Benatar's vocals propel concert

Vocalist Pat Benatar performed at the Island Resort
and Casino in Harris last weekend, singing many of her hits
from the 1980s.

By STEVE SEYMOUR

Singer Pat Benatar demonstrated how her vocal gifts have powered her 30-year career during a pair of shows at the Island Resort and Casino last weekend.

The four-time Grammy Award winner tore through a 14-song setlist, playing her last major hit first and her first hit last.

Benatar shared top billing with husband Neil "Spyder" Giraldo who also serves as lead guitarist and keyboard player in her band. They were backed by bassist Mick Mahan and drummer Myron Grombacher who was isolated by a shield of transparent panels.

My wife Sue and I watched the April 23rd show from our seats in the second row.

Clad in a long black jacket and black pants, Benatar opened the show with 1988's "All Fired Up," her last entry in the Top 40 chart.

The audience cheered during "Shadows of the Night," a No. 13 smash from 1982, released just months after Benatar and Giraldo were married.

"Where the hell are we? We were driving and flying and it took forever to get here. Are you all from here?" Benatar asked as she greeted the Upper Peninsula crowd.

The singer promised a new show for her summer tour and announced she'd written her autobiography, due to be published on June 15.

Benatar then sang "Somebody's Baby," a song from 1993 she said wasn't a hit but was an important part of her discography. A video of the song was shot in Los Angeles drawing attention to the plight of homeless people, Benatar noted.

Pacing the front of the stage, Benatar gave a spirited take on "Invincible," the theme from the motion picture "Legend of Billie Jean," starring Helen Slater. Benatar said the song was featured in "the worst movie ever made." She dedicated the performance to the "people fighting for peace" and ended by flashing the peace sign to the audience.

Benatar shook a tambourine during "Let's Stay Together," also issued in 1993.

Giraldo moved to keyboards for the next selection, culled from 1979's "In the Heat of the Night," Benatar's first album. The two played "We Live for Love" but in a version which was slower than the original recording.

With Giraldo on acoustic guitar, the pair delivered a spirited "You Better Run," originally a hit for the Rascals in 1966. The two were obviously having fun performing the tune.

Benatar's version of "You Better Run" was the second video played on MTV, after "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. Because the Buggles didn't have a guitarist, Giraldo became the first guitar player to appear on the music channel, Benatar told the crowd.

For the next number Benatar asked fans to point their cell phones toward the stage and sway like audiences in the past used to do with their Bic cigarette lighters. With Giraldo on keys, the band then played "We Belong," a Top Five song from 1984 and Benatar's biggest charting hit. Benatar gave Giraldo a kiss when the song ended.

"Now that I'm 57, I get to make my own rules. When we get to the part I don't like to sing, you have to sing," Benatar said before "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," known by many as her signature song. The audience responded as Benatar asked: "Come on, hit me with your best shot. Fire away."

The song was originally contained on "Crimes of Passion," Benatar's second album, released in 1980.

Benatar recalled being shocked reading about child abuse in the New York Times. She responded by co-writing "Hell is for Children" with Giraldo and the band's former bassist, Roger Capps. "We'll play this song at every show until every child everywhere is safe," she said.

With Giraldo on keys and guitar and powerful rhythm back-up from Mahan and Grombacher, Benatar offered a ferocious take on the song. She sang the lyrics with emotion: "They cry in the dark so you can't see their tears. They hide in the light so you can't see their fears."

"It's time to put on your dancing shoes," Benatar announced before launching into "Love Is a Battlefield," which reached the Top Five in 1983. The band rocked out on the tune and left the stage.

Returning for an encore, the band performed "Everybody Lay Down" as some fans moved to the front of the stage. Benatar said the song from 1993 was "about complacency."

"I'm sure just about everybody here knows the words to this song," Benatar said before singing "Promises in the Dark." The song, which Benatar composed with Giraldo, reached the Top 40 in 1981.

Benatar ended the concert with "Heartbreaker." Her first hit in 1980, the live version included a stunning guitar solo by Giraldo.

In a frenzy at the end of a 90-minute show, the audience gave the performance a standing ovation.

Like countless shows before, Benatar's mezzo-soprano vocal range carried the evening, with fine accompaniment from her veteran band.

Benatar's talents have been widely recognized. She won Grammy Awards in four consecutive years for the "Crimes of Passion" album and the songs "Fire and Ice," "Shadows of the Night" and "Love Is a Battlefield."

She has recorded a dozen albums for Chrysalis Records, not including a handful of greatest hits collections.

Since her heyday in the 1980s, Benatar has had minor hits with "Christmas in America" in 2001 and "Have It All" in 2003.

The petite songstress was born Patricia Mae Andrzejewski on Jan. 10, 1953. She grew up in Lindenhurst on New York's Long Island where her parents dismissed rock but encouraged her training in classical and theatrical music. At 19 she married Dennis Benatar, her high school sweetheart.

Working as a bank teller in Richmond, Virginia Benatar decided to pursue a singing career after seeing Liza Minnelli perform in 1973. Two years later, she was "discovered" at an amateur night at Catch a Rising Star in New York and performed there regularly for almost three years.

Benatar also played dates at New York's Tramps night club in 1978 where she was spotted by talent scouts from several record labels. She was signed to Chrysalis Records and had her debut album in shops by the summer of 1979.

The first two singles from the LP failed, but the third was a charm. "Heartbreaker" became her first hit in early 1980 and as they say, the rest is history.

Fans still fascinated by Hendrix

As the fourth decade since his death approaches,
fans continue to appreciate the work of rock icon Jimi
Hendrix.

By STEVE SEYMOUR

Although Jimi Hendrix has been dead nearly 40 years, fans still snap-up his records and compact discs even as the rock idol's estate issues new product.

Millions consider Hendrix to be the greatest guitarist ever.

The most recent addition to the Hendrix discography came on April 17 when "Live at Clark University" was released as a 33 rpm record album exclusively for National Record Store Day.

Fans snapped up the disc which was available only at independent record stores, although copies soon began appearing on eBay, the giant on-line auction house.

Previously circulated as an unauthorized "bootleg," the set was taped March 15, 1968 during the second of two shows at Atwood Hall at the school located in Worchester, Mass.

About 600 students packed the student auditorium to hear Hendrix play "Fire," "Red House," "Wild Thing" and other staples. Tickets cost $3, $3.50 and $4.

The shows were professionally recorded, but the first concert was marred by technical problems, Hendrix explained in an interview.

The long-player is the 12th release from Dagger Records (named after the song "Dolly Dagger"), a private issue label established by the Hendrix family to meet the demands of the musician's most ardent fans.

Janie Hendrix, Eddie Kramer and John McDermott produced the recording for Experience Hendrix.

Ms. Hendrix heads that business and Authentic Hendrix to see that the music of her brother is "kept alive through the preservation of his legacy."

"He created his music so we wouldn't have to struggle. Our gift to him is to keep it alive," she said in a book she put together with McDermott called "Jimi Hendrix: An Illustrated Experience."

Surprisingly, the new LP follows the release in March of "Valleys of Neptune," a new CD containing a dozen previously unreleased studio recordings. The 60-minute disc includes 10 tracks recorded between February and May, 1969 as Hendrix worked on a follow-up to the "Electric Ladyland" double album from 1968.

Although some of the songs are later takes of familiar tunes, a few others are surfacing for the first time, notably "Crying Blue Rain" which closes the album.

I've been a fan of Hendrix ever since I heard "Purple Haze" on the radio in the summer of 1967. All his legitimate albums on Reprise Records found their way into my collection as did many "unofficial" posthumous releases on labels such as Shout, Saga, Thunderbird, Trip, Phoenix and Springboard.

Just recently I picked-up an out-of-print four-CD Hendrix set called "Stages." The box includes live shows from Stockholm, Paris, San Diego and Atlanta, showing how Hendrix evolved from 1967 through 1970.

Hendrix broke nationally after his stunning set at the Monterey International Pop Festival on Sunday, June 18, 1967 was witnessed by an estimated 90,000 people. Hendrix famously set fire to his guitar at the end of his program.

Born on Nov. 27, 1942 Hendrix played with Joey Dee & The Starlighters, the Isley Brothers, Little Richard and his own Jimmy James and the Blue Flames.

He from the U. S. moved to England at the suggestion of manager Chas Chandler where he formed the Jimi Hendrix Experience with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell.

Their magnificent first album "Are You Experienced?" was released in March, 1967.

The Experience made their debut Michigan stop in Ann Arbor, not at the University of Michigan, but at the Fifth Dimension Club. Shows took place at 7 and 10 p. m. on Monday, Aug. 15, 1967.

Hendrix played his white Gibson Flying V electric guitar at the club.

Also on the bill at the venue, located at 216 West Huron St., were the Thyme and the Hideaways.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience made four more trips to Michigan, all to Detroit. They performed shows at the Masonic Temple Auditorium on Feb.23 and May 24, 1968 and at Cobo Arena on Nov. 30, 1968 and May 2, 1969.

A rock group produced by Hendrix, Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys, famous for a medley of oldies called "Good Old Rock 'N Roll," opened the Nov. 30 show.

Marquette's Gordon MacDonald doesn't remember the warm-up band, but was impressed with Hendrix and the musical equipment the Experience used on stage.

MacDonald attended the concert with fellow musician Jon Labby, after getting tickets from Mike McKelvey. McKelvey couldn't go because his band Walrus was booked to play in Ann Arbor that night.

"The stage was set with three Marshall double stacks on the left, one of which had ripped speaker cloth," which MacDonald assumed happened when it was rammed by Hendrix's guitars in previous shows.

"He had a guy constantly tuning his guitars. Noel (Redding) played a Fender bass and had two Sunn 2000 heads with five dual 15-inch cabinets on his right side and three more on Hendrix's side. Mitch (Mitchell) had his double bass drum, light wood tone drums in the center," MacDonald explained.

MacDonald said that following the concert, "Hendrix apologized for not giving us a top-notch show as he was tired from a double show in Chicago the day before. Jon and I looked at each other and didn't notice Hendrix was slouching. We laughed at each other for having our mouths open as we were in awe of the performance."

Hendrix was the headline attraction at the Woodstock Music Festival in Bethel, New York on Aug. 18, 1969. He played a 16 song set, including his famous rendition of ''The Star Spangled Banner."

Escanaba resident Pete Quinn saw Hendrix perform in Germany at an event called Berlin Super Concert '70. The Experience were the headliners at a indoor festival at the Duetschlandhalle on Sept. 4, 1970.

Hendrix played such concert favorites as "Sunshine of Your Love," "Purple Haze" and "Foxey Lady."

Other acts on the bill included Ten Years after, Procol Harum, Cold Blood, Canned Heat and Cat Mother.

The Berlin performance was the second to last appearance of the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Following a concert at Germany's Isle of Fehmarn on Sept. 6, remaining tour dates were cancelled, after both Hendrix and bassist Billy Cox became ill.

After breathing new life into rock music for four years, Hendrix died of a drug overdose in London on Sept. 18, 1970 at the age of 27.

Former Iron Mountain resident Joey Giannunzio recalls seeing the "pre-fame" Hendrix play guitar behind the Isley Brothers.

On Jan. 14, 1964 Hendrix recorded "Testify, Parts 1 & 2" with the Isley Brothers, then toured with the group for about nine months, music historians note.

Giannunzio, lead singer for Joey Gee and the Blue Tones, says he saw Hendrix with the R&B vocal trio at the Upper Peninsula State Fair in Escanaba in August, 1964.

Roy Orbison, who had 19 hit singles, including "Oh, Pretty Woman," was the top act at the fair that year. The Isleys could have opened for Orbison or performed separately, but fair archives for that period no longer exist. Separate verification of a local show by the Isleys has yet to surface.

Publicity about the fair in the Escanaba Daily Press and Gladstone's Delta Reporter doesn't mention the Isleys, but they were far less-known, their "Twist and Shout" hit already two years old at that time.

Giannunzio, working under the name Joe Cooper, went on to a lengthy career as a disc jockey and radio personality in Michigan and Washington, including Seattle, the home town and final resting place of Jimi Hendrix.

Rob Kirk story ended tragically

Rob Kirk, standing at center, posed with
the Henchmen VI for this photograph. In 1967, Kirk
recorded a 45 rpm single for Cuca Records, but the
record did not become a hit.

By STEVE SEYMOUR

Gary Alan Kerkes was a Sault Ste. Marie resident with musical aspirations.

With the goal of rock stardom, he took the stage name Rob Kirk, a tag fans might more readily remember.

An early attempt by Kirk to record a 45 rpm single was unsuccessful.

In the summer of 1966, he made plans to tape a song on a 4-track recorder owned by an airman at nearby Kincheloe Air Force Base.

However, two musicians who were to back-up Kirk decided they didn't like the song and the recording fell through.

Then in June, 1967 the singer, guitarist and songwriter tried again to add a seven-inch record to his resume.

This time, Kirk traveled from his eastern Upper Peninsula home to Sauk City, Wis., an eight-hour journey.

There Kirk met Jim Kirchstein, owner of Cuca Records which incorporated a recording studio and music publishing company.

Kirchstein had opened his studio in 1959 and enjoyed an early hit single with "Mule Skinner Blues" by the Fendermen.

Kirk came to Cuca (pronounced Koo-ka) armed with a pair of original compositions: "Girl Talk" and "Summer Winds."

With Kirchstein doing the engineering, each song was recorded, instrumental backing first, followed by the vocal track.

"Are you telling the truth? Are you telling lies? I'm gonna find out if you're naughty or nice," Kirk sang to open "Girl Talk," apparently about gossip among the fairer sex.

For the second song, Kirchstein turned on the tape machine again for Kirk's lead vocals.

"Summer winds are softly blowing, so gently through her hair. There can be no mistaking this thing called love we share."

Kirk's haunting vocals are preceded by a lengthy guitar and drums intro.

With his two originals committed to tape, Kirk returned home to await delivery of his order of 45s.

Kirk received his shipment not long after.

The 45s carried Cuca's logo depicting a figure in a sombrero taking a siesta.

The seven-inch disc carried the catalog number 6761 and was credited to Rob Kirk and the Word.

A silver star indicated to disc jockeys that "Girl Talk" was side one. The song clocked in at 2:10 while the flipside was just over three minutes long.

Both songs were published through BMI by Kirchstein Publishing Co. and given consecutive identification numbers.

Kirchstein Publishing Co., located in Mount Horeb, Wis. also registered another Rob Kirk composition called "Running Back to Me." It's unknown whether that song was demoed or recorded.

With vinyl product in hand, Kirk was able to send promotional copies to radio stations and and booking agents as well as sell copies at his gigs.

Kirk was a contemporary to other Sault Ste. Marie bands of the era, including Renaissance Fair and the Executives.

Both of those bands also cut 45 rpm singles, but chose Marquette's Princeton label rather than faraway Cuca.

It is believed Kirk performed often in Ontario, Canada but also played Upper Peninsula based shows, some with Ontonagon's Henchmen VI.

The Henchmen VI also utilized Cuca, recording "All of the Day" and "Is Love Real" there just three months before Kirk's session.

A color promotional photograph exists showing Kirk with the Henchmen VI.

Henchmen VI rhythm guitarist Joe DeHut recalled a number of dates the two acts played together where they would alternative songs.

The Ontonagon sextet also recorded with Kirk, but nothing was released due to a monetary dispute, DeHut added.

Although "Girl Talk" is highly regarded by garage band collectors today, the song did not become the hit Kirk hoped it would.

Ten years after his 45 was released Kirk moved to California with companion Lucene Carter, leaving his wife and children in the U. P.

In 1983, Kirk was shot to death in Murrieta, south of Riverside.

On Aug. 15, 1985 the Anchorage Daily News reported details of the case under the headline "Mother, son face murder charge."

The newspaper reported the arrest of Gar Cartier, 31, in Fairbanks, and Lucene Cartier, 53, in Lake Elsinore, Cal.

"According to an investigator with the Riverside County Sheriff's office in California, the Cartiers are accused of soliciting the murder of Gary Kerkes, 40."

The newspaper said a third person, Damon Paulson, was also arrested in connection with the death.

While Kirk met an tragic end, his music survives.

On compact disc, the "Girl Talk" is included on More Fun Records' "Michigan Mayhem! Vol. 2" as well as Sundazed Music's "Garage Beat '66, Vol. 4: I'm in Need." The liner notes to "Michigan Mayhem" claim that some copies of the original "Girl Talk" were issued with the song credited to "Bob" Kirk.

Since the original vinyl single was pressed in a quantity of probably only a few hundred copies it very difficult to find today.

In the last five years, I've only seen the record surface on eBay one time, in November, 2009.

I won that auction for $62.56 and got to hear "Summer Winds," which does appear on compact disc, for the first time.

The seller was Gary E. Myers, a musician and historian who has written two books on the 1950s-60s Wisconsin music scene: "Do You Hear That Beat" and "On That Wisconsin Beat."

Myers did considerable research on the Kirk/Kerkes case for his second tome, including interviews with Riverside County Assistant District Attorney John Ruiz.

In his book, Myers reports Lucene Cartier was sentenced to 26 years in prison, Gar Cartier pleaded no contest to being an accessory after the fact and that Paulson was killed in a traffic accident. Another implicated man, Marlin Orr, was in prison on another charge.

Myers wrote to Mrs. Cartier several times, but didn't get a response. The author checked into visiting her once, since California's Chino Women's Prison is only about an hour from where he lives, but that didn't happen.

Kirk, meanwhile, has not been forgotten.

He was nominated in 2008 for Michigan Rock and Roll Legends, an on-line Hall of Fame operated by Bay City resident Gary "Dr. J." Johnson.

Record collectors still search for his 1967 single, knowing Rob Kirk's story ended, not with music stardom, but tragedy.

Teen clubs ruled music scene

The Scene, which offered live music twice each week,
claimed to be the "U. P.'s only young adult- teen club." St.
Ignace resident Ed Reavie saved this poster from 1968.

By STEVE SEYMOUR

Largely forgotten today, teen clubs once commanded the attention of young people looking to hear the latest rock bands.

Teenagers gathered at hundreds of hang-outs as diverse at the The Scene in the small Upper Peninsula town of St. Ignace to The Cellar in suburban Chicago.

The Excels rock band from Marquette were popular in lower Michigan clubs while Iron Mountain's Ravelles attracted teens to nightspots in Wisconsin and Illinois.

That St. Ignace, with a population of just 2500, could support a teen club shows how universal the phenomenon became in the mid to late 1960s.

Iron Mountain native Joe Giannunzio, working as disc jockey Joe Arthur (his middle name) at radio station WIDG, started the Straits-area club.

Operating from the spring through the fall of 1968, the Scene was located at a former nightclub just outside downtown St. Ignace which closed and gave-up its liquor license.

"I thought it would be fun to bring in new bands every Wednesday and Saturday. I contacted the owner and rented the place," Giannunzio explained.

Giannunzio had some experience entertaining young people.

Besides working in radio, he fronted Joey Gee and the Blue Tones back in his home town, sang lead vocals with Joey Gee and the Come-Ons in Milwaukee while he was attending broadcasting school and performed the same duties in the St. Ignace area band Gross National Product.

The Scene was publicized with a poster, describing it as the "U. P.'s only young adult-teen club." (By mid-1968, Escanaba's Club A-Go-Go had already been out-of-business for two years.)

The poster contained space where the names of the bands appearing at the club were penned in and advised young people to "make the 'Scene' in St. Ignace."

Open from 8:30 p. m. until 12:30 a. m., The Scene served "pretend alcohol drinks" at the bar to mimic a legal bar for adults.

Giannunzio and assistant Mike Wilkins of St. Ignace did the announcing work at the club. Other workers included Giannunzio's new wife Kathy, who collected admission at the door, and her brother Richard Sweeney, who kept an eye on things and broke up the occasional shuffle. Giannunzio also hired a St. Ignace police officer for each performance.

Of course, teens flocked to The Scene's dance floor, even performing a "forbidden" dance called "The Alligator," Giannunzio remembered. The dance involved youngsters dropping to the floor, flopping around like an alligator and rising again, while the crowd encircled them.

For entertainment, Giannunzio brought in bands from the U. P., including his own Gross National Product, as well as groups from the northern lower peninsula.

The area below the Mackinac Bridge was also fertile ground for teen clubs, many of which booked the Excels, one of the most popular acts in the U. P.

Led by singer Clark Sullivan, the Excels played both Daniel's Den in Saginaw and the Tanz Haus teen nightclub in Traverse City.

Operated by Frank and Viola Patrick, Daniel's Den was a former movie theater the Patricks turned into a teen club.

From 1964 through 1970, Daniel's Den featured both local bands and nationally-known acts such as the Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher and the Yardbirds.

"I would sit outside the back door and listen to the music, the Bossmen, the Excels, all the bands," Robert "Bo" White, who is writing a book on the Michigan rock scene, told the Saginaw News.

While Daniel's Den was attracting hoards of teenage patrons, Patrick and fellow businessman Allan C. Schmid opened teen clubs in Alpena, Houghton Lake, Mount Pleasant, Lansing and Owosso.

The old theater building in Saginaw was demolished in 1988 and Frank Patrick died last year bringing a close to the story of Daniel's Den.

Founded by Elmer and Elsie Ogden, the Tanz Haus was a favorite stop for regional favorite Bob Seger who was gain national attention for "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" in 1969.

Also appearing at the club were such Michigan stalwarts as Ted Nugent, The Frost, Brownsville Station and The Woolies.

Other rock bands performing at the Tanz Haus were Traverse City's own Rainmakers and The Excels, who enjoyed a hit single in the local radio market with "Little Innocent Girl."

The Excels "looked and sounded like the Beach Boys," fan Sue Slivek told writer Rick Coates.

Making the tour of lower Michigan teenage haunts, the Excels also appeared at Club Pony Tail Club in Harbor Springs and The Teen Chalet in Gaylord as well as The Roostertail in Detroit and a former funeral home in Holland dubbed The Edgar Allan Poe Club.

Other noteworthy clubs in the region included The Platters in Cadillac, Paul's Place in Manistee and Golden Glow Ballroom in Saginaw.

Teens in Flint were flocking to Sherwood Forest, Riviera Terrace and Mount Holly.

Their neighbors in Bay City patronized Roll-Air Rink and Band Canyon, while Detroit teens spent their spare time at The Hideout, operated by Ed "Punch" Andrews and Dave Leone.

Wisconsin clubs, meanwhile, offered opportunities to many up and coming rock bands, including the Ravelles, who resided just across the border in the U. P.

Featuring lead singer Carmella Altobelli, the Ravelles frequently appeared at a teen bar in DePere called Prom Ballroom.

The group played two shows at the nightspot on Dec. 1 and 2, 1967 drawing 2,400 enthusiastic young people.

During March, 1968 the Ravelles played both The Cove and College Inn, competing teen bars in Oshkosh.

On Oct. 12, 1968 the band played a gig at the venerable Pop House in Beloit, Wis. They were paid $300 for a dance scheduled from 8:30 to 12:30. About 250 kids arrived at the show after a football game, singer and guitarist John Richtig noted in a journal.

Joe J. Accardi has written a book about the famed Wisconsin music landmark, called simply "Beloit's Club Pop House."

Owned by George Stankewitz, the Pop House featured weekly entertainment from 1946 to 1973, including rockers like Del Shannon, Johnny Tillotson and Bobby Vinton.

A year after their Pop House engagement, the Ravelles, now armed with their "Psychedelic Movement" 45 rpm single, traveled to Illinois for a show at The Barn, a teen dance club run by Leo Johnson.

Farmer Johnson charged teens $1 to enjoy rock bands inside his remodeled red barn, located near Sterling, Ill.

After operating for years, the building burned down in the mid 1970s, the land now occupied by a golf course.

Down the road apiece in the northwest Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, The Cellar reigned from 1964 to 1970.

Located in a warehouse, The Cellar was home to the Shadows of Knight, who recorded their "Raw 'n Alive at The Cellar" album there in December, 1966.

The album includes a six-minute workout of their biggest song, "Gloria," composed by Van Morrison.

The club was owned by Paul Sampson, who used his experience at The Cellar to become a music promoter and manager.

The Who, Cream, Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and Spencer Davis Group are said to have played there.

While teen clubs were popular in rural and metropolitan areas alike, the fad passed after a few years.

Only memories, tattered posters and old snapshots remain.