The Paper Suns
Port Orchard, Washington
1967 - 1970

Members
 

 Al Anderson ~ Guitar, Backing Vocals
Don Olson ~ Guitar, Lead Vocals
 Bob Gallegos ~ Bass, Backing Vocals
Kerry Walicki ~ Drums
 

The Paper Suns were a Port Orchard,  Washington, band from 1967 to about 1970.  They played various dances and venues around the Kitsap County area including Perl Maurer.  They were the official band for the Port Orchard Fathoms-O-Fun Festival in 1968 and 1969, playing dances held at the Port Orchard National Guard Armory.  They also played in the Sherman and Clay battle of the bands and won second place in one of the contests.

After the band broke up, members continued to play in other bands around the area for a period of time.  I still have some of the articles from the Bremerton Sun and Port Orchard Independent newspapers chronicling the band's dance events around the area.  The band's name Paper Suns, came from the song “Paper Sun” by Traffic.  The Port Orchard Independent misspelled the band's name in an article, calling them the  “Paper Sons”,  which actually gave it a cooler vibe for the times.

At the time of the breakup of the Paper Suns,  Don went to another Port Orchard band called The Electric Man as the bass player.  They cut one single called Midnight Sun.  The A side was with vocals and the B side was  just instrumental.   I was going to play rhythm guitar, but got drafted and quickly joined the Air Force.

While I was in Vietnam and Thailand, Bobby Gallegos became the Mayor of Port Orchard, and Kerry Walicki moved to California.

One of the times we played the Sherman and Clay Battle of the Bands, Glass, a Port Townsend band,  played on the same show.  I discovered The Soft Machine because of them.  I was really impressed by Glass and thought they should have been one of the top three bands in the contest, but their music was far from the top hits of the day.  We auditioned their keyboard player sometime after that contest,  but the difference in musical style and distance apart,  made it too hard to make it work.

Al Anderson, June 2010

 
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Last Update:  20 June 2010
Credits:  Al Anderson