New Gizmos Double CD: LIVE IN BLOOMINGTON 1977-1978. Click For Infos.
The Gizmos
LIVE IN BLOOMINGTON–1977/1978
(Gulcher 430)
“Ted’s gonna take over, you know. It’s in his blood.”
Somewhere in between the celebrated and much-beloved Ken Highland Gizmos and the beloved and much-celebrated Dale Lawrence Gizmos lies the pretty much ignored and unknown middle period Gizmos: the Ted Niemiec Gizmos. No mistake about it, this was Ted’s band. Listen to this:
I had just turned 16 when I read a classified ad in Indianapolis’ Radio Free Rock announcing that something called the Gizmos was looking for a drummer. Make a record, it said. Maybe tour the world, it said. It just so happened that making a record and touring the world (or at least playing Max’s in NYC) were, at 16, the two things I needed to do before I could die happy, so I answered it. And I would have been the Gizmos’ drummer (beloved and much-celebrated) had not Shadow Myers also answered that ad. I got to settle for being what Bob Richert referred to as the “Handsome Dick Manitoba” of the band. What Dale Lawrence referred to as the “fat teenager playing the tambourine.” What have you, I liked being a Gizmo. In Ted’s band. Three or four times a week I would leave school and drive the 50 miles down to Bloomington to rehearse or, as you will hear, play a show. Listen to this:
The shows were fun. We played a youth center in Clinton, IN, and two kids showed up. Ted brought them up on stage and made them background singers for a few songs. They had fun. The Gizmos were fun. Ted was fun. Even when lots of people would show up.
Sometime after the shows and days on this record whatever the hell punk was turned awfully angry and serious and pious and self-reflective (and too often self-righteous) and stopped being fun. The Ted Gizmos were fun. Listening to these recordings, most of which I had never heard before, I found myself grinning, laughing and having an awfully good time. Rock’n’roll can do that for you. It does that for me. I suspect it still does that for Ted, too.
Just listen. While Ken is all over disc one and Dale is all over disc two, these are Ted’s discs. If his alter-boy-caught-with-porn-mags persona is a little goofy, it is also a hoot. After all, he was just holding onto them for a friend (probably Ken). If he seemed a little dubious signing “I Shoot Up,” he knew how to rock it and that’s what matters.
I’ve never met Kenne Highland, but I love his records. Dale Lawrence may still rather not have had a fat Manitoba in his band, but I love his music anyway. Nearly thirty years later, though, I am still rather pleased and proud to have been a teenaged Gizmo. In Ted’s Gizmos. Listen to this; you’ll celebrate and love them.
–Phil Hundley, who has been able to die happy since 1977.
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