The Fabulous Vondells was
one of the top groups in the Dayton Ohio area from
the mid to late sixties. Formed in the summer of
1965 in Kettering Ohio, the original members were
Gary Hamilton- Bass, Steve Dill-Lead, Denny
Linville-Rhythm, and Jim Wagner-Drums. The Vondells
started out like all garage bands of the era -
practice, practice, practice. It seemed to come
together fairly quickly, and the next thing we knew
we had a job! Our first gig and we were in
heaven!!!! Eastwood Park Block Party! WOW!!! What
next? The Sullivan Show??? We played, got a good
crowd reaction, and we were hooked. The Vondells
went on getting more jobs but still struggled to
develop a following big enough to get us hooked up
with the two major radio stations at that time in
Dayton, WONE and WING. Then along came the WONE and
Prizm Records "Battle of the Bands". It was held
at HARA Arena in Dayton and lasted three days.
There were hundreds of bands that entered this
contest, and in the 3 day period they drew a crowd
of 29,000 people. Each band got to play 3 songs and
then it was on to the next. I can only remember one
song that we did. It was "Sounds of Silence". The
judges picked 12 groups as winners, and we were one
of them. The prize was to record one song on the
"WONE DAYTON SCENE ALBUM". We recorded a song
written by our Bass Player, Gary Hamilton, called
"A Loser". So here we were listening to our song
being played locally on WONE and hearing those
magic words said by the DJ "That was the Vondells".
WOW!!! What a rush!!! Well, the song and the
album went nowhere, but it pulled that fan base
into high gear and put us working the good gigs of
the time with WONE and WING. By the way, The Dayton
Scene album today is a rare collector's item and
worth quite a bit, go figure?? Up to that point we
had left the management of the group to our
drummer's parents, the Wagner's, who provided the
basement we practiced in, put up with the endless
noise, and dragged our little silver trailer with
the marquee on the back which proudly stated " You
are following the Fabulous Vondells" to all our
gigs. Later we started being managed by Max
Rodgers, an owner of a multitude of teen dance
spots all around the area. Max's spots were WING
spots. As time went on, we added a keyboard. The
first member was Dave Carlton, who was later
replaced by Bill Wagner. Now the Vondells were five
strong and doing well. One day we got a call from
Bob Holiday, who was a very popular DJ with WONE,
and he said he would like to book us. He had the
very best teen places to play at that time, and we
jumped at the chance. He booked us to open at
"Forest Park Caverns" for the "Hollies". We were
super Hollies fans and did some of their songs.
That was a great gig; it was a wall to wall crowd.
We got to meet all the Hollies in the dressing room
we shared, and Mama Cass was traveling with them as
well. We even went to see them play again the next
day in Springfield and got to hang around with them
on their tour bus. What good memories! We
continued getting better, and every weekend we were
booked. We moved our playing area as far north as
Lima and Delphos Ohio, east as far as London, and
south to Portsmouth, Ohio. We even had a fan club
in Lima. We used to play at Spring Brook Gardens
up that way. One of our favorite places to play was
The Rink in Kettering. It was a very popular place
and was very large with a great stage and P.A. Just
when everything seemed to be going great, our
drummer quit and joined another top area group, and
that left us reeling a bit. We replaced him with
Jim Brown, and we continued playing for several
more months. The band wound up breaking up in 1967.
Personnel: Influences: Setlist
Sample: Equipment:
Rehearsal
Space: Band
Vehicles: Fashion
Statement: Best
Gig: Gig
from
Hell!: Last
Gig:
Information contributed by Gary Hamilton
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