British and psych rock band from Dundalk area. Leader Steve Roudebush tells the story of the group… “I grew up playing drums in elementary and junior high school. When the Beatles hit the scene in 1963, my brother Tom Roudebush bought a bass guitar, and I a drum trap set (both made in Japan) in a pawn shop on ‘The Block’ in downtown Baltimore. Armed with our instruments we looked for guitar players. After going through a number of people the band settled down in 1964 with Tom on bass guitar, Walt Strycharz on lead guitar, Steve Momii on rhythm guitar, and Mike Tiburzi singing lead.
“Primarily we did all of the British (and American) rock music of the time except for Beatles and Beach Boys. That would be Stones, Raiders, Byrds, Animals, Turtles, Music Machine, etc. In Dundalk we became one of the more popular groups playing ‘The Hut’ (Saturday night at Patapsco High School).
“The Gigs were from the Essex area and at that time I had only seen them play once downtown and was very much impressed with Reed Martin’s voice when he sang Bee Gees.
“In 1967 I led ‘The Tribe’ into the recording studio (Bradley Studio) where we recorded three cover songs. With disks in hand, Tom and I went to New York and landed an ‘audition’ with Epic Records for December in the New York Columbia Studios. Right before we went, Mike had to join the Merchant Marines to avoid Vietnam. At the audition we worked on three songs I had written and one of them was “Walk One Way.” Without our lead singer the result of the audition was to get a singer and return to Epic with another recording.
“When I got back to Baltimore, I approached Reed Martin with the concept of recording the lead vocals to the songs we would record, and if we got a contract with a major label he would quit the Gigs. He, in turn, insisted that Darryl Matarozza, his lifelong friend and bassist for the Gigs, join us. I accepted Reed’s terms and both Reed and Darryl recorded vocals on the song “Walk One Way.”
“When Tom and I returned to New York, our contact at Epic was out for the day and by the end of that same day United Artists made us an offer. This was in August of 1968. In February 1969 the record was released by United Artists without ‘payola’ being sent to the two most powerful independent promoters on each of the two coasts who controlled all of the programming on the major radio stations at that time. Sending them money was certain to get prime-time airplay. Not to do so was to result in no airplay.
“Being independent promoters in the business they would receive (many) records a week from record companies and would play as many as they could. Occasionally they would like one, call the record company, and after receiving some money would program the record in the airplay lists. That happened to “Walk One Way” with both the east and west coast independent promoters. The odds of that happening are incredible.
“Unfortunately, United Artists did not send these two independent promoters a check and the rest, as they say, is history. Walt heard the song on a Baltimore radio station as did a number of his family members and one of his cousins said it was featured on American Bandstand as a ‘new artist.’
“Reed and Darryl continued with the Gigs. Steve Momii moved to Seattle. Tom and I formed the Bush Brothers Band, finished college, and later moved to Texas (where we) formed several groups over the years, were partners in a recording studio, and are currently working with a lead guitar player doing ‘60s music and having a lot of fun.”
1969 United Artists 50465 Walk One Way / Fools Live Alone
