In the summer of
1971, BANG, a trio from the Philadelphia area,
decided to take a road trip to Florida
to try their fortune. While buying some rolling papers in the Sunshine State,
they learned about a Small Faces and Deep Purple concert nearby in Orlando. They showed up
at the venue and brazenly declared they were ready to go on stage. The concert organizer asked them to set up
and play for him. After a couple songs, he told them they were opening for Rod
Stewart and Small Faces. Before they knew it, BANG was playing with Bachman
Turner Overdrive, Deep Purple, Three Dog Night, Fleetwood Mac, Ike and Tina
Turner, The Doobie Brothers, and even Black Sabbath. Capitol Records signed
them, and three LPs were released. Join Frank Ferrara, Tony Diorio, and Frankie
Gilcken, as they recall their rapid rise to fame, playing with numerous Rock
and Roll Hall of Famers.
Excerpts:
“Those were the days when everything was experimental,” said
Karl Richardson, the engineer. “We were looking for something more reverberant.
We didn’t want BANG to sound like everybody else. In those days, records were
more like paintings, than photographs. The studio was a palette, and we were
always thinking about art—not just taking a picture.”
“As the raucous sounds of rock band music slammed across a
broad meadow on the tree-lined peninsula, hundreds of youths openly smoked
marijuana and drank beer and wine. Some of the drug-sickened youths had
injected directly into their bloodstreams bleach crystals they had purchased at
the festival site in the belief they were amphetamines. Medical personnel were
treating youths suffering drug overdoses on the average of one every five
minutes. A man, about 30, stood on the platform for several hours warning fans
that the ‘green and blue acid is bad—but the sugar cubes are good.’” — account from the Erie
Canal “Soda” Pop Festival
OZZY Cheesesteak anecdote …
ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 1972, BANG was back in Fayetteville, North
Carolina, to play with Black Sabbath, who was in the
midst of their Master of Reality Tour. Wild Turkey was to open this evening,
followed by the boys from Philly.
That afternoon, the band was hanging out with Ozzy Osbourne
and Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath. They offered to introduce them to
cheesesteaks, having discovered a sandwich shop in town that was attempting to
replicate their favorite Philadelphia
cuisine.
“I’ve never had a bloody cheesesteak,” admitted Ozzy.
And so BANG introduced the Prince of Darkness to the
delicacy. After chomping on a few bites, he asked, “I have another question for
you. What do the fans mean when they are making the “V” signs with their
fingers? For our Churchill, it meant victory.”
“To them it means one of two things,” answered Frankie. “It
either means peace or boogie.”
After that, Ozzy would often be seen on stage flashing dual
V-signs to all of his audiences, as captured on the cover of their next album
Vol. 4.
The BANG Story: From the Basement to the Bright Lights
Written by Lawrence
Knorr, Frank Ferrara, Tony Diorio, and Frankie Gilcken
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