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The Upside Dawne
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The Album (Oct 29, 1967)
12" LP - AH12367 - limited release
These are from the master tape
The Upside Dawne recorded a track for a local Movie Studio - Centron
| I think I joined Larry Miller, Steve Hall and Jack Manahan for a short stint
in The Illusions when I first landed in Lawrence in 1966 -- actually, I think I
played gigs with them the summer prior to moving to Lawrence. I recall a venue
in Herrington where we stayed at the owner's house and she brought in a bucket
of "mountain oysters" for breakfast, though I could be confusing this
some other place. Anyway... The Illusions quickly morphed into The Upside Dawne
with Tom Burdine on bass, Steve on drums, Jack on organ and Larry Franklin on
rhythm guitar, though he dropped out pretty quickly. Tom didn't make his grades
and we got Paul Miller to fill the bass spot and at this point, the band really
started to sound pretty dang good! I don't recall the exact sequence, but Scott
Korchak we hired as a vocalist, rhythm guitarist and trumpeter... And a little
later, Garth Fundis joined playing trumpet and singing. I think our best
recording was one we did for a demo EP... I think we did "Poor Side of
Town", "You Don't Know Like I Know", "Get Out My Life,
Woman" and something else -- I can't remember what. - Jim Stringer |
The Illusions morphed into the Upside Dawne when Mike Jordan (lead
guitar) and Bob Basow (vocal, sax) in the Illusions graduated from
KU. Steve Hall (drums) knew Jim Stringer (lead guitar), who knew
Larry Franklin (rhythm guiter) and, I think, Tom Burdine (bass), so
that's how they came to join the group. Garth Fundis and Paul Miller had
played together in another band. Although I was only an adequate
organist (I handled the booking though!), a lot of really outstanding
musicians came through the Upside Dawne! We travelled the Midwest most
every weekend, and found week-long work in Colorado occasionally during
the summer. We had some pretty interesting times travelling; Steve and
Jim will remember the car fire on the way to Chillicothe, I'm sure.
Later we got a 48-passenger school bus, painted it green, and outfitted
it with old airplane recliner seats and a couple of bunk beds for the
band. It wasn't really designed to go 80 miles an hour, but nobody
argues with an 8-ton vehicle going that speed! While some of my friends
in college had part time jobs at fast food restaurants, we were
travelling, having fun, and getting paid for it. I think I definitely
got the better deal!
When Jim Stringer and Steve Hall left to form Tide (1968, I believe), the Upside Dawne expanded into a 7-piece group that I thought would have been the best version of the group if we'd been able to stay together longer. That group included Scott Korchak, Garth Fundis and Dana Elniff on horns and vocals, and several musicians from another group whose name I can't recall. There's a demo recording of that group around somewhere, but it's been lost to posterity. The group disbanded in the spring of 1969 when I graduated from KU. I moved to KC, where I joined the Blues Garden and partnered briefly with Mike Waggoner in the music and concert promotion business. Mike and I promoted several KC-area concerts, including the infamous 1969 Led Zeppelin concert at KCK Memorial Hall. New Sound Projections: Steve Hall and I started the booking agency in our college fraternity room initially to get jobs for the Upside Dawne. The business phone rang in our fraternity room, and later in the basement of my folks' house! We sent promotional material to high schools and other organizations in the Midwest to get jobs for the Upside Dawne and other groups we found. - Jack Manahan
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