THE PHIL WILKINSON STORY www.gypsyquill.com

The picture story continues...

CHAPTER 3

1977

1977
"All of my friends have been great but sweet inspiration in many ways have been from women. Julie and I were no longer seeing each other but were still friends."

"I've always liked to just jam, improvising with musicians to keep the creative juices flowing so to speak. I did as much of that as I did performing professionally."

"This was my girl Cindy. Yes, we were in love... she was crazy about me, but you don't know what you've got until you lose it. We got involved in the latter of my tenure with the band Hott Roxx...here, at this point I had quit the band. But soon I would go on the road with a show band out of New Orleans and we travelled playing every night of the week."

Phil's first road tour was with the BELLAIRES

It was a seven state tour performing night after night for months. Major city after major city. They were part of a prominent show band clique,  in New Orleans. Anyone who has ever toured will tell you it is a rough road to travel. "We were a hybrid show-band. We performed comedy acting skits, along with Coreography in sync with each other and sang and played music at the same time. Everyone in the band sang lead and harmony back up vocals."

A tough act to follow!

A tough act to follow!
"The bass player was sitting on one of the front stand up singers shoulders while they did coreaographic moves together and him playing to the song. We were a high energy group in spite of the draining road. But the show was very entertaining."

"The Pianist and my self worked our way from left to right around the whole crowd taking turns using showmanship theatrics. He turned his piano completely upside down while bending down to it and playing. Then I would play with my teeth and we continued with various positions as we performed. And we did that sometimes when I played a lead solo. Such as I was in this picture."

"After that tour, I was exhausted, mentally, emotionally and physically. The leader of CLUTCH another show band act begged me to join them for a nationwide tour. He wanted an answer as soon as I got home from the tour and I needed to pass out for three days... Clutch was the biggest and best show band out of New Orleans and have performed on the Sha Na Na t.v. comedy show. He must have called about 50 times. He wouldn't wait for a couple days for me to think about it...so I turned it down because I couldn't think clearly and needed time to think about it."

THE PHIL WILKINSON STORY CONTINUES here...

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