Stories
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Story # 002: The Stepping Stones

As mentioned in About The Young Uncles,  Uncle Mitch and Uncle Don  moved to Southern California in 1980 and briefly were referred to (mostly by themselves) as The Stepping Stones (not to confused with the other "stones"), a two-piece (guitar and harmonica) compliment to our friend, Gary, who had also moved to California at the same time and who actually had musical ability. In fact, we bonded as friends while doing a community college (Mesabi) production of "My Fair Lady" together. Gary was Professor Higgins, Don was Alfie Dolittle, and Mark, another friend who moved also moved to California at that time, was Colonel Pickering. (It was my first theatrical experience; I played one of Alfie's cockney buddies as well as Lord Boxington.) In the musical, Gary did a good job singing "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face", etc., and he also played in local bar band as well, handling the male lead vocals ("Rock'n'Roll Rosie was the female vocalist) and playing bass and keyboards. Gary walked away from all that fame to join us in California.

Well, the exact location in California we landed (Pomona) was not exactly the most glamorous, and it was quite perplexing how there were many nightspots in Northern Minnesota with decent live music while there seemed to be very few in the Pomona area. There was a country western club we found that was ok, but we weren't exactly into the urban cowboy scene. However, this particular club did stir things up a bit. Once they had a guy perform three sets--one impersonating Tony Orlando, one impersonating some one else (Dean Martin?) and the last one impersonating Elvis (as Elvis, he asked for a moment of silence for our hostages in Iran, which the crowd readily granted). Another evening, they had a talent show in which a contestant named Ron performed "My Way" very eagerly.

Closer to where we lived was a club that had been closed, but one day Gary announced that it had opened under new ownership as "The Rock Palace". Not only that, this venue--a place where Van Halen had supposed once performed--would feature live music. Gary and Don anxious attend the first show, and reported that it was awful. Ron, of talent show fame, had somehow recruited some backing musicians, but they were not on the same page. This I had to see. On the second night, Ron had already lost part of his band. Nonetheless, he performed "My Way" with gusto, down on one knee for the big finish, even if musically it was all out of synch.

Shortly afterwards, Gary learned from the new owner that Ron had to be fired due to some allegedly lewd conduct, putting the fledgling night club in a bind, what with it being a Friday. Gary (who had dropped in during the day) suggested that he and his friends could perform a few songs, and the own, having no alternative, agreed.

Now, Gary, Don and I had done a little jamming and even recorded a song or two on my reel-to-reel, but we did not have much in the way of equipment suitable for a live performance. But being seasoned veterans of the stage, we knew that "the show must go on" so we lugged Garry's microphone and bass amp to the Palace, plugged in Gary's bass and the microphone to the bass amp, and shared the microphone the best we could. It sounded pretty bad (we'll plame the PA system...er, I mean, the bass amp), and shortly after we started one of the few patrons in the club attempted to play a record on the juke box. Our set of probably no more than half a dozen songs did not lead to a deal with a major record company. Gary eventually moved back to Minnesota and played in a bar band again, while Don and I moved to the Bay Area and still did not get a record deal.