SOUTHEND
We Were So Close!
(A personal account of almost making
it) 2003
Updated January
8, 2006
SOUTHEND, and it's prior incarnation, THE ETERNAL FLAME, the young Pleasanton, Bay Area, band from the 60's and 70's, had a very promising career with concert openings for many older, established, and even famous bands. In many cases, our young band won critical praise over these more well known bands that we had the good fortune to play with on the same bill. We were the up-and-coming young brash band that could stay right up there with these very same older bands. Even today, I get asked a lot how the band members are doing since people in the area remember the band fondly as part of their growing up rite-of-passage.
In the end, SouthEnd
came to the crossroads that many bands found themselves in: to go on tour,
go for the final push, or have a life back home with the wife and kids and
hopefully come out normal in the end. SouthEnd went
the way of many bands - in 1975 some members chose the "normal"
life of family, while others chose alternate life paths. But... this is
the story of great friendship and determination - come with me while we explore
the past.............
A BRIEF HISTORY:
I was in a rock band once many years
ago........and we were good. We were always the younger band playing with the
older, more well known, and even famous bands of the
day. Yet, in many cases we could outshine these higher paid, recording contracted,
groupies-by-the handful bands. This is my personal, though abbreviated, account
of those 11 years and the lasting friendships that endure today thanks to
something as innocent as music and the generation-changing times that were the 60's and
70's.
This is also about a very difficult and personal decision whether to go for the gold or look for that "normalcy" in life that a rock and roll band, on top, or working to get to the top, just can't always have.
There
are only 3 people who can trace the evolution of this band throughout it's history, and I'm one. Besides me, Mike (Buz) Lusby, the only other two who could
possibly do justice to these historical facts are Robert (Bobby C.) Caffey and Scott
(Scotty) Rutherford. As I'm sure with any remembrances, our versions may
differ, but the essence is true. Though there have been a few fourth members to
the band on and off throughout the years, the power trio mentioned
here owns the birth-right known as SOUTHEND.
SouthEnd began life as a grade
school band back in 1965, then known as The Eternal Flame (though there were many "first year" names). Robert Caffey (lead vocals
and lead guitar), Mike Lusby (drums and backing vocals), and Scott Rutherford
(bass guitar and backing vocals) formed the nucleus of the power
trio throughout it's 11 year span. Robert and
Scott found a common love of rock music and, as most any teenager who saw that
awe-inspiring night in 1964 when the Beatles first performed on Ed
Sullivan, wanted to start a band. They didn't have to look far for a drummer as
I was in the same classroom and shared a love of rock music - and hell, I
had part of a drum set! I didn't know what was to come, but damn these two guys
were good on the guitar - and I'm talking grade school kids who had the feel
for their craft at a very early age.
At that time, a power trio wasn’t known as a
viable make-up for a rock band, so we asked
As The Eternal Flame, we entered many battle of the bands contests throughout the Bay Area and won many, even though we were usually much younger than the bands we competed against.
And,
this was a great training ground for sharpening our skills and paying
our dues. We practiced every waking moment, played every gig, be it for
money or not, and along the way became best friends. We did everything
together…….. including walking each other through
each and every girlfriend relationship, which usually ended in heartache, when
it was obvious we spent more time with the band than with the girls. We fought
like brothers, loved like brothers, and shared the best of growing up in the
60's. I dare say that we spent 7 days a week together. This intense
concentration of time gave us the power to know each others mannerisms,
idiosyncrasies, wants, likes,
and dislikes - you name
it. We could know what the slightest nuance meant with one another. This
translated over to our music and our stage presence as we became professionals
at our trade. Again, I'm talking about kids who were still very
young.... but something was clicking.
Kirk Williams joined the band as rhythm guitarist and background vocals
in 1967 just as we won the role as opening act for a
dance/concert at the
Rich joined the band in 1969 and, sorry to say, Kirk
had to be the casualty (but thankfully, Kirk would jam with us often in the
future). It only took us a brief minute to hear Rich play the guitar for us
to know that he was destined to be part of this band. To this day, hearing
his guitar playing to Janis Joplin's version of "Summertime",
during one of our live recorded outdoor dance concerts still sounds great to
me…..especially since we were all just 14 and 15 years old.
(1 track
mono tape with 1 microphone to capture this outside concert was all we had back in those days……..pretty
crude compared to today……..I can only imagine how this would have sounded had
we been able to record this professionally)
To hear samples of this live recording,
double click the icons below (This may take a minute):
You
couple Rich’s playing ability with that of Bobby C. and Scotty and what a
triple threat at guitar we had. I mean these guys were good, very good!
And, Rich had the natural ability for singing harmony to Bobby C.'s lead vocals…….it didn’t get much better than that!
It was during
this time that things began to open up for us as far as our exposure to
playing with more famous bands….bands that were playing The Fillmore, Winterland, etc.
A large
rock concert at the fairgrounds put on by promoter, Bill Quarry,
featured, along with us, The Loading Zone, Rejoice, Womb and
Rest. We were the young band... they were the bands with recording contracts,
albums, and tours. As evidenced below, the critics thought we were every
bit as good, if not better, than the headliners. We were playing gigs in
Bobby C. received a call one day from Bill Quarry explaining
how well we had done and how impressed he was with our set. He asked if we
would like to open for Creedence Clearwater Revival.
We couldn’t believe our luck! To our dismay, Stu, the
drummer for Creedence, became ill and the show never
came off. I can only imagine how that would have been......dreams are made of
these moments.
Visit Creedence’s
website by clicking here: http://www.creedence-online.net/
Our next
gig was a rock concert featuring The People and their latest hit "I Love You" and Canned Heat and their hits “On the Road Again”
and “Going up the Country”. Again, we
rocked with the best of them. A new added feature for us was our hard rock
version of "Let the Sunshine In", featuring a double-drummer set with
me and Rich (a drummer too!). It went over very well.
Visit Canned Heat’s
website by clicking here:
http://www.cannedheatmusic.com/
In the summer of 1970, the band became SOUTHEND. To go along with the name change, the band looked for a keyboardist to add depth to the band. Mike Barbato joined the team and brought his extensive background on the keyboards to the band.
Based on our recent successes, we were asked to
perform live on TV broadcast from the Bay Area. It was a great time for us
and we performed our version of "For What It's Worth", again featuring
our double-drummer set. It couldn't have gone any better.
A week later: another battle of the bands and
outdoor festival was held in
Right after
this engagement we played for a festival in
In 1971
Rich and his family were transferred out of the area and a good friend was
gone. Rich always wanted to be in music for the rest of his life and he
succeeded. Rich went on to fame as a member of the country band "Pirates
of the
I wish I
could get in touch with Rich.…………..I would love to spin tales of the past and
how life has been up to now. (Hey Rich, remember Gigi?)
SouthEnd continued on throughout the early to
mid-seventies playing the college circuit in many of the same frat-houses
and venues as The Doobie Brothers. Life was good, life was fun, and we were
getting older.
One
summer we headlined a biker bar in
(Longest hair stage)
I was married and divorced during this period and my main regret was that my son, Michael, was not old enough to remember seeing his dad in his hey-day, playing the music that he loved with the band he loved. I think my son would have been very proud.
One of
our final gigs was at a concert hall in
In 1974
Mike Barbato left the band and the power trio
continued on. Sad to say that we lost Mike a few years later
to an untimely death. He was a good friend.
In
1975, we were asked to play for a dance at a party out in the rural
sticks. The girls who came to audition us were a few years younger than we
were, but damn, one of them was hot! We got the gig, played the party, and I
was in love. Her name was
Nancy has honored me with 3 more wonderful kids and I
couldn't be more proud of all of them: Michael, Mindy, Clint, and Shannyn.
During this set of gigs at Hot Toddy’s, a live recording was made by a friend, Winston, and I sure wish I could hear it today because I think by this time we were at the peak of our ability. Who knows whatever happened to it.
Speaking of recordings.... during the years 1966 through 1971 we are caught on tape either live at gigs or through our own tape recordings. These recording sessions that we did on our own were some of the best times we ever had. We would spend hours and days capturing the band live on tape, making album covers, liner notes, liner pictures, etc. We laughed, howled, went nuts, played good music, and just had a blast! I remember those sessions very fondly. For whatever reason, and I don't quite remember why, other than the 1975 Hot Toddy's live tape, no other recordings of SouthEnd exist between 1971 and 1975 (Must have been the women!). Too bad!!
Bobby C is currently, patiently, converting these old and fragile reel-to-reel tapes over to CD so we don’t lose them forever.
SAMPLE ALBUM COVERS BELOW:
To
hear samples of live recordings from this album done in 1969, double-click the
icons below
(This may take a minute):
(1 track
mono tape with 1 microphone to capture this outside concert was all we had back
in those days……..pretty crude compared to today……..I can only imagine how this
would have sounded had we been able to record this professionally)
At this
time I'd like to take a moment to thank some behind-the-scenes help we had
throughout the years from our unofficial roadies. Randy Nairn
(Wrangler) was probably there the longest with us - helping with the equipment
on stage, microphone checks, running to get us beer and wine, packing it
all up 
after the show and doing it all over again the next
day.
Wrangler,
I’ll always remember the cowboy hat, the devotion you had to the band, and
getting that call every weekend because you needed a ride and were ready to
party.
Others
who traveled with us often lending a roadie's hand
were Steve Smiley, Buz (Buzzy)
Kerlin, Steve Stewert,
Yogi, and many more I'm sure I shouldn't have forgotten.
Buzzy, I can’t remember the past without thinking of you and your “Samurai”, how you liked women packing some chunk in the butt, and you’re probably the hardest worker I have ever met.
Let's
not forget during our very young years we were all fortunate enough to have
great support from our parents, encouraging us along the way. Hey, someone had
to get us to the gigs before we had our licenses!
And sometimes the support was overly enthusiastic:
The last
group I want to recognize are those loyal fans that we
had throughout the years. We were lucky enough to have had a big fan base all
over
FUTURE ETERNAL FLAME/SOUTHEND ALUMNI (1968):
I talk with
many of you today and you still have fond memories of those times with the band
and I thank you for that. We garnered a good fan base throughout the Bay Area
and I feel lucky to have been able to be part of that.
Speaking
of Amador-faithful, can you see yourself in this pic?
I see many a familiar face in the crowd (that’s me waving at the photographer -
what a ham!, and Laura and Sammy looking at their
picture being taken.
Some SouthEnd friends in
1992:
Closer
to the band, we had a select group of fans who went to many, if not all, of our
gigs. These would be people like my brother Jim, (who probably remembers every
lick on every song we ever did), Gene Millspaugh (Geno), Joe Rose (Big Daddy), Buz,
Steve Smiley, and Bill Raab (Doc).
Jim, other than Nancy, you’ll always be the best
partner I ever had. You’ve been with me the longest and hung through it all.
And boy, do you have good musical tastes!
Geno, I’ll always remember the skinny dipping in the pool,
the wildest parties - ever - at the cabin, and you just covering my back, no
matter what. (And there were MANY times that we had to cover each other’s
back!)
Big
Daddy, I’ll always remember the toughest son-of-a-bitch I ever met, yet with a
heart of gold, the fast times, fast cars,
fast girls, the
fights, the drive-in blowouts…….. and wondering what
the hell was going to happen after the one and only time I punched you in the
face….. since it was the only way to get that crazed
look out of your face - because you were about to take on 20 guys. (I guess it
worked out ok because I’m able to write this)
Doc, I’ll always remember the best buddy I ever worked
with in those days, rode motorcycles with, and the guy who saved my son’s life
when he was a youngster………that waterfall was getting awfully close before you
plucked him out of the water.
Most of
you didn't miss a night of practice. You showed up to have a little party,
listen to some good rock and roll, and to support this band of ours, SouthEnd.
Supporters like Jerry Seymour, and Gary Davila, and
many others who I know I have forgotten to mention, spent many a gig
out in the audience supporting us through it all. Again, I thank you for all
those years you inspired us on.
1975 was
also a watershed year for SouthEnd. 3 out of 4 of us
were now married and had day jobs too. It was time to go out on the road full
time, work for that recording contract - or stay home with our wife and kids
and see what "normal" was like. It was one of the most difficult
decisions I ever made but I decided to go for a
Bobby C.
went on to future musical success with other bands that he headlined, most
notably with his band Evergreen. They had a hit and put out a few recordings. I
always liked that band - got to attend some of
their gigs and even got to jam with them a few times and had the time of my
life each time.
To hear Evergreen playing “Find Another Fool”, double-click the icon below (This may take a
minute):
Bobby C.
flattered me beyond measure when he wrote a song about me, cars, girls,
partying, and our days together growing up in our small town. (If you saw the
movie, “American Graffiti”, that was exactly how it was for us going through
life in High School)
The
song’s called “P-Town” and I think he put it on the “B” side of one of his records….. and I have a copy that, to this day, I play it
when I'm cruising in my 1965
Half the
time it brings tears to my eyes when I hear it….and half the time I
laugh. Either way, it takes
me back to my youth.
To
hear Evergreen playing “P-Town”, double-click the icon below (This may take a
minute):
Bobby C.
still has his hand in music one way or another, giving lessons to the next
generation of rock and rollers, and playing occasional dates, while putting in
the "normal"
To
hear a sample of “Route 66” performed live by Bobby C in the 90’s, double-click
the icon below
(This may take a minute):
Scotty
also had future musical success with various bands and also put out some
recordings. One of Scotty's bands, Uncle West - again featuring Kirk,
played at my wedding. He went into the trades doing
Me, I
moved East with my family in 1992. My wife and I bought the The
Brick Store, the oldest general store in
Bobby C.
called me awhile back and asked if I'd like to try 6 months in Vegas
or
I get
the occasional high by playing with the original SouthEnd
power trio at our High School reunions and such. It sure is a great time! Hopefully we can play at our 50th reunion! What a kick, don’t you think Bobby C. and Scotty? Hey
Rich, want to join us?
FOR YOUR COMPARISON: (MY HOW WE’VE AGED!)
1965 ROBIN AND THE HOODS 1992 BROTHERS
I am VERY
proud to have been part of this band! One could not spend a better 11 years
than I did with this band and the gang around us.
Bobby C,
Scotty, Big Daddy, Geno, Wrangler, Doc, Buzzy, Ron, Craig, Jim, and Nancy: Most people in life are
just lucky enough to have a best friend……..I was lucky enough to have ALL OF
YOU!!!!
You guys represent some of the best
times of my life!
Thanks for the memories!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you all for a great life!
Postscript:
Since
2004 I have actually formed a band here on the East Coast and we DO call
ourselves “The Rocking Chairs”. It features my brother, Jim, on bass guitar, my
buddy, Ron, on lead guitar, and my buddy, Craig, on rhythm guitar.
Ron: You
are the man! Always there for me and the family………..couldn’t imagine life
without all of us together.
Craig:
You entered the picture the latest, but quickly became part of the family……….it
wouldn’t be the same without having the “big guy” around.
One
thing we Rocking Chair’s do, besides having fun playing music, is we sure LAUGH
A LOT.
It sure
is a great time….and all my kids now get
to at least see and hear the old man play like the old days (or at least
attempt to).
To
hear sample 1 of All Right Now (live 2004) by The Rocking Chairs, double click
the icon below
(this may take a minute):
To
hear sample 2 of All Right Now (live 2004) by The Rocking Chairs, double click
the icon below
(this may take a minute):
To
hear The Rocking Chairs performing a live 2004 version of “Bad Boy”,
double-click the icon below
(This may take a minute):
To hear The Rocking Chairs performing a live
2004 version of “You Really Got Me”, double-click the icon below
(This may take a minute):
To
hear The Rocking Chairs performing a live 2004 version of “Key To The Highway”,
double-click the icon below
(This may take a minute):
To hear The Rocking Chairs performing a live
2004 version of “Fortunate Son”, double-click the icon below
(This may take a minute):
To hear The Rocking Chairs performing a live
2004 version of “Slow Down”, double-click the icon below
(This may take a minute):
Some great things happened to The Rocking Chairs in
late 2005. Our CD, RAW, was heard by a famous band in
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