John
Simpson did some studio work in LA between his stints with Calliope
and Bitteroot, and he
played on an LP with a Texas group called "United Gas" in 1969. That LP
came out in 1970 (label Metromedia) but with the name "Christopher", as
the label thought that United Gas sounded too much like Pacific Natural
Gas (or similar, I can't remember exactly, but they were an important west
coast group.
GearFab
Records recently released a newly mastered version of the LP and evidently
being bought by collectors as an overlooked gem of the period. I've
got a copy and although I'm biased, I must say that it's exactly what they
say, an overlooked gem.
Peter
Simpson, November 2003
The late
John Simpson of Mercer Island was the original, and long-serving, drummer
for "The Bandits". They won the KJR "Battle of the Bands" at the old Orpheum
Theater (where the Westin now stands) in 1965, thereby earning a recording
contract with Jerden Records. They released, a Carney Barton production
as I recall, "Little Sally Walker" with "Tell Me" as the "B" side during
the Fall of 1965.
Rob
Simpson, January 2004
I was
in The Bandits starting in '62 with Gregg Bigsby, Bob Perry, Steve Heard,
and John Simpson. We won the KJR first Battle of the Bands in Seattle,
summer of '63. We played the roller rink circuit until '67.
It was great fun for us. We were 15 at the beginning, and playing
with established groups like The Dynamics, The Sonics, Paul Revere and
The Raiders, The Kingsmen, The Viceroys, and The Wailers. It was
a real thrill for us kids.
Tom
Dietz replaced Greg on bass, later Paul Burleson. John Simpson, who
later drummed with Danny O'Keife died in the 60's in an Alaskan plane crash.
David
Hendricks, December 2003
I remember
playing many times at Normanna Hall. We'd be upstairs in the caverous wooden
room that would boom bass in such a cool way. Downstairs was a veteran's
hall with a swing band. They had a bass sax there--the only one I'd
ever seen. A basketball would fit in the bell of that beauty!
We played throughout high school, '64-'67. The place was always packed
with well behaved kids dancing their shoes off!!!
David
Hendricks, June 2006
Pat O’Day
booked us to back Lou Cristie (or was his name Luke Wristie?- we never
knew for sure) during a big Seattle Center Arena show/dance. There
were several bands on the show, Paul Revere among others, but as I remember
Lou Cristie was the headliner. Pat told us that we had to buy Lou's
records and learn his hits so we could back him flawlessly. We were getting
to add this gig to our resume and if we did a good job we might be getting
an opportunity to add more backing gigs to our resume. Only one problem;
we never bought any of Lou's crappy records because we didn't particularly
like Lou's music and besides we had better things to spend our money on,
if you know what I mean. To make a short story long, Lou showed up
late to the gig because his flight from Honolulu was late arriving at Sea-Tac.
He barely had enough time to slap on his stage makeup and put on his Tux.
Lucky for us the other four players in our band we actually musicians (I
was just in the band to get girls). Lou's tunes seemed complicated
with sound effects, girl backup singers, full orchestral arrangements,
horns, strings, tympani...serious studio pop instrumentation. Lightening
was really going to strike at our Monday morning meeting with Mr. O’Day.
It may not have been as bad as I remember because we kept working for Pat
but, never backed any recording artist again. Life was so complicated
in those days.
Unless
my memory is failing me, the above is all true.
Tom
Dietz, November 2008
In
Memory of
John
Simpson
