Because we just passed Veterans Day, we thought it would be appropriate to tell you HOW the idea came about for Musicians Contact many years ago. Without the Vietnam War there probably would never have been this service. What? Yes, true, and here’s why……
First, you have to remember that back in 1967 there were NO places to advertise for bands and musicians to find each other except for music store bulletin boards. No other sources, no classifieds in newspapers, nothing.
At that time, I was a 19 year old lead singer in a rock band, The Shades of Dawn, (great name in 1967, huh?), playing 5 nights a week as a house band at Gazzarri’s on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. We were earning barely enough to actually support ourselves playing covers and originals. Gazzarri’s was unique in that it rotated 2 or 3 bands a night – as one band finished on one stage another would start on the opposite side of the club. (Why doesn’t some genius club owner try this today?)
Anyway, we were playing there just a year after The Doors had made the place famous, and this was still 10 years before Van Halen rocked the place every weekend. By July of 1967 the Vietnam War was in full swing and our drummer was drafted into the Army. A few weeks later our guitarist was also drafted.
We tried in vain to find replacements so we could continue working. I even remember appealing to the audience over the microphone, asking if anyone knew a drummer or guitarist! So the Vietnam War broke the band up, it was not the usual personality clashes or girlfriend problems.
A couple years went by. I drifted in and out of day jobs and went to a broadcasting school. In the summer of 1969 it dawned on me to start a referral service for musicians to connect to each other, and Musicians Contact was born. I rented an office upstairs in the Whisky a Go Go for $75 a month, and, as they say, the rest is history. So without the Vietnam War, who knows, I may have never been inspired to start this business.
To read what happened next, click: https://www.MusiciansContact.com/about
