{"id":215,"date":"2015-08-10T16:33:05","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T16:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=215"},"modified":"2015-08-10T16:33:05","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T16:33:05","slug":"ftv-first-paying-gigs-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=215","title":{"rendered":"FTV: First Paying Gigs – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Video was shot in November of 2011 – “Trees” (l-r) \u00a0Jesse Fitzpatrick, Lindsay Tomasic, and Dave Pearlman perform live on WCBN 88.3 at the University Of Michigan with DJ “Tex”.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A while back, I put some of my friends and musical acquaintances on the spot and asked them to share memories of their first paying band gigs. \u00a0I got some really great stories to share so I kept adding to the file as they trickled in. \u00a0As you can see, I got enough responses to do \u00a0part two. \u00a0As I said in Part 1 – these articles more or less write themselves because no one tells the stories better than the people who lived them, so here we go again.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Lindsay Tomasic<\/b> lives in Los Angeles but is no stranger to the Copper Country as she tries to get back to perform in the area whenever she can. \u00a0I first contacted her about a CD after seeing her Datolite Music web page and figured \u2018Datolite\u2019 is a real familiar term in the copper mining district, so there must be a connection. \u00a0Here is Lindsay\u2019s first paying gig story:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first gig was back when I was attending \u201cHoughton High\u201d and I was 16 years old\u2026.. \u00a0Mark Stimac and I had put a band together and we called ourselves \u201cShades Of Time\u201d. \u00a0It sounded good at the moment. \u00a0We were a four piece band. \u00a0Myself on bass and lead vocals, Mark Stimac on lead guitar and vocals, Steve Kemper on Drums and Art Okarainen on rhythm guitar. \u00a0Our first real <\/i>gig was at the Powerhouse Teen Center in Houghton. \u00a0Mark and I had been working hard on songs by Grand Funk Railroad and Cream, and we may have even tried playing In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida<\/i>.<\/p>\n

It was 1972. \u00a0The gig itself is now a bit of a blur, but in addition to playing the rock stuff, we also played \u201cIt\u2019s Too Late\u201d by Carole King. \u00a0I remember that the sound system was horrible and that I couldn\u2019t hear myself sing and I also remember being blown away by how GOOD Mark Stimac was when he would take a solo. \u00a0\u00a0Looking back I can remember a row of heads in the front of the stage. \u00a0People (teens) who seemed to be enjoying themselves and liking what they were hearing. \u00a0Jesse Fitzpatrick (then known as Sharry Fitzpatrick) was one of those \u201cheads\u201d. \u00a0It made me nervous. \u00a0She had written a song about pollution and had made it as a star performer at an HHS assembly and to the front page of the DMG (ed note: \u00a0Daily Mining Gazette from Houghton)! \u00a0So\u2026 in my mind, there was a \u201cstar\u201d in the audience.<\/p>\n

During our break, she came up to me and told me \u201cyou don\u2019t need these guys\u2026you\u2019re too good for this band\u201d. \u00a0Then she invited me to come to her place to play and sing together. \u00a0So, that night for me was all about that. <\/i>\u00a0I remember telling my parents that Sharry Fitzpatrick asked me to sing with her!! \u00a0It was all I could talk about. \u00a0\u00a0A month later, \u201dTrees\u201d (then known as \u201cMe And You\u201d) was born.\u201d \u00a0It may have seemed a little blurry to Lindsay, but I don\u2019t think one could paint a clearer picture of how her first paying gig lead to \u201cTrees\u201d being formed \u00a043 years ago (and still going strong despite Lindsay and Jesse working in Los Angeles and the Copper Country, respectively).<\/p>\n

Australian Hammond B-3 and Whammy Clavinet wizard Lachy Doley <\/b>responded to my request as follows: \u00a0\u201cMy first paying gig was in Adelaide on a Friday afternoon. \u00a0I was about 13 and my mum\u2019s guitar playing friend Barry, who I had been jamming with, asked me along to play some blues piano. \u00a0Mum thought it was a strange time for a gig. \u00a0Usually most gigs are late on Friday or Saturday, maybe early on a Sunday, but Friday afternoon was odd. \u00a0We pulled up to this real workers pub and I set up my crappy Roland Electric Piano where they said be would be playing. \u00a0I noticed there was a kind of temporary raised floor section going thru the hallway and into the main bar. \u00a0Anyway, we thought nothing of it. Mum got me a Coke, Baz turned up and we started playing. \u00a0It was going pretty good I thought even though I was very nervous. \u00a0Baz got me to play a solo, so I gave it all I had pulling out my best Jerry Lee Lewis licks. \u00a0There was a huge applause at the end that filled me with happiness and validation until I looked up. \u00a0It seems we had been booked to accompany a lunchtime strip show and the first girl had just walked out and down the catwalk. \u00a0I was disappointed and excited all at the same time. \u00a0Thinking back, my Mum seemed remarkably cool about the whole thing. \u00a0And as a 13 year old boy I realised that day the music business was for me. Most Definitely!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Lachy\u2019s keyboard playing brother Clayton Doley <\/b>weighed in with his first gig story:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my early teens when I was just starting out I began playing in a band where I was by far the youngest member, everyone else was at least 15 years my senior. We would play the occasional party and play some pub gigs on the weekend up in the Adelaide hills. I am sure the amount of money we were paid was pretty nominal, it would have probably only just covered the petrol costs. I was too young to drive so I would give my pay to my mother who would have to selflessly drive me to most gigs.<\/p>\n

In Australia the legal drinking age is 18 and that’s how old you need to be to be in a lot of music venues. I would have been about 14 or 15 in those days. When we would play in a club where I was not allowed to be we would have to get my Mum to be on the lookout for any Police that might come. \u00a0\u00a0It sounds quite absurd now but she would signal to me and I would go hide in the band room or car park. I guess at that stage we probably would have been making some decent money.<\/p>\n

It was so great to have a disposable income at such a young age, I was pretty independent compared to my school friends at that time. I was actually able to buy a car outright with the my own money to learn to drive it when all my school friends had to use their parent\u2019s car. \u00a0It was a rude shock when I had to move out of my mother\u2019s house and most of my money went on rent.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Clearly, the Doley boy\u2019s have one terrific mother.<\/p>\n

Lastly, I asked Mark Bobula<\/b> of the long running Easy Money Band for his input and he let out a rather long whistle and said, \u201cI\u2019ll try, but that was a lot of years and gigs ago\u201d. \u00a0Nevertheless, Mark did come up with a few pertinent facts from his mid-1960s start up: \u00a0\u201cWe were a rock n\u2019 roll band called The Stormers working out of the the Iron River – Crystal Falls area. \u00a0We pretty much played all over the U.P., the upper Lower Peninsula and northern Wisconsin. \u00a0Our first gigs were at a teen dances in Crystal\u2019s ACA Hall and Kingsford\u2019s Armory. \u00a0We had some smaller Harmony, Fender, and Sears amps so we built huge plywood cabinets with shelves for the amps and cloth covers for the fronts to make our equipment appear larger and \u2018really professional\u2019. \u00a0The gigs went well and started us on our musical careers. \u00a0Many of our earliest fans were quite impressed with our stage set up, however, \u00a0after carrying those boxes up, down, and around, we decided that was absolutely enough of those bulky, heavy amp enhancements!\u201d \u00a0Mark actually has had a remarkably long (and on-going) musical career which we will revisit in a future FTV.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As always, many thanks to all for taking a few moments to revisit their musical beginnings. \u00a0The connecting thread for all of them seems to be that we all got bit by the musical bug and followed any and all paths that eventually let us play music for others to enjoy. \u00a0Some of us perform more casually these days and some have gone on to make it a career. \u00a0It is all good and by the sounds of it, we also need to thank our moms and dads for their helping hands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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