Street Elite - Detroit 'cover' band from the early 80's

Street Elite (1979-1980?)
    This band, as most do, went through several member changes. Most of the players weren't really notorious around the Detroit area. In fact, most were still in their early 20's, and this was a first or second effort for most.

     It all really started when the maintenance man for the apartment I was living in came over to fix the garbage disposal. He saw a picture of Mondo-Kane displayed on the coffee table, and started asking questions. Come to find out, he was a drummer, and his brother, Wayne, a guitar player.   Wayne worked with Bob Durphy, who played base.

     We all hooked up for a test drive. It wasn't really one of those jam sessions that leaves everyone excited. Anyway, the drummer decided to not do it, and we kind of just let things go, since there didn't seem to be a lot to build on.

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GIGS
Street Elite went through 7 drummers, 2 rythem guitarists, 1 "lead vocalist", and played only 4 bars in 3 years.
The bassist and lead guitar/vocalist remained the same throughout.

* Dolly's Den * * Tupay's (East Detroit) [photos & audio found ~ coming soon!] *
* The Brickyard * * Rudy's Uptown [VIDEO found ~ coming soon!] *

Editor's Note: I'll try to add dates and organize these in chronological order, if and when I can sort it out. If anybody has any memories and/or photos to contribute, please e-mail me or use the feedback forum (link at bottom of page)

    Bob (the bassist) and I became good friends, and we jammed together quite a bit with anybody we could find, and kept knocking the idea around of eventually starting a band.

     Then - out of the blue - I got a call from an old friend from Alpena I'd been in a few bands with. Vean played guitar and sang, and had a unique and individual personality. He was sort of a Brian May meets early Rush kinda dude, and always did "his own thing". Him and his wife were considering the idea of coming to Detroit to try and find jobs, whatever. I was excited to see them, and pitched the idea of a band right off.

     Now, all we needed was a drummer. Out go the ads.

We found some guy from Gross Point, who had some decent jazz technique. I called and booked a gig 2 weeks out at Dolly's Den (where I'd played with Mondo-Kane). We crammed a bunch of stuff together ~ Baby's, Black Sabbath, Tom Petty, Cars, Bad Company (typical bar band stuff) plus some Iggy and Cheap Trick. We figured out ways to stretch stuff with extra guitar solos to fill four sets - and went at it.

Left to Right: Bob Durphy, me, Vean at Dolly's Den. No printed photos exist of the drummer (gotta check the negative files).

The drummer caught his foot on my guitar strap crawling out from behind his drums and my original vintage '69 Gibson Flying Vee fell over. The result was a thumb-sized dent in the back of the neck. I told him he'd have to pay for the damage ($60). I guess he thought it was unfair (as I do now) and gave me the $60 - and never answered our calls after that.
I admit it ... I was wrong ... it was obviously an accident, and I was a jerk.
Hey, I was heavy into the "wanna be a punk" scene (that's me in the picture to the left). At least I learned to tuck the strap out of harm's way from then on (and still do).

It took a couple weeks to find a new drummer. We got lucky with Shawn - a real rockin' Black cat with exceptionally steady meter and an impresive stage flare which included a lot of twirling (impressive - and rare - in 1980). He was a big AC/DC fan, and really slammed it out.

Dolly's was blue-colar/redneck bar. A few too many PBR's and some of locals couldn't resist messing with Shawn just because he was Black. Though we got in the middle of it and nothing happened that I'm aware of, I think some stuff might've went down the rest of us didn't see which made Shawn feel seriously threatened.

    Anyway, Shawn quit abruptly ~ on the day we had a "big" promo photo shoot planned. I had this master-mind idea: to set up and "stage" us jamming in the parking lot of the K-Mart world headquarters in Troy. Get it? "Street Elite"?
     Well, since Shawn had just quit, we asked Vean's cousin to pose for the picture. Ironic ~ we have no pix of the real drummers, but 100 or so of the not-real drummer...
     I wish I would've had a video camera to tape the looks on people's faces ~ watching us set up. Surprisingly, to security patrol who crused by realised we were just shooting pictures ~ and didn't have electricity ~ and didn't even stop to ask questions.
     It was so much fun, we shot about 4 roles of 36 exp. film, including some Kodachrome (I'll try to post a few later, but my scanner just went fritz).
     The shoot ended suddenly when a strong back wind swept across the parking lot and toppled our amps over on our heals.

The next step - besides searching for yet another drummer - was to get a "demo" tape together to help book bar gigs. I had some studio time earned from working in a friend's recording studio as a grunt, and we recorded two songs ~ neither of them original. The quality was supurb, as far as bar demo's go. Funny ~ I have no idea who the drummer was..

* * * DOWNLOAD STREET ELITE DEMO ( MP3 format ) * * *

As I recall, before we managed to book anything from the tape, Vean quit. I think he needed money, like from a real job..

So, Bob and I were once again trying to put a band together. We jammed a lot, drank beer, and just got loud.

If anybody remember's how it happened, please contact me ~ somehow, Steve ended up drumming for us. We hired Wayne back on 2nd guitar (he was really a nice guy, really wanted to play, and had excellent gear). Ultimately, we resolved to hiring a lead vocalist / frontman: Robert. Yeah, I pushed my ego-driven wanna-be-the-star attitude aside, and made a smart move. Listening to some of the bar and basement tapes, my vocals stunk most of the time. Adding a dedicated singer opened up a lot of options.

Street Elite at the Brickyard in Mt. Clements
Left to right: Wayne, Robert, Steve, me, and Bob (who had an 8 string bass, serial #666 - I kid you not!)

    We were credited for "the best Tuesday night ever" by Rudy, the owner of the Brickyard. After nearly three years of struggle, we managed to raise some curiosity, and had most of everyone we knew come out. We scribbled up some flyers, and I went up and down Groesbeck from 12 Mile and Gratiot from 16 Mile all the way through Mt. Clements, hanging them in every gas station, restraunt, and party store. Yes, we did pack the place beyond capacity, and worked the crowd well.

     Rudy gave us a return booking, this time for a weekend ~ which didn't go as good as the Tuesday. Not that we played bad or anything, but given the promo effert we put into the Tuesday gig, Friday & Saturday nights didn't have the turnout. Rudy said he wasn't sure if we were really ready to draw repeated weekend crowds, but offered us an opening slot at a new, huge, bar he'd just opened - Rudy's Uptown (previously The Carousel Ballroom). We'd be put first on the bill in front of two 'more established' bands from the scene: BOLTS and Adreneline.

     We ended up having a good show;, though it was only one short set. *** VIDEO AVAILABLE HERE SOON! ***

     Two days later, Steve took an offer to drum with Bogart.

     One day after that, I accepted an offer to replace the guitar player for Bolts.

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UPDATE! BOB DURPHY FOUND! We spoke briefly in June '07 & passed a few e-mails. Bob has a VHS VIDEO of our performance at Rudy's Uptown! I'll try to get it digitized and post here SOON!!