RELEASE DATE: 2015:01:15
DEMOGRAPHIC RELEVANCE: WESTPORT, FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CT RESIDENTS, STAPLES HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI, MUSIC TRIVIA HOUNDS, ROCK HISTORIANS, ROCK MUSICIANS, LOCAL RADIO STATIONS/DJS
TITLE: The Real Rock & Roll High School 1960-1975; True Tales Of Legendary Bands That Performed In Westport CT
AUTHOR: Mark Smollin
BACKGROUND: Can you imagine Taylor Swift, One Direction, and Beyonce performing at your local high school with inexpensive ticket prices? Back in the 1960s, Westport, CT students were able to experience a music scene comparable to that.
Thanks to the initiative of a couple of students, the Staples High School auditorium was the site of concerts by some of the biggest names in 1960s rock music. Amazingly, in roughly a two-year period – the spring of 1966 to the spring of 1968 – six famous bands later inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame all played at Staples: the Doors, Cream, Sly and the Family Stone, The Young Rascals, The Yardbirds, and The Animals.
It was a unique place and time. Not long thereafter, these immensely popular rock groups were playing to sell-out crowds of approximately 20,000 at Madison Square Garden. The Staples performances left a lasting impression on those students lucky enough to attend, including many inspired to become professional musicians themselves.
Now the story is told in "The Real Rock & Roll High School: True Tales of Legendary Bands That Performed in Westport CT," compiled by Staples grad Mark Smollin and the students who were there, a richly illustrated volume filled with concert posters, ticket stubs, pop-art, local newspaper clippings, anecdotes, psychedelic graphics, and original photographs never seen by the public. (Check the photos of Jimmy Page and the Yardbirds having tea in the home of student photographer Ellen Sandhaus after the show!)
How did it happen? In 1965 Staples students Dick Sandhaus and Paul Gambaccini wanted to make their high school days special. And they had a subscription to Billboard magazine. So with the audacity of kids, they pitched the idea of bringing the new cutting edge of popular music to Staples with emerging rock-groups eager to acquire more fans. The Board Of Education and the principal bought it! As long as they could keep the stars to an initial down payment of 750 bucks and ticket prices below $3.
And with that they were off, bringing the Beau Brummels, a California band then climbing the US charts with a single entitled "Laugh Laugh" for the first event. The Staples auditorium was filled to capacity with screaming fans, kicking off what would be a long tradition of big name rock bands appearing there, forty three different bands in all. The British invasion was coming on strong in 1966! The Yardbirds featuring the not yet super-famous rock-guitar gun-slingers Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck landed in Westport, Connecticut, for the group's first appearance in the United States!
Best of all are the recollections of Staples students who were there, mini-memoirs of the moments. Even the hysteria is chronicled:
"There was Jim Morrison, accompanied by his driver, already being escorted to his limo.
We ran after him... "Impulsively, I reached out with my left hand and touched his cheek. I felt a jolt of electricity run right up my arm and just like that, I was under his spell. Yes he was real! "My friend Kate, speechless up until this moment, started screaming: 'Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!'"
One typical reaction to the depth of Westport's rock history: "Have been reading it in sections on my smartphone. It's amazing!" Chris Frantz, drummer of the Talking Heads and historian Deej Webb, broadcast a three hour radio show on WPKN, Bridgeport CT, based on the book that aired February 27 2015.
The Real Rock and Roll High School holds 296 pages of golden rock-history, and is now available as an ebook for digital download from smollin.com/staples/rockbook
AUTHOR PROFILE: Mark Smollin is an artist author, musician and Staples High School graduate with the class of 1970. Mark graduated from Art Center College of Design in Fall of 1985 as an Illustration major and runs his studio-gallery in Pasadena CA. He was motivated to write this book because people did not believe his claims, nor those of his classmates, that lots of rock-legends played his school. Mark was tuned to the revolution of electric music as drummer for the local band Smoke, and attended a handful of concerts on nights his band was not gigging. There was a confusion about exactly what bands did perform at Staples and since there was no single written record of these special music events, the artist decided to document the history and design the book. In addition to the energies of classmates, he invested 1000 hours on research, collection of memorabilia, retouching images, adding custom graphics, and producing the book.
IMAGES FOR RELEASE:
View of the auditorium from the 1970 yearbook. Music concerts were only possible because Staples High School auditorium is a world-class theater seating 1200, so enough tickets could be sold to make them feasible financially.
Typical two-page spread showing the event-poster by Dick Sandhaus and lead photo of the Rascals' Dino Danelli © Ellen Sandhaus.
For each calendar year a divider is inserted to provide context for the social climate, pop-culture and top music-news.
L-R: Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page, Chris Dreja, Ellen Sandhaus, Jeff Beck, Photos © Ellen Sandhaus. Ellen tells her story about The Yardbirds coming for tea at the Sandhaus residence after the concert, one anecdote of many included in the book.
1968 Cream concert ticket memorabilia was thumb-tacked to a wall for over forty years.
Ebook cover design featuring The Doors' John Densmore, photo by Lynn R Dick (deceased)
ADDITIONAL PRESENTATION AND RESOURCE LINKS:
smollin.com/staples/rockbook/
smollin.com/staples/musictrivia.htm
smollin.com/staples/musicpro.htm
facebook.com/StaplesHighSchoolRocked
