The Britons Toledo, Ohio 1966-1968   The group that would eventually become The Britons started out as Us Four in 1966. The founding members of Us Four, Rick Babcock, Tim Hall, Gerald Bryant, and John Sheets were sophomores at Springfield High School in Holland, Ohio. They played at house parties and school dances for a few months without a bass player. I had graduated from Springfield in 1966 and was attending Bowling Green State University. John Sheets lived down the street from me and he knew that I played guitar, piano and accordion so he asked me to play bass for them. I had never played bass before, but it sounded like fun to play with a working band so I joined up. The first problem was they could no longer be Us Four. We wanted to sound like we were a part of the British invasion so we came up with The Britons. Then, because I had a job and actually had some money, I went out and bought the least expensive bass I could find. I think I paid 89 dollars for a Kingston bass. Then I bought the biggest amplifier that Sears had so we could all plug our guitars in to it. We had two drummers (John Sheets and Cliff Osborn) because one of them was always getting sick or just didn't want to play. We just took whoever showed up. We played at a lot of high school dances and various teen dances around Toledo. Young punks were always trying to pick fights with us for whatever reason. One time we were challenged to a fight because we wore white socks and some guys who wore black socks didn't like it. We were just having fun playing music and never really tried to make it big. Although we did start telling people that we were from Cleveland because whenever we told them we were from Toledo they didn't seem to be too impressed. Except for me, the Britons were all in high school so we didn't try to play in nightclubs, although we did audition to play at the Peppermint Lounge in Toledo. One of the band member's mother worked as a waitress at the Peppermint so she got the owner to come out and listen to us. He showed up about five hours late and by then we were so tired and hungry and nervous that we sucked. He wasn't impressed and we didn't care. In early 1969 we started to drift off in different directions. I got more involved with my studies at Bowling Green State University and had to sell my big Silvertone Amplifier to help pay tuition. Rick Babcock joined the Army after graduating from high school. The Britons just faded away.   Personnel: Rick Babcock - Vocals Dan Whitman - Bass Tim Hall Lead Guitar Gerald Bryant Rhythm Guitar John Sheets - Drums Cliff Osborn - Drums Influences: Rolling Stones, Kingsmen, Surfer groups. Basically any group that had a hit record with a 3-chord song. Setlist Sample: This is virtually our entire play list. I have included it all because this is who the Britons were. It was all about these songs and having fun: Shakin' All Over, Twist and Shout, Last Train to Clarksville, Wild Thing, Gloria, Oh Yeah, The Last Time, It's All Over Now, Satisfaction, Time Is On My Side, House of the Rising Sun, Louie, Louie, Hang on Sloopy, Stepping Stone, I Can't Explain, Wipe Out, Surfer Joe, Blue's Theme, Wooly Bully, Mr. Tambourine Man, Proud Mary, Bad Moon Rising, Midnight Hour, Memphis, For What It's Worth, Hey Joe, Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying, Honey Don't, Jolly Green Giant, Well Respected Man, Pipeline, Shining Lady (original by Gerald Bryant), Mr. Spaceman, Little Black Egg, Hanky Panky, For Your Love, Money, Little Latin Lupe Lu, Secret Agent Man, Little Girl, Out of Limits, I'm Henry the VIII, Surfin Bird, Kicks, Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl? Equipment: Harmony, Hagstrom, Kingston bass (I tore off the Kingston logo and told everyone it was a Fender), Gretsch drums, Silvertone amplifier (6 &endash; 10-inch speakers), borrowed Fender Super Reverb. Cheap, crappy microphones. Rehearsal Space: Various living rooms and family rooms of band members Vehicles: My 1963 cream-colored 4-door Rambler. Tim Hall's dad would help haul stuff in his blue 4-door Ford Fashion Statement: White pants with a mod-style shirt. Gerald Bryant was always the best dressed. He almost always wore a tie. Best Gig: Rainbow Acres in Toledo, Ohio. It was a skating rink on Secor Road that had live bands on the weekends. Radio station WTTO would sponsor dances there and The Britons were billed as "Possibly Toledo's Best Band" because they booked us without an audition and they had never heard of us. We were booked with another band from Detroit that was supposed to be the headliner but I can't remember the name of the band. Their lead singer showed up drunk and threw up all over the dance floor in front of the stage. We ended up opening and closing the show because the other band couldn't perform very well and the DJ asked us to go back on stage before the crowd got too rowdy. It was a wild night and our biggest crowd. (One of our claims to fame is that the late, great Terry Knight appeared with his band The Pack at Rainbow Acres the week before The Britons). Gig from Hell!: Penn/Central Christmas Party, December 17, 1966. This was a gig at Luke's Barn in Maumee, Ohio. My parents went to this annual dance and found out that the entertainment committee had failed to hire a band. So, my mother had a brilliant idea to call me to see if I could round up all the Britons and rush over to save the day. After some frantic phone calls, I rounded up everyone and we made a mad dash to Luke's Barn. Our audience was expecting slow dances and square dancing. We only played loud rock and roll. They kept turning our amps down in the middle of songs, and we kept turning them back up. Finally, they took up a collection and told us to leave. They actually paid us to go away. We bragged about that for years. Getting kicked out for playing too loud! Last Gig: I don't recall, but it might have been for a dance after a basketball game at Springfield High. We played there a lot. Comments: The Britons did what hundreds of thousands of teenager did in the 1960's and continue to do. We had a band and it was fun while it lasted.      Where are they now? Winter, 2004 I lost touch with everyone shortly after the band broke up. I last saw Rick Babcock in the early 1970's. He had just completed his military service and was selling insurance. As for me, I perform from time to time singing original comedy and parody songs on guitar or accordion. I also write country/gospel songs and have had several songs recorded by regional artists. Dan gettin' down at a recent gig!    Information contributed by Dan Whitman freddieedsel@buckeye-express.com

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