Some Ambulants, as an idea and a band, was borne by the fervent young minds of a duo of man-boys from Britain, along with a few more man-boys from the U.S., most of us in college and a bit too clever for our britches overall.
As with any multi-culti band we had our differences (sure), but also a clarity of vision (sort of) and a willingness to work together (sometimes) to make music that really was a wee bit bigger than anything any of the one of us could do on our own.
And we had a good time doing it. Mostly.
SOME MORE STORIES
...we struck out on our own as diversification in the modern music world took hold (New Wave, New Romantic, Post-punk, yada yada), and decided to make our own proto-neo-romantic-new-fusion-wave stuff. Self-deprecating as always, we called it puerile, unrelenting drivel: pud-rock for short. Yup, we did.
Here are some enlargements from the contact sheet of outtakes from our promo shot photo shoot in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego where the Ambulant House was located.
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Click & drag the thumb-nails to move pics around. Click them to pop up larger versions.
The infamous porta potty pic. We were not lacking for a creative approach. That said, this one did not make the cut.
Some Ambulants ran its course during just one year, from the early days of 1981 through to about early March, 1982. Not really a little or a lot of time in the grand scheme of things. It was just a year, right? But, it had an impact. Enough so that we remember that intense and frenetic year we had together as a band with a fair amount of fondness and respect. And ambiguity. This is the Some Ambulants way.
Three more shots from the promo photo shoot in Hillcrest.
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AMBULANT CAT
This freakish little fellow was drawn by Carmen's good friend Tom Humphrey's nephew, Noah. Dubbed Ambulant Cat, we figured it is what Noah thought Carmen looked like as he cavorted like a madman about the stage (Carmen was known for his cabaret-on-ecstacy behavior: at The Backdoor one time, an on-campus club at SDSU, he hung from a stage wall by one leg after he put his foot through it, still singing into the mic as he hung upside down there until he finished the song.
We didn't know what actually belonged in a real life press kit that might be used by an agency or a label or any kind of professional so-and-so, so we just made shit up as we went along. And Ambulant Cat came along for the ride.
The Cat even made it into our final press kit, as you can see below.
Our manager, Iva Kimmelman (née Cottrell) had Michael make up these business cards for her. Shout out to pud-rock!
AMBULANT KIT
As with all posters and flyers for the band, Michael McClure—dba ipigrafix—designed and wrote the Some Ambulants press kit. The cover page featured pics from a contact sheet from the band's promo photo shoot from the summer of 1981, along with his final hand-drawn logo (who does THAT anymore?!?!).
As metnioned above, Ambulant Cat worked his way into the press kit. And had the band survived more than a year?... who know... Ambulant Cat may have gone on to much bigger and brighter things.
And with a bio page, that was it! Things for the band were done with passion, and great amount of thought. But, we didn't really know what we were doing. We just wanted to have SOMEthing printed up to accompany any demo tapes we might send out, otherwise the package would have been a bit slim. We think our manager Iva appreciated the efforts.
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This is what we ended up with. A robust, three page + manager's business card + cassette tape Press Kit! Legit!! We understand that now, it looks sort of... slim, as well as a bit ugly. So far as ugly is concerned, that's what 37 years of sitting in a three ring binder will do for you. And in any case, all that ugly stuff you see here just disappeared when we were makin' copies. It actually looked really good when it was all xeroxed and bagged up in a fresh manila envelope back in the day. Our press kit was the shit! Of course, there were no coffee stains on it back then. And as to slim... brevity is the soul of wit, right? We were nothing if not witty. Just ask us.
SOME PRESS
Some. One. Whatever. This was a very cool thing: we got written up in the fucking L.A. Times in December, 1981! That was kind of a big deal in the day. Times Pop Music writer Thomas K. Arnold penned this article which featured three bands from San Diego: Solid State, The Paladins and Some Ambulants.
Article that appeared in the LA Times Calendar scetion (entertainment), announcing the arrival of something new in SD.
A New Kind of Music Arrives in San Diego
LA Times, Dec. 1981
By: Thomas K. Arnold, Times Pop Music writer
Ever since the Beatles and the other popular British bands of the early 1960s, it has been a generally accepted principle that pop music trends start in England and, sometime later, reach the United States.
It has been that way with progressive rock (King Crimson and Yes are are the acknowledged progenitors of such American favorites as Kansas and Styx), heavy metal (without Black Sabbath, we might have never had Judas Priest), punk rock (remember the Sex Pistols?), and power pop (Elvis Costello virtually invented the genre).
The current rage in England is the “new romantic” movement, and it is separated into two camps. On one side are hands (ed.: typo, meant ‘bands’) like Visage and Spandau Ballet, who play moody electronic music heavily influenced by Roxy Music and early David Bowie, and on the other are Ray Campi and Billy Zoom, who play pure 1950s-style rockabilly.
And while the trend has yet to catch on in the United State the way its predecessors did, several American bands are already starting to follow in the footsteps of their English counterparts.
Three of them are based in San Diego, and while they have yet to secure recording contracts, they have been attracting a lot of (ed.: insert ‘attention’) on the local circuit.
The Paladins play the same kind of raw, peppy rockabilly that Gene Vincent and Johnny and Dorsey Burnette’s legendary Rock ’n Roll Trio popularized in the middle and late 1950s. Both Solid State and Some Ambulants specialize in the electronic-techno-pop currently being raved about in England. And while the members of all three bands feel fairly comfortable in describing their music, there is some disagreement as to what to call it — especially among the Paladins.
“We’re romanticizing the 1950s, which is why this king (ed.: typo, meant ‘kind’) of music is so closely associated with the new romantic movement in England,” said Tom Yearsley, the Paladins’ bassist.
“Actually, rockabilly is a word coined 10 years after that type of music started,” interrupted Dave Gonzalez (who goes by the name Nick Sorape), the band’s guitarist and vocalist. “Elvis (Presley) didn’t know he was playing rockabilly; he was just shaking his hips and playing the kind of music that came natural to him. What is now known as rockabilly is simply a fusion of country and blues — it’s clean, it’s loud and it’s free from distortion.
Earlier Period
“It’s more raw, more naked, than new wave could ever be,” added Whitney Broadley, the Paladins’ other guitarist/vocalist. “What new wave did was take everyone back in time to the early ‘60s, with catchy pop songs and simple melodies. We’ve latched on to a period even before that — when musical trails were being blazed.
“How can I describe our music? Well, it’s roaring down the highway in a convertible with the top down, and the girl you love and a six-pack of beer on the seat behind you. It’s exciting, and that’s why it has sprung up all over England and is now starting to happen in the United States. Bands like ours are capturing a lot of the old new wave crowds. Just go to any rockabilly show and you’ll see all these punks trying to pogo to a type of music that was around before they were born. Everyone’s looking back.”
Members of Solid State and Some Ambulants are also finding it hard to pin a label on the music they play.
“When someone asks me, I just answer, ‘We play new music,’ ” said Tom Arnold, Solid State’s keyboardist. “Some of the material we do is traditional rock ’n’ roll out of a Roxy Music/David Bowie vein, but some of the other stuff is really different — very electronic, almost mechanical.”
“We’re playing one step ahead of new wave,” declared Greg Cook, the group’s guitarist, vocalist, and chief songwriter. “Punk is dead. Our music is at the opposite end of the musical spectrum: it’s complicated, almost eerie, and marked by unusual musical changes.”
Detail/Picture from the article, featuring our friends in arms, Solid State.
“It’s more of a cabaret thing. Many people watch us more than they dance to us.”
Lead vocalist Carmen Borgia
British Influence
The last line could also be used to describe Some Ambulants’ music, said its guitarist Michael McClure. “We’re not new wave and we’re not rock; our songs are very directional,” he said. “It’s definitely influenced by all the new bands coming out of England; I don’t think there’s any way we can avoid the comparison. Still, we don’t sound like any one band over there.”
“It’s more of a cabaret thing,” chimed in lead vocalist Carmen Borgia. “Many people watch us more than they dance to us. But you can’t really categorize it; one person will call it one thing, another will call it another. Maybe 10 years from now there will be a simpler, clearcut label for it.”
The origins of all three bands are surprisingly similar; they all met and formed in San Diego just this year. The Paladins’ Gonzalez, Yearsley and drummer Gus Griffin began playing together as the Top Cats in January; Broadley joined in April and after several gigs at the Spirit and the Zebra Club the group changed its name to the Paladins (“The Alley Cats, the Nu-Kats — there are just too many bands named after cats,” Broadley laughed) and began playing several other top country clubs.
Solid State began last May after Arnold, Cook and drummer Marty Eldgridge — who had all played together for about six months in power pop outfit Audio Bop — opted to pursue a more adventurous musical direction and recruited bassist Dan Rogers and saxophonist Edward Summerfield to replace existing Audio Bop founder Godfrey Macaracg.
And Some Ambulants was formed in January by McClure, Borgia, bassist Scott Garside, keyboardist Andy Nepal (since replaced by Mike Krewitsky), and two English friends of McClure: guitarist Andy Faunch and drummer David Blackburn. The band made its debut in March at UC San Diego, the school attended by most of its members.
Determined to Stick
Financially and popularity-wise, each band would probably be better off if they’d play a more mainstream for of music, but they’re all determined to stick it out.
“Sure, we want to record and tour, but it’s going to be tough,” said Some Ambulants’ McClure. “If a record company sees us, they’re going to ask themselves where can they put us. Rock? Probably not. New wave? Probably not. Their idea is to sign whatever bands fall into what happens to be the most popular trend. As a result, a lot of groups try to mold themselves into the two top categories right now, rock or new wave.”
“But I can’t do that, and the other guys in the band can’t do that. We want to play our music.”
Members of the other two bands, however, are more optimistic about their chances for success.
“The way things are going now, with everyone looking back, I honestly don’t see why we couldn’t make it,” said the Paladins’ Broadley. “Rockabilly is so big in England right now, and it’s starting to catch on in the United States, too. Just look at the Blasters and Robert Gordon.”
“I think it’s a matter of exposure,” said Solid States’ Arnold. “We’ve been going over well wherever we’ve played. People appear to be impressed. They might not know what to think, but we’ve gotten return dates at every club we’ve played. I think that says something.
“New wave has become so undefined. Even lounge bands put on skinny ties and call themselves new wave. It’s a bandwagon whose time has already passed even though people are still jumping on it … for now. But this new music will catch on; I think people are getting tired of the depression, the negativity, of punk.
MOON'S TREATISE
"It Will Transcend And Break Glass!"
Hellz yeah, we did!! He said it, after all, not us. And while maybe we didn't actually break real glass, Carmen did have a penchant for blowing PAs.
If we didn't say it before, thanks for this, Moon. Really. It has been kept in a binder for a loooong time, and now it is getting its due. Cheers.
- Those guys you gave roses to
"It Will Transcend And Break Glass!"
Click pics for larger revs.
Along in there somewhere, a young man who went by the monosyllabic moniker 'Moon' came to see us play at The Spirit. It was one of those 'empty club' kinda nights. But we had an effect on him, apparently, such that a few weeks later, when we played The Backdoor out at San Diego State, Moon showed up at the gig bearing this review/treatise on Some Ambulants he'd hand-written entitled Some Ambulants: Take One. He also gave each of us one red rose. That was weird. Not much later we heard that Moon went AWOL from the Navy. That also was weird, and bad. But, none of that takes away from what an extraordinary 'letter' he wrote to us after seeing us light up The Spirit that one night...
We had a fan. Oh boy, yes we did.
Dave once mentioned to Michael that he played for that one guy at the back, meaning there's that one cat in the audience who truly gets it. It would follow that he (or she) was usually at the back of whatever venue, just soaking it all in. And getting it.
We played at Jerry Herrera's Spirit Club a lot. Jerry supported local original music bands, of which we were just one amongst many (Four Eyes, Solid State, The Magnets, Rick Elias, Trowsers to name but a few of the bands playing around town at the time). Sometimes we would play to a nearly empty house, but sometimes to a good crowd. For a hot minute, we were even the darlings of some sort of biker gang (Carmen can tell you the story of riding around before one Spirit gig on the top of this guy's Harley trike that was all crafted to look like the Starship Enterprise — bedazzled with undulating running lights and evathang!).