Well, this was a dream come true, doing an interview with one of my favourite 80's AOR-POMP bands, SUGARCREEK, or maybe, better known in Europe when they went " sugar-free " and shortened their name to THE CREEK, after they got signed by the English Music For Nations. From 1981 to 1989, this great band released 5 albums. The first 3 lp's ( only available on vinyl ) are very hard to get nowadays and are real collector items. Especially their second called " Fortune " ( 1982 ) is a real classic and one of my 10 favourite albums of all time. But also all their other releases contain very good AOR-POMPROCK, and are recommendable for every fan of this genre.

Thanks to Jimi Ray (from the Christian Rock band AGE OF FAITH) we were able to get in touch with Michael Hough, who played guitars on 2 of their 5 recordings, namely Rock the Night Away (1984) and Storm the Gate (1989). Michael brought us in contact with Rick Lee, one of original founding members and responsable for the keys on all the 5 albums, and he was so kind to answer some questions.

Can you please tell us how it all started, about 20 years ago ?

In 1981 ( Live at the Roxy ) and 1982( Fortune ), SUGARCREEK released 2 albums. Can you tell us something about those releases, please. How it started - - A band called "The Rivieras" was a very popular "blue-eyed soul band" in the Carolinas during the 60's. In the late 60's some youger musicians were hired when the older guys decided it was time to get off the road. In the spring of '71, the younger fellows decided to change musical direction to more of a rock thing. I was hired in the spring of '71 along w/a new singer. There is a creek that runs straight though the middle of Charlotte NC that had some major sewage problems at that time that received some headlines on our news casts, so we decided to name our band after it, SUGARCREEK. Excellent group of musicians - enjoyed each other - but had NO DIRECTION. During the next few years, the original lineup gradually faded away. The leader chores that fell in my lap was actually by default. Fortunately, our sound tech (Gray Peck) and management(Dave Fisher) hung in there also.

We actually turned into a frat/party band just to keep working 200 nights a year going through over 70 different musicians in a span of 8 years. The travel(by van) to gigs, doubling up in rooms, rehearsals (that I demanded) established us as a good band but the local musicians knew it wasn't just fun & games. The addition of Lynn Samples (drums) & Mike Barber (bass) helped Gray, Dave & myself realize that there were cats out there that wanted the same things we did: Work hard, write, record, play every gig we could and enjoy it. The local hot radio station WROQ put together a album of local talent and a song I had written, "Lovely Little Lady" was the hot tune on the album and gave us the confidence we needed to push on on in this direction. We recorded 10 more tunes mainly written by Danny Baker(Vocals/gtr) but he suddenly left the band and so did the tunes.

During this time, Paul Scoggins, owner of "The Roxy", approached us about recording a live album in February of 81. We were excited but at a loss w/o our singer. Paul had us booked @ The Roxy for the Thanksgiving weekend - - we played, 4 pieced and rocked the house. He assured us we could do it and said just do what you do. That weekend, I received a call from Jerry West (singer/guitarist) from Asheville NC 150 miles from Charlotte - who I was vaguely familar with because he had written and sang a song on the WROQ album also - - we arranged a jam session for the next week. Jerry started playing w/us in Dec of 80. He played rhythm and sang. We also had invited Tim Clark a singer from Frankfurt KY(400 miles from Charlotte) to audition. Tim sounded good but we had just hired Jerry because we really wanted 2 guitars. We had a great time during the jams in an old building in Harrisburg NC - - that kind of vibe that we all as musicians and entertainers live for. But $ & management had send Tim home after a couple of days - couldn't find a $ way to make it work. During the next 5 or 6 gigs it was apparent that Jerry's voice couldn't handle the grind - his voice was still changing @ 19 years old. When we got home, Tim called and asked to put him on our setup crew and help him find a gig, we said ok. He was the worst roadie you could imagine!!!!! But he was a brother to all of us.

THEN IT HAPPENED! Our lead guitarist who had been an alcoholic showed his ass one time to many - As I look back on this, it is so typical of every band - - The first weekend in January we were playing @ the B & W Club in Lancaster SC. The club was packed and rocking. During Lynn's solo (drums) our alcoholic lead guitarist (which I have intentionally avoided his name and had been with us for 3 years) started slamming his Les Paul on the floor with the Marshall amp cranked up, feedback galore, then grabs some sticks and starts beating the hell out of Lynn's cymbals - Lynn actually spit in his face during this noise and the alcoholic never knew it - we somehow turned the extravaganza into a show and the drunken audience and band suffered an encore. When I confronted him in the dressing room he drew back to throw a punch and Tim grabbed him and carried him outside. At that point the alcoholic crawled in the equipment truck & kicked the window out before passing out. This was Sat - - I gave Tim 20 songs to learn for the Monday gig in Statesboro GA - 3 1/2 weeks later we recorded "Live @ The Roxy"!!

Jerry & I had written a couple of tunes ready for the band to learn for "Roxy" but w/only 3 1/2 weeks, gigs to play, rehearse - little time was left to write for a new singer - -Our new plan was to find a couple of tunes that we have always enjoyed and just play them and split up the vocals in an effort to not put too much pressure on Tim or any of us. We actually kept telling ourselves - Joe Cocker & Leon Russell had less time for Mad Dogs & Englishmen - - but we still had 13 or 14 shows to play before the recording!After the first night, Jerry met with me privately to voice concerns about his ability to cover the guitars. We now had ONE guitarist instead of two and he wasn't confident about trying to do it all - This conversation was the first of many concerning song structure, rhythms, lines, melodies, harmonies - MUSIC!! I told Jerry we were very confident in his ability and attitude and encouraged him to not hold back on his leads. To this day I have NEVER seen as much improvement in any musician in such a short amount of time. He just needed to play. Gray - Lynn - Mike - Jerry - Tim - and me - - the band was starting to gel from the new energy this new lineup offered.

Roxy was recorded live on 24 track 2 inch machine engineered by Mark Williams from Reflection Sound Studio. It was a special night. 1200 people show up in 900 capacity club. We were not very tight - yet - but full of musical energy. Sugarcreek was rocking and The Roxy rocked. We attempted to record the same set twice but on the second go- Mike's theatrics caused him to fall into his bass amp starting a domino efffect with my Rhodes Piano and clavinet being the last dominos to fall off the stage and onto people who loved it. This was on the Steppenwolf medley. Mikes stomped off stage and I covered bass on synth while playing organ and singing to attempt to put an ending on the final tune. We all ran back stage, dying laughing and found Mike with a bleeding leg from where the amp hit him - Then he cracked up too - - Funny things like this happened all the time and contributed to our bond with each other - - We finally had a group of musicians together, from different background, but with the same work ethics and goals!

FORTUNE is for many fans the ultimate POMPROCK album. On ROCK THE NIGHT AWAY( 1984 ), musically there's was a change of direction towards a more commercial style, why and how did that happen ?

Before we started mixing "Roxy" we were already writing tunes again in preparation for a studio album. I remember thinking, "Man, I wish we could have waited a month to record Roxy, so we could add these tunes to it!" These tunes were the beginning of the "Fortune" album. Jerry & I were the writers - - but actually wrote very little together - We both may get to a point writing the tune where we would ask for help and Tim had a knack for lyrically adding what it needed. It seemed during this period between 81 & 82 that each of our influences were becoming evident in our contributions to the songs. Lynn's approach to songs like "Soothsayer" (by Jerry) and Conquest (By me) was nothing short of great. After putting a few tunes together and so many wonderful musical ideas being tossed about it was apparent we needed a producer to harness our energies and make decisions. Mark Williams(engineer) suggested we meet with Jamie Hoover - who grabbed the bull by the
horns and helped give our ideas some direction. Fortune, in my opinion, is a very diverse collection of songs - many different styles - - and Jamie found a way to make them all work together.

One song of this Fortune album is really awesome, namely Conquest For the Commoner. In my opinion, it's one of my all time favourite songs ever. What's your opinion to this statement ?

This seems to be the one song we hear so much about from across the water. The minor success we were having was bringing "fans" out of the woodwork. Guys hanging around wanting to be a part, women wanting the band boys our lives were being changed. I came home to my wife after a short road trip and wrote these lyrics in about 20 minutes. After the story was written, I immediatly sat down with my keys and played this haunting little chord progession. Within an hour I had recorded the demo for the band - the guys flipped when they heard it! When we got to our next gig, somewhere in Georgia, our sound check turned into a rehearsal with Lynn coming up with idea for the big jam under a wild lead guitar ride with only musical cues from him setting up the synth/guitar harmonies they lead back to the statement(chorus). We DID NOT make a demo to listen to and practice with - instead we decided to only play it for an occasional sound check until it was recorded, we probably played it 4 or 5 times in its entirity before we recorded it - we did not want to lose the spark for the jam and it was a jam! Jamie brought in the cellos for overdubs and came up with a wonderful string arrangement. Mike's bass playing reached a peak we had seen before - he and Lynn playing with and off of each other creating a tension that took Jerry's guitar ride way out - Tim's vocal was the most dramatic ever - I can see him now just closing his eyes and belting out alone in that studio - the recording of Conquest was breathaking and was almost effortless in the way it happened. The song received very little airplay over here but live, it was very strong!

Sugarcreek's third album " Rock the Night away " was-is different than Fortune. What do you remember from this recording ?

Michael Hough joined us for this project as an additional guitarist/songwriter/singer. We were not looking to add anyone to the band, but Michael kept coming around, hanging out @ practices, gigs. We knew he could play and sing and decided to give it a shot. It changed the sound of the band - adding another guitar forced us to take a more structured approach to our tunes. Jerry's writing had slowed down and mine had increased - Hough pitched in. Looking back I think Jerry & I actually used each other on Fortune - He'd write one, I'd write one - we kept challenging each other. Commercially, our biggest tunes came from this album - -What A Night, Rock the Night Away and Together Again - - We never intentionally tried to go more "pop", it's just the way our songs happened at the time. Jerry's "White Hot" was always a strong cut and Hough's "What's Gonna Happen"
was a crowd pleaser.


Those first 3 albums were released on BEAVER RECORDS and are loved by collectors nowadays. Why were they released privately ? Any idea how many copies the band sold from those 3 first albums ?

The albums were released on Beaver Records, a company that our manager and I established in 1974. In the 80's, the major labels didn't sign every band on the corner like they do now. It was tough to get a major deal. We felt if we could show the majors that we could write, play, produce, sell good records on our own, furnish our own sound & lights and crew, book it, etc., that their risk would be greatly cut. It was interesting to them but I think they felt they had no control. We needed them for their distribution and their network for letting radio know about it. We paid off our first album 3 months after its release. $11,000. Each record paid for itself and helped get started on the next.

Is there a chance that they will be released on CD in the future ? In Europe, rumours go they will be, but are there really contacts doing it ?

We signed a deal with High Vaultage to release "Fortune", but I understand the company is out of business.
We have actually re-mastered all the old tapes in which Mark Williams "baked" them in a oven to prepare them for the transfer to digital. I was actually quite pleased that most of the recordings still hold up well today. I hope we can find a way to share this music on CD. There are many sounds from the tapes that just didn't work on vinyl.

I always ask myself, how does a band finds their musical direction or style ? I mean, as a band like SUGARCREEK, you're 5-6 guys with different characters, how easy or difficult was it to hold this line-up steady because, over the years, there're were some line-up changes ?

When Lynn, Mike & myself got together in 79 it was another two years before we hooked up with Tim & Jerry. In our case, it was a matter of finding the right personalities, musicians and entertainers that shared a common goal. Fortunately not everyone was a writer, Not all of us could sing like Tim or Jerry, I'm a frustrated guitarist, Jerry was a frustrated keyboardist, Tim thinks he can play drums, Lynn did play drums and on and on. If we had a style, it was the result of the 5 of us writing, playing and sing our songs the way that we wanted to play them.

In 1986, the band had kind of a second start ( NOW the CREEK is SUGARFREE), changed their name in the CREEK and released a selftitled album, again as a five piece band ?

We were tighter than brothers for years. We played 225 nights a year, wrote songs, rehearsed, talked to every radio station that would talk back. But we never got the big one. From 81 to 86 we were confident. We added Michael in 84. He left in 86. Mike Barber left after the name shortening to "The Creek" and the recording of the same name. The Creek album was recorded at a different studio and produced by Steve Gronback. It wasn't as natural for us as the previous 3, but we knew we had to try something different. The name change happened from our nation tv exposure on Star Search when the rap on us was "Sugarcreek sounds like a blue-grass band"! We listened and shortened it and added THE hoping to find the edge! This effort was the first time we had listened to anyone about what we sholud do - -It was the wrong thing to do. We were losing our confidence.

Were there other bands in your region that played your kind of music ?

Yes, there were many that played our songs and tried to do their twist on our music. The band Robbie was one of those.

After ROCK THE NIGHT AWAY, SUGARCREEK signed a deal with the English Music For Nations and they released a compilation LP with tracks from FORTUNE and ROCK THE NIGHT AWAY. Why no tracks from LIVE AT THE ROXY and why no reissue from the entire 3 albums, SUGARCREEK released by then ?

After the 3rd pressing in 83 we decided not to issue anymore of the Roxy album, why? We felt we could do much better!

Did you often had the opportunity to play live in those days and can you remember bands you've played with ?

Yes, we did a few - Pablo Cruise - Cheap Trick - Honeymoon Suite - The Producers - Emerson, Lake & Poowell(blew us away!) 38 Special - The Outlaws - Huey Lewis & The News - REO Speedwagon - - and many opened for us - Firehouse - Jackyl and others.


Is there any chance for some kind of a reunion ? Are or were you surprised that there's still interest in the band and their music ?

Yes we are surprised and humbled and flattered. Reunion - Who knows? Michael is in deep with the hot band in Charlotte right now, Superglide. Great 70s & 80s cover band - - - - Jerry is playing with "The Band of Oz" a 60's & 70s cover band that actually has a cd or 2 available - - Tim has a group called "Tim Clark & Deja Vu" playing mainly the Myrtle Beach bars - 80's and some new alternative covers - - I'm with a 4 piece band called "Too Much Sylvia". Lynn Samples played with us for 4 years. The band formed in 90 right after The Creek broke up, Tim started with us but left after about 3 months. We didn't want to "hit the road" again. Too Much Sylvia plays 100 gigs a year. Variety band Jazz standards, 60s, disco, funk, 80's r&r - Backstreet Boys - WHATEVER!!!!!! No pressure, just crowd pleasers. Reunion? Jerry, Tim & I talked recently about writing some tunes but our schedules and homes are 3 hours apart so its not just a drive across town.

So far, this chat with Rick Lee. We here at STRUTTER are very thankful he took the time to answer our questions. Last news on SUGARCREEK is that a well known European label showed interest in rereleasing
their lp's on CD. Also Rick Lee told me in an e-mail after the interview that our interest in the band stimulated the fire, he spoke with all former members and maybe, who knows, and let's keep our fingers crossed, there'll be a reunion of this great band.

(Interview by Willy van Buel)

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