March 27, 1976: Ian Quail

 

Sometimes a Buffalo band just has to get out of town.

March 27, 1976 

Ian Quail Rocks Halfway Across the Country 

THE REPORTER’S LATE, but no later, really, than the well-traveled Dodge van that lurches to rest against a slushy curb in front of him.

          Out tumble three interviewees bearing plastic boxes of fastburgers. Lunch? More likely breakfast.

          Their mid-afternoon banter has echoes that are definitely morning-after. Even when they’re home, it seems like they’re on the road.

          These irregulars clump to the back door of an ordinary-looking Town of Tonawanda house and down the stairs to an untypical basement and the offices of J. R. Productions.

          The rest of the band, plus road crew, are thick as a family reunion in the reception area. Handshake on the right comes from curly-haired manager Scott Donalds, who the reporter always mistakes for a member of the group, namely curly-haired singer Craig Korka.

* * *

CRUCIAL DIFFERENCE: Donalds is married.

          All seven members of this band called Ian Quail are not, although some of their girlfriends are getting serious during this current homestand, which runs through April 10.

          Ian Quail used to be a Buffalo band, but 18 months on the road changed all that. They’re tops in medium- and giant-economy-sized rock clubs in Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. Virtually unknown here.

          “Things were stale for us around here in the summer of ’74,” pianist Jim Flynn relates. “So what we had in mind was to get out of Buffalo, get out of our basement.”

* * *

“WE WERE doing all our own stuff before we went on the road,” says bass player Tom Tripi. “But then Scott heard us and we all sat down and came up with a certain conception of what we wanted to present.”

          “It’s nice to be appreciated, too,” Korka says. “It’s nice to walk into a place and find 2 … 3 … 4 … 500 people looking to party.”

          “We broke a record in Iowa,” Donalds says. “Maxwell’s in Iowa City. We had 1,400 people.”

          Two things keep them from drawing that kind of crowd for their regular Thursday night at the Poorhouse West in Hamburg’s South Shore Plaza. First, until recently, Thursday’s been a non-music night. Second, the place could never hold 1,400.

* * *

A COUPLE HUNDRED fit in with plenty of room to spare, however, in this woodsy, buck-at-the-door, predominantly draft-beer emporium.

          The reporter gets his hand stamped just in time to catch Fleetwood Mac’s “Over My Head” at the end of Ian Quail’s always-acoustic opening set.

          (“We got into that in the summer in the Midwest,” they say. “We’d start at 9 in the club and it would just be sundown – too early for our other stuff. Now everybody really likes it. And we’re into acoustic music anyhow.”)

          Second time up they go all electric, reaching for favorites like “Squeeze Box” by the Who, McCartney’s “Medicine Jar,” the Beegees’ “Nights on Broadway” or even Robin Trower’s “Day of the Eagle.”

          Two keyboards framing them, they make an impressive band visually and they’re impressive to the ear as well.

          Few Buffalo bands ever hone themselves into the tight, well-organized unit Ian Quail is.

          Most of their material is from British artists, but that doesn’t keep them from crossing over for some Allman Brothers or, as the night grows older, an a cappella romp through Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home to Me.”

* * *

TO KEEP CURRENT, there’s a high turnover of material, thanks to daytime rehearsals on those five- and six-night work weeks on the road.

          The road’s also given them two new men – veteran drummer George Doty from Pittsburgh, plus Flint, Mich., sax player Danny Teare, a former Motown sideman.

          A local band named Rush provided the nucleus of Flynn, Korka, Tripi, guitarist Stuart Ziff and keyboardman Chet Folger.

          Discipline’s a gift of the road, too. It’s personified by road manager Chuck Marotta, nicknamed “Mr. C. M. Boogie,” who peels fast ten-spots off malingerers and latecomers. Roadies Jerry Godfrey and Jim Siragusa handle sound and wiring.

* * *

AT HOME HERE, things are more slack. Tonight they’re at the Caboose in Fredonia. Then four nights at the Poorhouse West (next Thursday, Friday, Saturday and April 8) and four nights at Lockport’s After Dark (next Wednesday plus April 7, 9 and 10).

          They’re based at J. R. Productions’ special practice house a few ordinary-looking doors down from the office.          They’ve mastered a couple Flynn tunes here. A dozen more and they’ll be ready to record.

          “There’s no special time set for going into the studio,” manager Donalds says. “It depends on the material. We’re just taking our time.”

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Ian Quail and Friends – From left, front, Craig Korka, Jim Flynn and Danny Teare; second row: Jim Siragusa, Tom Tripi and Chet Folger; back row: Randy Leds, George Doty, Stuart Ziff, Jerry Godfrey, Chuck Marotta and Tom Reinhardt.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: We’ve met Jim Flynn, Craig Korka, Stuart Ziff and Tom Tripi before as members of a local band called Rush, which was profiled on these pages in November 1971. Their peak moment came in 1973 when Harvey & Corky chose them to open for Genesis at the Century Theater.

Ian Quail lasted for four years and played mostly out of town, although they had plenty of fans here at home. They first reunited in 2008, when Jim Flynn organized a benefit show for a musician friend. It brought back Craig Korka, who was living in Miami, and Stuart Ziff, lead guitarist for the band War, who was in Los Angeles. Stuart was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 2003.

          Still in Buffalo were Chet Folger and Tom Tripi, who played with a number of high-profile alternative rock bands such as the Rain, singer Terry Sullivan’s various projects and Scott Carpenter and the Real McCoys.

          Ian Quail reunited again in 2015 for a tribute concert for bass player Tom Reinhardt’s brother, the late, great drummer Ted Reinhardt, who died earlier that year in a plane crash. Tom and Ted played together in a succession of great local groups – Rodan, Gamalon and Willie and the Reinhardts. Tom was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 2008.