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Topic: The Foothill Club |
Jason Odd
From:
Stawell, Victoria, Australia
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Posted 26 Oct 2000 5:43 am |
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Jackie Burns who used to sing at the Foothill Club mentioned a few things about the place, and as it's come up in a few different conversations here, I thought I might add her comments, which were edited a bit for continuity as some of her email was off the topic (so to speak)and more of a general email nature.
Thanks Jackie!
quote:
I DON'T KNOW IF YOU KNOW IT, BUT BONNIE PRICE'S "FOOTHILL CLUB" IN SIGNAL HILL HAS BEEN SOLD. I'M NOT SURE WHO BOUGHT IT, BUT, I WAS TOLD THEY WANT TO MAKE A SALSA BAR OUT OF IT. WOW, IN IT'S HEYDAY IT
WAS AS POPULAR AND HISTORY MAKING AS THE PAL. I HATE TO THINK IT WILL NO LONGER EXIST. ALL THE BEAUTIFUL HAD PAINTED WALLS AND HUGE OIL PAINTINGS WILL DISAPPEAR TO WHO KNOWS WHERE?
BONNIE IS IN A REST HOME FOR ALZHEIMERS. MOST OF THESE GUYS THAT PICKED AT THE PAL, PICKED AT THE "FOOTS" TOO. BUDDY EMMONS AND BILLY BIRD (E. Tubb) PLAYED THERE ALSO, FOR ABOUT A YEAR WITH GORDON TERRY'S BAND. THAT'S WHO HELPED ME GET STARTED IN THE BIZ! GORDON & JOHNNY WESTERN ACTUALLY. THEN WHEN THEY LEFT, BILLY MIZE AND CLIFF CROFFORD TOOK OVER THE BAND. MAYBE YOU CAN PASS THE NEWS OF THE SALE ALONG TO THE FORUM FOR ME.
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The future ain't what it used to be |
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Tele
From:
Andy W. - Wolfenbuettel, Germany
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Jason Odd
From:
Stawell, Victoria, Australia
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Posted 27 Oct 2000 2:44 pm
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I've heard that Gordon Terry has been under the weather a bit, but at least Merle Haggard has a Billy Mize CD on offer at his website.
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Neil Hilton
From:
Lexington, Kentucky
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Posted 30 Oct 2000 7:43 am
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Jason - is it the "Foothill" that is pictured a couple of times in the photo layout of Big Sandy & the Flyrite Boy's album "Feelin kinda Lucky"???....
Sandy and the boys are lined up out front next to their old dusty bus - great pics, much like ET & the Troubadors used to pose for, love those old band pics. - Neil |
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Jason Odd
From:
Stawell, Victoria, Australia
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Posted 30 Oct 2000 3:29 pm
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Neil, you know you might have something there, I think the club got a rep for being a rock venue in it's later years, but I can't see why Big Sandy & the Boys wouldn't have played there.
Not a lot of the old clubs are left, I think the Club 23 is the last real hold over from the Californina club scene, although the Bandera might still be going.
Forumite Bob Taylor does tour with a large group and they have an awesome old tour bus, I can't seem to find the link for it though!
Jason
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Jerry Hayes
From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
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Posted 2 Nov 2000 6:49 am
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Hey Jason,
You might be thinking of the BanDar instead of the Bandera. It was a club in Ventura owned by Johnny & Jonie Moseby of "Don't Call Me From A Honky Tonk" fame.
I'm sorry to hear about the demise of the good old Foothill Club. I used to love those annual benefits for the Signal Hill Police Department. They were packed to the limit on those days. I'd filled in a few times over the years but the first time I went in as a regular band member was in the middle 70's I think. We had Billy & Cliff of course and the band consisted of Jim Bob Sedgwick of the Forum on Lead Guitar, an Italian piano player who's name I can't recall, me on Steel, a Drummer named Rick Brennan and I forgot who was on bass as we changed that position quite a few times while I was there. During my tenure we had musicians like Frito ? & Proctor Rogers on Piano, Dee Ford and Jerry Cole on lead Guitar and front men like Mayf Nutter, Ray Sanders, Gene Bear, Garland Frady (who I worked Monday nights with), Jerry Naylor, and a bunch of guests. People would alway stop by and sit in. One of my best memories was on a Saturday night in '78 or '79. Jim Bob and I had gone to the NAMM show at the Disneyland Hotel as we'd met the Deckley Steel guitar people and Tommy Roots who was associated with them at the time. They came by the club that night and Tommy sat in for two sets. He tore the place apart for sure. I was sad when Jim Bob left to start hacking up dead people but within a short time we had Jerry Cole on guitar so things just kept right on trucking. At the old Foothill if someone left there was always someone else to take their place. Bonnie Price was a good old gal. If you'd worked for her before and she liked you it seems like she'd always find a place for you somewhere. We played 6 nights a week from 9 till 2 except on Friday and Saturday it was from 8 until 2. I forgot to mention Jimmy Lee Morris and Barbie Mathews as band members too. Those days were wonderful and it's too bad the young pickers won't ever have any places like that to fill their memory banks!
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Have a good 'un! JH U-12
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Jason Odd
From:
Stawell, Victoria, Australia
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Posted 2 Nov 2000 8:19 am
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Hiya Jerry, yeah I always get that name mixed up!
Here's some notes on the Foothill pickers before your time there.
Gordon Terry’s band
It included Roy Nichols, Billy Mize, Red Gale on bass (who had worked with Porter Wagoner prior to living in California)
Jim Pierce was playing with Chester Smith in Modesto for several years and left him to go to the Foothill Club.
They had steel players like Buddy Emmons and Gene Fields at different times.
Gene Fields remembers the group of Gordon Terry {fiddle} Billy Mize {vocal, guitar horn}, Roy Nichols {guitar}, Red Gale {bass}, Jim Pierce {piano} and a drummer. They also backed Johnny Western at the club.
In 1959 Billy Mize, with Cliff Crawford, took over the band. Buddy Emmons had played steel and Billy took over playing steel as well, when Buddy left. The band included Roy Nichols and Jim Pierce
In 1960 Jim Pierce left the Foothill to join Wynn Stewart’s band. He was replaced by Ronny Brannon {spelling?}
Blackie Taylor became the steel player at the Foot Hill with Billy and Cliff , this was around 1960.
The band at the Foothill included Roy Nichols. Blackie recalls that “When Bill and Cliff were on the bandstand we played Country, When they got off it went Jazz. and I was a lost ball”, he ended up swapping the job with Chuck Hatfield who was the Steel player for country singer Carl Cody, Blackie ended up joining Cody’s group
In 1961 Roy Nichols left the Foothill Club to work in the band of Wynn Stewart. Jim pierce was already in Wynn’s group and provided a good refrence for the guitarist.
1960’s
the Foothill Club band The Tennesseans
That would been perhaps .....Billy Mize and Cliff {Friday, Saturday and Monday nights}, Jim Bob Sedgwick {lead guitar}who joined in 1965, Dee Ford {bass & vocals}, Jimmy Bevins {fiddle & steel}, Sandy Pagano {drums} and Skeeter Shultz {piano}.
Billy Mize recorded for Columbia, Decca, United Artists, Zodiac and others.
Jim Bob left in 1969 to play lead for the Durham Brothers for a year.
The group was reshuffled with Robert Lee Crigger "Bobby Lee" on piano. He played seven nights a week for a year at the Foothill club
The band at the Foothill was basically the same, except that everyone changed around instruments. Bobby Lee on piano, Jimmy Bevins {lead guitar, fiddle, mainly on fiddle}, Dee Ford on bass and vocals, although she would take up on second fiddle with Bevins and Skeeter would play bass. Skeeter was the piano player, but now switched to steel guitar. Sandy Pagano still played drums. Bonnie Price apparently bought a new grand piano for this line-up.
The main group played seven nights a week, as usual Billy Mize fronted the band and Cliff Crawford joined them on Fridays and Saturday nights, fronting the band on Monday nights and he also played rhythm guitar and trumpet.
This version of the group lasted for about a year until Bobby Lee left the group.
In the early 1970’s Boomer Castleman sat in with Billy Mize & Cliff Crawford, and also played electric guitar for them every now and then when they would play out on trust fund gigs sponsored by the A.F. of M. local 47.
Cecil Bays joined in early 1971 on lead guitar, while he was with the band at the Foot Hill Club, there was Skeeter Schultz guitar and steel guitar, Bill Myers piano, Jimmy Bevins on fiddle, played some lead guitar, steel guitar and bass, as well as an announcer and vocalist. Sandy Pagano drums, Larry Settle bass & vocals and Kathy Lester on vocals, who was later replaced by vocalist Karen Christy.
Cliff Crawford also could play bass guitar, drums, trumpet and sang, while Billy Mize of course was the lead vocalist, he could play steel guitar, rhythm guitar.
Billy Mize’s last run at TV came in 1972, when he taped two pilots of the “Billy Mize Music Hall,” which he hoped to sell into national syndication. Despite guest appearances by Haggard in one show and Marty Robbins in another, and a new leisure suits and sideburns, failed to take off.
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The future ain't what it used to be |
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Dayna Wills
From:
Sacramento, CA (deceased)
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Posted 7 Nov 2000 10:23 pm
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Funny this should come up when just yesterday I ran across a pic of me sitting in with Al Bruno, Don Babbs, in 1988 at the Foothill. I worked around the corner at the Hillside. The Hillside's been gone for several years now. I sure hate to hear about Bonnie's illness and the change in venue at the Foothill. It should be preserved as an historical landmark, dont'cha think?
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Jason Odd
From:
Stawell, Victoria, Australia
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Posted 7 Nov 2000 10:39 pm
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Yeah Dayna, I agree totally.
It took them years in Memphis to figure out that the historical buildings were all worthy of preservation, but of course half of them had been knocked down by then.
In some parts of the world they put plaques on significant landmarks and have laws preventing the buildings from being altered too much or knocked down, but when it comes to music no-one in city planning has much in the way of foresight. Or at least it certainly seems that way.
It's cultural history, which is important to the community. IMHO
Jason |
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