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Back in
1964, Doug Maxiener, Tom Tyrell
and George Eder graduated 8th
grade from St. Anns, a local
parochial grade school in Lansing
IL. After a seemingly magic
summer of good times experiencing
the last vestiges of boyhood in a
small mid-western town, Doug went
to the local high school, Tom
went to a Catholic high school in
a neighboring town and George
went off to a seminary in a
neighboring state. The following
summer they got together and
found that they had,
independently and
serendipitously, taken a musical
interest in drums, bass and
guitar respectively. Doug
introduced the other two to a
guitarist he'd met at school, one
Ron Howard, and the U.S. Males
were formed.
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Personnel:
Doug
Maxiener - Drums (65-67)
Paul Kovack - Drums (67-68)
Tom Tyrell - Bass (65-66)
George Eder - Bass (66-67)
Bob Anton - Bass (67)
Kurt Klinski - Bass (67-68)
Mike Jones - Keyboards/Vocals
Ron Howard - Lead Guitar
(65-67)
Dave Benoit - Lead Guitar
(68)
George
Eder
-
Rhythm Guitar/Vocals
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Influences:
All
Mid 60's top 40 rock.
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Setlist
Sample:
1st
songs learned: "Hanky Panky",
"You Really Got Me","Louie
Louie","Farmer John",
"It's You" (original).
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Equipment:
Fender, Ludwig, Custom PA,
Farfisa, too many guitars to
remember.
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Rehearsal
Space:
George's
basement, Dougs' garage, the
local grade school
basement
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Band
Vehicles:
Parent's
station wagon.
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Fashion
Statement:
Two
outfits: white pants with black
pin/black pants with white
pin/black or white shirt, black
or white vest, black or white
ties. Any combination that was
clean.
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Best
Gig:
Battle
of the Bands at TF South (second
gig) We won.
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Gig
from
Hell!:
Playing
white boy rock at a predominantly
black South Side Chicago Catholic
high school with a local act who
schooled us on Motown. When we
played the audience was seated
and eeriely quiet. When the local
band played the room went nuts.
Longest gig I've ever played
though we only played a total of
90mins.
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Last
Gig:
Elizabeth
Seton High School to a room of
screamin' girls.
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The
picture above was taken at WCFL
radio in Chicago.
We were promoting our single on
USA records.
L to R: Mike Jones, Ron Howard,
Ron Britan (of WCFL & WLS
radio DJ fame), Doug Maxiener,
George Eder.
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