Friday, October 9, 2009

The Ultimate PNW Garage Band - The Fabulous Wailers



Last night a 50 year concert was performed at the Snoqualmie Casino by the Wailers. 50 years almost to the day, they played at the Spanish Castle off of Highway 99 which launched renewed life into that old place and kicked off an era of teen dances and rock N roll! Pat O'Day, known to most of us from radio KJR Seattle channel 95 got the ball rolling and he hosted the event last night. How interesting it was to hear him tell of some of his memories of bands and persons that he had contact back in the day. His remembrance of Tony Orlando and "the acrobat" had us all in stitches! That man is a GREAT MC. Seattle Times article about the event.


The Wailers started out their set with "Beat Guitar" and the beat went on that is for sure. Kent Morrill's vocals thrilled the audience as they had 50 years ago. Age has nothing on this man. Buck Ormsby sang That Crazy Hand Jive and we all played along! :) And of course, the ending song "Louie, Louie." Would have been theirs had not another group stolen it but that is another story! lol And all is well between the 2 groups now and they even perform together at times!




Gail Harris joined the Wailers for 3 songs later in the evening. She sang her signature song "Idolize You." Gail was only 15 years old when she first performed with The Wailers at the Spanish Castle years ago! She can still entertain her audiences. We always enjoy to see her!





Kent Morrill will be returning to do his Roy Orbison show. Our understanding is that he does a remarkable job with his unbelievable authentic Roy Orbison show!




One of our Favorites is Neal Rush, the saxophonist. He was with another PNW garage band back in the day, "The Turnabouts" You may have heard them, they backed up Merilee Rush, "Angel of the Morning". Neal is a pleasure to visit with.

Of all the bands, The Wailers are my recollection of dancing in my youth. They have a new CD out, Rooster Rock. They sang all of the songs last night and we listened to the CD on the way home in the car. We really like it!!!! If you want to find out more about The Wailers, their website is http://www.thefabulouswailers.com/.

All in all, Doug and I had a good trip down memory lane. Sadly the only negative was the rude persons behind us that could not keep quiet. One lady sitting next to me finally left, saying as she left, "They just don't shut up!" I had to agree with her. Still, they didn't ruin it for us. And all I can say is, "Wailers, 50 years later and you still have it!"

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