Sacramento Rock & Radio Museum
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  • 2000+
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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.....



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