February 1966
EILEEN TROMBLEY and classmates at THE CHATTER BOX
Happened to be in the right place at the right time when a photographer from the Detroit Free Press showed up at The Chatter Box one Friday night when I was there with a bunch of classmates from Regina High School.
They were: Donita Simpson, Mary Hurley, Thelma Secreto, Angie Ventimiglia, Evaline Vigelitti and Ann Vassallo. That June, we all graduated.
Much as it doesn't look it, there WERE boys on that dance floor and in the club!
The Trade Winds was the band. Here's the rest of the article:
All websites by Eileen Glick are designed using Homestead SiteBuilder.
Recommended for those who want a website but don't want to learn HTML.
Interested? Click on the Homestead banner for more info.
© 2002-2010 Detroit Memories LLC
THE TRADE WINDS
by Gene Cousens, DeLaSalle '63
Members:
Dave ~ Hammond organ (founder and leader of the group)
Eddy ~ vocals
Terry ~ bass and vocals
Gene ~ guitar and sax
Larry ~ sax and flute
Ronnie ~ drums
The Trade Winds was formed around 1965. Prior to my joining, I'd been in a band called The Marlans. Because my band was having problems, Terry, my bass player, and I left to join The Trade Winds in 1966. We replaced two musicians who'd left their group, one of them being Mark Manko, who went
to play with Mitch Ryder.
It was purely a coincidence that fellow Trade Wind members Larry, Ronnie, Dave and I had all been in DeLaSalle's band in the early '60s.
The Trade Winds played at the Chatter Box venues in Allen Park and Brighton, as well as The Mump near Northland, the Sway Lounge and the Roostertail, where one night as we finished our set to a packed audience with "My Girl,"
we sat down to take a break and a guy walked up to us and said "Not bad for white boys." It was Eddie Kendricks from The Temptations. My knees still get weak when I think about that moment!
Jerry Gurvis, the owner of the Chatterbox, became our agent for awhile. We were offered a contract by an MGM subsidiary. They wanted original songs. Although I was majoring in English and two of the guys were music majors, we couldn't seem come up with any decent lyrics or music. I think we all tried to complicate things too much. Eddy became discouraged and quit the business permanently. We acquired a new singer, Jim Freeman.
It was around that time that music began to change to Psychedelic and new groups came on the scene. Since we were primarily R&B and "preppy" oriented, we really couldn't make the transition. Some of the guys got discouraged and some were engaged to be married and looking for day jobs, so we ended our career late in 1968.
I moved to Virginia Beach in 1971, then to the Baltimore area in 1980, and lost touch with just about everyone from Detroit. I called Eddy in 1988 or so.
He still was not singing anymore.
Jim Freeman went solo after we broke up and developed a "raunch & roll" comedy routine. He was at Dirty Helen's downtown, then the Coliseum, and is still performing.
SUBMITTED BY
Gene Cousens
DeLaSalle '63
Former member of The Trade Winds
