The Band Without A Name
In a previous interview, we interviewed John Keith of The American Revolution. Prior to the new band name, The American Revolution had been known as The Band Without A Name, one of several groups managed by Casey Kasem. Keith had replaced bassist/vocalist Mark Anderson and, after reading Keith’s recollections in our Archives
, Anderson contacted us and graciously provided details on his stint while with the group. While he wasn’t an original member, and left the Band Without A Name for personal reasons, Anderson was a member during the band’s appearance in the film Thunder Alley, and also wrote ‘Time After Time,’ one of their 45-rpm sides.An Interview With Mark Anderson
60sgaragebands.com (60s): How did you first get interested in music?
Mark Anderson (MA): Both my parents are very talented musically. My mother played piano from the age of five and even now, at the age of eighty, still plays beautifully. In fact, my parents met in high school where she would accompany my dad who had a great singing voice. There was always music in our house. Also, my dad was a pastor and church music was a big part of our life. I sang in jr. high choir and played the baritone horn in the concert band.
60s: Was The Band Without A Name your first band?
MA: My first band was Freddie and The Fanatics. We were five students from Orville Wright Jr. High in Westchester, California. I was in the ninth grade and my role in the band was vocalist. We played a few pool parties and one jr. high dance, as I recall. After several months I was asked to join another Westchester band, The Bountymen. These guys were all from Westchester High School, so I was moving up! Again, I was lead singer. They had first-rate Fender gear and wore suits! We gigged at some high school dances and did several battles of the bands gigs in the south bay area. I believe we won once at Hawthorne High School. I remember all these great ‘50's and early ‘60's cars parked in the lot behind the school auditoriums the night of the battles. The seats and trunks were stuffed with amps and drum sets and all the guys from the various bands were standing around talking about bands and gear and girls!
During this time I had been fooling around with the bass guitar and discovered I had an aptitude for the instrument. During my tenth grade year one of my friends in the high school choir told me he was starting a band and asked if I knew of anyone who played bass. I took a big leap and said I did and wound up playing with his band, Terry and The Pirates. (One quick sidebar: obviously my bass playing skills were minimal so my friend, Church Portz, pushed me into some intense woodshedding. Chuck was bass player for The Crossfires, soon to become The Turtles. Later on, I sat in for him a few times.) Terry and The Pirates (yes, we wore pirate costumes!) played a lot of parties in Hollywood because our bandleader's older sister was a model and had lots of connections there.
60s: Did you sit in for Portz while he was with The Turtles?
MA: It was right before they became The Turtles, while I was playing with Terry and The Pirates. Most of the guys in The Crossfires went to the Westchester High School so we knew one another.
60s: Who comprised Terry & The Pirates?
MA: Terry Shervin, keyboards; Mark Anderson, bass; Sam Citro, drums; and Tom Humphrey, guitar. We were together from 1963-1965 or thereabouts.
60s: Did Terry & The Pirates record?
MA: Terry and The Pirates recorded 'Little Black Egg" (which we covered from The Nightcrawlers) and I believe the flip side was a blues number called 'Parchman Farm'. I lost my copy years ago. We actually walked in, right off the street, to a little studio up on Sunset Blvd. The guy had some free time so we unloaded our gear (which we had in a van), set up and recorded the songs in about two hours. We paid cash and left. That sort of thing was not so unusual in those days.
Speaking of obscure bands…Here's a doozy. Sam Citro, the drummer for Terry and The Pirates, worked at Westchester Music while he was in high school. One of the reps who stopped by the store was a guy from Capital records named Jim Mazza (who went on to become a big time producer for Kenny Rogers, among others). Anyway, Sam and I wound up joining with Jim Mazza in a band project he called The Jimmie Mack Foundation. We actually recorded one single (I think I have a copy somewhere). The other member was a guitarist named John Guess. He was a journeyman player who had been around Hollywood for a while and was about 30. I thought he was ancient, at the time! He agreed to play with us if he could put one of his songs on the single. So the flip side is one of his tunes. Jim had lots of Hollywood contacts so we did mostly private parties and a few clubs. Sam and I were still in high school (this was in 1965) so playing in clubs was iffy, though most club owners looked the other way if the band behaved itself. I am willing to bet that this one you have never heard of and never will again!
The A-side is ‘I Won't Believe It When You've Gone’ and the B-side is ‘The Victim.’ The band was Jim Mazza, vocals; Sam Citro, drums; John Guess, guitar; and Mark Anderson, bass.
60s: How did you hook up with The Band Without A Name? Do you recall whom you replaced?
MA: You know, I've really thought about this. And I think that when I came into the band Richard Faith, who played a Hammond B-3, was doing the bass on his pedals. So I guess I replaced Richard's feet!
The hook up happened this way. Our band went to Casey Casem's Friday night dance at the Hawthorne Recreation Center sometime in early 1966 to hear the bands (he usually had big name acts along with the house band). The guest that night was Englishman Ian Whitcomb (of 'You Really Turn Me On' fame) and The Band Without A Name was house band. During one of the breaks I was talking to Richard Faith and he told me they were looking for a bass player. I said I was available and he gave me his number. I called a few days later and went to an audition somewhere in Hawthorne (I think it was Eddie Haddad's house) and they called the next day to say I was in. I was 17 at the time.
60s: The Band Without A Name was the house band The Drop In…
MA: I don't remember the Drop In. That must have been either before or after my tenure.
60s: How much interaction did you have with manager Casey Kasem? What are your recollections of him?
MA: We saw Casey quite a bit. He would come to rehearsals from time to time. I always liked him and could see he was way ahead of us when it came to the business side of things. Some of the guys balked at his ideas from time to time but I felt lucky to be on the train and thought I was in good hands.
60s: What about Mike Curb?
MA: He was very personable and easy to talk to but a no-nonsense businessman. We were not in on the wheeling and dealing but there was plenty of it going on!
60s: Did you play with the band while David Marks, an original Beach Boy, was a member?
MA: No, David Marks had left the band by that time. He came back once to give us a hand with a gig when one of our guitar players was ill. That was the first and only time I saw him.
60s: Who was in The Band Without A Name during your stint?
MA: I don't remember all the names but I'll do my best. When I first joined the band the members were:Eddie Haddad, vocals (he also noodled around on the organ); Richard Faith, Hammond organ; Danny Derda, drums; Mark Anderson, bass and vocals. (They had only one guitar player at the time but I cannot for the life of me remember his name. He was a little older than the rest of us and from the south. He played a custom double neck Telecaster and was probably the best guitarist I ever worked with. He was just awesome. I'll have to ask Eddie if he remembers him. He left the band a few months after I joined and the whole focus shifted to a more pop/Beatles vibe. Eventually Richard Faith also left the band and we ended up with two guitars, bass, drums and Eddie on vocals. At the time I was just along for the ride but I can see now that Casey and Mike Curb were probably angling for a different sound and look. The earlier Band Without A Name (with Richard Faith, and the guitarist I can't remember) was a better band. I believe these guys left because of the pop direction things were taking.); and Richard Barcelona, rhythm guitar and vocals (he had a very John 'Lennonish' singing style). I think Richard came into the band through me since we were both hanging around with kids from Westchester High. We also had a lead player name Steve. I don't recall his last name. He played a Gretsch that had belonged to David Crosby.
60s: Where did the band typically play?
MA: We usually played Casey's weekend dances at Hawthorne and Thousand Oaks, trading off with his other band, The Knights of Day. Casey sent us on a brief tour of Job Corps camps in the southwest along with a great R&B singer and some backup chicks. Dick Biondi was with us. When we returned we did quite a few of the Dick Biondi Roadshow gigs at high schools all over southern California. I also remember gigs in Santa Barbara, San Diego and other California cities. Casey managed it all.
My son, Geoff, and I were at Disneyland one day back in the late ‘80's and ran into Bobby Sherman. The band had backed him up at several roadshow gigs. We had a good laugh over it all!
60s: Were you with the group when they frequently played the Sunset Strip?
MA: Yes, we played the Strip off and on. We played the Whisky A-Go-Go and other clubs I can't remember now.
60s: How far was the band's "touring" territory?
MA: The one southwestern tour and Southern California.
60s: Did you play on either of the group's two singles ('Turn On Your Lovelight' / 'Perfect Girl' or 'Theme From Thunder Alley' / 'Time After Time')?
MA: I played bass on 'Time After Time'. The only band member that had anything to do with 'Theme From Thunder Alley' was Richard Barcelona. He sang the lead. We both tried it but Mike Curb said I sounded too much like Paul McCartney; not tough enough. He was right. Richard and I wrote 'Time After Time' and our band recorded the entire song, vocals and all. He sang the lead and I sang the high harmony. The record came out just after I left the band and my name never appeared on the credits.
60s: Where did The Band Without A Name record? What do you remember about the recording session(s)?
MA: I Remember a Thunder Alley session in the Glendale area. I think it was a studio that Brian Wilson built or used. Davy Allen and The Arrows were also there. I don't believe they used any of the stuff we recorded there, which wasn't much. The Arrows did all the soundtrack instrumentals. ‘Time After Time’ was recorded at Sidewalk Sounds, Mike Curb's studio in Hollywood.
60s: The band also recorded the title track to the film Baby The Rain Must Fall. Were you involved with that production?
MA: No, I had nothing to do with that project.
60s: Do any (other) '60's Band Without A Name recordings exist? Are there any vintage live recordings, or unreleased tracks that you know of?
MA: I am not aware of any.
60s: Did the band make any local TV appearances while you were a member?
MA: We appeared on a local teen dance show in San Diego to promote 'Turn On Your Lovelight”. That was right after I joined the band. We also did a couple in Hollywood. Those performances are probably archived somewhere. We did a photo shoot at the capital music building in Hollywood for Thunder Alley. One of those photos made it on the back of the album cover. That's the only photo I have from my time in the band.
60s: How did the band land the role in Thunder Alley? What are your recollections of the film?
MA: Mike Curb was in charge of musical production for the film. He convinced the director that we were this hot, up and coming act! The day we met the director, they were shooting racing scenes on location at a stock car track. Mike piled us all in his Cadillac convertible and drove us out there. He pulled onto the track and rolled right up to the cameras. Everybody was saying 'Wow! Who are these guys?!' Stage management at it's finest! We were under Casey's management. Mike and Casey worked together quite a bit. We spent about one week on the set at American International Pictures. Sitting around was our main preoccupation! I had a chance to talk with Annette Funicello one day for some time. Like virtually every other kid I had had a big crush on her when she was a Mouseketeer. We sat and talked like a couple of long-time friends. That really impressed me. Our camera time was brief and we had to perform without any music. So we would gyrate around for about 30 seconds at a time and the director would yell, “Cut!” I think we felt like idiots!
60s: You left the band in '67. Why?
MA: I was having a lot of personal problems at home and it was interfering with my work in the band. The guys had a meeting one night and voted to ask me to leave. It was tough but I've never held it against any of them. I knew it was the right thing to do. John Keith followed me as bass player. I believe he knew Richard Barcelona.
60s: Did you follow the career path of The American Revolution at all?
MA: No, I did not follow the band. I moved to Minneapolis and became involved with some bands there for a time.
60s: Did you join or form any bands after The Band Without A Name?
MA: I played in a group called The Sooners for a while. We were a four-piece group who worked in Orange County quite a bit. We played at Gold Street in Anaheim, which was a hang out for musicians. Some members of The Association came in one night. They had heard about us and after our set they were blown away. Honestly, it was the best band I ever played in. All four of us were good vocalists and could play our instruments at a high level. Mike Curb came to hear us one night and was considering signing us when we rather suddenly broke up – again personal problems, but not mine this time! I moved out of state shortly after that. I did not stay in the music business, but went on to college and then became a pastor, which has been my life for the past 30 years. I have kept playing, though. Currently, I sit in quite regularly with my two sons and their band here in the Newport Beach area. Erik plays bass and Geoff plays drums. We play some pretty mean blues and once in while even dust off the old sixties tunes!
60s: Who comprised The Sooners?
MA: David Amaro, guitar; Kurt Steinbeck, guitar; Mark Anderson, bass; and I don't remember the drummer's name. We were together for less than a year and broke up in late summer 1967. The Sooners did not record. I have recorded over the years with several band projects but they were all for demo purposes and not for distribution.
60s: How do you best summarize your experiences with The Band Without A Name?
MA: Well, as I mentioned, I was seventeen at the time and it was a lot to take in. I went from a high school garage band to TV, records and a movie virtually overnight. Being in pop/rock music here in California in the ‘60's was the best, though. Everything was new and the bands were coming out of the woodwork! They were great days. The best part, of course, was being on stage and making the music.
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