It won’t be hard to tell you much about this incredible 45 from 1966 Texas psych/garage band KNIGHTS BRIDGE, particularly when I can cut & paste their entry from “Answers.com”! :Made up of sophomores from high school in Odessa, Texas, Knights Bridge was an astonishingly adept and hard-edged garage band. They were signed to Sea Ell Records of Houston in 1967 and cut a debut single, "Make Me Some Love" b/w "CJ Smith," that oozed punk defiance on a level that would've been more appropriate to a group five years older. The record only ever had a few hundred copies pressed, and reportedly changed hands for prices of up to $500 in the 1980's. In 1994, both sides of the record, plus a demo of "C.J. Smith" and a fourth Sea Ell-recorded track, "I Need Your Love," turned up on Collectables Records' History of Texas Garage Bands In the '60s Volume 1: The Sea Ell Label Story. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
Sophomores! Correct me if I’m wrong, but sophomores typically are 15 or 16 years of age. Whoa. The 45 has been comped many other places as well, most notably on an amazing CD series called “Texas Flashbacks”. It’s absolutely one of the great ones, and now you get it for free.
Play or Download KNIGHTS BRIDGE – “Make Me Some Love” (A-side)
Play or Download KNIGHTS BRIDGE – “CJ Smith” (B-side)
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15 comments:
Another great pair of fire-starting dizz busters from the mid-60s. You can’t lose with tunes this suave and raw. Up their with your earlier fine post - the Split Ends’ Rich With Nothing – in my book. Please keep these chestnuts coming.
I was in the original Knights Bridge along with Joe Gossett (lead guitar), Tim Holt, (rythym guitar), Ray Don Fuller (bass), Steve Franklin (drums), I am Tim Carter (lead singer). I heard that Ray died in a motorcylcle accident many years ago. I left the band in 1967, and a guy named Happy took my place. Our manager was a local disc jockey at KOSA Radio. He promoted the band well. We played all over West Texas and East NM. I had a great time. If you know where the other members of the band are, please write it in this post. We were all sophmores at OHS when the band started.
Well Timothy, that was close as far as it went.
The Record was made by the Knightsbridge and not the Knightsbridge Five.
Those on the record were: Tommy Whittington (vocals/guitar and the writer of both songs.) Steve Smith (lead guitar), Randy Williams (bass) and Ted (Steve??) Franklin (drums).
All, save drummer Ted Franklin, were from Permian High School.
Steve Smith named his son CJ Smith.
Others in the band included, Scott Schenkel, Bret Bates, and Tommy Byrnes, at later dates.
Happy was Happy Baggett, gone by the Permian/recording time.
The KOSA DJ you refered to was, Bill Moore. (real name Bill Demoore, from Lovington New Mexico).
Tommy Whittington passed six or so years back, the remainder are all still alive and well, at last report. Some still playing music, some not.
Other Odessa bands of note: The Sparkles, Coachmen, Roadrunners, American Embassy, Roxgarden, Crystal Webb, and the list goes on and on.............
Football wasn't the only thing going on in Odessa in the 60's and 70's.
thanx,
bobby joe smith
Bobby joe has it pretty much on the mark.
We cut the record in February of 1968. We wrote Make Me Some Love
the night before in the motel, we
needed a b side. Turned out to be the most popular of the two, I guess.
I left the band that summer and joined The American Embassy.
We had a car wreck on the way back from the studio, tore up my
drums. We were all Jr's that yr.It
was a great trip. Read somewhere that we opened for the Beach Boys, didn't happen.
Live in Denver and still playing
music, Rock on !!!
Ted Franklin
Ted Franklin! I've been looking for you! Holler at me at lonestarstomp@gmail.com. Found Steve (sorta), found Mitchell... wanna get a big round up on the Bridge.
Ted Franklin! Thanks for quitting - I got your job! (Played your songs a few times)! Hope you're well - glad to hear you're still banging.
Scott
theschenkels@verizon.net
I am looking for members of the "sandpipers" who also played in west texas around that time. My name is Shelton Smith. Other members were, Ray Bell who later played with the Roxgarden. I palyed keyboards and trumpet, Bruce Truitt was lead guitar, Tim Schwager was on drums and Kenneth Slaughter was on bass. We opened for the Animals at Ector county coliseum in 1968. The band broke up shortly after that. Some went off to college, I went into the Marines. Would love contact. I am on facebook.
Tommy Byrne is still around, but doesn't play much except for himself (that I know of). He's a grandfather now, still married to Debra. He formed Skeleton Crew, after Knights Bridge. His son plays a lot of grunge stuff.
Steve smith lives in Austin and doesn't play at all from what I hear.
I keep forgetting who played drums at which times.
Joe Hines is still rocking Austin, playing with the 'big boys', as are Tommy Gibson and Kenny Kauffman.
A lot of the old guys are still playing.
I am agast I didn't hear about Tommy Whittingtons passing. My condolences.
KB was one of my favorite bands. I can still hear Steve's riff on Funk 49, right on the money.
I played (off and on) with Morris Lasater and The Back Door men. But I was a punk player comparitively speaking.
Robbin
Tommy's wife is Brenda. She will have my nuts in a sling if I don't correct calling her Debra. Accept my apologies.
robbin
Robbin,
Tom Byrne lost Brenda a couple of years ago. After the Knights Bridge, he and I formed Jumbo, ('71 to '83). We formed Skeleton Crew in '92, and he stayed until '97.
Scott Schenkel
Also, sadly, Steve Smith passed away in Austin in January of 2014 - R.I.P.
S.S.
Scott,
Sad to hear about Steve Smith. He really made it look easy when he was playing. Great guy. too. Always 'reachable'.....WAY smarter than most people knew.
It must be tough for Tommy to loose Brenda. I think they had been together forever, and as far back as I can remember, and that is a long time.
We, also, lost Sherry Harrington (David's wife)and a few others, at about the same time, who will definitely be sorely missed. Brenda really hits me like a ton of bricks. She was such a nice person. I had no idea.
I had forgotten the Name Jumbo, but not the band itself, in my memory.
SC, was pretty hot for all of those years, too. I only got to see you a few times, when I was taking break from the down-town business scene. You know Scott Gunn, now, ... owns "The Bar", and runs it pretty good. His burgers are the best in town. I ran lights and sound (for bands that wanted it) for a couple of years there and did some remodeling, also. They have LED stage lights, now, but have forgotten how to use them, which makes me snicker a bit. I had redone his sound system and added the LED stage lighting for those bands that wanted some kind of lighting. They're actually pretty nice, if they use them.
Joe Eddy (Hines) arthirits is really bad, these days, too. He is with The Peace Makers.
Randy Brown is still kicking it up, playing bass and a pretty mean acoustic set, down by austin, but still lives here.
you guys ever know a fella named Connie Havner.
He was a fantastic country player and cold play that weird nshville tuning with an e string up over the low e string, tuned to d or b or something. I knew him well, worked with him daily and really liked to watch him pick a guitar. Played at the T-Bird and some other 'hard' hang-outs. I forget their name but it was [something] "and the country boys".
Sadly, Joe Eddy Hines Passed away in mid 2018, from his long time illness.
Hello everyone,
This is Dr. Mitch Wilkinson. Tommy Whittington and I founded first the Coachmen and then the Knightsbridge 5. We played together from junior high school on. I played lead guitar on a beautiful Lake Placid Blue Stratocaster with a rosewood fingerboard. Tommy was the singer and rhythm guitar. He also had a Stratocaster that was turquoise. Added Randy Williams on base sometime when we were in the 9th grade. Our drummer was Charlie Root.
When we were "older" - probably sophomores, we decided to change the band to the knightsbridge name. At that time, we added Ted Franklin on the drums which gave us two drummers.
Sometime in my early Junior year, I fell in love with classical guitar and went down that road. I quit the band and started to seriously study music. Steve Smith and Scott Shinkle were in other "rival bands" and Steve took my place. Both were great guys!!!
I still play, although at 71 my fingers don't work as well. I never became a musician, instead I went into science and ultimately became a dental specialist. As I am writing this it is my 3rd day of retirement. The last couple of decades, I have feen a dental specialist ( National Prosthodontic Consultant of the IHS) for the Federal government. I live in a beautiful home on 20 acres in Pagosa Springs, Colorado with my wife Cheryl ( a Odessa High School girl), 2 dogs, 2 birds, 2 wonderful horses, and a mean tom cat named Bo.
With the Federal Government, I traveled to remote locations in Alaska and the U.S to bring dental services to remote, underserved populations of Native Alaskans and Native Americans. My science side concerned a active pursuit involving the conservation of rare horses. I used my extensive training in human genetics to work with Texas A&M ( I was an associate professor there at one time) on the genetics of endangered equines. My papers on the subject have been published in many countries around the world, I have traveled extensively to gather genetic samples from remote Patagonia to Europe. You can see some of my work on Curly Horses on You Tube under "Curly Horse Project".
My family and I have been very lucky through the years. I have a daughter and a beautiful granddaughter. I was so sad to hear that so many of my childhood friends are no longer with us.
I can be reached at wdocmitch16@Yahoo.com Good wishes to you all.
Mitch
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