Believe it or
Not... Some Interesting Rat Race Choir Facts
I would like to post some fun and interesting facts instead of doing a Story of the Month, I hope these raise a few smiles. These are all true... Believe it or Not!
1) There were a few years where Rat Race Choir played 300 gigs a year,
having only Mondays off. Sometimes we rehearsed on that day off. Most other RRC
rehearsals lasted at least 8 hours and many times went into daylight the
following day. We also played 17 gigs in a row twice, one of the runs had a
daytime gig wedged in there too!
2) Rat Race Choir, though known as a Long Island Band, is actually from
Westchester County, NY, and all of the members grew up all living within 2
miles of each other in White Plains, NY. From 1976 to 1981, we had 2 houses,
one in Southampton, Long Island, and one in Mahopac, NY. Both served as homes
for the entire band and crew as well as rehearsal studios.
3) RRC was the 1st band to utilize a Quadraphonic PA system, developed
by Allen Adé and used from 1970 to about 1979. We were also the first local
band that acquired Hiwatt Amplifiers and Larry McGowan used a custom made
Chamberlain keyboard, not a Mellotron as most people believe.
4) Steve Luongo had many percussion pieces to his drum set. Complete
with chimes and a huge gong, he had to mount rear view mirrors on his drum rack
so that he was able to see if the gong behind him was in an up swing or an away
swing and he could time his gong or cymbal strike precisely.
5) Strangest Gig? That's a tough one. (And that's a matter of opinion!)
But... We once played in an empty swimming pool, the deep end, with a party at
the shallow end. We played at a small towns Rec Hall, that had Court in Session
one flight up. The Judge kept coming down telling us to turn down, so we ended
up playing Whiter Shade of Pale about 6 times. That gig also had the largest
insect we had ever seen walk across the floor in front of us. How about the guy
at The Rising Sun (Pemoes) who came up on stage and ate our year old plastic
bag of PICKLED EGGS (why we had a year old bag of pickled eggs is another story
in itself), THEN drank the juice, went outside and vomited. To win an RRC "Name
That Song Contest," we had an impromptu Stripper join us on stage at Ubies OTJ,
off RT 27 in Babylon, Long Island, who I am sure broke some NYS laws... I won't
go into details, but if you were there, I'm sure you remember! My bass will
never be the same.
6) We once played what we were told was a "House Party" on a Monday
night in Southampton... When we showed up there were Police parking cars on the
property of a huge Mansion. Over 2,000 people showed up at this "House Party"
and we had gotten completely trashed on "some kind of mushrooms," thinking this
was going to be fun. I actually saw notes leaving guitarist Bob Catapano's
mouth as he sang that night. How we made it through that one is still a mystery
to me. It was a very unified effort on everybody's part. Halfway through, we
had to "huddle-up" out back to pull ourselves together. We were laughing so
much that we could hardly play... At the end of that one I remember us all back
in a huddle hugging each other and laughing so hard that we were actually
crying. Anyone have a picture of that?
7) There was one summer when we lived in Southampton, Long Island that
ALL NINE members (Band and Road Crew), had either a revoked or suspended
license due to too many nights on the road receiving speeding tickets, etc. How
we got to our shows will remain a secret.
8) RRC played many free gigs and benefit gigs. For example we played for
the Inmates at Westchester Penitentiary 3 separate times. As far as having a
loyal club owner, we played Ubies OTJ on Thursday nights for 2 years straight.
9) We played a Sweet 16 Birthday party for Peter Grant's (Led Zeppelin's
Manager) daughter. Mr. Grant told us we were a "World Class Band." Thanks
Peter!
10) The 1st
Song we wrote together (Hitt, Chmela, Luongo, McGowan) was Pythagoras. The song
"Skeletron" took 3 months to write, rehearsing almost every night.
11) At an outside Show in Spring Valley NY, Steve (known for long and
difficult solos) went into his drum solo, and the rest of us left the gig and
went a few miles away to Burger King. Steve was still going strong, and still
had the crowd very intrigued when we returned.
12) The band used so much duct tape from show to show, that during one
summer, our road crew created an ongoing ball of used duct tape that grew
larger and larger. It eventually weighed about 30 pounds and was the size of a
beach ball. The crew named it "Wad-ney." It was on the road with us for over a
year.
13) Our favorite wine was "Blanchard Rose' D' Anjou." We drank it when
we wrote music. It is no longer available.
14) On a few occasions, Allen Adé fixed Mark Hitt's blown Hiwatt's in
between sets by soldering paper clips into the circuitry to complete
connections that held for months, saving the gigs.
15) RRC opened for Mountain in 1969, during Mountain's peak (excuse the
pun) at White Plains High School. Steve and Dave ironically ended up as Leslie
West's Rhythm section on a couple of U.S. tours years later in 1989.
16) Dave and Steve went to see The Who perform "Tommy" at White Plains
County Center in 1970. Later John Entwistle joined forces with Rat Race Choir
for 2 mini tours in 1987 and 1992, and played many of the same songs from
"Tommy."
17) We were called in to our booking agents office (whom I will not
name) and were told to stop playing Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" (when it
first came out) because people couldn't DANCE to it. We ignored him... A year
later, RRC was instrumental in forming what was known then as "Concert Night"
at many clubs. Due to our success in this area, the same agent who told us to
stop playing this music seemed to have a strange change of opinion and made it
mandatory for every new band he booked to play as much of our Jethro Tull
repertoire as possible... Score 1 for RRC.
18) At Mitty's General Store, our favorite club in Water Mill, Long
Island, we played FIVE SETS a night from 9:30 to 3:30, and sometimes locked the
door and kept going. All of us lived upstairs in this club, that will make your
band tight. We did this from Memorial day to Labor Day 3 years in a row. We had
a repertoire then of over 300 songs.
19) Inflation? When I first started buying Roto-Sound Bass Strings, they
were $9.75 a set. Now, they are $24.99 a set... What's the point? I used a new
set every night.
20) How about some band nick-names? I really can't go into some of
them... But... Steve was "Magic Steve," he could open anyone's car door who
was locked out in usually less than 30 seconds and many other things that were
stuck, broken, jammed or intermittent, he could somehow immediately fix, when
everyone else was stumped.... This name was shortened to "The Maj." Larry
McGowan has an amazing sense of humor, very similar to Jonathan Winters. A few
of his nicknames were... "Laz," "Laz McGaz," "LazMaTaz," "The Great Gaffrey,"
"The Great Gafflone" and "The Flone." Dave's were mostly given to him by the
road crew, they were "Koo," "The Deece," "DC," "Flamin' Dave," "GB" (Golden
Buns) and "DAD." Mark Hitt was also known as "The Hittster," "Direct" (Hitt),
"The Beefster" and "Beef." Jack Hotop somehow became known as "The Reverend,"
as he advocated the religion of eating the candy... Raisinettes. Skip Hempel,
manager from 1970 to 1981, was also known as "The Wedge," "Jet," and mostly,
"The Mighty Hemp."
21) Other
Talents? Outside of music, Steve was quite a skateboarder, and won a few
Championships in Long Island during the late 70's. Steve was also into
Motocrossing, and was a Pinball Wizard. Dave was also into sports. He was a
Pitcher for a Championship baseball team in White Plains, and a runner on the
Cross Country Team. Dave was also sort of the band cook, B-B-Q'ing for the band
and crew most nights at the Southampton House. Larry McGowan is still the Art
Director at Play Land Park, in Rye, New York, and is also interested in
rebuilding Church Organs, Player Pianos and Carousels.
22) I have saved almost every Set List of every night we ever played in
a huge pile of composition books. If anyone wants to know what we played (lets
say) in the 2nd set at Glen Island Casino in... (lets say)... August of '81,
just tell me the exact date and I'll have it.
I may do another
series of these, as there are so many bizarre facts and stories. I can only
recall so many at a time. Things that happened pop into my head from time to
time that I have forgotten about... so maybe I'll do another one of these pages
later. After I look at 33 years worth of calendar and talk with the other
members, I'm sure I'll remember many more.
Hope you enjoyed these!
-- Dave Chmela
Story of the Month Archive