soul 45 by The Avalons on Montgomery (?)

[The Raven]

Recently i had a chance to speak on the phone to Shep Tullier of Tower Of London. Great guy with an incredible music history, he's one of those rare artists who stayed involved in just about every big rock music trend of the last 50+ years. Like Fred Cole and ROKY, Shep played and released records with both 60's punk bands and 70's punk/new wave bands (The Vandaltones in the late 70's and The Smash in the early 80's), and lots more acts that did styles not-so closely aligned to garage/teenebeat. Today, he plays ina reformed version of The Vandaltones who are doin some great snarlin protest/folk punk stuff.

We talked a bit about the Montgomery Records label and he mentioned that Tower Of London got on the label as a result of their connection to another Annapolis area band, The Avalons. This was a soul group w/ horns who (according to Shep) had a 45 on Montgomery or some other connection to Leonard Schwab's enterprises.

Discogs lists nothin about this record and i'd never heard of this Avalons before Shep told me about them. Has anyone here ever found a Montgomery label release out there by a band called The Avalons?

 

[Dave Baldwin]

When I interviewed Schwab back in 1992, I asked about rumored "missing" releases by The Brass Tacks
and Avalons on Montgomery and he told me that they don't exist. I got the impression that he had
mangaged the Avalons at one time and they released at least one 45 on another of his sub-labels.
I noticed several R&B records on a yellow label (LSP perhaps?) and one of them could have been the
Avalons. I regret not taking more notes, but I was there primarily to research the Montgomery releases.

 

[The Raven]

Thanks for the heads up Dave!

There was definitely an LSP studio in Annapolis, but i dont think there was ever an official LSP record label (?)

 

[The Raven]

Another newly unearthed tidbit: Shep remembered going in to do a day of session work in 1966 at Baltimore's "Wedge Studios" (actually Dome Studios, Wedge was a Dome subsidary label). He said whatever group he played with that day was not Tower Of London and he couldn't remember who it was, or even if it was one of his own bands

When he referred to it as "session work" i just assumed it probably wasn't a group he was working with full time. Dave would you (or anyone else here) know of any connection between ToL and a Wedge label 45 or Dome label release?

 

[abc]

https://www.baltimorejam.org/Avalons/Avalons_1000MilesAway.mp3

 

[Dave Baldwin]

Thanks for the heads up Dave!

There was definitely an LSP studio in Annapolis, but i dont think there was ever an official LSP record label (?)

The LSP label I saw stood for "Leonard Schwab Productions". He never mentioned a studio in Annapolis, but we were
talking about other things and he was more interested in telling stories about Little Anthony and Phil Spector.

 

[Dave Baldwin]

View attachment 4543

https://www.baltimorejam.org/Avalons/Avalons_1000MilesAway.mp3

Cool photo. Looks like the last scene of the 1982 Barry Levinson film "Diner" (lol).

 

[Dave Baldwin]

Another newly unearthed tidbit: Shep remembered going in to do a day of session work in 1966 at Baltimore's "Wedge Studios" (actually Dome Studios, Wedge was a Dome subsidary label). He said whatever group he played with that day was not Tower Of London and he couldn't remember who it was, or even if it was one of his own bands

When he referred to it as "session work" i just assumed it probably wasn't a group he was working with full time. Dave would you (or anyone else here) know of any connection between ToL and a Wedge label 45 or Dome label release?

Not sure what band that could have been. Shep was a popular bass player and probably got some one-off gigs around the Metro area.
I do know that the Tower Of London single on Montgomery was recorded at Edgewood in D.C. 'cause Shep told me and showed me the 1/4" master tape in an original Edgewood box with the session notes on it.