The New Breed/Breed/Glad were,
by far, the best local rock act in the 60's.
The Museum houses many items promoting the band. This space will be improved with time.
Ron Floegel of the band tells the story
below.
On the last day of school in the seventh grade (1959) Tom Phillips and I
met in the Park near Howe Avenue School. He went home, got his guitar
and came back to show me some Kingston Trio Songs he had learned. All I
knew how to do was play a little Ukelele that I learned from my older
brother's friends. When Tom explained to me the first four strings of
the guitar were just like the Ukelele, we almost immediately were able
to strum some of those songs together. Tom was already a pretty good
guitar player and would begin teaching guitar a year or two later. Over
the course of the eighth grade school year we played around at it and
started to try and sing as a trio along with a classmate in the summer
following.
I knew Timothy Schmit from Little League baseball and we had been best
friends until I transferred from Dyer Kelly to Howe Avenue School.
Timothy and his brother Greg sang beautiful harmonies behind my ukelele
playing when I would spend the night with them at their mobile home on
Auburn Blvd. I suggested to Tom that we ask him to join us one afternoon
And immediately we sounded pretty good. So the group was born...Tim Tom
and Ron. We set out to perfect some folk songs of the day with the
object of performing in public.
That happened over the holiday season of 1960 or 1961. We played at the
Unitarian Church on Sierra Blvd for a church youth group and were very
well received. We were on our way. We were 13 or 14 years old at the
time.
Over the next two years we would become the school favorite musical act
at Encina High School and other schools in the district playing at
rallys, class breakfasts and the like. We were honored to perform for a
luncheon for the governor at that time Edmund G "Pat" Brown and also
luncheons for his wife Winnie.
In the spring of our freshman year of high school we became excited by a
local group the Del Counts and set our sights on becoming a dance band
with electric guitars. There was only one drummer in our class that had
a drum kit.........George Hullin had been practicing at home to his
father's big band records. We asked him to join us and the Contenders
was born in 1962.
All through High School we played after game dances, open dances, we
had a steady summer gig at the Fairhaven Apartment complex every
Saturday nite. All through school we practiced, got better and became an
in demand
Surf/rock band in the north area.
We were originally managed by a neighborhood friend Roy Yano. When Roy
left for UC Berkeley our management was taken over by Gary Shiro. Gary
knew the program director at KXOA Johnny Hyde. In the summer after high
school we began trying out original material. I had started writng back
in our folk singing days...usually just an extra verse added to an
existing song. I had written a little skiffle shuffle song about my high
school girlfriend
Basic twelve bar blues with a bridge and a refrain ....along the same
lines as the early Beatles music.
Johnny Hyde thought that the song could be commercially successful with
the right arrangement. Johnny and the guys rearranged my shuffle into a
two beat kind of feel and before we knew it we were in the recording
studio making a song called "Green Eyed Woman" that would change our
lives forever. We became "The New Breed"
By this time (Sept 1965) the Beatles were in full swing and we had
settled into matching roles..Timothy the cute Bass player with the
incredible tenor voice, Tom had become a really great lead player a la
George Harrison and George was the Ringo of our group. Big right foot
and a wild stage presence. I was the rhythm player a la John Lennon.
By Christmas 1965, Green Eyed Woman was on the charts in most markets in
the country and was a regional hit record going to number one for
several weeks on the West Coast. During our Christmas break ( we were
all in college by now) we did a 14 city tour up and down the Valley in
George's 1959 Chevrolet Impala pulling our gear in a U-haul trailer.
Wherever we played girls screamed for us. They didn't know where we were
from. They only knew we were number one on their charts right along with
the Beatles and Stones.
The next three and a half years were an incredible time for us, playing
concerts with some of the biggest acts of the time. We made many more
records, two albums, and became quite accomplished at 21 years of age.
In that short time we were affiliated with five record labels, and even
owned our own company for a time. Things quieted down, however, and
Timothy received an offer to join a fledgling group that split off from
the Buffalo Springfield
Called Poco. He left the group in 1970 and moved to LA and has since
gone onto great fame as a member of the
Eagles. Timothy is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
George,Tom and I regrouped and added a local Blues Guitarist named Andy
Samuels. We became Redwing and in 1971 signed a five record deal with
Fantasy Records.
Those early years were so special it is hard to explain. There was a
time when we were so close we would finish each other's sentences. We
grew up and learned music and life together in the spotlight. We were
forced to get good quickly and we responded to the challenge. Today,
when Timothy comes to town, we all get together. We have lunch...we
catch up...we collectively try and remember what happened 50 years ago.
It was a time that changed our lives. We remain great friends.....
