Sunday, October 5, 2008

HISTORY OF THE DANGERS


PART ONE: MEAT LOCKER OF LOVE

The Dangers started in 1979 when Bob Kjorvestad convinced a childhood friend, Chris LeRoy, to come to a jam session at a meat locker in Grand Terrace. California. On that night Bob on guitar, Chris on guitar played with Randy Abraham on drums. It was eerie, and smelled like a smokehouse but the energy was palpable enough to make two decisions: This band thing was a good idea and neither Bob nor Chris could handle lead guitar.

Bob wrote out a 3x5 ad looking for a guitar player who liked The Clash, Costello, The Beatles, and Tom Petty. He placed it at Liers Music in San Bernardino that next afternoon. Johnny Hickman was living in Redlands and stopped by Liers to check out some guitars, saw the ad and called.

The first meeting/practice was at Chris LeRoy’s railroad car skinny apartment in Loma Linda. Johnny guessed the tall guy was Bob from the gruff phone call and the tall styrofoam of beer he was holding. Chris was much shorter and quiet until they sat down to acoustic guitars. Their first song was The Beatles “ I Should Have Known Better.”

By the end of the afternoon, Chris showed Johnny one of his own compositions, “Take Her Away,” and Johnny revealed his tune, “Other Woman’s Boy. Back to electrics they played these and Costello’s Mystery Dance and Petty’s “American Girl.” It was obvious. It happens with any good band who might get great; the chemistry was pulsing, the harmonies instant and intuitive, all power, all passion. All there and they knew it.

The Dangers in 1979 were:
Johnny Hickman/ Vocals, Lead Guitar
Chris LeRoy/ Farfisa Keyboards, Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
Bob Kjorvestad/ Bass, Vocals
Randy Abraham: Drums

NEXT... NAME THAT BAND

MEET THE DANGERS

THE DANGERS: dedication
This is the story of THE DANGERS, a seminal pop band from Southern California, whose members went on to form Cracker, The BellRays and The Hickman-Dalton Gang. This blog will follow the history of the band up to their present day recording and legendary performances.  Check out THE DANGERS and join the ride...

The Dangers are:
Chris LeRoy: Guitars, keyboards and vocals
Pammy Faragher: Vocals
Mike Geoghegan: Guitars, and vocals
Mac McFuzz: Bass
Ralph Torres: Piano and Organ
Brad Vaughn: Drums

Below is the lyrics to Dedication from the original Dangers SongBook. What neat penmanship!



DANGERS FOREVER:
Johnny Hickman; Guitar and vocals
Bob Vennum: Guitars, bass and vocals
Tim Loughlin: Bass
Lisa Kekaula: Vocals 
Keith Hawkins: Bass
Ian Peterson: Drums
Tony Fate: Guitar and bass
Art Schindele: Drums
Chad Villareal: Drums
Matt Kjorvestad: Drums
Craig The Saint Goldsberry: Bass

GO ON TO THE HISTORY OF THE DANGERS....