Trudy Van and The Realm Update

I believe Trudy was 12 at the time. The Realm had come together in 1966. I was taking guitar lessons and Trudy's mother, who was into promoting Trudy, met my music teacher. She was looking for a band near Trudy's age. The band was practicing at the music store where I was taking lessons. We didn't know that Trudy and her mother were listening to us from outside our practice room. Apparently we passed the audition. We went into NY to do the recording. Our parents had to sign contracts that we could be taken out of school to tour. Tutors would be provided. There was to be a movie. Pretty heady stuff for 14 year olds. Trudy and mom moved to LA. I think to try acting. Trudy was gone but the Realm stayed together all through high school. We still have band reunions. You can hear us as we were in 2014 at The Realm There were an amazing amount of places to get gigs at the time. We often played at the Enlisted Men's Club at Fort Monmouth NJ. At this point all the band members are like family.
 
zeke7001 said:
I believe Trudy was 12 at the time. The Realm had come together in 1966. I was taking guitar lessons and Trudy's mother, who was into promoting Trudy, met my music teacher. She was looking for a band near Trudy's age. The band was practicing at the music store where I was taking lessons. We didn't know that Trudy and her mother were listening to us from outside our practice room. Apparently we passed the audition. We went into NY to do the recording. Our parents had to sign contracts that we could be taken out of school to tour. Tutors would be provided. There was to be a movie. Pretty heady stuff for 14 year olds. Trudy and mom moved to LA. I think to try acting. Trudy was gone but the Realm stayed together all through high school. We still have band reunions. You can hear us as we were in 2014 at The Realm There were an amazing amount of places to get gigs at the time. We often played at the Enlisted Men's Club at Fort Monmouth NJ. At this point all the band members are like family.
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Welcome Zeke...any unreleased recordings by The Realm?
 
Yes, but all recordings were after we started having the reunions. The reunions have all been at my house and over time I gradually upgraded my recording gear. They started in 1989 and we will be having another in November this year. Our drummer died in 2017 and the son of one of the band members is now our drummer. I guess we are in to the next generation. We did go to a studio for the 2014 recordings. Always tough to try to play and pay attention to the recording levels etc. at the same time, at least for me. I put a few of the 2014 recordings on CDBaby and they are on Spotify and the like. This is us doing an original I wrote with my wife Blue and Grey and doing Time Won't Let Me a 60's tune originally done by The Outsiders. I only have the few tunes I put on CDBaby that I have a way to give access to.
 
Hullabaloo was a TV show and they had some clubs for teens. We played at the one in Middletown NJ and Freehold NJ. There was also a great teen club called Le Teendezvous. Besides playing there I got to hear many great bands there that included Steve Vanzandt's, The Shadows who became the Source. We also played at town community centers, VFWs, church carnivals and lots of school dances. The local VFW asked us if we would go to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital and play for wounded Vietnam vets. We went and set up on the amputee ward. We played many times, as much as 5 times in a month at the Fort Monmouth EM Club. There were so many places to get gigs which you have to have to support as many bands as there were. You also needed angel parents since we played for a couple years before we could drive. Imagine,tossing all the gear into their cars and having to come pick us after gigs, we wouldn't have existed without their amazing support. Here's an ad from Hullabaloo. It was an important place to get in. If played there you get in most other places. You had to audition on a Sunday. At our audition we did a couple of tunes from The Who's first album. They went over really well and that pretty much launched us,. Note the big charge to get in.Hulabaloo 3.jpg
 
What happened to the movie appearance, Roy? I assume that didn’t happen?

And welcome!
 
Thanks. I think not doing more originals was a major mistake. There were just a couple never recorded and now forgotten. We did a lot of Stones, Doors, The Who, Byrds, Cream, and Kinks and of course some Beatles. We were fans of the Shadows of Knight who have a number of tunes in TBM 1000. We played a number of their tunes. They do a great version of Hey Joe. There were a lot of one offs. For example, we did We Ain't Got Nothing Yet by The Blues Magoos pretty much the whole time we were together. We often opened with it as we thought we did a good job with it. The drummer and I saw the Magoos live. The Who and the Magoos were opening acts for Herman's Hermits. We went to see the Who, but the Magoos were a bonus. We also did some Hendrix. I fell in love with All Along the Watchtower the first time I heard it. I bought the single and listened to it for about 8 hours straight learning the solos and trying to figure out how to get even close to the sounds. There were tunes that everyone did, Midnight Hour, Devil in a Blue Dress, Knock on Wood etcetera. Gimme Some Lovin' was always a crowd pleaser. You have to dance to that even if you can't dance. Creedence Clearwater tunes were always great because they are pretty garage bandy even when Creedence did them. Basically we just tried to stay up with the current top hits. Inna Gadda Da Vida was a good one for us.
 
No the movie died when Trudy and her mother moved. Trudy did the lyrics for Do the Surf. The Realm has stayed together, but we lost touch with Trudy. She did have some talent and a good stage presence. I have done some internet searching for her, but no luck. I am not sure if we would have been in the movie. They might have used us to play, but got some good looking really ripped guys to be in the movie.
 
Cowabunga! i Totally love your music! y'all are a fine addition to the pre-high school garage hall of fame more than holding your own among noble heroes like The Little Bits, Barracudas (from Louisiana), Buddy's Buddies, The Five (from Texas), Australia's Leprechauns, etc. It's so great to learn more on the back story of the ultimate summer jam "Do The Surf" and your band, thanx for sharing
 
Thank you so much. It was a great time to be that age and the Jersey shore was such a target rich environment for gigs. I never thought I would be lifelong friends with the band, but it has worked out that way. We are getting together this November. I was asked to join the band when the guy who was putting it together heard play in middle school. I had brought in my guitar and Fender Reverb amp. I was doing a science project and made a very crude version of a Fender spring reverb. I got a glass tube and stretched a spring through it. I had a little speaker on one end to put the sound into the tube and a cheap little mic on the other to pick up the sound which ran into the guitar amp. The amp's reverb unit also allowed to demonstrate what it was supposed to sound like. Anyway he heard me playing and asked me to come to a practice session. One of those things Dylan would call a simple twist of fate.
 
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