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Sonic
Stan Bloch 1950-2004
MUSIC OBITUARY:
Cleveland,
Ohio
Manfred "Stan" Bloch, rock guitarist and songwriter
with Cleveland comedy/punk band, The Baloney Heads (1978 -
1981), original rock band, Vacant Lots (1981 - 1984), harmonica
player and percussionist with The Dukes of Windsor (1997 -
present) died, November 13, 2004, of cancer at Cleveland Clinic.
He was 54.
Music
History:
Stan
donning the stage name, Stan Townhouse, co-founded with Wally
Gunn (Waldo) - vocalist, The Baloney Heads, in 1978.
The
Baloney Heads also included: Ed "Spike" Kaptein
- vocals/bass, Ron "Quivering Quim" Skinner - vocals,
Jeff "Westy" West (Coughanour) - drums and Kirk
Yano - bass, in their original line up. The band later added,
Raymond "Radar Kilowatt" Schraff - bass and Dan
"Sticks" Foland - drums, who played on the first
recordings. Many rotating members of the Cleveland music scene
joined the band from time to time and include: Jeff Bates
- guitar, Don Kriss - guitar, George Duffy - vocals and Jeff
Beer - drums. They played fast three-chord punk rock with
a stage show and comedic twist. (Many of Cleveland's best
drummers sat in with The Baloney Heads during its three year
history, too many to list.)
They
released the party rock anthem, "I'm a Drunk b/w Life's
Rough, as a 45 rpm single. It was released on their own label,
Ono-Records, in 1980, with help from producer, Kirk Yano and
publisher Don Kriss.
Local
promoter and music journalist, Peanuts, secured air play on
local radio station, WMMS. Later, the song received college
radio air play, globally. It was a top ten single in many
local record stores, and it still receives air play today,
on local college stations, such as WCSB, WRUW, WJCU and WBWC.
It has been bootlegged numerous times and covered by the Columbus,
Ohio band, The White Outs. Stan Bloch and Wally Gunn wrote
the anthem, as a tribute to The Who and other favorite punk
influences, as well as many of the other songs The Baloney
Heads performed live.
As
a rare, collectible punk rock record, it has fetched up to
$250 on E-bay auctions.
Stan
played guitar and wrote songs for The Vacant Lots which had
two different line ups during it's history. Vacant Lots 1
- Original and Cover Modern Rock Band (1981 ? 1982) Included:
Wally Gunn - Vocals/Electronic Percussion, Stan Bloch - Rhythm
Guitar, Ron Lange - Keyboards/Vocals, Don Kriss - Lead Guitar/Vocals,
Chris Kamburoff - Bass Guitar/Vocals and Jeff ?West? Coughanour
- Drums/Vocals
Vacant
Lots 2 - Original and Cover Modern Rock Band (1983 ? 1984)
included: Wally Gunn - Vocals/Electronic Percussion/Keyboards/Tapes/Guitar,
Stan Bloch - Rhythm Guitar, Ron Lange - Synthesizers/Keyboards/Vocals,
Mike Kaminowski ?Mike Cambridge? - Lead Guitar/Vocals, Joe
Babin - Bass Guitar/Vocals/Keyboards and Lonnie Pavis ?Lonnie
Marlin? - Drums/Vocals.
Vacant
Lots recorded a number of original compositions written by
Stan including, High Intensity Fish with Norm Duvall and Red
Alert.
In
1981, Stan also founded and managed The V-Necks band (1981),
featuring the late, George "Mr. Microphone" Duffy
(1950 - 2004) on vocals and harp, Wally Gunn - drums, Dan
Dorko - bass, Ron Lange - guitar and Paul Goodrich - guitar.
He
also founded and managed, Beyond Blue (1991 - 1993), featuring
his cousin, singer/songwriter, Angela Bloch, with Dave Pichler
- bass, again with Gunn - drums and Lange - guitar. Later
members included, Joe Babin - bass & Gene Zacharius -
guitar.
Beyond
Blue recorded Angela's original songs at his home and Landmark
Recording Studios, in Cleveland with production assistance
by guitarist, Rick Christyson and financial assistance from
Stan.
From
1988 until 1997, Stan played in and organized jams in his
basement studio and clubs, featuring many local musicians
and singers, calling it, Blochhaus. The main players in Blochaus
included: Wally Gunn, Angel Mendoza, Ron Lange, Elenka Dalu,
Greg Melnick, Angela Bloch, George Duffy and Steven McKeon.
In
1997, together with Don Kriss, "Sonic Stan," as
he was then known, founded The Dukes of Windsor. The Dukes
still perform 1960's, blues based British rock, locally.
Don
Kriss left the group in early 1999 and was replaced by The
Wild Giraffes vocalist, Chris King - vocals and harp, and
Dave Shiprak - guitar. Stan, the group's first harp player
and percussionist, left the Dukes in early 2003, for health
reasons.
Additional Personal Information:
Four
days following his 54th birthday, Stan lost his ongoing battle
with cancer and died with family and close friends at his
side, on November 13, 2004, at 10:10 PM.
He
is survived by his wife, Paula (Donohue) Bloch of Sheffield,
England, her children, Madeleine and Ed and his parents, Ernst,
age 86 and Alma Bloch. Close cousins, (he was like their big
brother) Doris Lee (Liebitzki), Linda (Liebitzki) Duvall,
husband, Norm Duvall, Anita Bloch, Angela (Bloch) Owens, their
parents, and husband, Don Owens, Hartmut (Buzz) Kirchner,
wife, Linda Kirchner, Ron Bloch and wife, Mary Bloch, Uncle,
Robert Liebitzki, and wife, Renate Liebitzki.
Stan
worked for many years with The U.S Post Office, as a mail
sorter, in the Orange Avenue and the Airport facilities.
Stan
was a member of The Cleveland Museum of Art, Animal Protective
League and Cleveland Zoo and Botanical Gardens. He had many
pet cats, including his favorite, Ramone.
He
also enjoyed travelling. He made many trips to Germany, England
and the Caribbean Islands. He liked Negril, Jamaica and Barbados
the best, for their music and culture.
Regionally,
he liked to travel to Pittsburgh, sometimes renting a limousine
for all his friends to tour the city.
He
claimed to be a great intramural basketball player, in school
with his cousin, Hartmut Kirchner. He also enjoyed professional
baseball, basketball and football games, as a spectator and
fantasy league owner.
Together
with Don Kriss, Stan wrote, "Go Joe Charboneau,"
a tribute to the Cleveland Indians Rookie sensation of 1980.
The 45 rpm single, received national air play on many televised
news broadcasts about the Indians hitter.
With
Wally Gunn, Stan developed many home brewed beers under the
name, Bloch & Gunn. With titles like "Blond Bombshell"®,
Ravishing Red" ® and "Bodacious Brunette"
®, featuring 1940's pinup girls adorning the labels. The
gold, dark and red ales were enjoyed and well received by
family and friends alike!
Stan
met Paula on the internet through a chat room that he and
Peanuts frequented. Stan and Paula had many long distance
conversations and decided to meet. They really got to know
one another from the phone calls before meeting. As a result,
the meeting went so well that they decided to get married.
After his marriage to Paula Donohue, in March of 2000, they
also visited England and enjoyed their short, but full time
together. They both enjoyed culture, art, gardens and movies,
specially the Imax large screen features, presented at The
Cleveland Science Center. He had an extensive video and music
collection. He also was a Warner Brothers and Sponge Bob cartoon
enthusiast!
He
loved music most of all. Along with his rock and roll, he
enjoyed Jamaican Reggae and Ska, Beethoven, Mozart and Bach
classical music, Celtic and Scottish music. He once purchased
a cantor (the wind flute of a bagpipe) and instructions to
learn how to play it! He had his father?s double reed Horner
harmonica and learned the basic melody of Beethoven?s 9th
Symphony on it.
-WFG
with family information provided by Doris Lee -11/17/04
Personal Final Comments:
I
didn't know Manfred. I knew Stan. He was nick named "Stan"
at CSU before I ever met him. He attended classes with his
friends Spike, Biff, Skinner, Conge, and even Kid Leo (later
a DJ on WMMS).
During
studies of "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee
Williams, he was dubbed "Stan." after the character,
"Stanley Kolwalski." I really don't know why? I
never even knew his real name, until some time later. All
his friends had nick names, too. I just assumed, like others,
that his name was Stanley! Not so, it's Manfred.
Music
was our main connection. We always ended up at the same music
events, which led us to become good friends. We especially
enjoyed The British bands of the 1960's. Our favorites were
The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Rolling Stones and
many, many more. In the late 1970's we connected with The
Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Cleveland's Dead Boys
(We even became friends with Stiv, Jimmy and Cheetah. They
even came to our parties!)
Stan's
favorite guitarist was Pete Townshend. He owned a cherry colored,
Gibson SG, just like Pete's 1968 model. He could play fast,
just like Johnny Ramone. When we first went to his house to
check out his new Ramones and Stooges albums, he really impressed
me with his simple three chord songs and blazing fast right
wrist picking the strings!!! I felt as if real rock and roll
was just reborn!
Stan's
favorite singer was Steve Marriott of the Small Faces and
Humble Pie. We were surprised to meet him and drink with him
after an E. 24th St., Agora Humble Pie show. He was GREAT
and treated Stan, myself, Raj Bahadur and Frank Conge, as
if we were his best friends!!!
In
1977, we split the rent on a dumpy apartment, at 4932 Pearl
Rd., later known as, "Headquarters." After forming
The Baloney Heads band. It became something of an "Animal
House" style party palace, with recorded or live music,
right in the living room, played. After Dark Recording Studio
was below us, so there was always live and sometimes loud
music going on. We were never visited by the Cleveland Police,
which shocked me!!! During the time we lived and played music
together, we never once had an argument or a fight. If something
irritated us, we would take it out on our musical instruments
or just keep it to ourselves.
Stan
Bloch was a unique, generous person, who loved to make people
laugh.
Thank you for the Support, Hospitality, Great Times and Fun
Music!!! We will all certainly miss YOU."
Wally
Gunn
©2004
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