Several
members of Hoquiam High School’s Class of ’59 acquired instruments and began
banging out some rudimentary tunes. Paul Love (guitar), Terry Biggs (lead guitar), and Dave
Anderson (bass) later recruited Dave Reed (sax, vocals), and Bob Balderson
(drums), to join them. And by early 1961 the town’s first teen combo, the
Beachcombers, had honed their sound at a few neighborhood birthday parties.
Although their forte was instrumental garage rock a la the Ventures, the band
also featured a wailing girl singer, Joselle Russell.
By
midsummer the band made the smart move of adding former classmate Stan Foreman
(keyboards), and as a radio DJ who spun discs on the weeknight late-shift at
KBKW, he also began promoting their dance dates. By October Balderson drifted
away and was replaced by Jim Wynans from Weatherwax High School over in nearby
Aberdeen. Then in 1963 Biggs moved away, Russell quit to marry and raise a
family, and Anderson left for Seattle and was replaced by Bob Leland.
Meanwhile,
Foreman launched S&S promotions with his buddy Steve West, and as the
Northwest teen-scene expanded they began booking regular dances at rooms
including Hoquaim’s Vasa Hall, the Harborina, and the silver Seagull, along
with Aberdeen’s Polish Hall. In addition, S&S also presented many grueling Battles of the Bands events at the
Aberdeen Armory. Thus the Beachcombers
were able to perform on split-bills with the prime Northwest bands: the
Wailers, the Statics, the Viceroys, the Dynamics, the Furys, the Kingsmen, the
Sonics, and Don & the Goodtimes – s well as Hoquiam’s other notable
rockers, the Chessmen.
In
the Fall of ’63 the Beachcombers were called to Seattle by local record mogul
Jerry Dennon – the man responsible for breaking the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie”
that same season. He put them in Kearney Barton’s Audio Recording studios (1st
Avenue & Denny Way) where they cut their debut single. “Chinese Bagpiper,”
an oddly dissonant 3-chorder, was backed by the boss instrumental, “Purple
Peanuts.” Released in November, the disc
garnered considerable regional airplay and soon the band was working lucrative
dates in far-flung locales including Boise and Twin falls, Idaho, Spokane,
Birch Bay, Olympia’s Skateland, Burien’s Target Ballroom, Bremerton’s Perl’s
Ballroom, Tacoma’s Red carpet, and Seattle’s Parker’s Ballroom.
It
was in March ’64 that S&S booked a coup of a show for Hoquiam High’s
gymnasium. On the charts then with their early smash hit “Fun, Fun, Fun,” the
Beach Boys flew in to headline a jam-packed SRO dance that also featured the
Beachcombers and Aberdeen’s own Capris (with Gail Harris).
The
Beachcombers returned to Audio to cut their second single, “Tossin’ and Turnin’”
/ “The Wheeley,” which Dennon released in July. Though this disc didn’t fare so
well commercially, “The Wheeley” was a strong instrumental track in the
biker/skateboard/ surfer realm. In mid-’65 the band entered Barton’s new Audio
studio (on 5th Avenue) and recorded a vocal number, “All To Pieces”
which betrayed a bit of evidence of influence by the Dave Clark 5. It was
issued that August with “The Wheeley” making a welcome return appearance.
Soon
after, the band met with near-tragedy. Cruising home from a late gig over at Lake
Chelan, the boys crashed their Ford Econoline
van down a steep embankment off Highway 18 near Auburn. Several members were
hospitalized, and by morning the local radio and TV news crews were playing up
the “Rock Band Rolls Over Cliff” angle in frequent bulletins. The wreck was
serious and it merited front-page status on the local Sunday papers around the
Grays Harbor area. The Beachcombers survived and discovered that after all this
hoopla, their dances seemed to draw ever-larger crowds.
The
band experienced another round of personnel changes in the summer of ’66 when
Wynans split for college and Barry Belandi (ex-Capris/Bootmen) joined on. When
Love exited, Steve Shure of Montesano, Washington’s psych-rockers, Smiling
Castles, jumped in. The sands of time did finally catch up though and the
Beachcombers finally dissolved in 1967. Most of these guys established careers
outside of music, but West went on to serve form many years at the General
Manager of Seattle’s rock radio giant, KISW. For his part Foreman carried on,
playing during the early ‘70s in Mother Funk, running Aberdeen’s The Rocker
tavern, and served as Northwest Promotions Manager for many years at Capitol
Records.
[Note:
This is an edited version of an essay that originally appeared in the
“Northwest Music Archives” column of Seattle’s The Rocket magazine back in October, 1986.]
Text copyright © 1986, 2014 by Peter Blecha.
Text copyright © 1986, 2014 by Peter Blecha.