DANIEL
O'CONNELL,
former 'WHA?' bassplayer remembers :
As
I recall the ONLY reason The Wha? 'headlined' was because the
MC5 could not do the Friday. I'm certain they [MC5] didn't play
that night. It was a sucky night for attendance. Bad weather.
Russ [Gibb] used us regular but we were always on hind-tit and
never on a poster or card. We played at least 10 dates with the MC5
and they liked us because we were kids that were good-enough but not
competition.
Rob
Tyner was such a lovely and kind man. I remember he would spend
heaps of time having wonderful conversations with my father Bernard.
My dad served in India so he had a much more different kind of mind
than most 'grown ups'.. he understood much of what was going on at the
time. Rob and him would have wonderful talks. Rob was also very nice
to me.
I
saw Rob just a few days/weeks before his death. He came to one of my
history shows at Oakland Uninversity (Michigan). Completely unrelated
to music. He had a great mind.
On
the Grande Ballroom's opening night (October 7 & 8, 1966) :
"The Saturday night of the 'first' Grande date, The Chosen Few
were headlined, but they broke-up/reorganizing as SRC and couldn't
make the date."
[The SRC was called
the Scot Richard Case, hence the initials SRC. The group formes from
members of the much-appreciated Detroit bands, the Fugitives
and the Chosen Few. Gary and Glenn Quackenbush and E.G. Clawson
were members of the former, and Scot (along with future Stooges member,
Ron Asheton) was from the latter... - Excerpt from the book"SRC-Wizards
Deeply Missed" by John Orlich, available at jandaorlich@aginet.com]
"At
Northland Russ was passing our the already printed Seagull posters
and got us to replace them. Of course we didn't headline, we played
second or third place that night.
I "think" the MC5 added the Saturday night to their schedule, pretty
sure about this.
But we played the "Saturday" of the first date/Seagull Poster.
Crickety!!!: Russ gave us at least 40 Seagull posters to pass out. We
kept at least 30 or them and stapled them to my basement ceiling joists!
Not one survived into the late 60's.... kick me HARD!"
Daniel
O'Connell's current musical activities : I'm
playing bass in The Gang which was the Wilson Mower Pursuit.
Stever Farmer is still playing with us along with Jim Butler
and Donny Henderson. I'm replacing bassist Greg Arama
who died in the 80's. Odd.. when I was 13-14 I would literally stand
at the edge of the stage watching Greg play. 60% of my style IS Greg
Arama. When I played at the first rehearsal it sort of freaked-out Steve
Farmer.
We are playing special dates for The KNIGHTS
OF THE GRANDE, a promotion that Jeff Vail put together. Jeff played
drums with Fred and Rob after Dennis. Jeff and his partners call these
promotions Knights of the Grande as well as Dreamtunes. (www.dreamtunes.com)
Just amateur enough to be fun. Always
a different variation every promotion. Usually one every 3 or 4 months.
We play December 4th next with the Jagged Edge. This variation
I'm playing with my partner from Barooga doing Grande-60's tunes as
the opener act.
Posted on November
2004 - Daniel
O'Connell