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 When drummer, Ray Lee, failed to show up for a mid-September gig at the Bartow Teen Center, the drummer for the original Starfires, Allen Keefer, was given a call and he agreed to play the night. Also sitting in on that evening was Gerald Chambers on bass guitar who had been playing with the now only recently defunct "Legends". That night marked the first performance of the legendary "Ron & The Starfires", made up of Ron Whitney on vocals, Chuck (Charlie) Brown on rhythm guitar and organ, Allen Keefer on drums, Gerald (Jesse) Chambers on bass and Carl Chambers on lead guitar. All five members of the band lived in Auburndale, Florida and would play together until mid-1966.
Ron & the Starfires started out
as basically an R&B band, doing mostly the blues
and rhythm and blues songs of the late 50's and early
60's. They leaned heavily toward the stylings of such
artists as: James Brown, Jimmy Reed, the Impressions,
Lonnie Mack and Jerry Butler -- sprinkled with a little
Jerry Lee Lewis, and some of the more popular doo-wop
tunes of the time. With the coming of the "British
Invasion" of the mid-60's, the show became more
of a 50/50 split of R&B and the English rock music
of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Searchers, Zombies,
Animals, Dave Clark 5, etc.. That mix of music kept
Ron & the Starfires in high demand for several
years.
 Audition
Recordings (ca. 1964)
Ernie
Garrison Studio - Lakeland,
Florida
Recorded direct to Acetate Disk
The
Starfires played a circuit of jobs that managed to
keep them busy most of the year. In the Spring they
played high school proms from Jacksonville to Ft.
Myers and in the summer they were regulars at the
Polk, Lake, and Pasco County Teen Centers, as well
as the Orlando Youth Center, the Ormond Beach Teen
Club, and "The Pier", "The Wedge" and "The
Martinique" in Daytona Beach.
 Lake-Sumter
Sentinal -
Newspaper
Article (July 1965)
It was in Daytona
that the Starfires became friends with manager Mike
Stone and his group "The
Nightcrawlers", who were enjoying a regional
hit in the southeast U.S. with the song "The
Little Black Egg". Mike set up a recording
session at Criteria Studios in Miami (with Lee Hazen
engineering), where he produced several original
songs Ron had written, as well as a couple of cover
tunes. They did manage minor successes in the Gainesville
and Daytona areas with the tune "The
Grass Is Greener", on the independent Lee-C record
label although it was actually the "B" side
of the single, "Why Did You Cry".
Miami
Session I (1965)
Criteria
Studio A - North Miami,
Florida
(Produced by Mike Stone / Engineered by Lee Hazen)
 During the fall of
the year, probably 75% of the jobs that Ron and
the Starfires played were at or around the University
of Florida campus in Gainesville. Chuck (Charlie)
Brown was a student there and got the group a gig
at the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house where he was
a brother. The next term (fall of '64?) the Starfires
opened the newly constructed Pi Kappa Phi house on
Fraternity Row and were made honorary pledges that
allowed them certain "house" privileges.
They became known around town as the Pi Kapp "house" band
and were always booked in advance to play their "Homecoming
party" as well as a good number of their other
events each term.
As Ron and the
Starfires' popularity spread, the group branched
out to the other houses on the row and around town.
They were one of the most used bands on the University
of Florida campus during the mid-60's. Among the
more popular bands playing the Gainesville circuit
during that era, were a group from Leesburg, The
Nation Rocking Shadows, and a local Gainesville
band, the Maundy Quintet, who incidentally
had a couple of guitar players by the names of Don
Felder and Bernie Leadon.
Ron & the Starfires played as opening act for
quite a number of sixties artists including: The
ShangriLas, The Birdwatchers, Tommy Roe, The Nightcrawlers,
John Fred & His Playboy Band and Rufus Thomas
and often shared the stage when in Daytona with The
Allman Joys (several great stories there... maybe
later).
In the fall of 1966, Charlie Brown
started "Law School" at the University
of Florida and could no longer devote time to playing
in the band (maybe his priorities were just out
of whack).
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During this short period between
organists, the band returned to Miami for their second
recording session,
this time with producer Brad Shapiro. The initial
tracks were recorded at Bobby Dukoff's Studio and
overdubs were done at Criteria Studio. Keyboards
for the sessions were provided by Bobby Puccetti,
from the Birdwatchers, and the session yielded the
single (on the Kim Records label), "Lyla" (written
by Whitney, Chambers and Chambers) b/w "Crawl
Into My Shoulder" (written by Charlie Conlon).
The single was pressed but it was never promoted
to any extent. For some reason, the artist was Ron
Starr on the single but no one remembers what madness
lead to that decision (probably some record label
chicanery). This session produced what were probably
the best recordings the Starfires ever made. Unfortunately,
the original masters seemed to have been lost, but
a board mix made after the session did survive on
cassette.
Ron & the Starfires continued to perform and
grow musically for several years after Charlie Brown
left the group, but this was definitely the end of
an era for the band.
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