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I put the band
together the summer after I graduated from high
school in 1967 and named the band "Lovely Shades of
Death". When Dennis' mother figured out that
the initials of the band stood for LSD, she
told Dennis if he wanted to play in the band we
would have to change our name, so
we changed our name to "Current Alarm".
We played mostly high school dances, some parties,
and of course the battle of the bands. We did
mostly the British invasion and garage band hits of
the time, with a little bit of Hendrix, Cream, and
Yardbirds songs to satisfy my tastes. We only
lasted for about three years as we had
differences in the direction the band wanted to go.
I wanted to go deeper into the psychedelic music
that was just emerging, while the other members of
the band were content to play the top 40 and
standard garage band covers. In retrospect, I don't
believe we were talented enough to head the
direction I wanted to go, but I knew that
psychedelia was the music of the near future, and I
wanted to be at the forefront of that explosion.
That rift eventually led to me to leave the band,
since my band mates did not want to learn or play
more of that "hippie-drug music". The band broke up
soon afterwards when they could not find a
replacement for me. My sister and Jim (the drummer)
eventually got married later on.
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Personnel:
Lance Wilson - Rhythm Guitar and lead
vocals
Dennis Redmond - Lead Guitar and backing
vocals
Mark Villmore - Bass Guitar and backing
vocals,
im Marchese - Drums and backing
vocals
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Influences:
Yardbirds,
Rolling Stones, Animals, Kinks,
Hendrix
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Setlist
Sample:
Shape of Things, (Yardbirds) House of the
Rising Son, (Animals) Satisfaction,
(Stones) You Really Got Me, (
Kinks) Purple Haze, (Hendrix) Keep Me
Hangin' On, (Vanilla Fudge
version) Sunshine of Your Love,
(Cream) Green Tambourine, (by the Lemon
Pipers) as well as all the "garage band"
standards of the day, Louie Louie,
(Kingsmen) Gloria, (Shadows of
Knight) Pushin' Too Hard, (The
Seeds) Dirty Water, (The
Standells) etc.
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Equipment:
Lance: Vox Phantom guitar and Vox Amp,
Shure Mic. I don't recall the type
of instruments and amps or
the drum set my
bandmates used, as this was the late
60's and you know the old saying, "If you
can remember the 60's, you weren't really
there!" We all used Shure Mics and hade a
nice homemade PA system. We also had a
really far out homemade lighting system
that included multi-colored spot lights, a
strobe light and black lights that would
automatically change with the tempo of the
songs we played, for different moods. Our
lighting system was built by an
electrician friend of mine, and was ahead
of its time back then, other bands
would use our lighting system for their
gigs when we weren't using
it.
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Rehearsal
Space:
Mark's
basement
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Band
Vehicles:
We hauled
our equipment around in our
cars
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Fashion
Statement:
Mod/Hippie
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Best
Gig:
Battle of
the Bands (someplace in Rockford). This
gig was where we got to compare our
talents against four other bands in
Rockford so we could better refine our
music. We took second place,
losing to an east side band, called
the Haymarket Riot. They were about as
good as we were musically, but we had
better effects, (our lighting system, and
we had added smoke to our effects as
well). I am sure we lost because the
battle was on the east side of Rockford,
and of the four bands that were
battling, three were from the east side,
we were the only west side band. I
later became friends with one of the
guitarists from Haymarket Riot after he
left his band, and we tried putting
together another band, albeit
unsuccessfully, just before I moved to
Colorado.
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Gig
from
Hell!:
None,
they were all a blast!
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Last
Gig:
I don't
remember, probably someones party where
I ended up
getting stoned.
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Comments:
I bought my Vox
Phantom guitar and Vox amp from Nielsen's music
store on 7th Street in Rockford from Ralph Nielsen,
the father of Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen.
(Yes, Cheap Trick is from Rockford, not Chicago as
most people think.) I can remember the days when
Rick and Tom Peterson played in a band called the
Grim Reapers, then later they formed
a band called Fuse, that actually cut an
album. During that time, Brad Carlson, (Bun E.)
played drums for a Rockford band called The
Paegans before joining up later with Cheap
Trick. Rockford, Illinois in the mid to
late 60's was host to many good "garage bands" and
many very talented musicians, some that I am
still in contact with to this day. The battle
of the bands contests that were held in
Rockford at different places, (Sherwood
Lodge and the ING come to mind) were as big and
well attended as many of the the high scool
football games back then. Everyone seemed to
have their favorite band, and Rockford was usually
split between the "west side" (my band) and the
"east side" bands. The top 2 bands back then,
(as far as the battle of the bands contests
proved), were usually the Grim Reapers, (the
forerunners of Cheap Trick) and the Paegans,
both east side bands. But there were some very good
west side bands as well, Forest, and Iron
Gate were two of the west side bands that come
to mind, and both of those bands each cut a
record. My first band, although not the best
band around, was really a lot of fun when we
were out performing and I knew then that music
would always be a major influence in my life. It
prepared me for the my next band, as I became much
more proficient on guitar and learned more about
the music business. I also found I had a talent for
writing and composing songs, even though I cannot
read music and am self taught on guitar. By the mid
70's I had traded my Vox Phantom and amp in for a
Fender Telecaster and a Peavy amp and joined a
Denver, Colorado band called Cannabis. We were a
good tight sounding band that did about 50% of our
own music, and 50% covers. We acquired a
nice following of fans in the Denver
area at that time, and we had a nice 3 guitar
line up a lot like Lynyrd Skynyrd, but with our own
signature sound. We were offered a chance to record
some of our own music in L.A. but the bass player
and drummer both quit when their wives did not want
them to go to L.A. because of family committments.
We could not find suitable replacements to
learn our music in the time we were given to reform
and record, and soon disbanded. There are master
tapes out there somewhere, but I have no idea where
they are at. I still play guitar to this
day, and occasionally I'll write a song, but I no
longer play in a band. I do still think it would be
fun to perform again, and my Fender Telecaster and
Peavy amp have long since been replaced by my
current Gibson Les Paul and Marshall
amp.
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