Not long after the original "Starfires" had
broken up (near the end of 1962), Ron Whitney and Chuck Brown decided
to reform the group and continue their quest for rock and roll
nirvana. But, since most of the band had gone their seperate ways
and were
no longer available, they called and asked me (our group "The
Dynamics" had also recently broken up) to play lead guitar
for them. I was more than eager to play with the older musicians
who had first kindled my desire to play rock and roll and still
have that maroon After-Six dinner jacket (the band's uniform)
stuck back in a closet somewhere. Ron sang and played rhythm, Chuck
(the former lead guitarist) played the bass and the job of drummer
was filled by Ray Lee. We first went on stage, Saturday, February
7, 1963 at the Auburndale Teen Center (incidently the band was
paid $40.00). Although relatively short-lived, several live recordings
and a couple of good photos of the quartet survived.
This four-man configuration lasted until mid-September
when the drummer failed to show up one night for a gig at the Bartow
Teen Center. When his car was finally located at a bar on Highway
17 (on the way to Bartow), it became abundantly clear that in order
to do the job that night we would have to have another drummer.
The original drummer for the Starfires, Allen Keefer, was given
a call and he agreed to play the night. Also sitting in that evening
was Gerald (Jesse) Chambers on bass guitar who had been playing
with the now only recently defunct "Legends". From that
night and for the next three and a half years this was the Starfires
line-up. Shortly after these personnel changes, the band's name
was changed to Ron and the Starfires because it had come
to our attention that several groups up north was also using the
name Starfires.
From the beginning, Ron & the Starfires
was basically an R&B band, doing mostly the blues and rhythm
and blues songs of the late 50's and early 60's. We leaned heavily
toward the stylings of such artists as: James Brown, Jimmy Reed,
the Impressions, Jerry Butler and Ray Charles -- sprinkled with
a little Jerry Lee Lewis, Lonnie Mack and Joey Dee -- as well as
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 would keep the group in high demand
for several years to come.
Ron Whitney worked
as the band's manager and developed a circuit of jobs that kept
us busy year-round. From the Fall through the Spring we played
high school dances and proms from Palatka to Clewiston mixed with
countless college and university events covering most of the state.
 In
the Fall, probably half 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 had gotten the group's
first frat gig (as an audition) at the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity
house, where he was a brother, on January 18, 1964. When the '64
Fall term started, the Starfires opened the new Pi Kappa Phi house
on Fraternity Row playing their first "Rush" party in
the new house. We were soon made honorary Pi Kappa Phi pledges
that allowed us certain "house" privileges and became
known around town as the Pi Kapp "house" band, a relationship
we would enjoy for most of the sixties. We were always booked in
advance to play their Homecoming party, as well as a good number
of their other events each term. As our popularity spread, Ron
and the Starfires branched out to the other houses on the row and
around town. We were probably one of the most used bands at the
University of Florida during the mid-60's. Other popular bands
around campus during that era, were Leesburg's Nation Rocking
Shadows, and a local Gainesville band, the Maundy Quintet,
that sported a couple of guitar players by the names of Don Felder
and Bernie Leadon.
During the summers, Ron & the Starfires
were regulars at the Polk, Lake, and Pasco County Teen Centers,
as well as the Orlando Youth Center, the Ormond Beach Teen Club, "The
Wedge" and "The Daytona Beach Pier", just to name
a few.
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.
We did manage a minor regional hit 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".
Ron & the Starfires played
opening act for quite a number of sixties artists including: The
Searchers, The Zombies, 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.
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 (I never understood it - maybe his
priorities were just out of whack).
 During
this short period between organists, we returned to Miami for our
second recording session, this time with producer Brad Shapiro.
Our 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 Henry Stone's Kim Records label), "Lyla (Chambers/Chambers/Whitney)" b/w "Crawl
Into My Shoulder (Conlon)".
The single was pressed and released but very little, if any, promotion
was done. For some reason, the artist was Ron Starr on the
single. I don't remember what the excuse for that was but it was
probably some record label chicanery. Several other tunes written
by Charlie Conlon were also included in the sessions and, in my
humble opinion, were the best and most commercial recordings that
the Starfires ever made. Unfortunately, the original masters seemed
to have been lost, but I did manage to get them to run me a board
mix after the session so at least I have a rough cassette of the
session, which you can hear a part of HERE.
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 in all of our
musical lives.
 Charlie
Brown's place in the group was filled by Muggins Willard of Groveland,
Florida, an organ and piano player that was lured from the Nation
Rockin' Shadows, a rival band from the Leesburg area. Muggins
(his real name, although he later had it legally changed to George
Clayton Weir) was an enthusiastic addition to the Starfires and
worked really hard to do some of the more technical songs that
we had not before been prone to attempt. The group was near it's
technical peak — although possibly at the expense of that
raw edge that had characterized the Starfires for so many years.
After a few months, Ron & the Starfires decided
to fulfill a long-time dream and added horns to the group. The
first additions were two trumpets, played by Howard Shumate from
Auburndale and the other was Roy "Cowboy" Burns
from up around the Groveland area. This sound would prove to be
a little thin and eventually the configuration was changed to locals,
Howard Shumate on trumpet, Don Flentke on saxophone and Larry Howard
on trombone. Larry would later become a guitarist with the notable
southern rock band, Grinderswitch.
It is regrettable that there are no pictures of these extended
versions of the Starfires. Although the music was probably
the best the group ever made, the eight-way split made for some
difficult times in the money department. The band still played
a lot of fraternity parties, teen centers, proms, and occasional
shows.
During June, 1968, Ron & the Starfires played
their first full fledged bar gig (other than some one nighters
played at the Temple Bar on Friday nights in Gainesville
during the fall) at Griggs’ Sword
and Sirloin located in the Southland Shopping Center
in Auburndale. Griggs was an upscale (for a small town)
dinner club on the edge of town. But unfortunately, the restaurant
was razed by fire on a Sunday morning just before the band was
booked to start their second stint there that following Monday.
On the positive side, we had not already loaded in our equipment
for that coming week.
Toward
late 1968, the group dropped the horns for monetary reasons but
retained Howard Shumate for a short time as a second keyboardist. It
was also in this time-frame that I left the group to play with
the group "We The People", who worked out of
the Orlando/Winter Park area. My place in the Starfires was filled
by guitarist Larry Howard, who had formerly played trombone with
the larger version of the band.
The seventies would all
but bring an end to Ron & The Starfires although most
of the group did reappear in 1970 as "Cinnamon" and
then again in the mid-70s as a lounge act going under the name "Matanzas".
The very fact that the band lasted as long as it did, testifies
to it's level of dedication and it's popularity. We had a great
run and all of us are thankful to have survived the fun. It would
be 1990 before
the original band members would once again play together --
in a reunion
show for the Auburndale High School Class of '65 and
then again in 1991.
On January 19, 2001,
the original members once again played a few tunes (to the delight
of the audience) at the PolKats
Reunion Show that featured many of the former Polk
County residents who had gone on to make a mark on the national
music scene. On August 31, 2002, the group reappeared at
(and won) the Battle
of the Bands and Garage Band Reunion held at the Lake Mirror Center
in Lakeland, and even once more in 2004 for the AHS Class of
'69 Reunion.
<< PREVIOUS
PAGE | SCRAPBOOK
MAIN | NEXT
PAGE >>
|
Back
To Scrapbook Main
'61
The Original Starfires "LIVE"
'65
Article 
'67 Video small