The Executives
I absolutely LOVE the Internet. When it first started getting popular, I was in IT and saw the potential of being able to connect to other people so far away. But I had no idea that programs like Facebook would put me in touch with friends I hadn’t heard from in YEARS!
Imagine my surprise when I got a “touch” from the other surviving member of TODD Beat Group, Tom Kelley this evening! What a rush. We talked for quite some time and got to catch up. The lucky guy has been playing music with a band in Wisconsin called The Executives. From what I understand they do a lot of 60’s cover tunes; not so many originals. But Tom still has his cherry red Gibson that he used in TODD.
I will not go on too long, but this Davenport group was formed by us after I left Jon Ludtke and the Assassination of Sound. We played mostly originals. Thanks to Tom, I now know all the names of the four members of the band that made up our name which was an acronym; T (Tom Kelley – lead guitar), O (Mike Orton – electric bass), D (Dennis Dunlap – drummer) and D (Dave Cross – keyboards). Sadly, Dave died in a fire at his home and Dennis passed from pancreatic cancer. This is the group I was in when The Contents Are: snatched me up to play bass for them. Silver Laughter came after that.
Tom has promised to drop me bits and pieces to post since this group was the first that played original material written by Tom and me. Dave Cross also contributed a few tunes. And to correct the record, we DID do some cover material. We had a good laugh when Tom reminded me about the magnetic signs we had made up with the name of our band and a phone number on them which we stuck to the sides of our cars when we drove around town!
The picture on this post is of Tom’s current band, The Executives. He is the good-looking dude on the top left!
Mick Orton
Categories: Current News, History
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