"True Story - Part Two" - Ken Aparicio (bassist of California bands 60s and 70s: Shane, The Morgan Blackwood Group)

"True Story - Part Two"  -  Ken Aparicio  (bassist of California bands 60s and 70s: Shane, The Morgan Blackwood Group)

Michael Kenney  (późniejszy klawiszowiec brytyjskiej Iron Maiden), wspominając młodzieńcze lata

spędzone w Kalifornii - powiedział :

"... mając 13 lat  (1966r.)  przerzuciłem się na bass, by grać z niesamowitym piosenkarzem i organistą

  Freddie O'Quinn. Grał wtedy na organach Farfisa i wtedy poznałem podstawy instrumentu

  klawiszowego ...".

Przy okazji występów grupy Shane w Club Roadrunner, w informacjach prasowych nie szczędzono

pochwał pod adresem zespołu :

- "...Club Roadrunner obecnie co wieczór prezentuje swoim klientom nową, sensacyjną grupę

    muzyczną - Shane, która jest "skazana" na sukces..."

               (Shane, from left : Freedy O'Quinn, Jim Burroughs, Sheldon Miller, Ken Aparicio)

Jak było naprawdę ... m.in. o tym w "True Story - Part Two".








"...

My Music History Ken Aparicio
Oroville and Chico, California are located 4 hours north and slightly east of
San Francisco. So, while Bill Graham was bringing in the biggest names in
music to the Fillmore Auditorium, the music scene that was in Chico was
largely eclipsed. But, most every musician new all the groups performing
at the Fillmore. Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield,
Quicksilver Messenger Service, Janice Joplin, to name a few, were
constantly part of the music and most of the musicians had seen them
perform. Then came Jimmy Hendrix, Cream, Procol Harem, Eric Burton &
The Animals. So, we all new what quality music was and what we needed
to aspire to.
Some of those musicians are still performing throughout Northern
California. Some went on to fairly successful music careers. Pat
Mastelotto became the drummer for Mr. Mister and eventually King
Crimson. Michael Kenney has been on keyboards since 1988 and on tour
with Iron Maiden.
For the majority of us, gigs were relegated to Legion Halls, Armories,
colleges and outdoor concerts. We would travel over to Eureka, up to
Oregon and Idaho and down to Sacramento. Shane became a fairly
popular band, specializing in Rock/Funk music. Other bands, like
Trakstod Station (eventually becoming Masters of the Universe, were
making headway as well.
Like many bands, members leave. For Shane, at some point we lost
Sheldon Miller (who still plays in Seattle). Arguably the best drummer in
Chico was Steve Parsons, who was with another band. Although he was
willing to join up with Shane, he requested and was granted the addition of
a second second guitarist, his friend Phil Duncan. Phil was a great
addition and went on to do some of his own recording and is currently in
Los Angeles and still playing. Some of the later live recordings of Shane
include both Steve and Phil.
At some point, Freddy traded in his Farfisa keyboard for a Hammond B-3
with a Leslie Speaker and the Shane sound evolved to what you would
hear on our version of James Brown’s “There was a Time”.

Shane guitarist, Jim Boro, liked having another guitar in the group as he
would occasionally play saxophone. In his quest to improve the band, he
introduced us to a young guy from the Menlo Park/Woodside area by the
name of Bruce Bonnell (aka Morgan Blackwood). Morgan was an
excellent guitarist, singer and songwriter. His mastery of the slide guitar
and British-style guitar work was a unique addition to the group. For
several months the band performed with that line-up. Three guitars,
drums, bass and Freddy on Hammond B-3.
Egos in the world of music are legendary. Before too long the struggle for
lead guitar time in every song we did, evolved into a split in the band.
Morgan quit. But before long he convinced Steve Parsons and myself to
create The Morgan Blackwood Group. With a full slate of original songs,
the three of us went 100 miles north to Ashland, Oregon, home of the
famous Ashland Shakespeare Theatre. In Ashland, our booking agent and
manager, Harry Arnold, had purchased a movie theatre. To hone our
concert sound, Harry let us set up behind the the movie screen. Right
next door was the historic Mark Anthony hotel. We rented three rooms
there and for two months every night, starting at around 11:00 when the
movies let out, we would crank it up and rehearse until daybreak. That
gave birth to one song, Rock & Roll Vampires.

 Although we were still
relegated to the same, unexciting venues, our goal was to be able to
perform concerts.
From behind that movie screen the CD “MGB Live 1974”, a rehearsal tape,
was recorded. Shortly after that recording, Steve Parsons got home sick
and left the group, returning to Chico. Steve was replaced with Dave
Peck, who is pictured on the album cover. Although it was Steve’s
drumming you would hear on the recording, by the time we had photos
taken against to a mural at the Mark Anthony hotel, Dave was the
drummer.

                                  (from left : Ken Aparicio, Morgan Blackwood, Dave Peck)




At some point in the midst of all of that and before recording MGB Live
1974, an old friend of Morgan’s, Nick Lehr joined the group. Although he
did not perform with us, he did write songs and he started to learn
keyboards. It was Nick, who convinced us to upgrade our equipment and
our sound. I traded my Gibson EB3 in for a Fender Precision and
switched to a BGW amp and a Cerwin Vega speaker system which I had
heard when seeing Spirit at the Fillmore Auditorium. Morgan went to a
stack of two Orange Amps. We were loud and clear and ready for San
Francisco.


..."


...część trzecia wkrótce.

Link - Part 1 : https://kossoff1963progandpsychrock.blogspot.com/2019/01/true-story-part-one-ken-aparicio.html