专辑简介

The Tempests - For the WILD SOUND!’ And they weren’t lyin’!‘ We named ourselves The Tempests because we played like a wild storm!’ exclaimed Casperson, who reverted to the original Norwegian spelling of ‘Kaspersin’ in 1983. Today Kaspersin and his original Tempests aren’t the wild bunch they once were. But in their minds the memory lives large. Kaspersin’s first group was the Echo-Trons, which formed in 1956. He had started playing guitar during the early ‘50s. ‘Rock ‘n’ roll was my whole life back then,’ Kaspersin said. ‘I hated school, was ugly, and the guitar let me fly away.’The group’s name reflected Kaspersin’s fascination with reverb and electronics. ‘I was Nicola Tesla in my last life,’ he quipped. He built the band’s PA system, as well as a portable light show. ‘I hated playing under white lights, and somehow I knew the importance of colors to music. I also controlled the lights myself from foot switches.’Before finding fame with the Young Rascals, Gene Cornish played a role in the Echo-Tron / Tempests saga. ‘Gene was trying to make it and his family had money, so I hated him,’ declared Kaspersin. ‘Once at a park pavilion hop we (The Echo-Trons) had done everything we knew twice - we were doing strictly instrumentals at the time. A band - Gene Cornish and the Satellites - was making fun of us.‘I told everyone to follow me in an ‘E-A-B7’ progression and went up to the mike and composed a song. We became singers after that.’ Kaspersin added, ‘Gene would show up at a lot of our gigs to push his own records. He was a pain in the a**!’ The Echo-Trons broke up in 1958. The Tempests then formed around the nucleus of Kaspersin (lead and rhythm guitar, vocals and screams), Ken Stewart (rhythm guitar, vocals and screams), and Jim Herney (bass and backing vocals). After going through a few drummers whose names are lost in the mists of time, the band settled on Jim Collins. To this day Kaspersin applauds Collins as one of the best drummers he has ever worked with.T he Tempests practiced literally anywhere they could find. They used the basement of the Kaspersin residence until, according to Dave, ‘My dad had enough.’ Next, they talked the owners of a local bowling alley into letting the group use their banquet room. When they got thrown out of there, they commandeered a huge garage where Ken Stewart happened to work. ‘It had great reverb!’ recalls Kaspersin. Live gigs found the Tempests performing at high school dances, radio station sock hops, bars (once they were old enough), gas stations, pizza parlor openings, weddings and frat parties. Kaspersin remembers the frat parties with particular fondness, ‘Many of them were just like ‘Animal House!’’ At a gig at Cornell University the band got a chance to meet their hero, Bo Diddley. ‘I had every album he ever did,’ said Kaspersin. Kaspersin and Herney both cite Chuck Berry and Little Richard as major influences. Kaspersin even used a Hawaiian guitar because Berry played one on some of his early flip sides (‘Deep Feeling’). Other Kaspersin favorites included the Del-Vikings and the Gladiolas. The band started having problems when they played the Maple Leaf New York Night Club for two years straight and it became too much like a job,’ related Kaspersin. ‘Same place, same songs, same basic crowd.’The actual split occurred when Tatlock’s wife Gloria made him quit. ‘We were at the Mapleleaf (aka The New York Night Club) on Ridge Road in Rochester and they had a go-go stage,’ said Kaspersin. ‘We shared the same dressing room with the girls and Gloria didn’t like it. She actually started a fight with one of the girls and pulled her hair out.’ Later, the aforementioned Gloria turned Tatlock’s guitar into a planter, which may have been a factor in their subsequent divorce. Note: The last years The Tempests were together, they changed the name to<a href="http://www.dynrec.com/tempests/casperandtheghosts.html" Target="Casper and The Ghosts">"Casper and The Ghosts"</a>