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>>>Jeff(bigtikidude)
>>>p.s. I'd love to go back to the 60's or 80's to see what those
>>>shows and turnouts were like.
Big Tiki Dude,
I can tell you about one of the venues, and the turnouts in 1963-4-5-6.
This was our local scene, up in San Gabriel Valley.
The Pasadena Civic Auditorium had a Dance every Saturday Night.
We called it "The Civic"
It was open to all high school kids in the area.
Pasadena, John Muir(Altadena-my school), San Gabriel, Sierra Madre, La
Canada, La Cresenta, Arcadia, Glendale, South Pasadena, Eagle Rock, San
Gabriel High Schools etc.
The Civic would feature 3 bands for the evening.
The house band was called "The Diaboliques" and then two other bands
Sometimes SURF (mostly) and sometimes R&B Like, Righteous Bros, Ike and
Tina, Dick and DeeDee, Thee Midnighters.
The rules were, had to have a Student Body Card from one of these high
schools, dresses for girls, slacks(no jeans) for boys, shirt tucked IN
And a tie, or you could not get in. Of course no smoking or drinking.
The crowd inside was easily 500 kids or more.
You would have to park blocks away. And as you approached the hall,
You first heard the BASS and then the drums and then the reverbed
guitars
And most usually a sax, sometimes up to three saxes.
What a sound! It was held in the Ballroom, behind the Auditorium.
I remember seeing the Pyramids, they would start off wearing Beatle wigs
And halfway through the first song, they would tear off their wigs, and
They were BALD! The first Skinheads? This was the times of Bushy Bushy
Blonde Hairdoos...Peroxide ran rampant. Long Shaggy blonde hair.
All the Surf Bands played The Civic. The Nomads were regulars. The
Esquires.
These band names are from my memory, there were plenty of bands!
So I guess what I am trying to emphasize is that "turnouts" were not a
Problem. Everybody came to these dances, even if they had no intention
of
Coming in and dancing. It was a place to "pick up chicks" and "meet a
cute guy" The traffic out front was a non-stop flow of cars that cruised
from "Bobs Big Boy" Drive-in in East Pasadena, along Colorado Boulevard,
whip a circle around The Civic and then continue on Colorado out through
Eagle Rock into Glendale and then drive through THAT "Bob's Big Boy"
(The original) and then back again, over and over.
And I do mean every car would drive through the drive-in, too! 16 miles
of
Bumper to bumper cars and kids.
But wait! That's not all! You could get into this cruising activity all
over
The Southland. Whittier Boulevard from Downtown out to Whittier, or
Lankershim Blvd. In The Valley, or Hollywood Blvd from Hollywood to
Malibu, or Hawthorne Blvd., Rosecrans, the Beach Cities Hermosa,
Manhattan and Redondo, home of the Belairs and the Crossfires, and on
into Orange County
To Dick Dale territory. This was going on everywhere!
And to finalize this review, forty years later, the surf bands I saw all
Had these great steps they would do while they were playing. There would
Be a line of like, three of them, next to each other, take a few steps
forward, Dip their guitar/sax down, three steps back, raise their
instrument, repeat.
All in a line, all in unison. Wearing their suits, this looked really
cool.
I have not seen to much of this activity in film, but every band had
their
Own style of moving on stage.
Aloha to you all,
Kim in Kohala
On 1/11/06, Kim Sweeney <> wrote:
> Big Tiki Dude,
> I can tell you about one of the venues, and the turnouts in 1963-4-5-6.
> This was our local scene, up in San Gabriel Valley.
Way cool Kim...great post...!
BN
Thanks for this post, Kim. It's great to hear that there was some kinda surf
history in the Pasadena / Goondale area. I regularly went to that drive up at
Bob's #1 on Colorado in the '70's. It ain't no more.
-Marty
----- Original Message -----
From: Kim Sweeney
To:
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 7:09 PM
Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Big Tiki Dude - Maybe more than you wanted to know
>>>Jeff(bigtikidude)
>>>p.s. I'd love to go back to the 60's or 80's to see what those
>>>shows and turnouts were like.
Big Tiki Dude,
I can tell you about one of the venues, and the turnouts in 1963-4-5-6.
This was our local scene, up in San Gabriel Valley.
The Pasadena Civic Auditorium had a Dance every Saturday Night.
We called it "The Civic"
It was open to all high school kids in the area.
Pasadena, John Muir(Altadena-my school), San Gabriel, Sierra Madre, La
Canada, La Cresenta, Arcadia, Glendale, South Pasadena, Eagle Rock, San
Gabriel High Schools etc.
The Civic would feature 3 bands for the evening.
The house band was called "The Diaboliques" and then two other bands
Sometimes SURF (mostly) and sometimes R&B Like, Righteous Bros, Ike and
Tina, Dick and DeeDee, Thee Midnighters.
The rules were, had to have a Student Body Card from one of these high
schools, dresses for girls, slacks(no jeans) for boys, shirt tucked IN
And a tie, or you could not get in. Of course no smoking or drinking.
The crowd inside was easily 500 kids or more.
You would have to park blocks away. And as you approached the hall,
You first heard the BASS and then the drums and then the reverbed
guitars
And most usually a sax, sometimes up to three saxes.
What a sound! It was held in the Ballroom, behind the Auditorium.
I remember seeing the Pyramids, they would start off wearing Beatle wigs
And halfway through the first song, they would tear off their wigs, and
They were BALD! The first Skinheads? This was the times of Bushy Bushy
Blonde Hairdoos...Peroxide ran rampant. Long Shaggy blonde hair.
All the Surf Bands played The Civic. The Nomads were regulars. The
Esquires.
These band names are from my memory, there were plenty of bands!
So I guess what I am trying to emphasize is that "turnouts" were not a
Problem. Everybody came to these dances, even if they had no intention
of
Coming in and dancing. It was a place to "pick up chicks" and "meet a
cute guy" The traffic out front was a non-stop flow of cars that cruised
from "Bobs Big Boy" Drive-in in East Pasadena, along Colorado Boulevard,
whip a circle around The Civic and then continue on Colorado out through
Eagle Rock into Glendale and then drive through THAT "Bob's Big Boy"
(The original) and then back again, over and over.
And I do mean every car would drive through the drive-in, too! 16 miles
of
Bumper to bumper cars and kids.
But wait! That's not all! You could get into this cruising activity all
over
The Southland. Whittier Boulevard from Downtown out to Whittier, or
Lankershim Blvd. In The Valley, or Hollywood Blvd from Hollywood to
Malibu, or Hawthorne Blvd., Rosecrans, the Beach Cities Hermosa,
Manhattan and Redondo, home of the Belairs and the Crossfires, and on
into Orange County
To Dick Dale territory. This was going on everywhere!
And to finalize this review, forty years later, the surf bands I saw all
Had these great steps they would do while they were playing. There would
Be a line of like, three of them, next to each other, take a few steps
forward, Dip their guitar/sax down, three steps back, raise their
instrument, repeat.
All in a line, all in unison. Wearing their suits, this looked really
cool.
I have not seen to much of this activity in film, but every band had
their
Own style of moving on stage.
Aloha to you all,
Kim in Kohala
.
Visit for archived messages,
bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
That sucks!! I love Bob's Big Boy!!
I'll take the Big Bob's Combo with Blu dressing please.............. They
rocked!!
Wow. Maybe it's time to write a sad song.................;(
Billy
---- Marty Tippens <> wrote:
> Thanks for this post, Kim. It's great to hear that there was some kinda surf
history in the Pasadena / Goondale area. I regularly went to that drive up at
Bob's #1 on Colorado in the '70's. It ain't no more.
> -Marty
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Kim Sweeney
> To:
> Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 7:09 PM
> Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Big Tiki Dude - Maybe more than you wanted to know
>
>
>
> >>>Jeff(bigtikidude)
> >>>p.s. I'd love to go back to the 60's or 80's to see what those
> >>>shows and turnouts were like.
>
> Big Tiki Dude,
> I can tell you about one of the venues, and the turnouts in 1963-4-5-6.
> This was our local scene, up in San Gabriel Valley.
>
> The Pasadena Civic Auditorium had a Dance every Saturday Night.
> We called it "The Civic"
> It was open to all high school kids in the area.
> Pasadena, John Muir(Altadena-my school), San Gabriel, Sierra Madre, La
> Canada, La Cresenta, Arcadia, Glendale, South Pasadena, Eagle Rock, San
> Gabriel High Schools etc.
>
> The Civic would feature 3 bands for the evening.
> The house band was called "The Diaboliques" and then two other bands
> Sometimes SURF (mostly) and sometimes R&B Like, Righteous Bros, Ike and
> Tina, Dick and DeeDee, Thee Midnighters.
> The rules were, had to have a Student Body Card from one of these high
> schools, dresses for girls, slacks(no jeans) for boys, shirt tucked IN
> And a tie, or you could not get in. Of course no smoking or drinking.
> The crowd inside was easily 500 kids or more.
> You would have to park blocks away. And as you approached the hall,
> You first heard the BASS and then the drums and then the reverbed
> guitars
> And most usually a sax, sometimes up to three saxes.
> What a sound! It was held in the Ballroom, behind the Auditorium.
>
> I remember seeing the Pyramids, they would start off wearing Beatle wigs
> And halfway through the first song, they would tear off their wigs, and
> They were BALD! The first Skinheads? This was the times of Bushy Bushy
> Blonde Hairdoos...Peroxide ran rampant. Long Shaggy blonde hair.
> All the Surf Bands played The Civic. The Nomads were regulars. The
> Esquires.
> These band names are from my memory, there were plenty of bands!
>
> So I guess what I am trying to emphasize is that "turnouts" were not a
> Problem. Everybody came to these dances, even if they had no intention
> of
> Coming in and dancing. It was a place to "pick up chicks" and "meet a
> cute guy" The traffic out front was a non-stop flow of cars that cruised
> from "Bobs Big Boy" Drive-in in East Pasadena, along Colorado Boulevard,
> whip a circle around The Civic and then continue on Colorado out through
> Eagle Rock into Glendale and then drive through THAT "Bob's Big Boy"
> (The original) and then back again, over and over.
> And I do mean every car would drive through the drive-in, too! 16 miles
> of
> Bumper to bumper cars and kids.
> But wait! That's not all! You could get into this cruising activity all
> over
> The Southland. Whittier Boulevard from Downtown out to Whittier, or
> Lankershim Blvd. In The Valley, or Hollywood Blvd from Hollywood to
> Malibu, or Hawthorne Blvd., Rosecrans, the Beach Cities Hermosa,
> Manhattan and Redondo, home of the Belairs and the Crossfires, and on
> into Orange County
> To Dick Dale territory. This was going on everywhere!
> And to finalize this review, forty years later, the surf bands I saw all
> Had these great steps they would do while they were playing. There would
>
> Be a line of like, three of them, next to each other, take a few steps
> forward, Dip their guitar/sax down, three steps back, raise their
> instrument, repeat.
> All in a line, all in unison. Wearing their suits, this looked really
> cool.
> I have not seen to much of this activity in film, but every band had
> their
> Own style of moving on stage.
>
> Aloha to you all,
> Kim in Kohala
>
>
>
> .
> Visit for archived messages,
bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>
> a.. Visit your group "SurfGuitar101" on the web.
>
> b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>
>
> c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> __________ NOD32 1.1362 (20060111) Information __________
>
> This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> .
> Visit for archived messages,
bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
One night I stopped at a Bobs for a late night snack... This guy in
his car was hammered. He had driven up on the sidewalk & was trying to
order from the big boy like it was drive thru. He was all pissed
because big boy wouldnt talk to him.. Cops hauled him away but it was
fun to watch while we waited for our grub.
