Grew up in Mentor, Ohio, USA and saw at a local 'teen' club the Jeff Beck group @ an afternoon performance. Beck, Rod Stewart, Nicky Hopkins, Carmen Appice, Ron Wood...almost an out of body experience as it was a small club w/only about 200-250 people just crammed in there.

The same club often had the James Gang featuring Glenn Cunningham BEFORE he moved to SF to become the guitarist for Pacific, Gas and Electric. The same band had Joe Walsh on RHYTHM guitar...the band's name was from the drummer Jimmy Fox. Tom Kriss was the orginal bass player to be replaced by Dale Peters after the 1st LP called 'Yer Album' was released. Also, The Choir...'It's Cold Outside'(small regional hit), Cyrus Erie featuring Eric Carmen pre 'All By Myself'. Both bands dropped members and became The Raspberries w/'Go All The Way' as a national hit. Wally Bryson was the lead guitarist and the coolest, most genuinely affable(from a fan's standpoint)musician I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. If you can secure a copy of 'It's Cold Outside' written by Dan Klawon and sung by Dave Smalley listen to the bass line. That's Dave Burke and he's 16 years old at the time...remarkable. There were very good local bands at that time...'Poe' had a guitarist named Ralph Cuda...probably the best guitarist of all the local talent. Moses was another really good local band that never got a shot at a record deal. Randy Klawon(Dan's cousin, I think) was in that band...while not being a flashy gun-slinger type of player he sure knew how to 'rock hard'.

A few years later 'Yes' performed at a local Jr college called Lakeland CC. The opening act was Mylon Lefevre(sp?)and Holy Smoke. The concert was in the gym which only held about 3000 people. Oh yeah, Glass Harp featuring Phil Keaggy played locally alot as they were from Youngstown. The Bob Seeger System played a local dance club as well as the Human Beinz. This was all within 5 miles of my house.

NE Ohio during the mid-late 60s was a real hot-bed of original talent. Some of whom went on to become household names.