The Show
Biz Kids (sometimes called the Autistics or Sir Real and the
Dada-Daddy-os,
at by me on stage) were a Grays Harbor band that started sometime after
I moved to Aberdeen after college for my first professional job.
The core of the
group
was Chris Vanucie on drums and the Shurr Twins (Cary and Gary) on bass
and rhythm guitar. (I'd recommend twins for harmonizing with any time;
real tight.) The first incarnation added Steve and me on guitars and
vocals.
(Don't think I've played in a three guitar band since.) I played
with Steve Shurr earlier in the Smiling
Castle
and a few one-off gigs (including an interesting one at Fairhaven
College
in '71). We mostly played at the Playhouse, an archetypal NW roadhouse:
right outside the Montesano city limits, a gravel parking lot on all
sides,
the inside walls paneled (if you can call it that) in split logs with
the
bark still on them, and a dance floor that bounced wickedly when the
dancers
really got going. (The first night I played there, I saw someone thrown
out the front window... and it was 4 feet above the floor. Ouch.) We
played
at a few other clubs in Hoquiam but the Playhouse was our main gig.
That first
incarnation
of the Kidz ended after a gig at the South Bend Chamber of Commerce.
We restarted
the
group, sans Steve but with Jody, a few months later, and that was the
basic
group until I 1980 when I returned to Seattle. We had one final gig in
Ocean Shores sometime that Fall, I think.
There were a
number
of auxiliary members. Show Biz Kids #1 had Paul Sagen and (less
frequently)
Greg Moore on keyboards. Show Biz Kids #2 had Rich Nixon and Gary
McKinney
(yeah, from Boss Tweed,
Chakra,
Kid
Chrysler and Zoot Rudy) on keyboards.
I
seem to remember that John Bender, Rob Bender's cousin and Kurt
Cobain's
erstwhile baby sitter, sat in every once in a while on harmonica.
Playing at the
Playhouse
is a great memory (it's now a Moose Hall or something). Montesano is a
small town and everyone knew everyone else. You usually had at least
one
divorced couple in there dancing with their new
boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife,
usually on opposite sides of the dance floor. I remember seeing the
police
report one Monday in the Aberdeen World and reading that some neighbor
complained about the Playhouse: "The noise was terrible." Heh, heh.
Our set list
was
a mixture of old rock, New Wave, Steely Dan, Beatles and Stones, and
country.
Tasteful and danceable.
Brad Beck,
June
2003
You couldn't
have
picked a worse spot to be a musician...and in some cases a better spot.
Back in the
very
early '70s in Hoquiam Washington, there was this group of musicians I
guess
I'll call, for lack of a better term, the "Paralandra Mafia" . A bunch
of broke-assed hippies as I remember. Jeez, we were all so broke!
The Paralandra
was
this old community center that the musicians managed to take over. It
was
a place where all the musicians went to play, or in my case learn.
Everybody
could play and learn, create and inspire. It was an amazing place.
There were the
Schurr
Bros, Gary McKinney, Rick Nixon, Brucie Hughes and too many others to
mention.
They gave so many musicians their inspiration and start, or in the case
of Steve Schurr, selling his guitars to me, so I could get started.
Steve..know
what
your '61 Epiphone Wilshire is worth today? I hate to think.
I broke it years ago. If you could hear Steve play Jeff Beck back
then, you just knew you wanted to be a musician! He'd show you
everything
he knew, for as long as you wanted! You always remember that first time
when someone from the "good band" asks you up on stage to play with
them...
that was Steve.
Gary McKinney
had
everything it took to make that place happen. I still dont know
how
he did it, but I'm glad he did. Gary and the brothers would have
these incredible jams in the front yard while traffic was passing by. I
think he had great musical & organizational talent.
Rich Riipa,
Rick
Nixon and myself would sit there amazed at this band, and
"someday--someday"
yeah! we are gonna be that good, and we'd get motivated! Bear in
mind that we couldn't be much further from the music centers of the
world.
Bruce
Hughes did the same thing. He gave many people their first
gig
in the meanest toughest bars around. He always had your back, and
always
gave you the shirt off your back...no matter what! This was a
tough
existence back then, and Bruce took more crap from life than anyone I
know,
yet he just kept going! He'd just get up on stage and play and
sing
his ass off. I remember many times I told him I had quit his band
to go with something else, but my car would never start. Bruce
would
actually get up at 7:00 am, drive his clunker 10 miles to my house in
the
snow just to jump start my dead battery so I could drive to auditions
in
Seattle or something! He did this repeatedly! By the
way, he might still have a mint '63 John Lennon Rickenbacker, and a
coffee
shop in McCleary, so buy a cup and listen to him.
I can think of
a
lot of great musicians, but I can think of very few who made it
possible
for everyone else like these guys did.
Maitland
Ward, March 2006
