R&B and pop group. Their history goes back to the mid-‘70s as a teen group called Black Sage. Members included Robert Wilson (guitar), Phil Nelson (guitar), Mike Noel (flute, sax), Gerard Moore aka ‘Chris Hill’ (bass), Tony Lunsford (bass), Cedric Johnson (keyboards), Al Campbell (keyboards), Dave Kaminkow (keyboards), Preston (keyboards), Joe Hatchett (drums), and female lead vocalists included at times Yolanda Parker, Tracy Hamlin, Lisa, Michelle…
Seen regularly at Girard’s as Sunday night house band… Through the C.E.S. Agency the group worked the high school and college circuits up and down the I-95 corridor, and as far as Salisbury, Frostburg, and all throughout Pennsylvania.
They performed for many Baltimore City fairs, AFRAM Festival, fundraisers for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation.
Maximum Strength appeared circa 1981, on the TV program “Showcase 13” on WJZ-TV, a show that also featured the likes of The Arterials, Jr. Cline & the Recliners, Great Train Robbery, and others.
The group went through some changes and was briefly known as Maximum Strength II, then later morphed into the Rollex Band…
Wilson and Noel also worked together with Daybreak, The Potentials… Johnson’s later bands included Smile, The Look… Hamlin also worked with Reach, Irvin Lee Project, Frank Ski…
