Still A Thrill...

Thrills from Strutter Magazine
Thrills began in 1974, made up of players Tony Monaco (keyboards, vocals), Rob Owens (drums, vocals), Dave Fullerton (guitars, vocals) and Bill Gilbert (bass, vocals).

The core members of the band were Monaco and Fullerton of Penn Hills, who had started out playing in a seven-piece group called Menagerie that was horn-driven, doing some Chicago and BS&T stuff, along with a few Fullerton compositions.

They decided to put out a leaner and meaner sound, and formed Bad Company (no, not that one), with bass player Al Opsitnick after adding Owens to the roster, who had a lights out audition. They put together a playlist of some 20 cover songs, and were good to go.

Bad Company began playing high school dances, and became a mainstay of the frat party circuit, a pretty steady source of gigs back in the day. When they were all of age, they rocked the regional club and bar venues.

They dropped the Bad Company name - it seems some Brits were playing under that banner, too - in mid-1974 when Gilbert signed on, and became Thrills.

Gilbert replaced Opsitnick, who split because of the dreaded artistic differences. He was a pal of Fullerton's - they both belonged to the chess club, apparently a primo rock 'n' roll hangout in Penn Hills. Thrills continued on as popular act in the Tri-State area.

They picked up a manager, Tom Ingegno, originally from Long Island (he and Mike Frenchik served as writers, producers, and agents for the band). He was looking ahead towards the group's future, and was afraid that like so many area bands before them, Thrills would never become more than a big fish in a small pond if they got into a Pittsburgh comfort zone and didn't grow their fan base.

So using his homeboy connections, he booked some NY dates for the band. The rock music scene there during the late 70’s was thriving and Thrills were a good fit. After a few months of travelling back and forth, they made NY their home base in 1977. Playing the club circuit in New York City, Jersey, and Long Island, their career took off.

In virtually no time, Thrills were voted the #1 band on Long Island by Good Times Magazine in 1978. They started to put together more original material, and released a single "Not Gonna Run" on their own label, First Step Records. Then they inked a deal with indie G&P Records.

They spent the next year playing and recording in New York and Los Angeles, where the band laid down their initial album, "First Thrills," in 1979. It was original stuff, with a couple of cuts from an earlier 10-song demo they had made, but decided not to release. The vinyl hit the racks in February of 1980.

And hey, it did pretty good. Thrills expected some New York area love, but the LP nudged into Billboard's Top 200, featuring the single "Breaking My Heart." They toured heavily in support of it, backing bands like John Kay & Steppenwolf, Foreigner, Quarterflash, Nick Lowe, and Donnie Iris.

Thrills took some time of from the road and went back to L.A. in September of 1981 to record "Front Page News," their second G&P release.

Monaco said "I think it was our best album. It was by far our biggest commercial success, especially in the tri-state area near Pittsburgh. There was a radio station in Pittsburgh known as 96KX. They got behind one of the songs that Dave had written called 'Tonight' and placed it into heavy rotation. It held a top 10 status for over 10 weeks! We really felt that we on the brink of making it."

Yah, the band can leave Pittsburgh, but Pittsburgh never leaves the band. 96 Kicks and DVE pushed the singles "Tonight" and to a lesser degree, "High Side of 55." The group returned to the road, hoping to hit the rock 'n' roll jackpot of fame and fortune.

Owens left the band after that, and Pittsburgh drummer Linda Mackley (she played for local acts Harombee & Axys) took his place.

In 1983, they went back to the studio to cut "Thrills 3." The ten tracks showcased power keyboards with slick harmonies and choruses. Though tilted a bit towards ballads, Thrills rocked hard with cuts like "The Feeling’s Gone" and "Too Many First Times."

It was supposed to be the band's breakout disk. But G&P ran out of money and steam, and folded after the taping. The label's demise left Thrills without a record company, and their latest master collected dust in the vaults.

That bad hand led to the end of Thrills. As Monaco said of the album that wasn't: "I really believe that it could have broken the band on a national level. That was what upset us so much. We were so close! The stress of over ten years of hard work ending so abruptly is really what broke the band up."

Fate, though, is a funny beast. G&P and Thrills (to be replaced in name by another Thrills band in 2001, an Irish indy group. Must be karma left over from the Bad Company days) may have faded from existence, but that tape was still sitting on its shelf, waiting for an ear. And it finally found a friendly one.

A Thrills' fan, Steve Allen, knew about the unissued album, and he introduced the bands' suits to Dane Spencer of Rewind Records (and Sojourn), a division of Song Haus music and classic rock reissuer. He liked what he heard on the buried T3 tape, and Rewind remastered and released "Thrills 3" in 2000, almost two decades after it was cut.

It was well received by the public, and the reviewers dug it, too. Rewind followed by issuing "Live from My Fathers Place" in 2002, which was recorded at the Roslyn NY club My Fathers Place and broadcast live over Hempstead's WLIR Radio, on March 17, 1981.

"Front Page News" was reissued last year by AOR-fm, and is being distributed through CD Baby. The band hopes that a double CD of "First Thrills" and "From Kingdom Come" (taped in 1979 at Kingdom Sound Studios in Syosset, NY. It was going to be their first album, but didn't quite make the cut) will join the list. Not a bad discography for a group that disbanded in 1983, hey?

And the music still holds up. It's great AOR work from the early eighties, in the pomprock vein of Asia, Styx, Yes, Kansas, and REO Speedwagon. Their stuff was that good and well-produced.

Who knows where Thrills would be now if they signed with a national label that had the muscle to place them on some more radio playlists, or if G&P could have hung on financially until the MTV era and its monster PR potential? It's an old story for Pittsburgh bands, even those that head to the bright lights.

What's the band up to now? Monaco says "We all went our separate ways although we remained close friends. Dave, Linda, and I went to work with various local bands. Bill wasn’t interested in doing a local circuit. We all got day jobs and went about our lives."

"Linda Mackley still lives in New York and she is always doing something new musically. Rob Owens, our original drummer, lives in Pittsburgh. Bill lives here in Florida near Dave and I. We are just normal guys with normal jobs, families, and nice homes."

"As far as a formal re-grouping, we are all in different places in our lives so while it is unlikely, it is not impossible. Hopefully, we will get second chance to make our mark, leave a legacy, if even a small one. Like my hero Billy Joel once said, 'Don’t forget your second wind.'”

Fullerton explains Thrills more simply. "We were all Pittsburgh boys living a dream and trying to achieve it," he says. And hey, 25 years later, the dream lives on.


Thrills - "Tonight"

(To keep up with the band, visit the Thrills My Space page. And Old Mon would like to thank Tony Monaco - who is quoted from a Strutter magazine interview - Dave Fullerton, Sonny Derdock and Audrey Monaco Danovich for their generous and invaluable help.)

Rebekah Starr Band

Rebekah Snyder-Starr
Hey, a trio of Kittanning's finest rockers, The Rebekah Starr Band, are having their initial CD release party at 10 PM tonight at Station Square's Hard Rock Cafe to push "Rockstar Girl."

The band is trying to tap into the 21st Century business model for music sales. They bypassed the label chase and bricks-and-mortar distribution system, and are counting on the web to get their sound to the public. For starters, they handled the financing, recording, and production themselves.

TRSB recorded at North Hill's Audible Images Studio for a couple of weeks in February and March. The studio has laid down the sound for just about every genre you can come up with, including world music, rock, pop, C&W, and hip-hop.

Rock producer Marc Jordan flew to Pittsburgh from L.A. to oversee the project, and even played bass for them. He returned home with the raw tracks to mix at his studio, Dragonfly Revolution. Then the record was mastered by Tom Baker of Precision Mastering in Hollywood, California. And viola, "Rockstar Girl" was ready to roll.

Now comes the hard part, moving some wax. They're selling the tracks on iTunes, Dig Station, their web site, and some non-traditional hometown outlets.

"We think we have a great business plan for pursuing multiple sales avenues," says Rebekah. "And just like national artists turn to nontraditional retail outlets, like Starbucks and Victoria’s Secret, for selling their music, we’re also not completely leaving out brick-and-mortar for our local fans either.”

Old Mon wishes them success. But even the new ways of pushing platters is a dog-eat-dog venue; there are a lotta bands out there vying for some web love.

But hey, enough about the industry. TRSB itself plays a little raw live, which isn't a bad thing at all, and they categorize their music as funkrock. It's a good sound, and like every solid Pittsburgh band, the group tosses a little R&B into their rock.

Lead singer, guitar player, and writer Rebekah Snyder-Starr has performed from Kittanning to Manhattan (as a solo act). With drummer Michael Starr (her hubby, who she's known since grade school days) and Nathan Mancine (bass & vocals), she formed rock trio The Rebekah Starr Band.

If you're into degrees of separation, Snyder-Starr went to school with Starr, who worked at a drum shop in Cranberry with best bud Mancine. It makes for a pretty tight group.

It shows during the act. Snyder-Starr might jump behind the kit, Starr could play a few licks on the lead ax, and Mancine will take over the vocals. It's a high-octane performance and a good mix of pop licks from the three players.

The band was one of the finalists last week in the Hard Rock/WDVE Battle of the Bands, and they're gigging tomorrow at the Belmont Arena in Kittanning ahead of Butler's Bret Michaels, lead singer of 1980's rockers Poison and the star of VH1’s “Rock of Love” show.

They've got dates on Saturday, June 13, playing the "Waves of Thunder" Motorcycle Show at the Kittanning Riverfront Ampitheatre, and on Saturday, July 10, opening for the band Girls Girls Girls at The Warehouse, in Kittanning.

TRSB is working to put together their summer schedule - yah, even venturing outside Kittanning and Station Square - to support "Rockstar Girl." Check their web site for bookings and catch them when they show up near you; you'll get righteous in a hurry to their boogie.


"Very" by The Rebekah Starr Band live at the Warehouse

When "It Ain't No Big Thing" Was A Big Thing

The Electrons of the late 1960's, from Richie Merritt's collection
One of the hot Pittsburgh songs of 1967-68 was "It Ain't No Big Thing," a midtempo soul tune done by the Electrons.

The song was originally done as a beach music tune by the Radiants. It would eventually be covered by 22 different artists, with better known versions done by the Tempests and Jimmie James & the Vagabonds.

The Electrons were seniors from Penn Hills High when they recorded the song in 1967 at Gateway Studios (above the National Record Mart store on Forbes Avenue near Market Square) on their own Shock Label (#289), b/w Wilson Pickett's soul shaker "In The Midnight Hour."

The Electron lineup consisted of former Fi-Dels lead singer Steve Sopko, drummer Cliff Abromats, rhythm guitarist Jimmy Widman, bass guitarist Jim Blinkhorn, Reed Donelli on brass, and lead guitarist and keyboardist Mike Colaizzi.

Abromats founded the band, and kept the business a family affair - his mom and dad (a former WAMO jock) were the de facto managers.

The song was a big thing in the Pittsburgh region - it was a Top Ten tune on WAMO, and made KDKA's Top Twenty - and created vibes in some other eastern and midwest markets. "It Ain't No Big Thing" moved enough wax locally that the Date Label (#2-1575), Columbia Record's soul subsidiary that included Peaches and Herb on its roster, picked it and the band up later in the year.

It was strong enough in the local market to keep the Electrons in business for awhile. They did the Tri-State club and hop circuit, and were regulars on Terry Lee's TV dance show "Come Alive."

And they had to work the circuit hard. The group found their contract with Date was more of a burden than blessing; the label made no effort to promote them or cut any more wax. As soon as the deal was done, they went back to the recording studio.

They put out another 45, "Turn On Your Love Light" b/w "I Who Have Nothing" (Shock #290) in the fall of 1968 with Richie Merritt on lead. He had replaced Sopko, who had left the band in the spring. (A Donora native, Merritt sang for the Mon Valley acts El Qunitones and The Dragons). But "Love Light" never took off the way "Big Thing" did.

"It Ain't No Big Thing" to this day is a popular slab of vinyl in Europe, where the Northern Soul collectors still argue over who turned out the best version.

The Electrons played the region until 1970, when the gang broke up and drifted off to college and the real world. But a couple of the members carried on in the business.

Sopko, now performing as Steve Tori, joined the Exceptions after he left the Electrons, which evolved into an eight-piece show band. He spent three years with them, and then switched gears and formed a trio that played the clubs.

After another three year stint, he went solo. Tori performs in the Pittsburgh and the near Tri-State, taking his act to clubs, restaurants, private functions, and parties. He also does gospel music, singing in area churches.

Richie Merritt opened a night club following the Electrons break-up, but carved out a sweet career on the stage instead of behind it. He sang with High Society, The Vibrators, The Laurels and The Memories.

Then, in 1993, Merritt became the lead tenor for The Clovers and was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in Sharon with them in 2002.

They dissolved shortly after, and he joined the Marcels in 2003, with whom he still performs nationally on occasion. Now he's based near Tampa, and does southland R&B gigs both as a solo artist and with his backup group, the Gems.

He also wrote and performed "Where Did I Go Wrong" (RAM Records), a song that made the Top 10 in the United Kingdom in 1990. It's on the self-released 1998 CD "Then And Now". Merritt released a CD collection of crossover hits in 2005, titled "Now."

(Old Mon is grateful to Sonny Derdock of the Penn Hills People website for his help in uncovering the Electrons info, Audrey Monaco Danovich, who provided us with the Electrons players, Mike Colaizzi, and Richie Merritt for his help. Without their kind assistance, there'd be no post. Thanks, guys, we appreciate it.)


Electrons - "Ain't No Big Thing"
And here's the B-Side, "In The Midnight Hour"

Jack Stanizzo at Cefalo's

Don't miss Jack and Paul.

Jill West and The Blues Attack

Jill West and the Blues Attack
Hey, the Pittsburgh blues genre has remained pretty strong, even as the local venues for it have dried up, making it hard for fans to follow the bands.

But one act that you'll have no trouble finding is Jill West and the Blues Attack. It's a safe bet that they'll be playing a gig at a club, festival, or jam somewhere near you soon.

Jill West, the Queen of the Pittsburgh Blues scene, was born in the City's West End neighborhood of Elliott. She was a little diva from the get-go, performing for her family and neighbors at the drop of a hat. But the blues didn't find the 55 year-old West until Bob Beach, a local bluesman, asked her to do gig with him in the mid-eighties.

She hadn't been exposed to the blues, musically or literally, while growing up, so she ran down to the local record store - remember them? - and snatched a copy of Koko Taylor's "Live From Chicago: An Audience With the Queen." She was wowed.

Why the late epiphany? As she told Rebecca Sodergren of the Post Gazette in 2001: "I am not a blues woman. I have been very comfortable my entire life. My man wasn't beating me and stealing my money. I didn't have any of those terrible things."

While she may not have had any personal demons to exorcise, she said her "...blues music has become more of a treatment for the blues" rather than a symptom. Doctor, doctor, find me a cure...

As Phil Harris once wrote in Pittsburgh Magazine: "You won't find her singing about throwing herself off a bridge because her man left her. She says I'm gonna sing 'My man left me and I'm gonna throw him off a bridge.'" She's sure tough enough to be a blueswoman.

In 1991, West joined a group called the Hell Hounds (West, Don Hollowood, Hank Raffetto, Bird Foster, Jack Sanso and George Kasalaswhich) that evolved into the Blues Attack, and they've been mainstays of the local blues circuit ever since. West is a big, brassy blues belter, and she's surrounded by some veteran players with enough confidence in their chops to take local up-and-comers under their wing, like Jimmy Adler and Zach Wiesinger, until they can fly on their own.

Mark Cholewski (rhythm guitar), Gregg Krupa (lead guitar), "Hammerin' Hank" Raffetto (bass guitar), " Sudden Steve" Binsberger (keyboards) and Nicky "No Shoes" Crano (drums) can lay down a slow blues ballad or pump up an ax-driven rocker. And West's pipes can handle any tempo they can deliver.

The Blues Attack plays all over the tri-state area as well as opening for national acts like Koko Taylor, Buddy Guy, Bo Diddley, and B. B. King when they're in town. In fact, they celebrated their tenth anniversary by opening for Taylor, West's first role model, at the 2001 Pittsburgh Blues Festival.

They've had their moment in the national sun, too. In 2006, they placed third out of one hundred and sixty two international bands in the International Blues Competiton held in Memphis. The Blues Attack has captured the Western Pennsylvania crown twice, and they're finalists for the 2009 title, too.

Besides laying down tracks for a few Pittsburgh compilation albums, they have a trio of pretty good CDs of their own out, too. In 1997, the band released "Code Blue," (no longer in print) featuring "He's No Good" and "The Mirror."

Their second album, 2002's "Faceful of Blues," was recorded at Mr. Small's and has four covers and ten original tunes on the playlist. "Four Letter Word," "The Other Woman," "Begging Song," Screamin' Jay Hawkin's "I Put A Spell On You," and Tyrone Davis' "Change My Mind," are all strong tracks.

Their latest is 2009's "Headline Blues." It features originals like "Don't Burn the Barbeque," "Needful Things" and "Love Song in C" plus covers of the Lazy Lester tune "Sugar Coated Love," "How You Carry On" by Dr. John, "Boomerang" by Roomful of Blues' Chris Vachon, and Ray Charles' "Unchain My Heart."

But for all that, Jill West knows enough about the blues to keep her day job. She's an operating room nurse at Children's Hospital, to go along with her almost full time gig as a singer. And hey, a schedule like that is plenty to give anyone the blues.


"He's The One" - Jill West & the Blues Attack Live at Kendrews in Aliquippa on April 5th, 2009