louisville rock and roll groups

[daddybear]

i am looking for an lp or cd by the title "lousiville kentucy 60s pop record tilt record" it features groups like the carnations, tren-dells, sultans, and cosmo
i sure wish we had rock stations like waky today and rock groups like these louisville bands
also does anyone know of any record shops in derby city? i live about 125 miles from louisville but come here
pretty often and love looking for stuff like this
thanks, jerry arnold

[bruiser]

Your best bet for Louisville music is probably C's Records on Dixie Hwy. C's is probably the best unknown oldies shop in the area. No, I don't own any of it, I just know that C knows his oldies and what his customers want. He keeps some odd hours, open Wednesday through Sat.

[RJC]

I second bruiser about C's, I have dealt with Clarance, and if he doesn't have what you're looking for, he will surely at least try and find it.

[Max]

You might also check with Raymond at Avatar Records on the Dixie in Radcliff. He seems to be in the know about virtually everything. Try [phone].

[John Quincy]

I received this e-mail on April 26, 2005 from Leon Middleton of the Monarchs:

Great web site.

My name is Leon Middleton and I am an original (and current) member of The Monarchs. I also have managed the group for the past 20 years.

I found the information on The Uniques interesting. Ronnie Brown references The Monarchs as one of the East End bands. As a point of information, everyone in The Monarchs in early '60s were also a bunch of blue collar kids living in the West End, Shively, South Louisville and the Preston Highway areas of Louisville. We certainly never thought of ourselves as an East End band.

I am sure that several of the bands managed by The Sambo agency could lay claim to the title "official in-house band of choice" of WAKY. The Sambo Agency was owned by Jack Sanders, Ray Allen and Hardy Martin (hence the name Sambo Agency) so Jack had a financial reason to see that all of the Sambo bands received air play for their recordings thus leading to more bookings.

Many of the bands in the early '60s had some connection to WAKY. We all depended on WAKY as well as WKLO to play our records. Unlike today, back then local radio stations could play whatever they wanted and local bands could get air play. Of course this led to getting the local gigs (mostly teen clubs, many of which were not in the east end).

The book published by Bill and Brenda Woods titled Louisville's Own, published in 1983 is a very comprehensive compilation of Louisville bands and recording artists in the early '60s. This would be a good reference source for anyone interested in researching recordings by local groups that actually made the WAKY or WKLO top 20 charts.

I am sure that those of us that are still around from the Sambo bands (as well as the Joni bands ) have many great stories of their experiences with the "jocks" from WAKY. The Monarchs have remained active since our formation in 1961.

If you would like more information please see our web site at www.themonarchs.com. Also, if you are interested I may be able to find some of the WAKY top twenty charts distributed at the local record shops.

On a side note, Mason Lee Dixon and I went to high school together. I have some great pictures of him in our year book.

[daddybear]

hey thanks everybody for the info, i will check it out and let you know what happens, now to Leon do you happen to remember playing at Estill County High School in the 60s, 1967 to be exact , that's when my wife and i graduated and you guys played our senior prom, man you were great Thanks again everyone

[dufusgump]

the uniques started playing in prp in 1959 and was there when the monarchs were born. in fact maurice williams and benny devine, the original bass player and drummer for the monarchs were playing with the uniques at one time. the original uniques were as follows:
joe layman- guitar
skip watkins- lead guitar
jim eversole- piano and later sax player
nick druga- accordian and later sax player
dino keyes-lead singer
kenny sanders- lead singer
don churchman- bass player
ronnie brown- rythm guitar
danny brewer- harmoney sax player
the dormels- girl background singers
benny devine- drummer
we are all still above ground and playing music every tuesday at ronnie browns basement studio. if anyone wants to contact us, send email to: [e-mail] or [e-mail]

keep rockin, the uniques