Re: Wicked lester
While they were Rainbow they actually played a few gigs. The first was at Richmond College in Staten Island which held about 500 people (although there were only a few people at the show). That night they played all original material (I had originally read that they played a few covers that night) & Paul admitted that he caught Crabs in the Bathroom. Their setlist for the night was:
Goin’ Blind
About Her
Love Her All I Can
Keep Me Waiting
Suitor
First Time Around
Eskimo Sun
Stanley the Parrot
It’s A Wonder
Movin’ On
Sweet Flora
Sunday Driver
When I Awoke
Let’s All Fly Away
She
Simple Type
I Am a New Man
She Goes
The gig caused no reaction from the crowd so for their next couple of shows they added cover songs including "Tuesday Afternoon” (Moody Blues), “Rock Me Baby”(Jeff Beck Group), “All Right Now”(Free), “Rock & Roll Woman”(Buffalo Springfield), “Locomotive Breath” (Jethro Tull), “When You Dance”(Neil Young), & “Jumpin’ Jack Flash(Rolling Stones). They played shows in Linden, NJ where they played a prom at McManus Jr. High(where keyboardist Brooke Ostrander taught) which went well, Atlantic City, South Fallsburg, NY, & a small town just outside South Fallsburg. The South Fallsburg show was outside a movie theater under a bridge where people were constantly diving into the water. The band had the amps too close to the water causing poor sound. The gig outside of South Fallsburg was in a movie theater where they played before & after a movie. For the set before the movie the band had their amps lying flat on the stage so people could see the screen & after the movie they stood the amps up & played to at least 40 people.
Once the band went into the studio to record is when they officially changed their name to Wicked Lester. The band began toying with “Firehouse” which ended up on the debut but nothing really became of it. The band wanted to record all original material but producer Ron Johnson had them record some cover songs that were sitting around the Studio. “(We Want To) Shout it Out” was a demo by the Hollies, “What Happens in the Darkness” was by a band called Infinity, & two of the songs (“Sweet Ophelia” & “When the Bell Rings”) were written by Barry Mann who had a novelty hit with “Who Put the Bomp in the Bomp?”. Stephen Stills was in the studio recording an album & he actually supplied the lead solo on “Sweet Ophelia” but later once Ron Leejack joined the band Ron Johnson preferred Leejack’s solo & erased the version with Stills.
Shortly after the Wicked Lester album was rejected Simmons & Stanley were upset so they brought the vinyl demo album to a radio station on the shores of NJ to get the public’s opinion of it. As the DJ played the record it kept skipping so the DJ asked for people to call in & voice their opinion of the band. No calls were coming in so during a commercial break Gene & Paul called friends to have them call in & the first call that came through was a female. The DJ asked her why she was calling to talk about this band & the girl said “Because they asked me to!” which caused instant embarrassment for Gene & Paul.
Gene & Paul wanted to be more theatrical as Simmons was into Alice Cooper’s scene that was going on at the time as well as the buzz the NY Dolls were creating. They had visions of what the band would dress like: Simmons was to be a Caveman dragging his bass behind him, Paul was to be either a gambler or a gunslinger, Keyboardist Brooke Ostrander was to be an Undertaker, Ron Leejack was to be a spaceman with wings, & drummer Tony Zarella was to be an Italian Fruit vendor. It never ended up happening as Leejack was against it & before they could get the ball rolling someone broke into their loft & stole all their equipment which also led to their demise. That’s when Simmons & Stanley decided it was time for change & start fresh. As I said, they wanted Leejack but not the other two. They hooked up with Peter as a trio & were still under contract as Wicked Lester. In December of 1972 a local newspaper asked of all people, Peter Cris (that’s how it was spelled then) about the album’s release & he said it would be out January 1, 1973 which never happened.
In 1976 CBS/Epic realized who Wicked Lester was & was going to remix the album & release it but Neil Bogart of Casablanca Records (Kiss Label) stepped in & purchased the tapes for $137,500 only to shelve it & give the rights to Gene & Paul
