Does anyone remember the Swinging Gate Teen Club in Ft. Wayne Indiana in the 1960's? A lot of national groups graced their stage! The Who, The Buffalo Springfield, The Yard Birds, Dennis Yost and the Classic’s Four and The Outsiders just to Name a few!
I was a member of that teen Club and I saw a lot of those bands as a matter of fact I am Drummer and we were the Swinging Gate House Band and we played with a lot of Headliner groups!
The name of our band was The Souls on Fire and we played with Dennis Yost and The Classic’s Four when they played the Swinging Gate. We also Played with The Outsiders when they played the Swinging Gate! We also Played with Derek and the Dominoes at the Hullabaloo club in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (another great club from the past) (Remember this was all in the late 1960?s)
I posted this blog because I saw a lot of the old garage bands that had more internet press than we did.
We played the Swinging Gate several times and the Hullabaloo club in Ft. Wayne all the time. During that period of time we played with several Major Headliner bands and some of the "other local bands" never saw the light of day. I couldn't believe that I couldn't
find any mention of The Souls on Fire from Ft Wayne In. (mid to late 1960's) We also played clubs in Ohio, some universities and miscellaneous gigs, bars etc.... John Comer Cleveland, Ohio
do you remember a band Peabody Soul Foundation?
ReplyDeleteNot them so much (peabody....) it does kind of ring a bell though. I do remember the swinging gate and the hullabaloo club. Played them both...Barefoot Soul Company (mixture of the wells street blues band and Captain Jacks Cortez). Do you remember the Flame, part of the Jack and Jill Amusement park? There was also the Ravens, The pillsbury Flour and if I remember right there was a beach boy take off from New Haven area (Surfers I think). Also the Boys Next Door and the crazy bass player I can't remember his band or I got it confused, Bill Franze. He kept blowing up Super Beatle's....god those were the day's....hope we keep in touch.
DeleteRay - HI! This is Eileen, the one that had the two photo books I was going to give you. In a last minute move, I move to Southern California. I hope you get this message since it's the only one I could find online that offered such. If you see this, write me back at nesbittplac7@aol.com
DeleteEileen (aka Squeaky)
I played bass in The Children with Gary Sauers, Cliff Webb, and Cliff Fortney....the Swinging gate building is still there it os an IOOF Lodge...I was at the concert...may be best ever..
ReplyDeletewe drove up from bloomington in 1971 to see Leon Russell. The warmup was Flying Burrito Bros.
ReplyDeletew/ Gib Gilbeau at fiddle & Sneaky Pete on pedal steel. Leon stood up on his black grand piano. Was at the ? Coliseum ? maybe.......
Hi, my name is Glenn Druhot,my band, The Boys Decision, was the house band for The Swingin Gate Teen Nightclub in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The brainchild who came up with the very concept of a teen nightclub was brilliant! You had to pay a nominal fee just to get in and for nationally recognized bands you had to pay a little bit more. You could purchase refreshments (non alcoholic of course) and popcorn. You could play pool and just hang out with your friends. Our band had the fortune of fronting for several famous bands to include The Who, Archie Dell and the Drells, Question Mark and the Mysterians, The Association, and many more. But, I must tell you that the thrill of our live times was when we were asked to front for The Who! The date was November 24, 1967 and this was their first American tour. What an experience that was! As soon as we cleared our equipment off of the stage the roadies for The Who came in and went to work. I was especially interested in this so-called mad man Keith Moon and watched carefully as his drum tech set up this huge drum kit! The very first drums he set up of Keith's was his two bass drums. He was wearing a carpenters belt with pockets in it and pulled out these large nailes and nailed the bass drums to the beautiful mahogany stage. He then proceeded to drive a nail in to the stage for every cymbal stand and snare drum stand. I was totally shocked by what I was witnessing that night. I noticed something very strange, he did not set up a hihat with the kit, I thought that is odd, perhaps he will get to that later. Then, at that point, the lights went down and the other members of the band stepped out of the bus they were traveing in. The last person to exit the bus was Keith Moon. The caricuture of the Moppets portraying the drummer as a mad man certainly came from Keith Moon! I'll never forget seeing him. He was already sweating and panting and looking all around him. Once he got to his kit he did not play his drums he ATTACKED his huge drum set! His poor roadie had a hard time keeping up with handing him drumsticks and switching out his snare or tom toms because he was breaking heads with wood flying from his sticks. What an experience. We fancied ourselves as a rock and roll band, and yet that night we knew we had to take it to the next level of performance. The concept that Stu Block, who was from New York, came up with was gemius. A great place for your parents to drop you off, it was safe and just a cool place to be. We loved it.
ReplyDeleteSadly, Keith Moon only lived for another 11 years after that peerformance. His lifetyle was self distructive, and he altimately passed out on stage during a gig, was rushed to the hospital, and died shortly later of a drug overdose. Not many people know that Moon recorded his own album. Hw was eccentric indeed, one-of-a-kind.
DeleteGreat story Glenn! I was wondering if you or your band members took any photos of The Who that night? If so, please let me know if you can share them with me! Thanks, Marc
DeleteA friend of mine, Ron Pinter s a photographer and he tool an entire roll of film that night, but for some reason #$!!^%@$ they didn't turn out!!
DeleteUUugh!! Ron must of been devastated! Anyway, thanks for the reply..and thanks for your story when you and your band opened for The Who that night :)
DeleteYes, I started in rock bands with a group called The Boys which changed its name to the Provaji Blues in 1966. It was managed by Arden Ober. In 67 the Surf Suns stopped by our practice and later Tony Lillo the bass player came and asked me to hire on with them. Tony knew the guy that ran The Swinging Gate but turned down the opportunity to open for The Who for free. I was there for that show and a number of others. I vaguely remember the Jefferson Airplane being there. Billy Franze's band was called the Olivers and they were excellent. He later went to Nashville and became a studio musician. Later he and Mike Mankey (?) were both up in Prince's home city where I believe they worked with him.
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