|
The Elders began to pursue a musical path that came to be known a "progressive rock" (I suppose as opposed to "regressive" rock), a genre that was a loose concept of where rock music was supposed to be going in the future. Although the genre faded over time, the musical approach, at the very least, allowed for songs that were quite a bit longer than the three minutes normally allowed for a pop tune on the radio. The band's first such "opus", called; "Island", was already in the can, and the group continued writing in that vein; lengthy, highly-orchestrated pieces, using synthesizers and mellotrons and massive amounts of overdubbing. "Island", meanwhile, was being used to showcase the audio systems of a company called; "Audio Analyst" at a number of pro-audio-related conventions in the early 1970's (the company seems to be no longer in existence). Around this time, the Elders began to make a name for themselves performing their music in a most unusual part of the country for such stuff, the southeastern United States. Over time, they had found a rather large following in and around Tampa, Florida, and as a result, the owner of one of the venues they played regularly took a liking to the band. Dave Anders, the owner of a small (and pretty funkly little) club on the northern end of Tampa found his fortunes changing, and attributed some of his new-found success largely due to his regular presentation of the Elders to an increasingly enthusiastic crowd. He became so confident he had found something of value that he began to expand his club to include a fairly large "concert room", repleat with lights, sound, and a big stage with automated curtains. The Elders continued to pack the place. Anders finally decided to offer the band a management contract. Their older contract with George Scheck had expired without any word from the aforemetioned, so the band considered themselves free to move on. The group physically moved from Ohio to Florida en masse, and set up shop in a "rehearsal room" in the expanding complex that was later to be called: (prepare yourself for a fairly massive, albeit not outrageous for the time, level of pretension) the "Performing Arts Center". The Performing Arts Center soon began to become a venue of some renown, hosting national and international acts. The Elders performed with a number of such bands, like the Chris Brubeck (son of Dave) band, the Leslie West Band, the New York Dolls, and an obscure little band called: "Lynyrd Skynyrd". It was there at the Performing Arts Center where they befriended a young painter (of paintings, not houses) named Matthew Quayle, whose talent for surrealistic imagery was impressive, and he volunteered to create an album cover for the next Elders album (shown here on the right --->). <-- Back To be continued ... |