Another performance of which I have no records, at hand, of the precise date, or even if this show, indeed, happened at Armando’s. Too many moves, and scattered paperwork which is long lost, at this point, which could help pin these details down. Research on the Internet has also left me with very few clues as to there even being a tour, at this point in time, or if this was just one of a number of showcase gigs the line-up performed, in the general region of the country?!?

This much I know: the slide film the images were taken from was processed in April of 1982. However, that could well have been a year after I took these shots, simply because I was being thrifty – as I had to be, for long stretches of time in my life – and had them processed later, along with a roll or two of other artists that I had aimed my camera at, during a period of time that I was experimenting with Kodak color slide film.

I am pretty certain I attended this show, at the insistence of my best buddy Gary, as he had been a longtime fan of the group Cactus, and of course, both of us had followed Jeff Beck‘s career, ever since his days with The Yardbirds, and so, it was only natural for us to find the rhythm section of the short-lived Beck, Bogart & Appice, appealing. I am fairly sure that I missed seeing Rick Derringer performing with Johnny Winter And, and also with Edgar Winter’s White Trash. I would see Johnny Winter, about a year after Mr. Derringer parted ways with that group, and he was also gone by the time I saw Edgar Winter‘s band, with Ronnie Montrose on lead guitar, already performing what would become their huge hit, “Frankenstein”. I will attempt to put some order into all of these artists converging and overlapping their careers, but first, let us begin with Rick Derringer and The McCoys….

By now, most people will be familiar with the huge hit, “Hang On Sloopy”, which launched Rick Derringer‘s career, along with his bandmates, one of whom would wind up backing both, Johnny & Edgar Winter, at different points in time, the late Randy Jo Hobbs, on bass guitar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Jo_Hobbs, featured with the band, on a single I quite like, by The McCoys:

As noted in the Wikipedia entry on The McCoys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_McCoys, once the owner of the label they were signed to, the legendary Bert Berns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Berns, passed away, they parted ways with Bang Records, and attempted to break free of the “singles gambit” of the day, and explored other, lengthier sounds, but without any real success.

Rick Derringer and Randy Jo Hobbs soon hooked up with the Winter Brothers, Johnny & Edgar, and started to record and perform a much more varied set of numbers. Here, is a sample of what they were up to, before that occurred [and the comments section points out that this clip features the drummer, Uncle John Turner, and Tommy Shannon, who would go on to greater fame as a member of Double Trouble, backing another famous Texan on guitar and vocals…}:

Digging into the details of Derringer’s recording history reveal that he appeared on all kinds of studio recordings that I owned and/or listen to, even these days https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Derringer#Discography, but this would be the only occasion for me to see him perform live. The club was not quite sold out, as I remember it, and this is one of the reasons I was able to get up close enough for these frames. Unfortunately, the lighting was such that I was not able to get many “solid” shots, but there are a few that turned out to my liking.

While Mr. Bogert & Mr. Appice gained initial fame with Vanilla Fudge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_Fudge, I was much more interested in their work with Jeff Beck, and the first Cactus album https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cactus_(American_band)#Original_line-up_(1969%E2%80%931972) .

Interestingly, it was through the Cactus‘ albums that we later discovered the very, very good album with Steve Hunter and ex-members of Mitch Ryder’s Detroit Wheels, “Detroit” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_(band).

To the lower right of the following web-page, you will find the tracks to sample from the first album….

https://www.discogs.com/Detroit-2-With-Mitch-Ryder-Detroit/master/369667

One of my better images of a drummer, over the years, considering the lighting, and how much the kit is allowing one to see through.

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For more on the careers of these musicians, check the following links:

Carmine Appice – Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Appice

Carmine Appice – Official site:

https://www.carmineappice.net/index.php

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Tim Bogert – Official site:

http://www.timbogert.com/

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Rick Derringer – Official site:

https://rickderringer.com/

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NOTE:  A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE WATERMARKS ON MY WORK

While many of you who arrive here, to look at these photographs may get turned off to my use of watermarks [thinking they ruin the image], let me explain why I choose to do this. The curmudgeon in me speaks:

No one paid for my camera equipment but me. No one paid for the film I used to take these photographs.  On occasion, when I free-lanced for a free monthly newsletter, and they published a photo of mine, the payment for each photograph barely paid for the fuel to get my vehicle to the show [when I *did* have a vehicle], and the film I used on that night. 

Not too many of my photos were published, at the time, because the artists I chose to capture images of, were not hugely popular then.  Hence, the old dictum, “Supply and Demand”; I had the supply, but the demand [pre-Internet], was not there. You can argue the relative merits of the quality of my work, and that is precisely what a blog offers:  a venue for discussion.

Back to the watermarks: no one is subsidizing my time to scan and then clean up the images I am presenting here. Start to finish, each negative will take approximately an hour-and-a-half to reach “proof” quality – which is what you will see here.  This is my labor of love, and until there is some measurable return on my efforts, what you see is what you get.