South jersey bar/club scene in the early mid 80s

[raythewrench]

Rich s touched on this in another post / topic I was a little too young( I'm 43 now) but I was a big guy 6'5 so once an awhile I get in , but if I didn't we d hang by a side door and listen etc, but there was Bonnie's in atco / I think the carnival in somerdale on rt 30 but Dick Lees / The pennant east was the pinnicle of live music my dad ( rip)told me of shows he saw there etc . But I didn't know til like 10 years ago Roy buchannon played there among others and another fact was Seymour Duncan grew up around here ( my mom has a longtime friend who is still friends. W /SD told him I played and ad sent me an email and some nice swag shirts , stickers , keychains and bottle openers this was only a couple years ago isent him a thanks email and we email 2x a year it s cool ) and the drive in webers right down from dick lees in GW mag there's a ts-9 ad shot at the drive in it was a band hanging around a 57 chevy hood up and the ts9 was where the engine was I cannot find out who the band was. It must of been b/ f a show all neon on at drive In etc . I still have the ad I gotta post it and scan it ididnt know this but ibanez was has been in benasalem ( outside philly ) since the late 60 s ,my brother in law worked there as a summer job /accountion intern in their office in the 80s 90s and once we were legal we saw lots of bands all over philly ,s jersey The shores tc . but from what I understand Dick lees had quite a history and now has been closed for prolly 8 years anyone want to impart history ? Oh btw I do remember going to see Cinderella there. And I grew up in the next town gloucester city. Thanks fellas for putting up with my rambles.

[Rich_S]

My time in the south Jersey bars was 1979-81 or therabouts. Back in those days, the drinking age in New Jersey was 18, but 21 in Pennsylvania, so all the bars were in south Jersey. DUI across the Delaware River bridges must have rampant, but I didn't drink back then and was therefore the designated driver.

IIRC, Dick Lee's was sort of out in the middle of no where, somewhere near Fort Dix, maybe? I think I was there once. Bonnie's too. I grew up in Pennsylvania, so I mostly went to the places close to the PA/NJ bridges. Was the Carnival the one just off the Ben Franklin bridge? That place was huge - it was supermarket before it was a bar. I went there a lot to see my friends' bands play.

My best friend from highschool was the lighting tech for a band called Pegasus, so I hung around with them a lot. They did a lot of varied cover material: Who, Zep, Genesis, Doors. Another friend of mine was the lighting tech for Witness and their huge Jethro Tull tribute show. Prowler was probably the best at covering Zep. The Suspects did good Doors and Stones covers; their guitarist was my friend/salesman at Zapf's Music on 5th Street.

In the summers, all the bands moved to the Jersey shore, mostly Wildwood. They'd play the whole summer at one bar, and lodgings were included in the deal. One summer, Pegasus lost their summer residency at the Rainbow Club in Wildwood after my friend had a little accident, loading the flashpots for the night's show. He was working in the band's apartment above the club and smoking while he worked. The pots went off unexpectedly (but really... how unexpected could it have been under the conditions?), temporarily deafening my friend, removing his eyebrows, and blowing all the apartment's windows into the street below. Non-stop drinking, drugging, and sex was okay, but blowing up the apartment would get a band fired.

At some point, Jersey raised their drinking age and the business spread out more evenly across PA, Jerey, and northern Delaware. By '83 - '85, I was playing in a band that played in University City, South Street, Delaware and Montgomery counties, and Long Beach Island. We were an '80s new wave kinda act, though, in contrast to those classic-rock behemoths that dominated the old south Jersey circuit.

[serial]

At some point, Jersey raised their drinking age and the business spread out more evenly across PA, Jerey, and northern Delaware. By '83 - '85, I was playing in a band that played in University City, South Street, Delaware and Montgomery counties, and Long Beach Island. We were an '80s new wave kinda act, though, in contrast to those classic-rock behemoths that dominated the old south Jersey circuit.

What was the name of your band?

[raythewrench]

Thanks the Dick lees I was referring to was on rt 130 in bellmawr nj ( right over the walt bridge) there may have been one as well out where yay say for the service guys my dad served from 58 - 62 /and the carnival was tech nicay off th BF B on rt 30 this is the time frame I'm putting together between what my dad class of 57 , me class of 88 an All my cousins were of your age " guessing " group the 18 drinkers . Graduating in the mid ,late and early 80s , and the all had hand painted killer albums on the back of their denim jackets , I remember 3 : the Boston album / yes classics /and 2112 oh an a journey record ,by the time I was in high school you went to The " east " store in the mall an bought a huge patch that kinda fit in the back panel of your denim, my one cousin still has his boston jacket ,it is killer the art etc .....

[raythewrench]

I rember one of the behemoth bands my neighbors daughter went out w / 1 of the guys in the Dead End Kids ( and prolly 4 other girls at the same time) and my older sisters Gf s older sister went out (for along time actually) Robert Hazard who got some nat'l attn. for awhile ,who I believe now has passed away, back then like in 84-85i was 15 an met him at and in a couple casual situations bbq s and such an was a cool dude

[m chops]

Saw a band named Sam the Band at the Dunes (the Dunes 'til Dawn) probably in '76.

[serial]

Robert Hazard passed away a few years ago. Great live show and his 5 song EP from 82 is awesome. I was in contact with him about 6 mos before he died trying to see if it was available since my vinyl and cassette copies either disappeared or sounded bad. He said that the 'digital' copies were actually sourced from a vinyl copy-the tapes were MIA for years.

Tommy Conwell, Hazard, the Hooters, Beru Revue were all on the area circuit then. Good stuff.

[Rich_S]

I must be wrong about the club in the boonies - Dick Lee's was closer in. I spent a lot of time at a smaller club near there, on a traffic circle in Bridgewater; can't remember its name, but Pegasus played thee a lot.

Dead End Kids - loved their show, it was really out front of the whole glam/hairmetal thing. I watched their lead guitarist, Kelly, LOSE an air-guitar contest one time. The fact that he could actually do all the tricks on a real guitar that he was pantomiming for the contest was sort of lost on the judges. LOL

The south Jersey circuit we're talking about was really a '70s thing. They set their drinking age to 18 in '73, raised it to 19 in '80, and then raised it to 21 in '83.

I think of Robert Hazard, The Hooters, Tommy Conwell, Beru Revue (let's not forget The Daves, Smash Palace, Radio Rodeo, and Ben Vaughn of "That '70s Show" fame) as the next era. In the '80s, the focus moved from large, heavily-produced cover bands and tribute acts to original music. The geographic center of this scene was The Cabarets (the 23 East in Ardmore and Chestnut Cabaret at 38th & Chestnut) and South Street in Phildelphia: J.C. Dobbs, Grendel's Lair, the Kyhber Pass. I have an original vinyl copy of Hazard's first EP in good condition. I believe it's the first independent release, it was later remixed and re-released when he signed his major label deal.

During that era, the cover band scene kind of thinned out, smaller bands playing less-produced shows in smaller bars all the way from West Chester to the shore. That was where I was playing, frat parties in University City, and small bars all over the place. My cover band's name was ETC... (Search ETC Drexel on YouTube to find videos from then and now.) I also did sound (and played bass for a very short while) for The Beat Clinic, an original band from Newark, DE who played South Street a lot. They eventually changed their name to The Caulfields and recorded a couple of major-label albums before falling apart.

[serial]

I have a great board tape of Conwell from 85 at the Ambler Cabaret that my buddy swiped. Him as a 3 piece. I loved the later shows when he expanded to 5 guys, but this was good and raw.

[Never2Late]

This thread needs some pics....

[Rich_S]

I have some photos of some of the '79-ish cover bands around, but they are slides, and I'd have to 1) find them, and 2) scan them.

I forgot there was an Ambler Cabaret. Dumb of me, since I grew up in Abington. There was another in West Chester, where I lived during the later half of the '80s.