“Now she’s hit the big time!”
These photos may appear elsewhere around the site, but I wanted to put them together here in one place.
Silver Laughter Club Photos
One of the laughs we had onstage was when Jon would put on his nose glasses. I think he only used them for about a minute or so, but the crowd thought it was funny. This photo is probably from the Buccaneer Club or Donovan’s Reef Club, judging by the nautical theme in the background. He usually wore them for the brief interlude when, in the Beatles Tribute, he did the “Now she’s hit the big time” line in “Honey Pie”. Jon is playing his white Gibson Les Paul. In the background you can see Paul sitting at his drum kit. I do not know who took these photos.
Mick at piano smiling
There seem to be a lot of pictures of me sitting at the little electric piano. The lights are on, so I am guessing it was NOT taken during the Beatles Tribute. For the life of me, I cannot remember any stage on which we played that had an alcove in the back. And what about that suit? We thought it was the next thing to become popular kind of like the Beatles and their collarless suit jackets. It was a military style suit but in tan corduroy. The jacket had short sleeves and the shirt sleeves underneath were full length. Needless to say, this style never caught on! Is that a hint of a mustache I see on my upper lip?
When I went to piano, Ken switched to bass. That’s my vintage 1967 Hofner Beatle Bass which I still own!
Here is another photo of me behind the piano. You can see the Silvermania sticker on the back of it. The mustache is darker and I am wearing the blue “prison” suits we had as our matching outfits. In those days my amplifier was a Peavey bass cabinet with an Acoustic head. On top of it is a tambourine and a glass of “who knows what?”. Ken is standing to the right playing my Hofner violin bass. Again, I do not know which club this was.
Jon Ludtke doing the voice “Now she’s hit the big time…” on Honey Pie cover of the Beatles song. Mick on piano, Ken on bass and Paul on drums at Donovan’s Reef in Redwood Falls, MN.
Left is Jon in action with a little megaphone doing the Honey Pie line while wearing the nose glasses. All that work for a few minutes… It didn’t take much to amuse us in those days.
Here’s kind of a funny story. We had seen “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” in the theater and found their shows were being aired on local PBS stations. So as not to miss them we took the small television out of our van and set it up on a table beside the drums so we could watch the half hour show in the middle of our set. Now that’s dedication! Remember, this was before video tape or DVR. I sure wish I had a picture of that!
Mick sings while Jon and Ken look on
One final photo shows me at the microphone with Ken on his red Gibson in the background. He and Jon look on pensively. How young we looked. In 1978 we were all about 28-29 years old. Look closely in the foreground at the left. It is the famous kazoo which we used to imitate the horns on several songs; “Lady Madonna” and “Let ’em In” to name a couple.
Mick Orton
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