FTV: Caravan of Stars

 

     Back in May of 2023, we covered the origins of Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band (5-3-23) a month before I had the opportunity to see the current version of the band in Eugene, Oregon.  This FTV article explained how a thirty-year old promoter named David Fishof proposed an idea to Ringo.  In 1989, Fishof asked if Ringo would consider touring with a core band of other famous musicians (the All-Starrs).  Ringo and his wife Barbara had recently checked out of a rehab clinic in Arizona and the former Beatles drummer was hesitant to test his newfound sobriety by embarking on a concert tour.  Perhaps it was the one million dollar payout Fishof dangled in front of him, or maybe Ringo simply decided he had the willpower to do it, (or some combination of both).  Either way, Ringo put his lawyers to work on the details.  Having found it within himself to break his serious, near fatal twenty year addiction to alcohol, Ringo took the first steps forward on a path that would shape his musical and personal future right up to the present.

     If one happens to spin the dial to the local PBS station during their pledge drives, one can not miss the numerous ‘all-star’ type concert films they use to attract donors.  The concept is very much like Ringo’s All-Starr band:  A core backup band supports artists (some solo, some still performing as a group) who run through their greatest hit(s).  The local PBS hosts (or sometimes an imported celebrity) will come on during the pledge break and discuss the great music being played.  This segues into how a donation of a few dollars a month will insure you will see more great programs like these in the future.  With their pitch completed, the hosts return to the next group of musical offerings.  The format is the same even though one program will concentrate on folk music, another on the doo-wop era, or the pop hits of the 1960s, or the golden hits of rock ‘n’ roll.  Many of these artists are well on in years but the production of these shows always brings out the best in them whether they are still performing professionally or not.

     In 1981, a half a decade before he approached Ringo about doing his own All-Starr tour,  David Fishof became the manager of the pop rock group The Association.  In 1984 he arranged a package tour for them that included The Turtles, Spanky and Our Gang, and Gary Puckett.  The tour went out again in 1985 billing itself as the Happy Together Tour (named for one of The Turtles hits).  This second iteration included The Turtles (naturally) as well as Gary Lewis, The Grass Roots, Tommy James & the Shondells, and The Buckinghams.  We will come back to The Turtles role in all of this in a bit.

     David Fishof had a knack for management and eventually handled many big name sports figures like Phil Simms, Lou Piniella, Vince Ferragamo, and Jack Reynolds.  In more recent times, he became the CEO of the very popular Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camps.  As much as he did to put these package tours on the map, Fishof can not be credited with the concept.  The roots of these package tours can be traced back to 1959 when none other than Dick Clark put together the very first one which he called The Caravan of Stars.  In his 1976 autobiography (Rock, Roll and Remember with Richard Robinson, Thomas Y. Crowell Co.), Clark looked back fondly at his first attempt to bring what amounted to a Rock ‘n’ Roll Review to all corners of the country.

     According to Clark, “The Caravan of Stars was put together to appeal to the American Bandstand audience.  I followed a simple formula:  as many acts as I could afford, each doing two or three songs, all backed by the same band with me as the MC.  As many as seventeen acts were listed on the bill, though two or three were fictional – ‘Little Al and his guitar’ on the posters was Al Bruneau from the backup band.”  For $1.50, the kids got to see more stars and hear more hits than any other show, then and now.  With a stable of artists like Bobby Vee, Fabian, Gene Pitney, Paul Anka, The Supremes, Brian Hyland, The Crystals, The Hondells, Lou Christie, Chubby Checker, The Shirelles, Duane Eddy (and on and on), Clark couldn’t miss.  They weren’t all stars, yet, but many of them would go on to dominate the record charts.

     It sounds so glamorous (it wasn’t) and exciting (it was), but it wasn’t a big money maker for the artists.  The biggest benefit for the musicians was the exposure which helped fuel record sales and perhaps induced a bigger record company to sign them.  Clark described the routine they developed:  “Life on tour was rough.  The acts met in the city closest to the first date – we didn’t pay transportation for that.  They showed up wearing their latest clothes, bright and smiling, and everyone was in good shape.  The first afternoon we had a rehearsal.  Each act was backed by the same band, so it didn’t take long to run down the numbers.  That was the only rehearsal we had;  after that every show was a rehearsal.  In the evening, we checked into a hotel.  Since the acts paid their own hotel bills, we stayed in the cheapest hotels we could find.”

     Not only did the musicians have to pay their own way, it was customary for their agent and manager to each get ten percent of the pay.  Let’s not forget they had to set aside a bit to cover taxes so in the end, if they had $20 left to spend the rest of the week they were lucky.  A headliner like Gene Pitney might get $1500 a week.  An unknown band or artist would be offered $500 and that would be split among all the members of the non-solo groups.  A band might ask for more money (“Hey, we had a hit record!”) but would not get more unless they had a ‘Top Twenty’ hit.  Again, the pay took a back seat to wider exposure they were getting on tour.

     It took a while to settle into the bus life routine.  Drinkers and rowdies got the back of the bus while those who wanted to try and sleep took the front.  Eventually the tour grew and needed two buses.  Hotel room one night, sleep on the bus the next, use the locker room or dressing room to shower when one could, get a chance to do the laundry if one got the chance;  it was the gypsy life with few amenities.  When everyone began getting on each other’s nerves, tempers frayed, and occasional hostilities would break out.  To ease the tension, the troup routinely held ‘blowout parties’ every two weeks where everyone let their hair down – think Animal House on the road.  They drew lots and during these blowouts, everybody took a turn at imitating whichever act they had drawn in the lottery – no one ever got too high and mighty because they knew it would come back to them at party time.  Eventually, they took out a few of the seats in the front of the  bus to make room for some foam mattresses.  These could accommodate five or six sleepers at a time – all done on shifts.  Getting enough rest was a great equalizer in how the rolling review performed and got along with each other.

     One of the bus drivers was also the back up drummer.  He was the one man everyone had to keep happy – if the regular drummer was ill, the show was shot without the backup.  Of course, when the driver didn’t get enough sleep or took a drink or two more than he should, things could go south.  On more than one occasion, Dick would wake up to find one of the musicians driving the bus.  The worst accident happened when the driver fell asleep and hit a bridge abutment.  The force sheared off the back corner of the bus where the ever important regular drummer was allowed to occupy a whole row so he could get his sleep.  After the dust settled, they were all mortified to find the back row was gone and (apparently) so was the drummer.  Fortunately, he had been visiting a few rows forward and fell asleep there, much to everyone’s relief.

     Being the late 1950s and early 1960s, there were the inevitable incidents in the southeast.  They were a mixed race group of musicians who were often accused of being civil rights era Freedom Riders.  After being denied food, restrooms, and hotels enough times, (not to mention being threatened outright with pool cues and axe handles), Clark stopped booking the tour in that (red) neck of the country.  He also made a rule that no one could steal anything from the hotels after they had been stopped one too many times by the local police sent to retrieve all the blankets, pillows, and towels that had mysteriously made their way onto the bus. 

     It wasn’t all grinding from town to town.  Tommy Roe and Freddy Weller wrote the million seller song Dizzy on the bus heading toward the next gig (there was always a ‘next gig’ after all and a lot of time to kill).  Clark shared a conversation he had with the young bass player on the tour:  “He [the bass player] told me about the exhilaration he got from travel, the joy he got from performing.  I told him I thought he was foolish to follow it as a career – that most of the money was back down the road with the promoter.”  Years later, James William Guercio (the bass player) told Clark that it was this discussion that made him decide to be a producer.  He was one of the first pop music producers to integrate horns in hits by The Buckinghams.  Guercio took the concept further in the late 1960s with one of the most successful horn bands ever, Chicago.

     There were never any arguments about whose seat belonged to whom – once claimed, a seat was spoken for – no questions asked.  If someone caused trouble, they were dropped from the tour.  Occasionally someone would get tired of the whole tour and simply go for a walk and never come back.  After ‘Paul’ from the act ‘Paul and Paula’ skedaddled, Clark announced he was ‘ill’ and filled in for him on a number and then let Paula perform solo for the remainder of the tour.

     One of Clark’s favorite memories was Freddy Cannon (of Palisades Park fame) begging to fill the closing slot.  Clark granted his wish at a race track in Allentown, Pennsylvania:  “After about the third song, Freddy got this strange look on his face.  I looked at the crowd and all the binoculars (they were set up on the infield with the track between them and the stands) were looking to the left, away from the stage and Freddy’s performance.  The track had started a horse race and in a few minutes they came galloping between the stage and grandstand.  I never let Freddy forget about his big moment closing the show.”

     Clark had clear memories of this time.  In the period after his first marriage ended, he and his new secretary (who traveled with the Caravan) grew close.  It may have been a rebound marriage, but they still had two children together in the ten years they were together.  Dick summed up the whole experience, saying, “The Caravan of Stars wasn’t that bad, but it was rough.  I can’t picture any of today’s rock stars, who complain if the jet seats don’t recline enough, or if the champagne isn’t chilled properly, going out on one of these tours.  But then, I can’t picture myself being that young again, either.”

     After Fishof got the ball rolling with his package tour, The Turtles kind of took over the whole Happy Together concept.  Near the end of their first pop hit producing run in the 1960s, Mark Voman and Howard Kaylan had a major falling out with their label, White Whale Records.  It got so bad that they not only lost their record contract, they lost the band’s name.  They weren’t even allowed to use their own names to advertise concerts as in ‘Mark and Howard from The Turtles’.  They hatched a plan and renamed themselves the Pholorescent Leech (Volman) and Eddie, later shortened to just Flo and Eddie.  They toured with Frank Zappa for a period, hosted a couple of popular radio shows, and even got involved writing music for the popular kids shows Strawberry Shortcake and The Care Bears.  Fishof’s first package tours put them back on the road and once they took the reins, The Turtles started to do it their way.

     First Flo and Eddie put together a rotating cast of musicians on both coasts.  Having regained the use of their own names, they were allowed to tour as The Turtles featuring Flo and Eddie.  They would fly to the gig and meet up with whichever band was closest.  They performed with rented drums, keyboards, and a backline of amps so travel costs were limited to the band members.  I had been disappointed that I had not seen Flo and Eddie when they performed at NMU years back, but I did get to see them at the Calumet Theater.  I don’t remember all the musicians who made up the ‘East Coast band’, but the drummer (Joe Stefko) was fresh off the New York stage where he performed as the drummer in Big Brother and the Holding Company in the play Love, Janice.  

     After using this format for a number of years, they returned to Fishof’s template.  They began recruiting other 1960s stars and renewed the Happy Together tours.  Volman was teaching  pop music classes at Belmont University during part of this run so some of the tours acted as a rolling classroom.  Students didn’t just learn about touring, they were the tour crew doing everything from set up to take down and all the jobs in between.

     The Happy Together tour naturally hit ‘pause’ during the Pandemic lockdowns, but they are back on the road again.  This year’s show features Gary Pucket, The Vogues, The Cowsills, and of course, The Turtles with one major change.  This is the second year Eddie (Howard Kaylan) has bowed out.  Back surgery and health issues have kept him off the road.  His sub is another pop music voice familiar from the hits produced by the cartoon band, The Archies.  Ron Dante had done previous Happy Together tours so I am pretty sure he had no trouble stepping in for Kaylan when the time came.  Eddie isn’t the only one who has had health issues – long time HT member, Chuck Negron from Three Dog Night, has also had to step back with his own medical problems.

     Dick Clark got the ball rolling for these package tours featuring popular musicians.  Clark’s Caravan of Stars featured younger, up and coming artists whereas today’s package shows seem to feature older acts.  As long as they can still bring the goods, I am sure Dick would be very happy to see that what he started in 1959 is still carrying on today.

 

Top Piece Video:  Speaking of Tommy Roe performing Dizzy on one of those fundraiser All-Star shows . . .