THE IDES OF MARCH (1965 - 1967)
Drummer Scott Ebright's first full-time band - The Ides of March
The Ides of March - 1965 - 1967
At 15 years old, Scott was in 9th grade attending high school in Essexville, MI. In the hallway one day, 10th grader Tim Ward stopped Scott and asked him if he would be interested in joining his rock band called, The Ides of March. Scott liked the proposition because he had just seen the Ides of March at a football dance in the school cafeteria and although they were a little rough around the edges, Scott liked the lead singing antics and bravado of Bob Ward in front of an audience. "They had a certain air of destiny surrounding them on stage" Scott would later recall. So, he accepted the offer and brought his pal, bass guitar player Dennis Orvis to be included in the merger as well.
Ides of March band members:
- Bob Ward - lead singer, (booking agent & road mgr
- Tim Ward - lead guitar, vocals
- Terry Bladecki - rhythm guitar, vocals
- Dennis Orvis - bass guitar, vocals, cool choreography
- Scott Ebright - drums, vocals
The band played at many schools, outdoor beach resorts, and teen adult nightclubs throughout Michigan.
The Ides of March played across the Midwest during the years of 1965 - 1967. They played a wide mix of Top 40 tunes with a emphasis on the Rolling Stones and the Animals.
Drummer Scott Ebright showed off his vocal impersonation skills as he developed and performed as Michigan's FIRST EVER Elvis impersonator! He would disappear from the stage during a slow song and 3 minutes later he would run onto stage carrying an acoustic guitar and wearing a leather jacket and singing a high energy arrangement of Blue Suede Shoes. He mimicked the "KING" with wild hip gyrations and shaky legs. Over the next several months, the Ides of March grew in popularity. This set the stage for a new chapter to begin in Michigan rock and roll history.
Battle of the Bands - Bay City Roll-Air Rink, State Park
A summer-long promotional extravaganza known as the annual Battle-of-the-Bands was getting ready to take place in the spring and summer of 1966. WKNX radio in Saginaw was one of two major Top 40 AM Stations that dominated the Eastern half of Michigan from Detroit to Standish. These two stations had full market penetration of a listening audience of about 2 million young people during that era. but the actual listening audience was much larger since the AM radio transmitter towers bounced off the ionosphere. The Ides of March were getting heard in many areas of the Midwest, and thrilled nighttime listeners all over Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and the Southern half of Canada next to the Great Lakes.
The annual Battle of Bands at Bay City's State Park was gearing up for a second mind-blowing year of selling tickets to over 2,000 teenagers every Wednesday night. Teenagers were all handed a small paper ballot as the paid at the ticket gate. At the end of the night, ballots that had been getting stuffed into the large box were removed by the promoters and the end results of who won would get announced on the radio the next day. (Very ingenious marketing gimmick). The evening schedule had 5 bands each playing about 25 minutes of songs. The second they took their final bow, a mad rush ensued as musicians frantically darted on and off stage striking their equipment while the next band forged ahead to set up their amps and drums ASAP! Five bands a week competed, a total of 50 bands by the semi - finals at the end of the summer. The big play-off would take place on a final night when two top vote getting bands from the semi-finals locked horns to compete for the grand prize: a trophy, a recording contract and tons of radio print media PR.
This was a very profitable marketing coupe' for Handy High School swim Coach Darby and DJ Dick Fabian with WKNX. Their partnership produced a good show that teenage audiences paid $1.00 for the ticket price. Weekly rounds of competing bands which eventually produce two semi-finalist bands. Voting was by paper ballot. Then, the final contest took place with both semi-finalist bands going head-to-head for the grand prize of FIRST place and a free paid recording session (not a record contract as the over-hyped promo ads promised on the radio).
More photos and related history - CLICK on link below:
First 45 Record Release
ldes of March 45 RPM songs hit Top 40 Radio across the Midwest in 1967.
Side A: "Life Has Been So Good"
Side B: "Playthings 5 X 5"
TO HEAR songs, scroll down to next section and click on either red record label to hear audio.
THOMPSON BROTHERS (1973)
Thompson Brothers Good Time Band
The Thompson Brothers was the very first band Scott Ebright joined when he moved to California in the spring of 1970. Scott arrived just 9 months after the infamous THE SUMMER OF LOVE took place. Tens of thousands of long-haired hippies had migrated to San Francisco from all over the world to be a part of peace and Love.
Scott answered the voice in his head that said, Go West Young Man....or was it the lure of the world-wide explosion of rock and roll bands and songs that all were spawn in this young revolution of protests, beads, bell bottoms, sandals and LONG HAIR. Whatever that movement was, Scott was inspired by the music, the clothing styles, the hippie attitudes and the "peace and love" of it all. Upon arrival at SFO airport, he instantly saw how incredibly short his hair seemed and how "straight" this made him look, compared to all the cool heads (hippies with long hair) and freaks (hippies with readily apparent mannerisms similar to Woodstock festival attendees). Scott eventually settled into the life style frequency of the lay-back West Coast scene. But it would take awhile since his Midwestern accent and conservative views was a dead giveaway to all the local hipsters. So, the first order of business was to take advantage of his more "respectable image" and find a full-time job for the first time in his life. Since his college draft deferment of 1-H was no longer valid, job prospects would be hard since no employer wanted to hire a 20 year-old man about to be drafted into going to Vietnam and fighting in the war with great odds of being killed.
After a few months of job hunting he was hired as an entry level job position as a reports clerk and typist for Pacific Telephone Company (subsidiary of AT&T). It was the world's largest corporation at that time and was known as a ruthless MONOPOLY (not good for the image of an aspiring hippie). Scott's weekly pay rate starting out was $102.50 per week! ( $2.56 per hour).
It took him fifteen months to get his bearings and a feel for the pulse of the culture shock of hippies everywhere, tall skyscrapers, and the smell of incense and pot in the air on weekends in Golden Gate Park. When Scott paid a cover charge to cram into popular nightclub with 200 people all dancing to a Top 40 band, he was convinced it was time for a career change and go back to his God-given music talents as a drummer and a singer. He bought a brand new Ludwig drum set on installment payments and set out to audition with bands. After 3 wasted auditions with radically different types of bands and music, he finally took everyone's advice to go submerge himself into the ultra bohemian land on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge known as Marin County. That was considered the center of the rock and roll music universe at that point in history.
Band members
The Thompson Brothers band members, LEFT to RIGHT:
- Anthony Centanni, Bass guitar (aka Carl Thompson)
- Ronald Sechitano, Lead guitar (aka Orton Shackles)
- Scott Ebright, drummer (aka Scott Thompson )
- Jenny Lynn (can't remember her real name...they were all called Jenny Lynn!)
KID KAHOUTEK (1974)
Kid Kahoutek and the shooting stars
Kid Kahoutek and the Shooting Stars played during the years of about 1974 - 1975. They played music by Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard Wilbert Harrison and many other hit recording artists from the late fifties and sixties. Their black leather jackets (NOT motorcycle jackets) used a single front zipper and emulated the look of typical car clubs of that golden era and they all went by their stage names of Guido, the Kid, Joey Ace,and Muscles (drummer Scott Ebright).
Kid Kahoutek capitalized on the nostalgic music wave started by Sha-Na-Na in the famous movie Woodstock. Kid Kahoutek gave the hippie culture with refreshingly fun and humorous contrast of music, as compared to long hair bands playing serious songs about war and government. From the minute this band jumped on stage and began playing, they saw a sea of smiling faces of long hair hippies grinning at them nonstop throughout their sets of energetic songs. However, other influences were part of their appreciation of this as evidenced by a strange "burning-rope" smell that drifted over the heads of audiences. The tell-tale scent of organic herb permeated throughout the large concert halls and audiences were often vocal while they danced around in spastic moves that tried to match the beats of the songs. (Note: Kid Kahoutek and the Shooting Stars was ironically a drug-free band that lived in the innocence of society in the 1950's. Even their language onstage and off was replete with coined slang words like, "hey man, neat", "cool cats" and "foxey little chick" and "my main squeeze" (reference to a dating partner).
This was the culture of Northern California Rock and Rock and Roll. Many artsy and extreme type lifestyles all melted into the unifying hippie culture of those times. This culture spawned many great bands of legendary status in San Francisco, Marin County and Sonoma county. And in the thick of all this revolution and change was the band Kid Kahoutek and the Shooting Stars. played at all the same night clubs and concert venues played by:
- Jefferson Airplane
- Janis Joplin & Big Bro. Holding Co.
- Grateful Dead
- Santanna
- Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Steve Miller Band
- Van Morrison
- Quicksilver Messenger Service
- Lydia Pense and Cold Blood
- Boz Scaggs
- Elvin Bishop Group
Kid Kahoutek set lists of songs and promotional flyer
HANG 10 and the SURFMEN (1975)
Hang 10 and the Surfmen
Scott Ebright (squatting down 2nd from right in photo above) sang lead for this Beach Boys styled tribute band, along with 3 other front singers who all sang tight four-part harmonies. It was his first venture out in front of band on stage, and instead of tuxedo jackets or black leather "bad boy" motorcycle jackets, he wore his official surfer uniform popularized by the real Beach Boys from Hawthorne, CA. And that uniform was simply a red and white broad-striped T-Shirt with white Levis.
All the members of Hang 10 and the Surfmen had gone to high school together at the prestigious Saint Ignaious College Preparatory School in San Francisco. When their singer John Bacigilupi gave his notice to quit Hang 10, Scott was hired to replace John and all the songs and harmonies he sang with the rest of the band. Scott prepared himself for a quick crash course to learn vocals because they had many contracted upcoming shows in the next three weeks.
So Scott and John sat on chairs in one corner of of Lead guitar player, Jim Minner's basement i recreation room. The rest of the band played their instruments at low volume on the other side of the room and all the harmony vocals were sung acoustically. A Radio Shack portable cassette tape recorder was positioned with its microphone about 2 feet in front of John and Scott. At the end of that long night, Scott had recorded three one hour long tapes of each of the band's music sets from their show.
This band was a tightly choreographed stage show that included a lighting script and many steps and routines throughout their performance. Hang 10 and the Surfmen were a favorite band for Norther California high school dances, proms, car shows at the famous Cow Palace in San Francisco (where Elvis performed during his last concert tour of the U.S. They were booked by Larry Israel from the San Francisco Artists booking agency. Israel's acts that he managed included many recording artists, including Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, Pablo Cruise, Eddie Money, Elvin Bishop Group and Quicksilver Messenger Service.
SF Artists mgmt agency
Hang 10 and the Surfmen were booked exclusively by Larry Israel from San Francisco Artists booking agency. Israel's roster of managed acts included Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, Pablo Cruise, Eddie Money, Elvin Bishop Group, Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Tubes and many others.
Photo BELOW of Lead Singer Rip Tide (Scott Ebright) singing at San Francisco State College.
Scott Ebright as "RIP TIDE", Lead Singer (center)
Cruis'n - Beach Boys TRIBUTE Show (1976)
Cruis'n was an extremely popular show band that played all over Calfornia, Hawaii, Las Vegas and Canada. Their show included many costume changes and choreography long before any music tribute type productions were ever heard of. They presented their show by time periods and music styles. Like taking a trip in a time machine, they divided their shows into 3 separate styles of nostalgic music.
Act 1 : Cruis'n performs mega-hits from the 50's - 60's. The entire band jumps onstage wearing their trademark leather motorcycle jackets to achieve that greaser car club look from the 1950's. (NOTE: The TV show "Happy Days" with the Fonz did not exist yet.) It was a shock to audiences to see leather jacket guys acting tough and cool. THEY INVENTED the cool guy image with Vince Diamond. At 6 foot 6 tall, he was convincing as the gang leader with all the guys on stage singing and doing their synchronized "steps" while playing their guitars and keyboard.
Act 2:Beach Boys tribute including all the hits of Surf music from the 1960's. Rip Tide (aka Scott Ebright) rides a skateboard unto stage and launches into Surfin USA and an hour of hits songs by the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean and other famous surf songs,including instrumentals by Dick Dale.
Act 3:The Elvis set divided into 2 parts. First the 50's styled Elvis wearing a gold lame' suit and singing 50's-60's Elvis hits. Then a quick costume change later, Lead Singer Vince Diamond comes onstage as Elvis Live in Las Vegas! He's wearing the jumpsuit with metal studs and rhinestones as he sings all the songs Elvis did in his live shows. Audiences loved Cruis'n and Hollywood movie stars hired them for many private events of their own.
Band members photo
L to R: "Moose Brown" (aka Russ Whitehead, bass Guitar), "Muscles" (aka Joost Vonk - drums), "Rip Tide" (aka Scott Ebright - Lead Singer), "Bobby Fingers Diamond" (aka Ray Pepperel - lead guitar), "Chico" (aka Al Carranza - rhythym guitar). (Keyboardist not in photo).
Cruis'n band photos & publicity
Jesse King changed costumes 2-3 times per show due to sweat
jesse king as elvis (1977 - 1978)
Scott Ellison Ebright played drums and sang in the Jesse King as Elvis impersonator band. (Also known as JKE or Jesse King Enterprises). This Vegas styled show band that he created in San Francisco. The phrase "a tribute to" was invented by Alan Meyer and Chet Actis in Los Angeles. Alan: A Tribute to Elvis was well established and ironically....it was going to be the very next band that Scott would co-manage and promote. BUT....he did not know this yet! So when Scott produced the Jesse King show, he made certain NOT to duplicate the phrase "a Tribute to Elvis", fearing that ownership of copyrights and trade names on that "tribute phrase " might create legal hassles later on.
The Jesse King back up band "Cobra" never had any group photos taken. Scott did this on purpose to make sure that Jesse King was the primary focus of the fans and the broadcast and print media. Bands always endure a certain attrition rate of musicians coming and going, yet the star of the act would never be phased by said personnel changes. Otherwise greedy concert promoters may try to finagle a discount of the total band's price if the newer musicians are still "green" or not yet up to par as the old band member they replaced. That was life in the 1970's, but in modern times, that's the norm for promoting and booking all name recording acts.
To hear drum recordings
Scroll down to the next panel to hear various recording studio songs where Scott was the drummer with the Jesse King as Elvis show. Many more studio recordings of other bands and music styles can be heard under the tab button: "Recording Studio Sessions."
THE CHRIS JAMES TRIO - Light Jazz in the Contemporary Mode
the chris james trio (1978-'77 & 1993-'95)
The original band members of the trio "SPRING" included pianist Chris James Gootherts, Mick Sutliff on Guitar and Scott Ebright on drums and lead vocals. The trio reformed again in the early 1990's as The Chris James Trio featuring Scott Ebright on drums and lead vocals, Chris James Gootherts - piano & backup vocals, and Rand (Last name?) on stand-up bass.
Scott enjoyed playing jazz with these two trios. Jazz music demanded more finesse' and musical talent than average rock and roll bands. And for the first time in his entire music career, he admits, "I finally had the freedom to develop MY OWN PERSONAL VOCAL STYLE". The trio experimented with rearranged versions of song hits by the Beatles, Chicago, CCR, Deep Purple, Neil Diamond, George Benson, Engelbert Humperdink, Santanna, Tony Bennett and other popular recording artists with varied music styles.
Band Leader Chris James Gootherts booked the jazz /pop trio at hundreds of engagements across Northern California. Venues performed included military bases officer's clubs and non-commissioned officers' nightclubs, country clubs, weddings, hotels, resorts, wineries and restaurants. The band's reputation grew quickly among the top ranking brass of military bases. Chris James has extraordinary salesmanship skills and this benefitted the trio financially. ("He sells better than I ever did" Ebright adds). Public and private demand for hiring the Chris James Trio and Chris' own solo piano work proliferated throughout Northern California for several years.
The trio was billed as playing "light jazz in the contemporary mode". However, the total music fare for the band included about 60% pop songs.
Scott Ebright was a veteran of nightclub performing, and this was a brand new world to Chris and Mick who were still only 19 years old while playing in bars that restricted minors below 21 years old. But no one ever noticed! The older personality and attitude of Scott seemed to rub off on his younger stage cohorts. But, musically speaking, both Mick and Chris proved their exceptional musical talent to discerning audiences. Through osmosis, they quickly took to their "new" stage personalities as they engaged audiences and each other with rapid-fire, quick-witted banter. This endeared them to any type of audience.
Chris James background
Chris James was at the top of his league when it came to Jazz pianists from Northern California. His LP recording "Dessert" garnered praise and respect in Jazz circles within the music industry. Among these were saxophonist, Richie Cole and other notable Jazz musicians. The Chris James Music Agency was very successful for booking name bands and recording artists. Cruise lines paid him to book all "Jazz Cruises" where he hired legendary Jazz musicians and singers to perform on the passenger ships traveling throughout the world.
BELOW: Photos of Spring and The Chris James Trio band members
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Click on left photo...RETURN to top of page.
Ancient History. Photo of Scott's first $95 used drum set.
Note the "Go-Go" canine "Missy" sleeping while Scott practices on drums. He remembers her well: "Missy was the greatest love I've ever had in my entire life. She was taken from me too soon at just 4 years old. I've never had another dog since."