“THE GALAXIES” 1960’s Local Rock Legends re-unite to “Rock the Bowl”!! This will be only the second time in 42 years the Stadium Alumni, Etiquette Recording Artists will perform. As one of the architects of the Northwest Sound, the group currently receives international attention in the Garage Rock Revival. Band members are excited and looking forward to the event where they will perform a collection of the 50’s rock/blues songs they started with, original material, some big name English tunes and a few surprises.
ORIGINAL band members Rob Lowery (Lead Vocals), Bob Koch (Lead Guitar), Chuck Naubert (Bass, Cello, Vocals), Mark Eubanks (Sax, Vocals), Phil Hanson (Drums) and Ron Rustad (Sax, Vocals) will be joined by Brian Naubert (Guitar, Vocals) and Ron Rosenbloom (Guitar, Vocals).
The Galaxies 1964 Photo
Credit: Jini Dellaccio.
L to R: Stuart Turner, Mark Eubanks, Phil Hanson, Bob Koch, Rob Lowery, Chuck
Naubert
Stadium class of 66, was lead vocalist for The Galaxies. He joined when he was about 14 and spent 6 years with the group. When he was twenty he went on to join national recording artists, "The Surprise Package" (aka The Viceroys,
(Grannies Pad) which was produced by Lee Hazelwood and put out the album Free Up, in 1969, plus several single recordings. After leaving Hazelwood's record company the group changed their name to American Eagle and put out another album titled “American Eagle” in 1972, on Decca records. This album was played throughout the nation and was popular in Germany and Sweden. Although the band never gained the notoriety it deserved, they were the opening act for major rock groups of the time including: The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull. Rob left the music industry in the early nineties to raise a family and began a successful career as an antiques dealer in Seattle (Classic Antiques) and ultimately opening Cafe Neo combining it within the antique store to create a unique dining and antiquing experience. Currently he is the owner of income property in Seattle and Everett.
Rock n’ Roll Bob Koch, Stadium class of 64, is retired and makes his home in Tacoma. His last performing group “Teaser” played the local scene for a number of years. He is currently playing guitar for “Coin Operated”.
Stadium class of 64 was the original Galaxies bass player and leader. He was with the group through 65 when our government felt Vietnam needed him more……. Returning home where there were lights Chuck played cello with TCC for 1000 years. Later played with a Tacoma recorder group and PLU’s Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra through 75. Still plays that cello for special functions, a chamber orchestra and is a recording artist for “Ruston Mire” on Sandwich Records. Day job: Airline Pilot and Check Airman for a private airline. He lives in Olympia, Washington. Chuck remembers: Mark and Bob recruited me my first year at Stadium (61) to be the bass player in a band they were forming. They rightly figured if I could play the cello, I could play the bass guitar. Naming the band became quite a project. “The Stingers” (hey, I kinda like that) was one option, but “The Galaxies” won out. Mark Eubanks designed and helped me build my first bass amp speaker cabinet and Bob Koch taught me how to play the bass. The band practiced in Bob’s basement off nineteenth and Sprague for years. I used to stay after and his Mom made this dynamite spaghetti. We started out with a lot of blues stuff. Fats Domino, James Brown, Little Richard, B. B. King and found we loved making music together! We owned the Stadium gym for school dances in the early 60’s. We were the first band to play there (that we know of). We had to talk school officials into letting us have and play for dances there and they did because we were outstanding students in the music programs. We were playing the Red Carpet when the English Invasion hit and we all got Beatle boots and let our hair grow long and played those first Beatle songs…... the place went nuts!! Management was so impressed they made us the House Band and would book us for any nights we wanted two months in advance. We were playing those Battle of The Bands Dances at The Tacoma Armory and other locations. We played KJR Pat O’Day’s roller rink dance circuit too and traveled all over the Pacific Northwest. Around 63, 64 we started recording on Etiquette Records and Barrie Jackson became our manager. Barrie had a special way with people and words and it was great to have him promoting us. The band had some really great times together on and off the stage! The Galaxies produced an exceptional quality rock musical experience that is alive today!
Stadium Class of 1964 was a founding member of the Galaxies and played with the group through high school and college on sax, keyboards and vocals. He began his music career playing in the Tacoma Symphony at age 15 on bassoon. He performed for ten years with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. Known as "Portland's eclectic bassoonist" for his jazz work. Mark has performed since 1978 as Principal Bassoonist and solo saxophonist with the Oregon Symphony. He's the leader of a whacky group called the Bassoon Brothers with three CD recordings to their credit and a fourth to be released this fall.
Stadium class of 1966 came to The Galaxies from the “Squires” and has played with a number of Northwest Groups. For the past 18 years he has been the Timpanist for the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra in Seattle. Phil makes his home on Vashon Island.
Stadium, 64, was born and raised in Tacoma’s North End and is an original member of the band. Following high school Ron served a stint in the Navy, stationed in Pearl Harbor, HI. After his discharge from the service, Ron returned to Tacoma where he played a few gigs with the Galaxies, known then as ‘The Rock Collection' , and cut "Get Ready" with the band.
Through his brother Al, and friend Ken Wiley, Ron got involved with Traditional Jazz and switched from playing the baritone sax to the clarinet. Al, Ron, Ken and a few other local musicians formed a jazz band called The Fordrobians and Weldon and played venues around the south sound. In 1975 Ron went to work on tugs in Puget Sound. From 1979 through 1981 he worked as fireman aboard the historic steamer Virginia V. In 1977 Ron was asked to join The Rainier Jazz Band where he took on the job of vocalist and played clarinet as well. In 1980 he switched to lead singer with the group and has performed in that capacity ever since. The Rainiers are well known on the Trad Jazz circuit and Ron has traveled up and down the west coast many times in the past 30 years. It was on one of those trips in 1990 where Ron met his future wife, Janis, in Victoria, BC. They were married in Tacoma in 1993. While the Rainier Jazz Band is pretty much defunct these days, Ron still does gigs with old friends in Tacoma, at the Spar, and in Seattle, at the New Orleans. Today Ron is working as engineer aboard the tug Lela Joy plying the waters of the Pacific Northwest. (Oh…..Ron and Chuck went to Mason Jr. Hi together)
Stadium class of 1988 was listening to Galaxies records before he could walk. Son of Galaxies bass player Chuck Naubert, Brian’s ingrained love of all things rock drove him to start his first Tacoma band in 1982. He played through the Stadium years with Yellow Snow, at music school in California, then on to Seattle where he played in such seminal bands as Pop Sickle, Tube Top, and currently Ruston Mire. Brian continues his presence in the Seattle music scene.
Moved to Washington in 1968, after graduating from High School in Pennsylvania (1967). He was attending UPS when he met up with several recent H.S. graduates in Tacoma and formed the band "Scot-Free", which played at clubs and events in the area during the late 60's and early 70's. He went on to play in various "lounge" groups while completing college. Then he went in the Army (under threat of draft). He has played music on and off until present in a variety of groups. Daytime job: Manager of Policy & Operations, Washington State Dept. of Revenue, Appeals Division. Ron lives in Olympia.
By Barrie R. Jackson
Manager
The GALAXIES first came to me when I was a "minority principal of Etiquette Records and Valet Publishing (1964-66). John "Buck" Ormsby and Kent Morrill were the majority owners (and also Wailers). We were up on 6th Ave near Pearl next to a Chinese restaurant. The GALAXIES were signed with us. Chuck Naubert and Rob Lowery asked me to their rehearsal at Bob Koch's home. There I met other members: Mark Eubanks, Phil Hanson, Ron Rustad and Stuart Turner. I observed a band that really loved the creative side of rock n' roll music. They had great attitudes. They were tight, polished and hungry to create and play. These guys were fun. And they liked my ideas and me. Wow!
Naubert was the leader: creative, polished. And played a strong bass drive guitar and as good at harmony on the vocals. He was better looking than Rickie Nelson; mild mannered, diplomatic and a workhorse in both rehearsal and performance, on crafting the right sound. Warm sense of humor. Later he was drafted. Suddenly he was gone. What a loss.
Rob Lowery and Naubert were cut from the same artistic cloth. The only difference? Rob was half Italian; fired with intense gestured passion. He loved music and it had to be right. In our rehearsals we'd go over and over musical passages and phrases to get it just right for Rob (and Chuck). Wherever I took our Etiquette Record productions around major California studios -- without exception-- the executives from Warner Brothers, to A &M, to Capitol and Liberty and United Artists were always deeply interested in Lowery's unique voice. But none would lease "Get Ready", "Make Love to Me Baby", "Along Comes the Man", nevertheless. Rob was ahead of the time! He was going to DJ school (at Bates, I recall) and had the first advance album of Jimi Hendrix with the "Purple Haze" on it. The Galaxies became the first Tacoma band to cover Hendrix and music seemed to shift like a tectonic plate overnight. Elvis and the Beatles had come on fast. But Hendrix was the new electricity crackling and dancing over tomorrow’s horizon. And the Galaxies were packing South Tacoma's Red Carpet and "scuzing themselves while they kissed the sky!" Later, down In Hollywood, Etiquette had flown Rob down to lay down his voice-track over the long-worked version by the Galaxies’ of Benny E. King's, "I Who Have Nothing”. I was with Rob in the studio, his earphones on and Larry Levine (from A & M) engineering. Rob had laryngitis bad and was not ready to record. Not his fault. But we didn't have enough money to rest him. To compound matters he had just been drafted and Uncle Sam would not give him another day. Outside the studio window was Sonny Bono, who had wandered up and was listening outside the booth. Sonny was there cutting his and Cher's "Bang Bang, I Shot My Baby Down." Weeks later I was in LA with our hired promotion man, Dick Forester. He put me on the phone with KJR’s Pat O'Day. Pat told me, "I Who Have Nothing" was probably the best produced rock and roll record from the Pacific Northwest (at that time) he had heard. Later on, we started hearing our arrangement of "I Who Have Nothing" by other national artists, climaxed by Tom Jones" comeback, with a very similar arrangement. It should have been Rob Lowery. Even so much later, Rob’s mom was the one to discover the BILLBOARD's chart showing Rob’s song with a bullet choice!
Mark Eubanks was a classical gas! He played bassoon with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at the time and loved rocking and rolling with The Galaxies. He structured the play list and I personally learned a lot from Mark about music. He had a very prankish sense of humor and would ad lib on the bassoon against Koch's solo flights to Mars. Mark also played a very sophisticated sax and is a great jazz improviser. After the Galaxies disbanded (and I forget why but a lot had to do with the draft and some members going to other groups), Mark came up with the idea of "The Rock Collection", which was rock and roll arranged with structure to Hendrix era sounds and symphonic phrasing and a whole bunch of crazy fun. The Rock Collection launched in a gravel pit at Woodworth Asphalt and Pavement Company. Soon though Mark was getting very serious about serious music and left later for his future in Oregon. And Lowery had left for the well deserved big-time and the fame that should have been his truly.
Bob Koch was the inspirational driver of the Galaxies. He had a strong and quiet influence and a dedication to music. Some time after Stadium, he worked at Atlas Foundry and came right to rehearsals in foundry attire. After hard work, he was still fresh for rock and roll. His droll sense of humor came out of his guitar. He would go along with anything and was, I mean really laid back. Listen to his solo runs. They're very unique and progressively interesting. Years later, Bob invited me to listen to his new band. While standing there in his new garage it occurred to me there and then my days of listening to garage rock and roll were over--"Chief Joseph will fight no more-- forever."
Phil Hanson was the quiet one. His drumming belied that fact. Phil could really establish the beat, and then move it around strong and steady with or without Naubert thrumming insistently. I did not know Phil like the others. But his drumbeat reminded me somewhat of the Wailer’s original drummer, Mike Burk; who has to be one of the best drummers I have heard in that era of rock n' roll in the Pacific Northwest. My real love in music is classical and jazz, so to me, Mike Burke was like a jazz drummer playing rock and roll. I would believe Mike might have influenced Phil.
Ron Rustad had been a friend long before I knew him in the Galaxies. He and his brother Al were larger than life. Had traveled the world on steamships. Sang in Gilbert & Sullivan productions. Ron is a living authority on Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, the Three Stooges and everything jazz. He is a traditional jazz singer/entertainer, having sung all along the Pacific Coast. With the Galaxies he was Mister--baritone sax. He's on the original "Tacoma/Shaken" 45 rpm, "Get Ready”, and "A Sunny Day Is Such A Grove Babe". Ron and Ken Wiley of KPLU (“The Art of Jazz") and myself were among a party of six touring England and Ireland in 1976. Both of them played with Max Roach in London. Rustad was like a Weapon of Mass Destruction about to explode at any gig. His energy level is always on Red Alert, his decibel levels on some notes higher than a fleet of Boeing jets warming up. Near or far, Ron was a vital force for the Galaxies. Catch his act and tell me he's not the Energizer Bunny--grown up!
Stuart Turner played rhythm guitar and was an important group member; and loved the Beatles and especially, "We Can Work It Out". He played a fantastic rhythm guitar for the band. And then he was gone.
"Jump on my toes
Break my nose.
Kick out my knee
You ain't gonna kill me
Can't you see?
I'm rock n roll
I'm good for the soul."
Barrie R. Jackson married Patricia Lee Hall in Tacoma in 1954 and later
Worked as a publicity writer. His son Matthew graduated from Stadium as Tiger in 1988. Barrie owned an advertising/public relations firm. One client, the Wailers, namely John Buck Ormsby and Kent Morrill interested him in helping direct their Etiquette Records/Valet Publishing. Eventually Barrie managed many of their artists: The Wailers, Sonics, Galaxies, Bootmen, Rooks, Hawk & the Randells (Yakima), and writer/singers Ron Davies Bremerton) and Nick Hughes (Yakima) from 1964-66. Jackson also worked for two Sixth Congressional District Members of Congress, the late Floyd V. Hicks and Norman D. Dicks (1969-1981). Today, he is a job counselor for the Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens in Seattle, but he still considers himself a Tacoman!
Dedication: The Galaxies are dedicating their Stadium Performance to the late Dudley Hill (founding member of Pearl Django and wonderful human being) who played rhythm guitar with the group at the 20th year reunion for Stadium’s Class of 64 and to Lead Guitarist Bob Koch, who at the time of this writing is unable to join the group.