Gary
Carter ~ Keyboards
Joe
Daggy ~ Bass, Backing Vocals
Steve
Johnson ~ Bass, Vocals
Michael
Lloyd Knight ~ Guitar, Vocals
Kirk
Morton ~ Organ, Vocals
Leon
Richey ~ Drums
Dave
White ~ Drums, Vocals
Michael Lloyd Knight
Michael Lloyd Knight of The Brougham Closet was my son. He was lead singer and guitar player. He died at age 49 in May of 2001.I'm thrilled to pieces about this web site. There are pictures that I never saw before. The background singing is Michael singing a song that he wrote.
Laureta Almer, March 2006
The Brougham Closet formed in the 1966. It wasn't a garage band, it was a shed-built-onto-the-side-of-the-garage band. The original members were: Dave White - drums and vocals - (White would later plummet to fame as Lonnie Broadway); Kirk Morton - organ and vocals - (who later became Northwest Music Icon, the Legendary Hank Rasco); Michael Lloyd Knight - vocals and guitar; Steve Johnson - bass guitar and vocals.In the summer of 1968, Johnson went on vacation during the music season so the Brougham Closet picked up Joe Daggy (a.k.a. Joseph O. Daggy, J. Omar Daggy, Omar and Horace J. Digby) on bass and backup vocals.
The new band went on to wow crowds at the Woodland, Washington, Planters Day Festival that summer, (about 1600 tickets sold), and then to win the Cap'n Yoby's battle of bands at the at the Cowlitz county Fair in Longview, Washington (first prize was a recording sessions). The band's first record "Wishing" and "To Say Goodbye" was released on Mother Bear Records later that summer. The record steadily climbed local charts to the number one spot which it held until our girlfriends and relatives quit buying records.
During the winter of 1969, The Brougham Closet split into two factions. Kirk Morton and Dave White joined with Rick Edwards and Steve Allen of the Dark Ages, another Woodland, Washington band, to form a new group called Crust (their slogan: "Crust has formed"). The remainder of The Brougham Closet, Michael Lloyd Knight and Joe Daggy, joined up with Leon Richey (drums) and Gary Carter (keyboards). Richey and Carter had both played with Daggy in prior Kelso, Washington bands, The Commoners and The Dirty Young Men, performing at local events, and high school dances in Southwest Washington. Carter had also played keyboard with Larry Price, Joe Durand and Rocky Tidd in the Longview, Washington band called The Milk Truck.
Brougham Closet (1969) clockwise from upper left: Joe Daggy, Mike Knight, Leon Richey, Gary Carter.
Not surprisingly the members of Crust and the members of the new Brougham Closet both thought that their band was the better of the two. The Brougham Closet, began playing college jobs and regional music events at the top teen venues in Southwest Washington and Western Oregon — playing twice at Oregon State University, in Corvallis, at Lower Columbia College, in Longview, WA, at The Trap Teen Club, in Vancouver, WA, at TG's Teen Clubs in Newport and other towns along the Oregon Coast, at The Seven of Diamonds Teen Club in Portland, and at Longview's prime rock venue, the Smith Center, where acts such as Sonny and Cher, The Wailers, Paul Revere and The Raiders, The Liverpool Five, Ike and Tina Turner, Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts, The Surprise Package, The Kingsmen, and many others regularly performed. In the spring of 1969, The Brougham Closet, took on professional management with Sanford Allyson Kross of S.A.K. United, a national booking agent with offices in Portland, Oregon. Kross also handled, among other acts Glenn Yarborough. Kross soon had the band California bound to tape three network television appearances with Paul Revere and The Raiders, with Mark Lindsay (Happening 69), Barbara Feldon (Get Smart), Angela Cartwright (The Danny Thomas Show and Lost In Space), Merrilee Rush (Just call Me Angel of the Morning), John Kay and Steppenwolf, The Grass Roots, and The Classics Four, for Dick Clark Productions at ABC Television Studios in Hollywood.
What made the taping even more interesting, than just being at ABC Studios Hollywood, meeting leaders of the music and entertainment worlds, and appearing on network television, is that on the same day as the taping, July, 20th 1969, another little event was occurring about 380,000 kilometers away. Neil A. Armstrong, and Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin were landing on the moon. Joe Daggy sat next to Mark Lindsay, as taping shut down so that everyone, cast and crew could watch the lunar landing on studio monitors. Brougham Closet (1969) left to right: Mike Knight, Gary Carter, Leon Richey, Joe Daggy (seated: an antique store mannequin)
"One small step for man, one giant leap for The Brougham Closet."The Brougham Closet's agent, Kross was ecstatic. He had big plans for the band, but unfortunately, so did Richey and Daggy. They planned to leave the group to go to college. Kross pushed for adding a new bass player and drummer (it would have been easy because Knight was the lead singer and guitar player, Carter played keyboards was our other lead singer. Daggy and Richey would have been easy to replace, but somehow it never happened.By the summer of 1969, the members of The Brougham Closet were: Michael Lloyd Knight - vocals and guitar; Gary Carter - organ and vocals; Joe Daggy (a.k.a. Joseph O. Daggy, J. Omar Daggy, Omar) - bass guitar and vocals; Leon Richey - drums and vocals.
The Brougham Closet died in the fall of 1969, followed in death, years later by three of its most exciting members, Gary Carter, Dave White (a.k.a. Lonnie Broadway) and Michael Lloyd Knight.
Ironically Leon Richey and Joe Daggy, having broken up The Brougham Closet to go to college, were, within three years back together in a Seattle band called Albatross.
Today, Daggy (a.k.a. Joseph O. Daggy and J. Omar Daggy) is a celebrated attorney practicing in Washington and Oregon. Daggy is also an award-winning film maker, working with Hollywood Executive Producer C. Tad Devlin (The Immigrant Garden, George of The Jungle, Mighty Ducks 3, When A Man Loves A Woman, Sleeping With The Enemy), Novelist Steven Barnes (Lion's Blood, Emmy Award Winning Outer Limits television episode, "A Stitch In Time") and other celebrities. Daggy, as Horace J. Digby, is also an award-winning humor columnist, winner of the Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor, Now judged by Pulitzer Prize winning humorist, Dave Barry. Horace J. Digby appears online, in print and he also hosts his own radio show, The Horace J. Digby Report, online for A3Radio.com out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Hank Rasco (1998) left to right: Hank Rasco, an old Studebaker (1950?).
Kirk Morton, stayed with music and eventually found ever-lasting fame as Music Icon and Entertainment Legend: Hank Rasco. Hank Rasco, rose to fame with his band, The Wasted Rangers. The other Wasted Rangers have wandered off over the years, but Rasco, now performing with a band called The Rascos while still generally considered to be wasted, is also recognized as "The best pure rock 'n roll experience on this planet, and, according to those who know, all but three other planets as well. -- Source SandBagger mag-e-zine, August 2003.Joe Daggy, July 2003, March 2007
