The Psychedelic Digest by David Handyside

Author:David Handyside [Handyside, David]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: David Handyside
Published: 2023-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

THE FLOATING OPERA 1971

Steve Welkom was in high school when he was asked to add his guitar edge and vocal energy to a local band calling themselves Them (unrelated to Van Morrison's band). They had a big following in Cincinnati, Ohio. He decided to attend college at the University of Michigan (UM) and during his freshman orientation met John Nemerovski who was a piano player. John, known as Nemo, was familiar with Steve from his days in a band from Illinois called The Port Clinton Four before Steve moved to Cincinnati. Together they formed The Long Island Sound (aka The Fox) that included Steve Welkom (guitar, vocals), Greg Hayward (guitar, vocals), John Nemerovski (organ), Gary Munce (bass) and John Briegel (drums).

This band played college parties and clubs around Ann Arbor, Michigan like The Canterbury House and The Roostertail in Detroit and The Mug Club in Cincinnati. They also played a homecoming for UM and opened for The Doors at the Intramural Sports Building. Long Island Sound finished a great set but when The Doors hit the stage, Jim Morrison was so inebriated that he began dropping F-Bombs at the audience. The Doors, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robbie Krieger were really upset and had to leave the stage with a staggering Jim in tow. The audience was dumbfounded and angry. The promoters of the dance became desperate and asked Long Island Sound to come back on stage and play another set. They won the crowd over and everybody was happy to have a band they could dance to and bail out the event. Inexplicably, Morrison did sober up and, later, The Doors came back out to play a flawless show. But very few of the spectators remained as, by this time, most had disappeared.

Then Steve and John started to write original material and they decided to rename themselves as Floating Opera. Steve suggested the name which was a short novel written by John Simmons Barth. One single was recorded, Gotta Find A New Baby b/w It’s A Great Day. After they all graduated from UM, Greg Hayward and John Briegel left the band. As replacement players they added fellow UM alumna Carol Lees (organ) and invited Artie Alinikoff (drums, vocals) who was a seasoned older drummer from Cincinnati to come up and add some experience and punch to their sound. They played dance clubs, colleges and larger venues like The Michigan Union Ballroom and The Hill Auditorium in the local area adding more original material according to the crowd response.

Confident with their original songs and having enough new material they contacted another friend, Sandy Nassan in Cincinnati. He had signed with Herbie Mann's record label, Embryo, and had released a jazz guitar album entitled Just Guitar one year earlier. Sandy convinced Herbie to sign Floating Opera as another rock band, along with the band AIR, to expand his jazz name into the pop music mainstream. The album was recorded at A&R Studios in New York and the music is very

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