Hard rock and originals band formed and managed by Greg Sinners (guitar ex-Icon, Silver Queen, Edward Teach), with Fran Bryant (lead vocals ex-Silver Queen, Apricot Brandy, Edward Teach), Neil Hermann (guitar), Howard Young (bass), and Timmy Morrison (drums).
Tail Gunner played regularly at Mack & Myers club on Eastern Avenue in Essex among other venues.
Ticket stubs courtesy of Greg Sinners
The group recorded two original songs “Sassy” by Sinners and Bryant, and “Ten Years” by Sinners. Flite Three Studios suggested the band contact John Palumbo (Crack the Sky) who was interested in producing original recordings. Palumbo liked what he heard and agreed to produce the group. Upon their initial meeting he made some production suggestions and changes, and the group went into the studio the next day to record. Although Pulumbo and engineer Victor Gordiano incorporated some beneficial changes and arrangements to the songs, the band wasn’t completely satisfied with the final mixes. The song “Sassy” was submitted to WKTK for the “Maryland Music ‘81” album as part of the nationally sponsored ‘Big Music America Contest.’ Shortly afterward Hermann left to return to his hometown New York. The group then added Dean Manna on lead guitar. Since Tail Gunner wanted to remix the songs anyway, and Manna wanted to re-cut the solos, which the group preferred his solos over the originals, they went back to Flite Three and re-cut and re-mixed the songs with the new leads by Manna, and featuring Tommy Giorgillio on organ. Soon after the recordings Tommy left and never actually played out with the group.
Tail Gunner was notified that the song “Sassy” was not selected for the WKTK album so the group released the newly mixed versions of both songs on an independent single and distributed it in stores throughout the Baltimore area.
After a few months, Sinners received a call from the company sponsoring the ‘Big Music America Contest’ saying there was a mistake and “Sassy” was indeed chosen for the album. Since the album sleeves were already printed and they had invested a considerable amount of money they needed permission to include the song. Another caveat was that the participating bands could not have previously released records. An agreement was worked out that the 45’s would be withdrawn from the record stores and stop selling for one year. Publishing rights were given to the record company for one year after which they would revert back to the band.
Palumbo later caught wind of the remix and requested his name removed since it was not his production work, but by then the group had disbanded.
Sinners later formed Shock Wave. He continued to write music and participated in original music showcases in Baltimore and recordings in New York. He later moved to Delaware where he formed the band Newspaper Taxi (eventually disbanded in 2007). Bryant dropped out of the music scene until early ‘90s when he formed the Christian rock band Sojourner. In ‘00s he was a member of Alton Street. Manna’s later bands included Crowded Stage…
1980 Tail Gunner 101 Sassy / Ten Years
