by Achille Brunet
(The Arizona Republic - Sept 11, 1966)
Another story told by the desert wind—let's follow the tracks of two popular yet forgotten Phoenix bands. Even if rock sounds by The Wanderers and Steph And Themselves now only remain in the memory of the Valley stones, their overwhelming presence on the local scene leading, for the second one, to a brief national Hit as Cornerstone, deserves to be known. In the meantime, Phoenicians: search your attics!
The Wanderers were formed in Phoenix, Arizona in 1964 by leader John Benjamin (guitar), Chris Welker (drums), Stan Butcher (guitar & vocals), Gil Carson (bass?) and David Walch (role unknown). The band later moved to Scottsdale, AZ.
All members were schoolboys from 14 to 16 of age, attending various Greater Phoenix schools. By the end of 1965, The Wanderers already ranked among the five most popular bands of the Valley even if, from their own account, it was "school first—music for fun".
(The Arizona Republic - Dec 9, 1965)
In December 1965, the band attended the Save Camelback band contest along with the Door Knobs (including members Floyd & Jerry Westfall), The Pendletons, Sounds Inc., and The Spectrum (more in the Spectrum article on that contest). I couldn't find who won but the article stated the Wanderers had "never been beaten in a Battle of the Bands" until then.
In March 1966, the band provided the music for the Aid to the Zoo National Horse Show, and in April they attended the Gompers Bar-B-Kue Karnival with Vic Caesar with orchestra. The event and music were broadcasted on KXIV radio.
(The Arizona Republic - May 28, 1966)
David Walch left at some point, I think in mid-1966, but the band kept up and went on as a 4-piece.
By then, they also went by the name of the Wanderers Ltd. and were well established in the area and beyond. Among its bookings, the band played locally at the VIP, Sunny's, Red Dog Beach Club, and also the Teenbeat Club in Las Vegas, Nevada as well as several other places.
The band appeared on the same bill with the Lovin' Spoonful, Peter and Gordon, The Byrds, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, and Ian Whitcomb.
(The Arizona Republic - Sept 11, 1966)
In September 1966, the band attended taping sessions at Bruce's World of Sound, Inc. to improve their sound. The place was established by Jim Mullins who invited bands all over the Valley to come and record so he could give them advice, all free of charge! No less than seventy-five bands showed up.
A contest to vote for the best band was organized by the Arizona Republic. The Wanderers were 22nd in a list of fifty, along with many other local acts like pre-Alice Cooper band The Spiders, Phil & The Frantics, Floyd & Jerry, The P-Nut Butter (several singles on Mascot), Destiny's Children (of the fantastic "For Me" and "The Collectors"), The Young Men ("Go!"), or The Hearsemen (unreleased "Don't Be Late" heard on Legend City compilation LP) as well as many other forgotten names.
(The Arizona Republic - Sept 18, 1966)
Surprizingly, considering the number of future prestigious names, none of them ranked in the top-3 and the Wanderers won first place. Even Phil & The Frantics ranked 7th and Floyd & Jerry ranked 9th.
Unfortunately, due to the success of the contest, the vote period was extended and the band fell to the fourth place in October, Eddie Dimas And The Upsets taking the first place (they would put out a handful of records until the late sixties). The Young Men also climbed to the fifth place, growing in popularity since the released of their locally successful single "Too Many Times" in March that year.
A couple of weeks later, the band attended the Country Fair of the St. Joseph Hospital with other local High School combos like YOUR FRIENDS.
(The Arizona Republic - Feb 19, 1967)
In February 1967, an Arizona survey for the most popular band was published. Talented local names had since made it and the Wanderers ranked 14 of 20, well behind—in addition to those aforementioned—to new names like the Dearly Beloved ("Flight 13") or the Caravelles ("Lovin' Just My Style"). The times were a-changing and the Wanderers may have failed to evolve.
On March 3, the band went back to the Zoo National Horse Show. A couple of weeks later, lead guitarist John Benjamin joined another band called Steph And Themselves.
Steve "Steph" Hudson, later going as Steph McGlaughlin, McLaughlin or McGlockling was first a member of pre-Alice Cooper band The Laser-Beats (full story on that combo here at psychedelicbabymag.com) that played in 1964-66 and won twice a band contest held by KRUX as well as playing with their Spiders friends on several occasions.
(The Arizona Republic - Oct 15, 1966)
In mid 1966, Steve saw Alice Cooper changing name so he changed his and started to play as "Steph McGlaughlin and Themselves" with Harry Anglum (drums), Steve Silva (guitar, trumpet and organ) and Allen Harkrader (sax, organ and guitar). Harry and Steve were previously in the Pendletons, band that attended the Save Camelback contest with the Wanderers.
The band reached the ears of DJ Tony Evans who connected them with Bob Sikora, owner of the Mr. Lucky club on Grand Avenue in Scottsdale. The band merrily came to the club for the first gig, only to realize they weren't billed on the marquee. They went to complain to Bob but even he did not know anything about them. Evans wasn't a fan of the band name so he had booked them as Terry & The Pirates.
(The Arizona Republic - March 25, 1967)
From Oct 1966, the band played as Steph and Themselves again at Mr. Lucky. The band played a great range of musical styles, from Rock, Mersey Beat and Surf to Soul and Motown, and soon ranked in the five best bands at Mr. Lucky, to the contentment of the owner, Bob Sikora, who became their manager and booked them as the club's house band six nights a week, playing four hours each.
By February 1967 the band had quite a local following, performing at Mr. Lucky downstairs on a brand new revolving stage that "made every seat the house choice". Steph, being a 21-year old first tenor, was described as a "vocal giant on stage", the band soon became unmatched in the Valley for their hamonized vocals, playing songs by the Left Banke, Association, Four Seasons and Gene Pitney, and practicing daily to sound the closest possible to the original songs while learning three to six new songs each week.
These strong influences would define their future recorded sound. The band was amazingly capable on stage, which Steph valued, going as far as claiming some recent Beatles recordings like "Strawberry Fields Forever" were "phony" because the Beatles couldn't actually "go on stage and perform it live".
(The Arizona Republic - March 25, 1967)
In March, John Benjamin joined them on lead guitar. Not sure if John kept up with both bands for a month but the Wanderers played one last time in April at the Country Queen Dance, sharing the bill with psych combo George Washington Bridge, after what they apparently disbanded.
In the following months, Steph And Themselves started to make it big at Mr. Lucky, with some outside bookings like two weeks in Las Vegas in May. Yet the band was sometimes criticized for their lack of rock sound, but with their 3-part and 4-part vocal harmonies, they had really become Pop, and on that everyone had to admit they were the best.
Bob Sikora kept a close eye on everything and went to a lot of effort to get them booked outside town. All the members testified Bob soon became more than a manager, being "actually the unseen member of the group" and a close friend.
(The Arizona Republic - July 30, 1967)
In July, the band started performing some original material live. They recorded some songs that were made available in cartridge for car tape decks at Audiotronics in East Camelback and sold during the summer. It's probable not many copies were made as not a single one has surfaced since.
In August, KRUX program director Stan Richards announced having made the A&R for four of their songs, not sure where they went. Anyway, with their full time job at Mr. Lucky and will to make it big, the members all quit College and devoted full time to their music.
In the meantime, by August 1968, ex-Wanderers Stan Butcher had turned to club management. With two other Phoenix youth, he bought a place on 16th Street and Bethany Home and opened a coffee house named The Image where they organized venues and "open mike" evenings. The place was previously called The Windjammer, and Stan was offered to buy the place when singing there a year prior probably with the Wanderers.
Lederman Music Co. in 1963
from The Arizona Republic.
By that time, Stan Butcher also worked full time at Lederman Music Co., a store in Scottsdale selling all kind of intruments.
Stan also produced Phoenix artists, including the single by the VIOLET WING in 1968 and is also credited for co-writing on the three psychedelic breaks for Kennélmus 1971 album, "The Bug, Goat & The Hearse", "Cloud Of Lead" and "1001 Twice",—meaning he's possibly just the one who had the idea to play instrumental sections of some songs backwards:
Back to Steph And Themselves. With the advent of 1968, Sikora had a brand new "castle stage" built downstairs that the band inaugurated in January. They also had new matching Paisley suits made, soon billed "the brightest costumes yet worn in town".
Bob Sikora was the one to get them regularly booked outside Arizona, including in Las Vegas, Nevada and Ohio. Even if the crowd at Mr. Lucky was disappointed to find them out, Sikora believed it was the best way to grant them wider attention and have them gain more experience.
(Nevada State Journal - Oct 12, 1968)
The effort apparently paid. In April, several major producers "flown into the Valley" to give them a listen. The response was favorable, the band was out of Phoenix from June to July recording a whole album for Dunhill Records and filling a three-week engagement in Reno, Nevada.
The band came back to Phoenix and announced they would leave again in September for a two-month tour in the Southwest, but they didn't seem to go further Reno, Nevada and were likely dropped by Dunhill.
(The Arizona Republic - Aug 2, 1968)
The content of the album is not known, as it was unfortunately never released. Steph And Themselves had their originals, but also some written by locals. DJ Mark Dean Huff wrote some stuff for them with Win'Jammers member Thom Khaler.
Likely disappointed by the failing of the deal, the band announced in October they would change name (plus every member was tired of it) and took a break. It's likely around that time that Steve Silva left the band and was replaced by Clay Brown.
(The Arizona Republic - Oct 19, 1968)
(The Arizona Republic - Jan 25, 1970)
By the end of the year, they had become the Cornerstone and were back as regulars at Mr. Lucky after a short absence to tighten things up.
But they weren't out of the game very long, as producers from Los Angeles flew once again to Phoenix in February 1969 to catch their act, resulting in an immediate deal with Liberty Records. Four sides were recorded at Arizona Recorders in March, produced by Liberty President's son Wayne Bennett.
The band started touring outside Arizona again and Phoenix/California band The Generation Gap (of "Too Far Gone") stepped in replacement at Mr. Lucky. The recording deal with Liberty was inked in April and the quintet flew to Hawaii for a several-month engagement.
(The Arizona Republic - March 8, 1969)
From then on, the band recorded in Hollywood. The band taped "One", a song penned by Harry Nilsson, but their version was beaten out by the Three Dog Night version that ranked #5 nationally, leading to the cancellation of the Cornerstone recording in April.
Around that time, member Harry Anglum also provided some vocals for The Eclectic Mouse album on Capitol, a project of Phoenix buddy Steve Forman, previously a member of garage band the Topsy Turbys they probably met in Scottsdale.
In May, the Cornerstone finally had their first output on wax with "Moving Day" b/w "When You Wake Me Girl" on Liberty, a fairly good two-sider in the style of the likes of the Left Banke, arranged by Perry Botkin Jr. As all their future outputs, the single was penned by veteran songwriters, the A side by Gary Carmel and Bodie Chandler, and the B side by Tony Michales and Vinny Gormann.
"Moving Day" played repeatedly on the Valley airwaves. It started to get them some national attention—playing in San Diego, California—and the band was featured several times on NBC12 at the end of 1969.
(The Arizona Republic - Sept 20, 1969)
However, because of "promotion hassles" according to Sikora, it received only a small pressing (on which they were miscredited the Cornerstones) which didn't prevent them to make one more release before the end of the year.
The single "Holly Go Softly" b/w "Love, Nothing More" was released in November. It's a beautiful pop two-sider and was successful and widely released nationwide, as well as in Canada and Australia and threw the band six weeks on the road for promotion.
"Holly Go Softly" was penned by Irwin Levine and Toni Wine and arranged by Al Capps. "Love, Nothing More" was written by Wayne Bennett himself along with future ABBA manager Stig Anderson.
With big times coming, the band announced they would no longer play in nightclubs. The band also added one more member they knew from High School, local jazz musician Jim Treulich, who studied theory and composition in Boston.
The single failed to enter the Billboard Hot 100, bubbling around #103 for four weeks, but radios loved it and played it repeatedly between late 1969 and mid-1970. It was reportedly the first Phoenix hit since 1965.
(The Forum from North Dakota - March 3, 1970)
Yet "Holly Go Softly" has probably the most unlikely theme for a hit song, telling the story of a young man kept by an older woman in exchange of sex, and explaining to the woman he loves with whom he has just slept that she has to go because the old lady is coming with the check for the rent. A beautiful music for a most cynical text, which did raise some criticism.
While "Holly..." is the Hit side (and I like it a lot), "Love, Nothing More" reminds me some of the dark Left Banke ballads and is, to me, their greatest song.
The single ranked up to #3 in local charts in Michigan, Oregon, South Dakota and other states, and the band toured until July 1970 in several of these states to push the single. They played the Phoenix TraveLodge Theater in February and shared the bill with the Spiral Staircase in April.
In June, Liberty pressed a third single with the same song, "Without Her, Father Paul", on both sides as a promo. It was just a first step to test reaction with radios before pressing a real double sider, but things didn't go as planned. Despite being written by veteran songwriters Lee Pockriss and Shelley Pinz and still arranged by Al Capps, the song was a decent but inferior number and went largely unnoticed, apparently playing on radio only in Illinois for a month.
(The Register Mail - June 27, 1970)
Disappointing results probably prevented the single to be released for real and promted the band to be dropped in July 1970. The blow was probably too hard and Cornerstone most likely disbanded as a complete silence followed.
Of all the songs the band released, we never had the chance to hear their originals, their five songs being written by veteran songwriters, so we can only dream what their originals were like.
I didn't find much info on the members after that date. They probably went back to a quiet normal life. Alan Harkrader went on to play keyboard and guitar in Scottsdale band The Gringos through the 70s. They put out two albums and three singles. Harry Anglum kept drumming in Phoenix and has passed away since. Jim Treulich produced two power pop singles, I think in California.
Steph Hudson relocated at some point in Sebastopol, California and passed away in 1992 in Laguna Beach.
Stephen Hudson, 1965
Camelback High School, Phoenix AZ
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