This is the story of The SOC HOP Reunions and the new Silver Tones. People mistakenly keep giving me credit for putting the reunions together. This is to set the record straight. I have played only a very small role in the whole affair. Both the reunions and the re-invention of The Silver Tones are the product of fate, which is to say, they were meant to be. The reunions have been a combined effort of many people, and I wasn’t even at the very first one.
In the early 1960's there were a number of good dance halls around Kansas City, but only two great ones, both the SOC HOP, old and new. It has elsewhere been written that, in truth, The SOC HOP made The Fabulous Silver Tones and The Fabulous Silver Tones made The SOC HOP. The same could possibly be said of The SOC HOP Reunions and the new Silver Tones. I was recently informed that, in part, it was the old pictures from my SOC HOP scrapbook that I had shared with others a number of years ago, that helped inspire that very first reunion which was actually more like a get together jam session. It took place in the spring of 2006 and was held in the home studio of one of Kansas City’s longtime professional Rock and Rollers, Ron Hodgden, aka Ron West, (of the bands ‘The Chesmann ’ and later ‘Missouri’). Ron volunteered his studio as a place for everyone to get together. It was one of those mostly unplanned, spur of the moment events. Many had dreamed of getting everyone together again, it just hadn’t happened yet. But the time had finally come. Many thanks to Ron and his wife Dayna for their help in making our dreams come true.
Another of those most instrumental in that very first reunion was Paul Schlapper, old friend and classmate of members of The Silver Tones. In the1960's, Paul’s band was known as The Night Riders. When I asked Paul for his recollection of the May 2006 event and what kicked it all off, he wrote me back saying, "After discovering Google a few years ago, I occasionally spent Saturday mornings typing in the names of old buddies, memories, (The Silver Tones; Frank Plas; Roger Calkins: etc). Usually nothing happened. Eventually, however, I found Dan Martin’s Blue Velvets website recalling memories of Frank Plas’ guitar playing. Dan had hooked up a link to Midnight Thunder, I clicked it and heard that song for the first time in nearly forty years.Dan and I had both played High School dances at many of the same schools with our respective bands. Through Dan I was able to join the newly formed Kansas Music Hall of Fame. Dan led me to Ron West. Ron and I became e-mail buddies, exchanged war stories, found we knew many of the same people and both agreed the Silver Tones were one of the two top bands we'd ever heard! I wanted to revisit Kansas City and we thought it would be a kick to somehow get together with whoever was left of the band. My friend Candy and I planned to meet Ron and Dayna at their home on my trip back and Ron mentioned maybe we could invite a 'few people' over and visit. If things went REALLY well, maybe the guys could go down to his studio and fool around with some of his instruments. How do we get these people together? He gave me Rich's e-mail; Rich and I wrote. Rich wanted to come over and visit –. I told Ron and Rich when Candy and I would be there and we started out with a three person get-together plan. In the meantime Ron got in touch with Mike Myers (the Fab Four) and Mike said he'd join us. While I had known Frank Plas quite well years ago, I hadn't seen him in nearly 38 years and had no idea how to get in touch with him. But Mike did and he talked to Frank who said he'd join us too".
Then Little Joe Sherrick called Ron. Little Joe was still playing bass with his Get-A-Room band and was also one of the all time most frequent of SOC HOP attendees. Little Joe had long dreamed of having a SOC HOP reunion, which he had discussed numerous times with his friend, Frank Hicks, owner of Knuckleheads Saloon in east Kansas City. Joe told Ron he'd heard about the get together and said he’d like to come. He was in touch with Danny Gregory of The Roulettes and Mac Truque and would bring him too.
"All I can say," continued Paul, "is the Kansas City Soc Hop gang's roots must run deep because by the time the evening of May 24th came we had Danny Gregory; Little Joe Sherrick; Jackie Foster and several members of Shelter; myself, Ron West (first time Kansas Music Hall of Fame Inductee); Mike Myers and most of the Fabulous Four; Scott Nelson of Ann Brewer & the Flames; and Frank Plas, Rich Stoy and Joni Calkins representing the Silver Tones. I'm sure I must have missed someone. I think that night kicked off a lot of things - the day after the jam, Scott Nelson posted a synopsis of it on the HOF website; Ron and I had managed to get the Silver Tones name on the roster as nominees for the previous Hall Of Fame induction, but not enough board members had heard them (only heard OF them); then Bill Lee, HOF president, started talking about the Silver Tones and the Fabulous Four; Frank and Joe decided to form the new Silver Tones, a Soc Hop Reunion was born, you and I connected and got the Silver Tones music to those-who-were-inspired-by-them but never heard them.
So which part do you pick as the kicker that kicked it off? That would be impossible. Sometimes I think had I not made the trip back, it wouldn't have happened. And for SURE had Ron & Dayna West not opened up their home and offered to host the 'unknown' it never would have happened. And what if Frank and Rich hadn't started playing again (unbeknownst to each other)? Or was it the fact that Mike Meyers was still in touch with them. We could go on and on forever but all I can say is, It’s great being back in touch with everyone and I’m having fun being a part of it. The answer probably lies in that old Bob Seger song; Rock n Roll never forgets." What an elite group of local celebrity this was.
To again use Pauls words, "I hate to sould like a campaign manager but - Danny and Gary of The Roulettes and The Mac Truque; The Fabulous Silver Tones and The Fab Four all provided thousands of hours of incredible entertainment, inspiration and music on the Kansas City area rock scene - it wouldn't be close to the same without them.
All three groups need to be inducted into the Kansas Music Hall Of Fame. Try to imagine Danny Gregory singing Stormy Monday Blues with Frank Plas playing guitar and Mike Myers on keyboards - that's what we had (at the jam). To be in the studio mingling and chatting and listening as spontaneous jams broke out was an unbelievable experience."
So this is how it all ‘re’-started. A spontaneous get together that was so much good and so much fun that everyone agreed it had to be done again - and this time, with an invite to all of the old Rock & Roll SOC HOP era friends who wanted to come. Well, one thing led to another and Little Joe’s friend, Frank Hicks, volunteered Knuckleheads as a place for a public reunion. Knuckleheads is, after all, one of the city’s best blues bars, a place where all of the city’s best play, which makes it a natural descendent of the area’s greatest dance hall of the sixties, The SOC HOP. Back in the day, The SOC HOP was ‘the place’ where the best of the best played. It was where everyone who played dreamed of playing. It is where most who were gathered together on this day had played at one time or another.
And so it began. A little planning, a little practicing, a couple of KKFI radio shows, a bunch of emails, and a hundred days later, the night so many of us had dreamed of finally came to pass. The Knuckleheads calendar read, " Thursday 8/31/06 - The SOC HOP REVISITED, step back to the 60's when being cool was cool, featuring Lil Joe Sherrick (of Get A Room Band), Jackie Foster (of Shelter), Danny Gregory (of The Mac Truque), and Frank Plas ( of the Silver Tones) and other guests with guest of honor Michael Weaver of the Weaver family, founders of the original Soc Hop. You won’t want to miss this one! The fun starts at 8:30PM and lasts to !!:30PM. $5.00 cover" It was, in fact, a dream come true - for me, at least. Forty six years earlier, when my dad and my uncle, Ed Bowers, opened The SOC HOP, I was just fourteen. It lasted just a little over four years. The fifty month life of The SOC HOP would live on, however, in my memory - with the dream of a chance, just one chance, for a Redo. OH, to be able to be there again, if only for a little while. . What wonderful times those were. We were all so young and carefree and having such a fun time. So for years, I have had this dream. Then I came to realize that my dream was really ‘our’ dream. The dream of many old SOC HOPpers who would like a chance to relive that special time of our lives. The SOC HOP was something special - and not just to me - but to many. Especially, in 1960, in the beginning at The Barn on 95th Street in Overland Park. The Barn had it’s own special mystique, part of which was in the uniqueness of the physical structure itself, part was in the western decor in which my family had decorated it, and a large part, was in the sounds of early Rhythm & Blues, Rock & Roll, that emanated from the magnamosity of the upper floor. I have previously given detail as to many of my SOC HOP experiences, but I don’t think that I have mentioned that a friend of my dad’s and uncle’s was the photographer for the county. Fortunately, he took numerous photo’s of our times in the old barn, many of which I have kept and are displayed on this blog along with others that I took and have saved and shared. It would have been wonderful if The SOC HOP could have stayed in that barn - but that was not to be - we had to move - in the two years we were there, the City of Overland Park had incorporated and made lots of rules - they would not issue a new business license as the residential area was now so close, so we had to move - the city said so - it had been a two year great time, but it was over - time to move on. So to Lenexa The SOC HOP moved, in early 1962. It was a different kind of place - special in it’s own way - it lasted a short two years there as well. It closed very early in 1964. There were many reasons for it’s demise, which is another story altogether. What is important for this story is the fact that, at sometime in those early days I had acquired a big, portable, reel to reel tape recorder. I had tried taping Roger Calkins and The Fabulous Silver Tones once when we were still at the barn, but I didn’t like the way the tape came out and did not keep it, though I don’t recall what I did do with it. Then Roger left The Silver Tones and formed The Holidays. One night in July of 1963, I sat my recorder on the stage, laid a microphone down beside it, and recorded Roger and The Holidays. I didn’t do it for posterity, or to distribute or anything - I just wanted to have it to listen too. And listen to it I did. For years - over and over and over again....Somewhere along in the 70's, as the reels began to warp and I began to worry about the tape breaking or going bad, I sat my portable cassette recorder down next to the reel to reel, with the cassette’s built in microphone next to the reel to reel’s built in speaker and recorded it onto cassette. The quality, as you can imagine, only got worse. But it was what I had, and it was good enough for me. But now, in the twenty-first century, it needed to be transferred onto a CD.
So, fast-forward to the spring of 2006. (The timing is ironic here). On or about May 6th, 2006 , while randomly searching the internet for anything about Roger Calkins or The Silver Tones, I had visited The Kansas Music Hall Of Fame website. Just taking a shot, I sent it’s president, Bill Lee, an email asking if he knew anything about Roger or The Silver Tones. He sent me this response "Mike, You need to join the Yahoo group I moderate and share stories with the rest of us about those days gone by. I love the years and musicians you mentioned.
To sign up, click on this link...Yahoo! Groups : KS_and_KC_GenOne_Rockers. Bill"
I followed up on Bill’s suggestion and joined the group and began getting their emails. I posted an email to the group asking if anyone knew how I might get my cassette of Roger and The Holidays converted to digital and onto a CD. Several people responded saying they could help. One was Paul Schlapper, who, much to my surprise, was also posting emails to the group describing the get-together they had all just had at Ron’s house. I began emailing Paul. I discovered he had been a classmate of Roger’s, Frank’s, Rich’s and Mike’s at Indian Hills Junior High and at SM East, and was a SOC HOP fan who now lives in southern California, just a few miles from my oldest son, who I was preparing to visit within days. Paul told me that if I brought my cassette with me, he would get it onto CD for me. I took the cassette with me and met Paul for lunch. When he returned the cassette and CD to me, he also gave me a CD of The Fabulous Silver Tones, recorded by someone in 1961 or so. I think this may be the tape I made and did not keep but don’t know for sure, it may have been made by someone else. Paul also gave me a CD that is a compilation of actual records of some of the bands from that time period - The Silver Tones and The Holidays, Larry Emmett & The Sliders, The Bygones, Danny Gregory and Garry MacComas and The MacTruque, Paul’s band The Night Riders, Little Jimmy Griffin, etc. Also he gave me a DVD of the May jam session at Ron’s house. They had had an excellent time. (Unfortunately, I missed it...).
In early July, after I returned home, Paul forwarded me an email from Little Joe Sherrick, who I contacted and vaguely remembered as one of those ‘cool dancers’ at The SOC HOP. Little Joe told me that a real reunion had been planned for Knuckleheads and he invited me to participate. I was ecstatic. I could hardly believe it - after all these years - it was really going to happen. I began making CD labels and Jewel case covers and began burning off the CD’s I had gotten from Paul, making copies to distribute at the reunion, The Rockin 60's compilation, Roger Calkins & The Silver Tones, Roger & The Holidays and a compilation CD I called Roger Calkins - KC Star. Joe invited me to come to see his Get-A-Room band play, which I did. They were pretty good, I thought. Then Joe invited me to join him for lunch at Knuckleheads and to meet Frank Hicks. After that, it became just a matter of planning for that special night which I, and so many others, had waited so long for - a SOC HOP Redo. I took several of my old SOC HOP pictures and had large posters made to display and Little Joe had a bunch of Tee shirts made with the old SOC HOP logo on them. I got a Guest Book for people to sign so we could start a mailing list for any possible future events.
Then on a Thursday night, opposite a Chief's football game, a couple hundred folks showed up at Knuckleheads for the first SOC HOP Reunion. Jackie Foster and Shelter started the night off, with Danny Gregory singing. Garry Mac joined in and they put on one heck of a show. Following a short break, Little Joe Sherrick ‘s band took the stage, joined by Frank Plas. This was the beginning of The new Silver Tones, who were joined on stage by several local legends, including Bud Ross and Jim Wilson, both original members of the 1959 Sliders. What a night it was. Just way to good not to repeat.
So here's where we’re at now. Rich Stoy, who didn’t make it that night, but has made it to several of the subsequent events, is the VP of a manufacturing company and travels in business to actively to commit to a band now, though he does show up and sit in occasionally. Mike Weakley, changed his name to Michael Fortune years ago when he moved to southern California and became the drummer for The Electric Prunes. I have talked to him several times and he says he is just to busy to come back this way at this time. Roger Calkins has retired from his music store business. He had several stores in the SF Bay area and sold electronic equipment (like Bud Ross Kustom amps) to everyone, from Janis Joplin to The Grateful Dead. Roger still lives in San Francisco, and though blind, still gets around a little. I talk to him frequently and he still has a great sense of humor, an amazing memory, and can recite the words to most any of the old songs I name.
As of this date there have been four more reunions with music provided by the new Silver Tones. Little Joe plays the bass and sings a few tunes, Frank plays lead, of course, and does most of the vocals, and Beachey Biondo keeps a good beat for them on the drums. Also, Mike Meyers, who played keyboard with Roger and the guys in school, but then formed his own band, The Fab Four, sits in with them occasionally. Ron West sings a few, and Jack Nead (The Jumpin Jacks ) came out to blow his sax. There is still a lot of great old talent around. One never knows who is going to show up. As for me, I don't play anything. I just show up, dance a little, and enjoy being there, in the midst of it all. It is wonderful - just like old times. I am also keeping an email list and sending out announcements of upcoming Silver Tone Boogies which I hope will continue on a routine basis. I still have copies of the CD's I made which I am passing out to anyone who wants one. I am delighted to have been even a very small part of the SOC HOP Reunions and the re-invention of The Silver Tones. It has indeed been a dream come true. Thank You, Paul & Joe & Frank & Ron & all who have attended these wonderful events.
I will end with a note of praise and congratulations. Frank Plas is dynamite, especially for someone who hasn't played for years. He gets better with every performance. Keep your eyes on this fantastic talent. I joined the Kansas Music Hall Of Fame last year and did a little cheerleading in the Yahoo chat group promoting The Fabulous Silver Tones as worthy of induction into the HOF and with the considerable help of others - like Paul Schlapper - IT Did Happened. The Fabulous Silver Tones were inducted at a ceremony in Lawrence on January13th 2007. Frank and Rich played and got the only standing ovation. Frank now has his own business cards and website (frankplas.com) and The new Silver Tones are just getting started. ‘Have Guitar, Will Travel’, Frank’s card and website says. It is hard to say where they might go from here. But no doubt the Silver Tone Boogies will continue.
Don’t be surprised if The Silver Tones become famous - AGAIN. Stay Tuned ...
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