Embedded Files
The Royal Guardsmen
A near brush with fame
I was what you might call a charter member and mentor to the band that became the Royal Guardsmen and who recorded "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron."
During the summer of 1965, following my Freshman year at William & Mary, I took a summer job in Ocala, FL working for the US Geological Survey on a 3-man crew that installed and repaired water level recorders. You sometimes see these devices perched on top of corrugated pipe on bridges. I packed my electric piano and amp into my dad's 1960 Opal station wagon when I drove to Florida for the job.
One Saturday night I took myself to a Battle of the Bands at a local American Legion hall in Ocala where several high school bands were participating. I approached the band that I liked the best, which at the time was called "The Posmen." Here's the story of their name: One of the band members' fathers was a letter carrier, and they intended to call themselves "The Postmen," but the guy who painted the name on the bass drum left out the "T," so rather than re-paint the drum head, they just changed their name.
Listen to an Australian interview with lead singer Barry Winslow 10/19/10
The guys were glad to have a piano player and especialy glad to have a member with a few more years' experience who could show them the ropes (the band members were all high school Seniors). They were decent players for high schoolers, but like most garage bands, they knew more about playing music than entertaining an audience. And so I set about teaching them how to entertain. This included such things as making eye contact with the audience instead of looking at your instrument, making up a set list in advance instead of arguing for 10 minutes after each song about what to play next. In fact, I challenged the guys to play the entire set as one song, without any stops in between, which keeps people on the dance floor.
Here's a short video of me at age 19 playing with The Posmen in 1965:
As the summer drew to an end, they band asked me if I would consider transferring to the U. of Florida, where they starting their freshman year that fall. I declined the offer and returned to W&M. About a year and a half later I heard a radio DJ introduce the new hit record "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron," (which rose to #2 in early 1967) explaining that the band was from Ocala, FL. I called one of the band members, and sure enough, it was the same guys. They had been playing in a Tampa night club when they were approached by promoter Phil Gernhard, who presented them with the lyrics on a legal pad and challenged them to write the music to go with it. He specifically asked for something "...with a military feel or cadence."
The band's name "The Royal Guardsmen" was adopted because musical equipment maker Vox agreed to sponsor the band and supply them with uniforms and equipment. Vox made a guitar amplifier called the "Royal Guardsman," hence the new name.
They played the Norfolk Coliseum later that year, and although I didn't get to see the concert, I did record a radio interview the following day. The interviewer commented on how the band played one song right after another with no breaks in between. This made me smile, because that was one of the lessons I had taught them.
They toured for a year or so and had a minor follow-up hit before going the way of all one-hit wonders.
But the story continues... Phil Gernhard, who had discovered the Royal Guardsmen in 1966, committed suicide in February 2008. Our local paper the Nashville Scene, wrote the following article about him, which includes his role in making my summer buddies pop stars. Click on the link below to read the story:
Life is weird, huh?
Fellow Posmen Jay Maier wrote me the following letter a few months after I had returned to college:
A draft of my reply:
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