THE HISTORY
October 1969:
In the fall of 1969 I was friends with a guy who told me that he was going to put together a band and serve as the bass player. They needed to get ready for a battle of the bands (remember those?) that was coming up soon and had a cash prize for the winning band. I went to see the show and although they didn’t win, they were good!
I wanted to be a part of the group but I didn't play an instrument. They did not have a sound system, the vocal mics were just plugged into the guitar and bass amps. But they did have a rudimentary light system that was controlled with foot switches by the guitar player.
What if I was to act as the roadie and run the lights for them (for no pay of course)? This was agreed to and soon we were practicing to play the next gig, a school dance at a venue in Cumberland, Wisconsin.
The band was called Black Magic and the members were Randy Dodge on guitar, Bob Churchill on bass, Jim "Afro" Olson (he goes by Mitch Olson now) on keyboards and the late Duane Brenne on drums.
The system consisted of 2 plywood light columns, each containing 8 colored flood lights, controlled by a small wood box with just 4 switches. Each switch controlled 4 lights with the colors blue, red, green and yellow from top to bottom.
At this gig Fantasia Light Shows was born, although it would be another year or so before the name would be picked and a separate entity formed. I sat behind the guitar amp, which was the only possible control location because of the length of the cables that were permanently attached between the control box and light columns.
At one point in the show, I stood up to ask Bob a question and he took the opportunity to introduce me to the crowd as the light show operator. He later told me that he would never do that again. When I asked him why he said I had gotten more applause than the band did. That turned out to be true, he never did it again.
November 1969:
In November, Black Magic was slated to provide the music for a dance at our own high school in Ellsworth, Wisconsin and by that time I had made arrangements to purchase the lighting system. I don’t remember who owned it, or what I had to pay for it, but it was now mine. However, I still wasn’t being paid to travel with the band and now was responsible for the maintenance which included replacing any broken or burned out light bulbs. This was perhaps not a wise business decision on my part but the equipment was mine and I started making plans for improvements.
It was interesting at that point in time that sound reinforcement for bands was not very common, it would be a couple of years before separate speakers and amps with a sound board and operator would become commonplace. But the visual aspects of a light show to go along with the music were becoming a part of the performance that people were talking about. I could keep good time with the music and being able to hit the lights from a dark stage on the first note and returning to a momentary blackout at the end of each song definitely added to the show and the level of emotion demonstrated by the crowd. I was making a difference!
December 1969:
In December we were back in Cumberland, this time playing in the high school gym for a Christmas dance. Over the past month the band added a lead singer, Fred Kamrath, to the group. The band was playing tighter the more they played together and was adding many new songs to the set list. Back at this time local bands didn’t do any original material, it was all cover tunes. That made it easy to do lights to them because you heard them on the radio all the time.
I had figured out that the transporting of the light columns was what was breaking the light bulbs so I began taking them out of the columns and packing them in a cardboard box with some pieces of foam. It took longer for set-up and tear-down but was saving me money. But just a cardboard box added to the equipment list. We had a long way to go!
May 1970:
In May of 1970 Black Magic played their last show, a Sadie Hawkins dance at Ellsworth high school. We didn’t realize at the time that it would be the last show together but some of us were seniors and would be moving on come fall. It was a memorable show and we really had the place rocking.
August 1970:
In August of that year, Bob Churchill’s step brother was planning a barbeque and dance in River Falls, Wisconsin and wanted a band to play. So a new lineup was thrown together for just that one show. The name was changed to Joe Band. Bob "Sunny" Sundberg took over on lead guitar and Nancy Bennett was recruited as lead singer. I remember rehearsals taking place in Churchill’s basement and I even did a recording of some of the songs that was "released" (to band members only) as a cassette called Joe Band Takes Off. Somewhere I have the original reel-to-reel recording and hope to put it on SoundCloud some day.
A funny thing happened at that gig. After the show was over the band members were each paid $5. I was, of course, paid nothing. Somehow this came to Nancy’s attention and she demanded that each of the band members pay me $1. So, in the end I earned $5 for the date and the other band members only ended up with $4 each. It was not only the first time that I got paid as a light show operator, I got paid more than the band members! That wouldn’t happen again for a number of years.
Fall 1970:
In the fall of 1970 I enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. I immediately checked to see if any bands were forming that might need a light show but was a bit hampered by not knowing very many people on campus. I spent that waiting time thinking about what the show could become. Opportunities were limited to see other bands in action but I did see an occasional show that gave me some ideas.
One of the popular effects that bands used was black lights and one day there was a notice on a bulletin board that a guy had a 4' one for sale. I snapped it up and started working on a case to put it in to protect it, not only during transit but during the actual show as well. They were usually placed at the front of the stage and should somehow be pointed towards the band members and not at the crowd.
I came up with a case that had two halves, with one side higher than the other. That would make it easy to use two lights and then latch the two halves together for transport. I bought a second light and wired them up, added a handle and some rubber feet. Here is a photo of what it looked like.
I still hadn’t come up with the name Fantasia Light Shows yet, that stenciling was added later. Even though I didn’t have a band to do shows with at that time, those lights sure looked good in my room with the black light posters that were very popular at that time.
The other thing that I remembered from the days of Black Magic was that you could never have enough extension cords. Besides needing a bunch for lighting, the band was always asking for them as well. So, I started to keep my eyes open for ones that I could add to the inventory. I am pretty sure that my dad contributed a few, perhaps without his knowledge, but it was also the type of item that seemed to be lying about from time to time. I also needed a case to put them in, as well as some other bits and pieces, but this was way before the days of flight cases like the big bands used. I remember going to a Holiday store and buying a black metal trunk, like a foot locker.
This worked great but wasn’t very heavy duty and got pretty beat up pretty fast. That brought on the light man’s best friend, gaffers tape. Of course not the good stuff, I couldn’t afford that, it was regular duct tape from the hardware store, but we called it gaffers tape.
Around this same time I also became more educated about electricity. I was taught, mostly by my uncle Mark, how electrical circuits worked, regarding hot wires, neutral wires and grounding circuits. What this meant was the way the light columns had been constructed, with two wires going to each of the four sets of lights, that I could rewire them and gain three additional circuits at each side of the stage without having to spend any money on wire. I promptly did this and added additional switches to the control panel to control the extra effects that I was beginning to accumulate.
My introduction to electricity was further kindled by my friend Joel Anderson. He was going to Northwest Electronics Institute in Minneapolis and I was spending some weekends there with him during that school year. The more I was exposed to electronics the more that I wanted to learn and started buying some of the magazines of the day, such as Popular Electronics. In the back of those magazines were ads for Heathkit and Edmund Scientific and I ordered those catalogs.
Here is a photo of my good friend the late Joe Schneider enjoying our favorite
beverage with one of the light boxes and the black light case in the background.
In the fall of 1969 I was friends with a guy who told me that he was going to put together a band and serve as the bass player. They needed to get ready for a battle of the bands (remember those?) that was coming up soon and had a cash prize for the winning band. I went to see the show and although they didn’t win, they were good!
I wanted to be a part of the group but I didn't play an instrument. They did not have a sound system, the vocal mics were just plugged into the guitar and bass amps. But they did have a rudimentary light system that was controlled with foot switches by the guitar player.
What if I was to act as the roadie and run the lights for them (for no pay of course)? This was agreed to and soon we were practicing to play the next gig, a school dance at a venue in Cumberland, Wisconsin.
The band was called Black Magic and the members were Randy Dodge on guitar, Bob Churchill on bass, Jim "Afro" Olson (he goes by Mitch Olson now) on keyboards and the late Duane Brenne on drums.
The system consisted of 2 plywood light columns, each containing 8 colored flood lights, controlled by a small wood box with just 4 switches. Each switch controlled 4 lights with the colors blue, red, green and yellow from top to bottom.
At this gig Fantasia Light Shows was born, although it would be another year or so before the name would be picked and a separate entity formed. I sat behind the guitar amp, which was the only possible control location because of the length of the cables that were permanently attached between the control box and light columns.
At one point in the show, I stood up to ask Bob a question and he took the opportunity to introduce me to the crowd as the light show operator. He later told me that he would never do that again. When I asked him why he said I had gotten more applause than the band did. That turned out to be true, he never did it again.
November 1969:
In November, Black Magic was slated to provide the music for a dance at our own high school in Ellsworth, Wisconsin and by that time I had made arrangements to purchase the lighting system. I don’t remember who owned it, or what I had to pay for it, but it was now mine. However, I still wasn’t being paid to travel with the band and now was responsible for the maintenance which included replacing any broken or burned out light bulbs. This was perhaps not a wise business decision on my part but the equipment was mine and I started making plans for improvements.
It was interesting at that point in time that sound reinforcement for bands was not very common, it would be a couple of years before separate speakers and amps with a sound board and operator would become commonplace. But the visual aspects of a light show to go along with the music were becoming a part of the performance that people were talking about. I could keep good time with the music and being able to hit the lights from a dark stage on the first note and returning to a momentary blackout at the end of each song definitely added to the show and the level of emotion demonstrated by the crowd. I was making a difference!
December 1969:
In December we were back in Cumberland, this time playing in the high school gym for a Christmas dance. Over the past month the band added a lead singer, Fred Kamrath, to the group. The band was playing tighter the more they played together and was adding many new songs to the set list. Back at this time local bands didn’t do any original material, it was all cover tunes. That made it easy to do lights to them because you heard them on the radio all the time.
I had figured out that the transporting of the light columns was what was breaking the light bulbs so I began taking them out of the columns and packing them in a cardboard box with some pieces of foam. It took longer for set-up and tear-down but was saving me money. But just a cardboard box added to the equipment list. We had a long way to go!
May 1970:
In May of 1970 Black Magic played their last show, a Sadie Hawkins dance at Ellsworth high school. We didn’t realize at the time that it would be the last show together but some of us were seniors and would be moving on come fall. It was a memorable show and we really had the place rocking.
August 1970:
In August of that year, Bob Churchill’s step brother was planning a barbeque and dance in River Falls, Wisconsin and wanted a band to play. So a new lineup was thrown together for just that one show. The name was changed to Joe Band. Bob "Sunny" Sundberg took over on lead guitar and Nancy Bennett was recruited as lead singer. I remember rehearsals taking place in Churchill’s basement and I even did a recording of some of the songs that was "released" (to band members only) as a cassette called Joe Band Takes Off. Somewhere I have the original reel-to-reel recording and hope to put it on SoundCloud some day.
A funny thing happened at that gig. After the show was over the band members were each paid $5. I was, of course, paid nothing. Somehow this came to Nancy’s attention and she demanded that each of the band members pay me $1. So, in the end I earned $5 for the date and the other band members only ended up with $4 each. It was not only the first time that I got paid as a light show operator, I got paid more than the band members! That wouldn’t happen again for a number of years.
Fall 1970:
In the fall of 1970 I enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. I immediately checked to see if any bands were forming that might need a light show but was a bit hampered by not knowing very many people on campus. I spent that waiting time thinking about what the show could become. Opportunities were limited to see other bands in action but I did see an occasional show that gave me some ideas.
One of the popular effects that bands used was black lights and one day there was a notice on a bulletin board that a guy had a 4' one for sale. I snapped it up and started working on a case to put it in to protect it, not only during transit but during the actual show as well. They were usually placed at the front of the stage and should somehow be pointed towards the band members and not at the crowd.
I came up with a case that had two halves, with one side higher than the other. That would make it easy to use two lights and then latch the two halves together for transport. I bought a second light and wired them up, added a handle and some rubber feet. Here is a photo of what it looked like.
I still hadn’t come up with the name Fantasia Light Shows yet, that stenciling was added later. Even though I didn’t have a band to do shows with at that time, those lights sure looked good in my room with the black light posters that were very popular at that time.
The other thing that I remembered from the days of Black Magic was that you could never have enough extension cords. Besides needing a bunch for lighting, the band was always asking for them as well. So, I started to keep my eyes open for ones that I could add to the inventory. I am pretty sure that my dad contributed a few, perhaps without his knowledge, but it was also the type of item that seemed to be lying about from time to time. I also needed a case to put them in, as well as some other bits and pieces, but this was way before the days of flight cases like the big bands used. I remember going to a Holiday store and buying a black metal trunk, like a foot locker.
This worked great but wasn’t very heavy duty and got pretty beat up pretty fast. That brought on the light man’s best friend, gaffers tape. Of course not the good stuff, I couldn’t afford that, it was regular duct tape from the hardware store, but we called it gaffers tape.
Around this same time I also became more educated about electricity. I was taught, mostly by my uncle Mark, how electrical circuits worked, regarding hot wires, neutral wires and grounding circuits. What this meant was the way the light columns had been constructed, with two wires going to each of the four sets of lights, that I could rewire them and gain three additional circuits at each side of the stage without having to spend any money on wire. I promptly did this and added additional switches to the control panel to control the extra effects that I was beginning to accumulate.
My introduction to electricity was further kindled by my friend Joel Anderson. He was going to Northwest Electronics Institute in Minneapolis and I was spending some weekends there with him during that school year. The more I was exposed to electronics the more that I wanted to learn and started buying some of the magazines of the day, such as Popular Electronics. In the back of those magazines were ads for Heathkit and Edmund Scientific and I ordered those catalogs.
|
In with the Edmund Scientific
information was an advertisement for their Unique Lighting Handbook which had recently been published. I had to have one of those and when it
arrived I devoured it from cover to cover (I still have it today as well as a copy of the revised edition). There was page after page of great ideas for
effects for the light show. Black lights, overhead projectors, color wheels, mirror balls and a host of other ideas. Many were beyond my reach financially
but one that really caught my eye was the color organ. |
|
To have the ability to flash the lights to the music automatically was a concept that really intrigued me. I soon was building my very first electronics
kit. All of that entailed learning to solder and buying tools to build electronic kits. But when I was done it worked! I built two small boxes that had
four light bulbs in each, with cracked ice plastic sheets in front of them. More stuff to have in my room while I was waiting to get involved with another
band. |
|
Here is a photo of my good friend the late Joe Schneider enjoying our favorite
beverage with one of the light boxes and the black light case in the background.
|
And then the call came. To read more click the light. |
|