Kinda Christmasy by Tommy Conwell - A George Manney video

Enjoy your holiday season and listen to "Kinda Christmasy" by Tommy Conwell, a music video by George Manney. Cool!

Psychedelic Santa - Buzz Zeemer

Psychedelic Santa by Buzz Zeemer is from the CD "Season's Greetings Philadelphia." Other Buzz Zeemer tunes can also be found on iTunes.

Merry Christmas!

Philly Spectrum - Thanks for the memories!

Thanks for the memories, Philly Spectrum! After four sold-out Pearl Jam shows this week, the Spectrum will be no more.

Philadelphia Weekly has a brief interview with Tommy Conwell about his Spectrum Music Memories. (Link no longer available online, 10/3/2020.)

On playing the Spectrum for the first time:

“The first time we played there as a legitimate opening act, we opened for Bryan Adams. I’ll never forget: We went on the stage and the lights went down and we just start our first song, and you could see all the people rushing in from the exits and you could see the silhouettes—it was like an ant farm or something—all moving down to their seats because the show had started and it was us. That was really like a wow moment.” 


Audio Rumble also remembers The Spectrum by showcasing Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers' breakthrough performance on live television. A performance on PRISM, Feb. 20, 1987, after the Philadelphia 76er's game:


Concert song links -

• Philly Spectrum Promo – Tommy Conwell
• Workout
• Million Pretty Girls
• I'm Home
• Do You Still Believe In Me
• Here I Come

Tacony Free Concert

Courtesy of nusound on YouTube.

→ Tommy talks about the legendary rock and roll club, JC Dobbs. (A George Manney Film.) From the documentary in production, Meet Me On South Street, The Story Of JC Dobbs. (Note: Removed from YouTube, 1-4-12)
→ Tommy caught live in Tacony for a Free Concert performing his hit, "I'm Not Your Man". (A George Manney film.)

WMMR Radio Interview with Tommy Conwell - 1990 Guitar Trouble

Here comes Guitar Trouble!

A radio interview from 1990 -- it's Tommy Conwell on WMMR 93.3' s Street Beat with Cyndy Drue. Promoting the release of Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers' sophomore release, Guitar Trouble.

Listen to Part 1.
 

Listen to Part 2.

Songs played during the interview but not included with this edit:

- Guitar Trouble
- Nice 'n Naughty
- I'm 17
- Let Me Love You Too
- Rock With You

Tommy Conwell Rockin' Philly - 25 Years!

Sadly, 25th year commemorative t-shirts are sold out at TommyConwellstore.com -- but this is DJ Caterina's colorized version...enjoy!

2nd Annual Beru Revue Miniature Golf Classic Invitation (1985)

Images from the 2nd Annual Beru Revue Miniature Golf Classic Invitational tournament for charity held at Putt-Putt golf in Northeast Philadelphia, September 1985. Those who participated played a first round of golf and the scores from the first round were used to qualify you to play against WMMR personalities, members of Beru Revue, or even Tommy Conwell himself! 

Tommy Conwell at Haddon Lake Park - 2009

Tommy Conwell appearance on Sat., June 13, 2009. Info courtesy of Philly Blurbs:

Haddon Lake Park, 13th Avenue, Park Drive and Prospect Boulevard, Haddon Heights, 856-216-2170.
Saturday: Jersey Jam 4 MS (benefits Multiple Sclerosis) with Tommy Conwell, Carsie Blanton, Bo Rains and local singer-songwriters, 3 to 7 p.m., free.

Ellipsis Plays the Music of Ray Charles featuring Tommy Conwell

A concert featuring the jazz trio Ellipsis, playing the music of Ray Charles with Tommy Conwell on May 6, 2009. The Ellipsis website has posted images and mp3's of that night's performance.

Band:
Tommy Conwell, vocals and guitar
John Stenger, wurlitzer
Paul Gehman, bass
Justin Leigh, drums

1. Bye Bye Love
2. Mary Ann
3. Just a Little Lovin'
4. Greenbacks
5. Half as Much
6. You Don't Know Me
7. Let the Good Times Roll
8. Roll With My Baby
9. Hallelujah I Love Her So
10. Hey Good Looking
11. Sinner's Prayer
12. Georgia on my Mind
13. Unchain My Heart
14. Mess Around
15. I Got a Woman
16. What'd I Say
Encore (with special guest Alexandra Day):
17. Hit the Road, Jack

For Northampton Junior High, Tommy Conwell Is The Real Thing

For Northampton Junior High, Tommy Conwell Is The Real Thing

April 23, 1988
by Amy Longsdorf, The Morning Call

For 10 weeks last year, 1,320 Northampton Junior High School students and 80 teachers wrote the phrases 'Laser 104.1 FM,' 'Tommy Conwell' and their school's name on 502,024 index cards.

Their common goal: to win a free rock concert by recording stars Tommy Conwell and The Young Rumblers. 

"Not only was it a good school effort," principal Thomas A. Ortwein said, "but it was also a way to get families involved. We even had grandparents helping out." Northampton Junior High students collect their prize Wednesday afternoon when Conwell and the Rumblers take over the school's gymnasium for a 1 1/2 hour show. At the same ceremony, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of the Lehigh Valley's Robert Shaffer will present the school's library fund with a check for $1,104.

The idea for the contest, billed officially as "The Laser 104.1 Coca-Cola School Spirit Contest," began when WAEB-FM program director Jefferson Ward remembered a similar promotional campaign coordinated by Philadelphia's WMMR-FM. The earlier contests, which involved free concerts by Tommmy Conwell and The Hooters, were the brainchild of Steve Mountain, head of Cornerstone Booking, a Delaware Valley talent agency which handles both Philadelphia-based groups. "It's common sense," Mountain said about the contest strategy. "Go to a record store tomorrow. Who's there? It's not 30-year-olds. Its 15- to 17- year-olds."

Conwell, who recently signed with Columbia Records, is said to be on the verge of a national breakthrough. Describing his sound as "more driven, louder, a little wilder than most," Conwell has been a part of the fertile Philadelphia rock music scene for several years. His performance at Northampton Junior High will be one of his first appearances since completing his major label debut LP.

Ward, who decided the contest "would be a neat way to show our involvement with area high schools and to raise some money for a school's library fund," contacted Coca-Cola as a potential sponsor.

"When they asked us if we would be interested, we said yes because it was a way for us to demonstrate our ongoing involvement with youth projects," said Coca-Cola's Shaffer.

After the firm agreed to cover all of the concert's production costs, Ward began an extensive on-air promotion. "Kids got very involved," he said. "I put some of them on the air when they came by the station. We even had a couple of principals on the air." The students were encouraged to drop their votes off at the station and to keep a tally of their weekly submissions.

Even though all elementary and secondary schools in the WAEB-FM listening area were invited to participate in the contest, nothing prepared Ward for the onslaught of final submissions.

"On Nov. 23, the last day of the contest, we must have gotten about one million of the 2.6 million total votes dropped off at once. What these schools had done was to save up their votes and then dump them off on us. Our whole lobby was filled wall to wall, ceiling to ceiling with 3-by-5 index cards. It was nuts."

When Comprehensive Counting Services of Bethlehem tabulated the cards, the results indicated that more than 500,000 votes belonged to the winning Northampton Junior High School.

"We had a real close call," Ward said. "At first we thought that there was only a difference of only 5,000 entries between Bath's Sacred Heart Elementary and Northampton Junior High.

"But the kids at Northampton told us that their running total estimated we were about 20,000 votes off. And it turned out that they were right."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Amy Longsdorf is a free-lance writer on entertainment for The Morning Call.

Tommy Conwell and Ellipsis - An Evening of Ray Charles

Yo! What does DJ Caterina say?

On Wednesday, May 6, see Ellipsis with Tommy Conwell playing the music of Ray Charles.

Live at Tritone! 1509 South Street in Philadelphia...

Below is a clip of Tommy Conwell covering Ray Charles, courtesy of urbanluver1 at Photobucket.

Local TV Promotion - 1987 Spectrum

Promotional video of Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers aired before concert featured on local Philadelphia TV in 1987 at the Spectrum. Interviews with local Philly DJ Joe Bonadonna and Tommy Conwell. And there's even footage of The Hooters singing Day by Day!

Last Minute Jam - What I'd Say

CD copy of Last Minute Jam (vol.2) - Minutes To Millennium. 

Tommy Conwell performs the one-minute ditty "What I'd Say."

Tommy Conwell and the Swingin' Turkeynecks

Tommy Conwell and the Swingin' Turkeynecks will perform April 24, 2009 at The Elbow Room in Roslyn, PA.

Magazine feature article on the release of 'Rumble' by Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers.

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Cheers | Made In Philadelphia

A quick rundown of the fruits of various hometown labors, all either coming soon or available in finer stores everywhere:

RecordsRumble, the debut album of Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers, on Columbia Records. It's produced by Rick Chertoff and features collaborations with Robert Hazard and Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman of The Hooters. Conwell says, "I'll miss Philadelphia when we tour the country this fall, because we're so deeply rooted here. There's no guarantee that we'll be playing larger places, but it'll be nice to come home."

Don't Hang Up - Buzz Zeemer

DJ Caterina's favorite Buzz Zeemer song from Play Thing is "Don't Hang Up." The song is not featured in the band's 1996 PRISM performance, recorded live at Philly's Theatre of the Living Arts. 

To correct this rock 'n' roll wrong, DJ Caterina has created a video mash-up of Buzz Zeemer's TLA performance clips--with audio of "Don't Hang Up."

Sweet Home Chicago (live) - Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers

Enjoy hearing Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers perform "Sweet Home Chicago" live at The Bottom Line in New York City, Oct. 4, 1988. One of my favorite live and rockin' blues version of this song ever! (Audio version only.)

I'm Not Your Man - 1988 Article

Tommy Conwell shoots first video from News of Delaware County, July 20, 1988.

"This was the scene this past Monday at Ardmore's 23 East as Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers shot their first video, "I'm Not Your Man," for Columbia Records. The band invited 200 fans to participate in the taping. The first Columbia album is due in early August...."

Thanks But No Thanks - Neuroticus Maximus

DJ Caterina just purchased "Thanks But No Thanks," previously unreleased music from Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers online at the Tommy Conwell Store:

"Never released music by Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers - Originally titled Neuroticus Maximus, recorded at A&M Studio in Los Angeles and produced by Ed Stasium (Ramones, Smithereens, Soul Asylum) in 1992, this album has never seen the light of day until now..."
- Tommy Conwell Store

----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Around 1992 The Young Rumblers made an album that MCA paid for, but never put out. It's a good recording, was a little different for us at the time, and is pretty good, I think. I don't like the original title, so I renamed it Thanks But No Thanks. It's available now for the first time ever at tommyconwellstore.com. I hope you like it."
- Tommy Conwell, 2009

DJ Caterina has heard Neuroticus Maximus many times, both the original and the demos. Favorite track is "Up Around The Way" - dig the opening guitar riff and the lyrics:

"...it's what you are, not who you know."

Purchase Thanks But No Thanks today!

Tracks: 
1. Up Around The Way
2. More Than This
3. Punktuality
4. Terrified
5. I Wanted You
6. I Wish
7. The Devil's Touch
8. I Like You
9. You've Given Up

Million Pretty Girls [live] at the Spectrum

Million Pretty Girls! Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers perform "Million Pretty Girls" live at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, February 20, 1987.

Guitar Trouble Review - All Music Guide

         Sony tapped longtime Dwight Yoakam producer Pete Anderson to helm Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers' sophomore LP Guitar Trouble, outsourcing the majority of songwriting duties as well. The end result is a corporate roots rock record with none of the cheeky bar band charm of Conwell's debut effort, Rumble, spelling the swift end of the group's major-label tenure. 

The album seems slapped together from spare parts; the youthful nihilism of Conwell's self-penned "I'm Seventeen" is completely at odds with Anderson's slick adult alternative production, which adds Bruce Hornsby's elegant piano to further distort the song's intent, while entries like "Rock with You" and the title cut are distressingly mundane, scrubbed clean of all their grit and passion. 

Guitar Trouble is frustrating proof that not only can you take the band out the bar, but you can take the bar out of the band as well. 

~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

Tommy on the radio

"…one of the great guitarists in America, Philadelphia’s own Tommy Conwell…"

Ticket - TCYR | Paradise, Boston

Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers ticket stub. At the Paradise in Boston, MA, on Jan. 12, 1989. 

 

Tommy Conwell and the Little Kings, Grape Street, 1995

Images of Tommy Conwell and the Little Kings at Grape Street in 1995, courtesy of Billy Kerns, playing bass in the background. (And Darryl Ray, too!)

See a Tommy Conwell and the Little Kings performance on YouTube, performing "I'm Not Your Man" live on PRISM at the Chameleon in Lancaster, PA 1997.

Downed - Buzz Zeemer [live]

Buzz Zeemer performs a cover of Cheap Trick's "Downed" live at Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia, 1996.

Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers: Walkin' On the Water [1987]

News article from The Gloucester County Times Advertiser, Wednesday, January 14, 1987.

[By Gerard Shields, Staff Writer]
 

PHILADELPHIA - The rock music scene in Philadelphia has achieved national acclaim thanks to the Hooters, who have become a favorite on MTV and radio stations throughout the country.

Other Philly acts have also received radio attention over the past six years; bands like Robert Hazard and the Heroes and the now-defunct A’s.

But the excitement in Philadelphia is now at it peak with the debut album by one of its youngest bands, Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers.

Conwell and the Rumblers have been a premiere Delaware Valley club band over the last two years, largely thanks to their kick-it-out live performances that leave audiences yearning for more.

Fans who want to take Conwell’s streetwise blues home with them need wait no more. “Walkin’ on the Water,” the band’s first album, is a combination of their trademark, high-powered blues and a new, more mature and controlled Conwell – a side some avid fans may have a hard time getting used to.

Conwell built his reputation with fast-and-wild blues guitar and raw vocals that prompted some critics to compare the band to George Thorogood and the Destroyers. But the Rumblers have gone one step further on “Walkin’ on the Water,” incorporating another guitar and supporting keyboards – an instrument that had been foreign to the group.

The line-up in now Conwell on guitar, Paul Slivka on bass, and Jim Hannum on drums, fleshed out be Chris Day on guitar and Rob Miller (a former member of both the Hooters and Hazard’s Heroes) on keyboards.

In a recent interview, Conwell acknowledged that creating a bigger band was his idea.

“That was really me,” said the Bala Cynwyd, Pa. native. “I did it because I want to be a band. I want to have the big sound.”

Conwell built a following from the ground up. He started in Newark, Del., where he was a member of various punk bands while attending the University of Delaware as an English major.

But his main love was jazz. Conwell spent many Saturday nights in jazz clubs watching bands like the Danny Mento Orchestra at the Cherry Hill Holiday Inn.

“To me, blues was a link between jazz and rock and roll,” he said. “I like rock, but I couldn’t see myself doing it.”

Conwell borrowed $1,000 to get the Young Rumblers started in 1984. The band originally consisted of drummer Brad Fish and bassist Chaz Molins. After buying a truck for $500 and a mixer for $200, the band paved its way to local popularity with Conwell’s simple formula for success.

“It’s so basic,” Conwell said. “When you go to a club, you have to be good enough so that those people want to come back and see you again and the club wants to hire you back again, so that the next time you play the club, there will be more people.” “It’s as simple as that, and that’s the one thing we could always do,” he said.

Conwell’s independent attitude was also the fuel for the new album, which was released on Antenna Records, the label that carried the Hooters to a national contract. The Rumblers also share the Hooters’ management company, Cornerstone.

Conwell said that the album was made with the money the band had saved over the last two years.

“No one gave us a cent and I’m really proud of that,” he said.

Although Conwell is confident that the new album can land him a contract with a major label, he is not concentrating on being successful, just making music.

“I consider the album a reward in that if it sold two copies it would still be a reward,” he said.

“Success is not a goal; success is a reward,” he added. “I want to make good music. I want to be the best that I can be.”

The album was co-produced by Andy King of the Hooters and contains a few songs co-written by Robert Hazard. The influence of the two is evident in a synthesized pop sound.

“Walkin’ on the Water” can be dissected into three parts – the new sound, the traditional rock and roll Conwell, and a fusion of the two.

Songs like “Love’s On Fire” and “I’m Home” are fresh Conwell, with straight-ahead rhythms, smooth guitar hooks and keyboard support that seems aimed at attracting radio play.

Conwell calls the songs his biggest departure. “They actually are pop songs, but I want to do that,” he said. “I want to do both. I want to do it all.”

Although some fans may frown upon the departure, the new songs add variety to Conwell’s powerful live appearances and showcase his lyrics, which – although not prolific – show promise.

“You’ve got to realize you’re dealing with different formats,” Conwell said. “Live, you can feel it…On the radio, if you make something too wild, too hectic, or too loose, it’s going to sound trashy.”

The album’s backbone, however, is the blues that made Conwell famous. “I’m Not Your Man,” the first single, has all the elements – a relentless rhythm, straight three-chord base and searing guitar riffs, with great background vocal support.

Likewise, “Tonight’s the Night” and “Million Pretty Girls” are all blues, with the keyboards taking a break. It’s guitar, guitar and more guitar, with rowdy lyrics that serve as the height of a Rumblers concert.

“I’m really glad we put that stuff on the record,” Conwell said. “I’m proud to be a blues man.”

Two of the best tracks on the LP combine the new and the old. “Do You Still Believe in Me” is an excellent ballad with a haunting guitar intro. The song allows Conwell’s lyrics to shine, with lines like “If my grave’s got to be dug/I’ll dig it myself.”

Although Conwell’s voice is raw, he sings with a sincere snarl that makes you stand up and listen. The album is a gift for Rumblers rooters, but Conwell adds that the songs are a little more controlled that the band’s live show.