Stoned

Back in the summer of 1965, I spent a couple of weeks with my aunt and uncle, who lived in Ventura County. I lived in the Santa Ynez Valley at the time, a two and a half hour drive away in those days. Yeah, that's 14 year-old me, ready to take on the world...

One afternoon I took the bus to a Walmart kind of store called Disco (short for discount) to get some cool, mod-inspired earrings. When I came out, there was a band playing on the back of a flatbed. I can't remember their name, but they had the obligatory Beatle haircuts and were kind of good, so I stood and watched.*



At some point, a photographer came to me and asked if I'd pose with the band (since I was so mod and cool and all...). I of course agreed, and afterward he gave me his card and told me I could come get a copy of the picture anytime, for free. So the next day I took the bus to his studio and got an 8x10 black and white glossy of me "modeling" with the band. While I was there, I noticed he also had some pictures of the Rolling Stones and I commented on them. He told me I could pick out a few, which I thought was really generous. These are the ones I chose:

He'd taken these at the Stones' concert on May 16, 1965 at the Long Beach Civic Auditorium. I don't know why there wasn't one of Brian Jones. If there had been I certainly would have gotten one. I don't even remember the photographer's name, so if he sees these on the Web and writes to me, I'll give him credit.

A few days after I was at his studio, he called me (I'd had to sign a model release form), saying I owed him a certain amount of money for the Stones' photos. My uncle was furious with him, but he took me back to the studio, where I paid for them out of my summer money. Pretty sneaky. Still, I got some great pix out of it!
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* 11/19/10 Update: I just found out that the band that played that day was The Guilloteens, from Memphis, Tennessee. Their performance that day was sponsored by the local radio station, KACY (AM). Their single, I Don't Believe, got as high as #16 on the station's Hit List.

What's really cool is, if you enlarge the picture below (click) you'll see that Radio TV Hospital in Camarillo stamped their address on it. About a year later, my dad began working there and I worked in the music store next door. The guy in the center of the picture is KACY DJ John Peters. (Thanks to John Spohn for the Hit List and for revealing the name of the mystery band! Click to see more Hit Lists and pictures.)