In 1967-69 this was one of the most exciting bands in Gainesville with great covers of Hendrix tunes and their own unique versions of "Baby Please Don't Go" complete with light show (hey, that was pretty cool back then!) The curly haired guitarist was still in high school but nailed every solo on his homemade teardrop-shaped guitar. The bass player, Buddy, was older (worked at Lipham's Music Store) but was the real performer of the group, dancing into the crowd with his sunburst Gibson EB2 bass. The singer was a blond screamer (remember this is pre-Robert Plant) and the group was always edgy, though they played their share of frat parties (Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, Spencer Davis...) before abruptly disappearing.

The Soal Blues, with the influence of the times, and $20-a-lid lousy pot, began to mutate into another direction, sort of West-Northwest, i.e. San Francisco. Style change, vision change, personnel change, Name Change: City Steve. The name started as a joke- it was a riff on Country Joe & The Fish... City Steve & The Okeefenokee Swamp Gas Band, pretty heady & hilarious stuff when you're... never mind. Joke wore thin, name truncated to City Steve. Personnel: Tom Webb, Jeff Jourard - guitars, "City" Steve Alday - vocals, Series of bass players - Buddy Philman, Carl "Snarl" Patti, series of drumers - Mark Scarborough, then one hapless fellow who rehearsed, played one gig & ended up in jail after a pot bust at his debut gig. Pot bust killed the band, made members local legends. Music: Hendrix, Spirit, Love, Stones, Doors, Them, Steppenwolf, Kinks, Greatful Dead, etc. Band hooked up with Love Lights- liquid lights, strobes, odd inventions such as 7-foot tall Theremin made from foil covered screen doors, much experimentation & psychedelia. At pot bust gig in West Palm Beach, band received an upright piano & a sledge hammer & told 'we don't care what you do with it' thus doing Townshend & Hendrix one better by destroying a piano onstage. What a night.

I NEVER PLAYED IN THIS BAND!