I am a regular reader of your blog. Also a county board member in McHenry County and attorney. I ran for State Senate in the 90’s.
I was interested in the REO Speedwagon number you had on Friday and thought you might be interested in this story.
When I was in college in Campaign in the late 60’s and early 70’s I was lead guitar for a band called “Feathertrain”. We were very popular at one point and played all over the state.
In late 1969 our agent, Irv Azoff, wanted us to start playing 6 nights a week instead of 4. This would have caused me to flunk out of college, so , figuring that no one ever heard of a 40 year old rock n roll star, I announced that I would have to quit in time to catch up on my studies before finals.
The band then began a search for a new lead guitar player. On a gig in Peoria we met a guy named Gary Ritchrath. He brought his guitar and played for us backstage but didn’t have an amplifier so all we saw was his fingers flying over the fretboard. We couldn’t tell if he actually sounded good so we scheduled him for an audition at our practice studio in Campaign, which was directly across the street from the popular Chances R nightclub. He was put up against the former REO Speedwagon guitarist, Bill Fiorio, now known as “Duke Tomato”. Gary won.
After I had quit, Gary joined REO when their lead player left. Then they picked up our singer, Michael Murphy, who I believe sang on original version of “Storm” , and our base player, Bruce Hall. Bruce is in the video.
I met Bruce when he was still in High School in a little town outside of Champaign. We had to get his parents’ permission for him to be in the band.
Keep up the good work with the blog. It is an invaluable resource. And keep rockin’.
