’ve settled into taking off one day a week. Monday. They go fishing together.

          “But it’s constantly on your mind,” guitarist Dave Constantino reports. “You’re always thinking about things for the group. It’s a 24-hour-a-day job.”

          – A desire to hide sometimes when the press of fandom gets too heavy.

          “Once in a while, we’ll see one of us caught by some kid we know comes up and talks all the time,” one of them says, “so we’ll signal that there’s a problem with something. The whole thing’s bizarre.”

          – Clothes that make them look more like British rock stars than any other band in town. Thinness made thinner with long straight hair, rib-hugging pastels and high boots with stepladder heels and soles.

          “I’ve got about $1,000 worth of boots,” reveals Sheehan, who stands taller than six feet even without them. “I always wanted to look a little different.”

          – A star-struck rumor. Namely that Sheehan was supposed to go join Alice Cooper’s band. It’s not true.

          “A friend of mine in Rochester is playing with Neil Smith, Alice’s old drummer,” Sheehan explains. “I was flattered that they asked me to join Neil’s band, but I didn’t want to leave this group ‘cause we’re goin’ places.”

* * *

ALL THIS has happened in the 16 months Talas has been in its present form – Constantino, Sheehan and drummer Paul Varga.

          “We just intended at first to play music that would satisfy our customers,” Constantino says. “After we established ourselves as a semi-attraction, then we got into more of what we wanted to play.”

          One thing they’ve kept from those beginning days is a flashy medley of songs by the Who. It’s three-man rock at its best – guitar sizzling, bass pounding, drums in a fury, voices at the edge of a scream – pure energy.

          “The difference in playing with three pieces,” Sheehan says, “is that it’s a whole technique by itself. It’s not easy to play loud. We played loud before, but now it’s controlled.

          “Few people ever master it. You have to compensate for everything you’re doing. You’ve got to play cleaner. You’ve got to control your amp, your guitar feedback and your tonal qualities.”

* * *

“YOU’VE ALSO got to have good mikes on the drums,” Varga puts in. “Before I was miked, I used to play so hard I broke cymbals, sticks, drumheads. I still break a cymbal or two, but not nearly so often.”

          The attention to quality carries over into the material they choose. They never intended to be a copy band. What’s more, they’ll search for offbeat adaptations.

          For “Hall of the Mountain King,” they listened to a symphony version rather than the rock version by Electric Light Orchestra. Constantino estimates that maybe 70 percent of what they do is improvised.

          Although they’re young – all three are 22, grew up in the Town of Tonawanda – they’ve had a decade of experience by way of the Tweeds and a regional hit called “Thing of the Past.”

* * *

IT WAS A SONG Constantino wrote when he was 13. They recorded it after winning a band contest at the 1965 WKBW Fun-A-Fair. Its momentum kept the Tweeds going for five years.

          “That’s the best thing about starting out so young,” Constantino observes. “We’ve been through so much more.”

          It makes a difference to Saia too. “Head-wise,” he grins, “these guys are great.”

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: From left, guitarist Dave Constantino, bass guitarist Bill Sheehan and drummer Paul Varga.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Talas had the chops to go nationwide, but major record companies didn’t pick them up. When bassist Billy Sheehan departed in 1976 to form Light Years with former Black Sheep drummer Ron Rocco, it took two players to replace him, and when he came back a couple years later, the band hit its peak, releasing a pair of hard-hitting albums and opening for major acts. One of them was Van Halen, with whom they did 30 shows.

          When Talas split up again, guitarist Dave Constantino and drummer Paul Varga regrouped again with a new bass player, this time under their original banner as the Tweeds. That band kept going until 1994.

          Meanwhile, Sheehan went on to be hailed worldwide as a bass guitar wizard. He was on tour with UFO (another band Talas had opened up for) when the three of them were inducted into the BMHOF and phoned in his acceptance speech from England. He created a new version of Talas, then in 1985 joined David Lee Roth’s supergroup, which included guitarist Steve Vai. Sheehan left in 1988 and did his own glam metal band, Mr. Big, which became enormously popular in Japan. Mr. Big released four albums before breaking up in 2002 and five more after it rekindled in 2009.  

          The original Talas reunited in 1997 for a sold-out concert in Kleinhans Music Hall, which was recorded live, and subsequently got signed to Metal Blade Records and Warner Music Japan. That led to a tour of Japan and another reunion show in Kleinhans in 1998. In recent years, Constantino and Varga have continued to play locally with a bluesy rock band they call Shyboy.