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This
is my Sosumi story. On day, I received a call from Malcolm Ryder
and he asked me to play a guitar track on a song of his, "This
is Supposed to be Fun". Being between bands (Ceilings Below
and Venus Envy), I said sure. I did the track and was told years
later by drummer John Walsh (not of America's most wanted) that
they were arguing with guitarist Chuck Ryder at the time and
wanted to show him how easy it was to be replaced. I thought
it was due to my talents, but alas I was wrong. This damaged
an all ready fragile ego. So, John gave me a pera-pass to Pat's
in The Flats which was cool. However, I was mixed out of subsequent
versions of the song.
Later, The Uninspired 5 did a song under the name Soblowme called
"Help I'm in A Cleveland Rock and Roll Band" which
took digs at the Cleveland music scene and the players and shakers
of the day. Sosumi did not know it was us until years later
when I spilled the beans to Malcolm. The first thing he did
when he found out was call Chuck, we all had a good laugh. It
caused a big stink cause it slagged a bunch of people. Jim Clevo
is still pissed about it, just ask him. |
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| The
most often told story about SOSUMI is how we came up with our
name. Originally named Synthetic Products, after the plastics
factory in Collinwood, we decided to put out a single with a
picture
of the factory on the cover - this was pre-desktop publishing
days. So to get the right font and all, we just took a picture..
This was no problem. But when I made flyers to promote the single
and then put them up in University Circle, an employee of said
company took the flyers and went about putting them up within
the company. That's when we heard from them. First the foreman
called and wanted to know what we sounded like, maybe we could
play the company picnic. I told him we had some singles at an
E.185th Street record store, which he bought all of. Then we
heard from the lawyers - btw, don't put your home phone no.
on your records. He told us we had to change the name of the
band, destroy all the covers (no problem there, they were just
xeroxed), or we'd be sued. When he asked what we would change
our name to, Chuck replied, "So sue me". (Malcom
Ryder) |
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Back in the seventies my friends and I were
into what was called space rock. The highlight of the year was
when Hawkwind would return to town. We would pool our cash to
buy a block of seats and what cash we had left went for buying
as much LSD we could. So to say I was a bit excited to share
the same stage with the band years latter at the Empire would
be an understatement. I spent weeks getting my party favors
together. Some black Afgani hash, some Peruvian flake, and some
of Oregon's best skunk. The night of the show we PARTIED OUR
ASSES off with the premier space heads of our time. Our time
came and we played like we had never played before. It was one
of those magic nights when everybody played their parts like
they are supposed to. I had left a big old hunk of hash and
some lines for the guys while we played. I believe it was about
the fourth song when I saw Dave and the band standing to side
watching and grooving. After we finished our set ans tore down
our gear(the real glamourous part of rock and roll). We went
back stage where Dave Brock told me "You guys are a bit of alright".
Soon it was time for the band that everyone had come to see
to go on. One by one they ran out from back stage to take their
place and begin. One problem. Alan Davey had gotten so stoned
he forgot and left his bass back stage. So off he ran to retrieve
it. Upon returning and running up to the stage he almost tripped
and went staggering accross the stage, plugged in and the show
started. A splendid time was had by all. And the next time Hawkwind
came to town who do you think they called? P.S. Remind me to
tell you about opening for GWAR sometime.
(C.J.) |
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