KMR II Wyandotte, Michigan 1968-1973      Sat in the Robert's basement listening to records, playing pool cue guitars and drumming on bar stools. I said I could teach everyone enough to pull off a basic gig. We borrowed equipment, played our own party, got invited to a high school "Battle of the Bands" - and won! We added Mel Beaudry for his fame (his brother was Tom Beaudry/Kelly Green, singer for Frijid Pink. He got us going until we kicked him out for unsavory character/friends. We played local dances, and a lot of high schools. One gig, St Mary's Academy in southern Michigan the van leaked rain all over our piano and the felt dampers fell off. Another gig at Garden City we drove behind the school to unload and didn't see the curb under 8" of snow - the old van went AIRBORN! On our Northern tour, we came down the hill into Oscoda on US 23 and the hitch broke off the rear bumber. We were passed up by our trailer full of equipment which stopped peacefully in service station at the bottom of the hill. Personnel: Ken Klosterhaus - Lead Guitar, Lead Local Jim Milstine - Keyboards, Vocals Doug Roberts - Bass, Vocal Em Roberts - Drums Mel Beaudry - Lead Vocal, Rythmn Guitar Influences: Grand Funk, Amboy Dukes, Frost, Savoy Brown, Savage Grace, Spooky Tooth, Humble Pie, most any top 40 group. Setlist Sample: Rock and Roll Music (Frost and Mitch Ryder), Are You Ready/Anybody's Answer, Keep Me Hangin' On, Some Kind Of Wonderful (before GFR recorded it we did it "hea-vy", originals. Equipment: I had a Gibson ES-330 that I converted to a 335 (had to add 8 pounds of clay to replace the center wood piece), and the bass player had a Gibson EB-3 Bass, we both played through Trainor amps and Marshall Stacks. We had an ARB 200 sound system. Drummer had "Starlight" drums painted to look identical to Ludwigs, sounded great! Keyboard left group early, took his Gibson keyboard and electronic Leslie, Mel had a Les Paul copy with Trainor/Marshall. Rehearsal Space: Basement of manager/buddie's house. How did the neighbor's put up with our volume - I'll never know. Band Vehicles: 1964 Ford Econoline. Fashion Statement: We looked great, had silk-type shirts, FAB bell-bottom pants (I had crushed velvet - very hot temperature-wise). Best Gig: 1972 Yack Arena, Wyandotte, we opened for Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes. Gig from Hell!: We did a northern Michigan tour, played a youth camp, the agents tried out florescent make-up on us that reflected the spotlights and blinded us - couldn't see a thing. That night Em, our drummer, got a serious leg cramp and woke up screaming and we got sent packing. Last Gig: Can't remember. Comments: We auditioned for Rare Earth records, were told to get another year's experience and come on back. However, they lowered the drinking age, music moved out of the high schools and into the bars and we didn't want to play 4 hours/4 nights in the same smoke/booze/crowd so we retired. We always wanted to secretly pose as several bands under different names and record different styles of music, but alas, it never happened. We had great fun, though.          posters by Dennis Preston     Where are they now? I, Ken, play bass for my church's Praise Team and work for General Motors as a CAM programmer and live in Washington, MI, Doug is a trouble shooter for Heidtman Steel and lives in Indiana, Em is in sales and lives in Riverview, Mel died of a brain aneurism and Jim moved out west and is rarely heard from.    Information contributed by Ken Klosterhaus bzbmrs@naeng.gm.com

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