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The Astronauts was an American rock and roll band, which had a minor hit in 1963 with "Baja" and remained successful for several years, especially in Japan. They have been described as being, "along with...(the) Trashmen, the premier landlocked Midwestern surf group of the '60s."[1] For most of their career, the band members were Rich Fifield, Jon "Storm" Patterson, Bob Demmon, Dennis Lindsey, and Jim Gallagher.

This article is about the US rock and surf music band of the early 1960s. For other uses, see Astronaut (disambiguation).
The Astronauts
The band in 1966
Background information
OriginBoulder, Colorado, U.S.
GenresRock and roll, surf rock, pop
Years active1961–1968
LabelsPalladium, RCA Victor
Past membersRich Fifield
Jon "Storm" Patterson
Bob Demmon
Dennis Lindsey
Jim Gallagher
Dick Sellars
Mark Bretz
Rod Jenkins
Robert Carl McLerran

Career


The Astronauts developed out of a group, The Stormtroupers, which was originally formed at Boulder High School, Boulder, Colorado in 1956 by Jon "Storm" Patterson (vocals, guitar), Robert Graham "Bob" Demmon (guitar; born February 11, 1939[2]), and Brad Leach (drums). In 1961, they became The Astronauts after adding Richard Otis "Rich" Fifield (vocals, guitar) and Dick Sellars (guitar), the change of band name recognising the fascist connotations of the previous name (despite the different spelling) and to pay tribute to local hero, astronaut Scott Carpenter.[3][4] Patterson switched to bass, Leech was replaced on drums by Jim Gallagher, and soon afterwards Sellars left to join the US Navy, being replaced by Dennis Lindsey.[5] With a line-up of Demmon, Patterson, Fifield, Lindsey and Gallagher, the band gained a strong local reputation, toured as far as Chicago and Dallas, Texas, and released their first single, "Come Along Baby", in 1962, on the small Palladium label.[3] They were signed to RCA Records after a record company executive was impressed by their performance at a local night club, the Tulagi.[6]

Their first single on RCA was "Baja", an instrumental written by Lee Hazlewood originally for his friend, guitarist Al Casey.[7] Released by The Astronauts in early 1963, the track was described as "a typical surf instrumental with a reverberation-heavy twangy guitar and driving drumbeat", and reached # 94 on the Billboard Hot 100 for just one week, the pinnacle of their US chart career.[4][8] However, they released a succession of further singles on RCA, in an attempt by the record company to emulate the success of the Beach Boys and other surf music-related groups in the charts at the time. According to reviewer Richie Unterberger, "the group shone brightest on their instrumentals, which used mounds of Fender reverb and two rhythm guitars; when they sang, the results were much less successful."[1] Patterson and Fifield shared lead vocals,[8] and the band recorded songs by Roger Christian, Gary Usher, Dick Dale and Henry Mancini, among others.[1] Fifield, the lead guitarist, used a Fender Jazzmaster on the recordings, with an early prototype reverb unit personally loaned to the group by Leo Fender.[9] Their 1965 song "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day" was covered by The Monkees in 1966.

As well as a succession of singles and EPs, the band released four LPs over nine months, starting in May 1963: Surfin' with The Astronauts – which reached # 61 on the Billboard 200 album chart[4] – Everything Is A-OK! (recorded live at the Club Baja in Denver, Colorado), Competition Coupe, and The Astronauts Orbit Campus (recorded live in Boulder).

They appeared several times on the Hullabaloo TV show, and have the distinction of appearing in more beach party movies than any other surf band: Surf Party, Wild on the Beach, Wild Wild Winter and Out of Sight. Regarding the band's performance in 1964's Surf Party, the book Pop Surf Culture states “The Astronauts bang out a thick, reverb-laden instrumental called ‘Firewater,’ and their theme song ‘Surf Party’ happens to be one of the best surf instrumentals ever recorded.”[10] (See Filmography, below)

In 1964, their record company discovered that they had a growing fan base in Japan, where they outsold The Beach Boys and toured with The Ventures. Five albums and three singles made the top 10 there, with "Movin'" – retitled as "Over The Sun" – reaching number one in the country.[4]

In all, they recorded nine albums. Gallagher and Lindsey were drafted for the Vietnam War before the last album, Travelin' Men in 1967, and were replaced by Mark Bretz and Rod Jenkins respectively. Demmon also left, being replaced by Robert Carl McLerran, before Fifield and Patterson finally decided to end the band name after a tour of Asia in 1968.[4][5]


Associated acts


For a while, the same band – Fifield, Patterson, McLerran, Bretz and Jenkins – performed in the US under the name SunshineWard, who released one single, "Sally Go Around The Roses", in 1967. Patterson then left the band and music business, and Fifield and McLerran formed a new band, Hardwater, with Tony Murillo and Peter M. Wyant. In 1968, the band released two singles and an album, Hardwater, on Capitol Records, produced by David Axelrod.[4][11][12] Fifield also had a role in assisting Axelrod and record engineer David Hassinger, who owned the rights to the group name of The Electric Prunes, to find a new group of musicians to take on that group's name for their record, Mass in F Minor. Fifield contacted fellow Colorado musicians, Richard Whetstone, John Herron and Mark Kincaid, who then agreed to form one of the final line-ups of The Electric Prunes.[13]


Reunion


The Astronauts reunited temporarily to perform in Boulder, Colorado, in 1974, 1988 and 1989.[9]


Later years


A four-CD box set of the group's recordings, The Complete Astronauts Collection, was issued on the Collectables label in 1997.[14]

Dennis Lindsey died in Boulder, Colorado, on May 4, 1992.[15] Mark Bretz died August 15, 1999, aged 54. Robert "Bob" Demmon worked as a teacher in Coronado, California,[6] whose students included George Sanger.[16] He died of cardiac arrest on December 18, 2010, at the age of 71.[17]

Rich Fifield died on November 18, 2021.[18] Jim Gallagher died on November 20, 2021, at the age of 78.[19]


Members


Classic line-up in bold
Group name The Stormtroupers The Astronauts The Astronauts The Astronauts The Astronauts SunshineWard Hardwater
Years 1956-1961 1961-? ? ?-1967 (Certainly the line-up from 1962-1967) 1967 1967 1967-1969
Jon "Storm" Patterson vocals, guitar vocals, guitar vocals, bass vocals, bass vocals, bass vocals, bass
Richard Otis "Rich" Fifield vocals, guitar vocals, guitar vocals, lead guitar vocals, lead guitar vocals, lead guitar vocals, lead guitar
Robert Graham "Bob" Demmon guitar guitar guitar guitar
Dick Sellars guitar guitar
Dennis Lindsey guitar
Mark Bretz guitar guitar
Robert Carl McLerran guitar guitar bass
Peter M. Wyant guitar
Brad Leach drums drums
Jim Gallagher drums drums
Rod Jenkins drums drums
Tony Murillo drums

Discography



Singles (US releases)



The Astronauts


SunshineWard


Hardwater


EPs (US Releases)



Singles (Japan releases)



EPs (Japan releases)



Albums (US releases)



The Astronauts


Hardwater


CD albums



The Astronauts


Filmography



Appearing as themselves and as soundtrack artists



1964


1965


1966


References


  1. Biography by Richie Unterberger at Allmusic.com. Accessed 22 April 2011
  2. Boulder surf band soared to new heights dailycamera.com accessdate July 23, 2018
  3. Mel Fenson, When The Astronauts Played Tulagi, Colorado Magazine Online. Accessed 22 April 2011
  4. G. Brown, Colorado Rocks!: A Half-Century of Music in Colorado, p.1959. Accessed 22 April 2011
  5. www.WangDangDula.com: The Astronauts: discography and information. Accessed 22 April 2011
  6. Boulder Daily Camera: Obituary, Robert Graham Demmon. Accessed 22 April 2011
  7. Del Halterman, Walk - Don't Run - The Story of the Ventures, 2009, p.113. Accessed 22 April 2011
  8. Whitburn, Joel (2003). Top Pop Singles 1955–2002 (1st ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 27. ISBN 0-89820-155-1.
  9. Seymour Duncan Q&A, No. 82. Accessed 22 April 2011
  10. Chidester, Brian & Priore, Domenic (2008), pg 168.
  11. David Axelrod: HardWater Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 22 April 2011
  12. BadCat Records: Review of Hardwater. Accessed 22 April 2011
  13. The Electric Prunes: Biography, Part 7. Accessed 22 April 2011
  14. Bradley Torreano, The Legendary Group at Their Best, Allmusic.com. Accessed 22 April 2011
  15. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, SSN 524465548
  16. "The Fat Man Website". Fatman.com.
  17. "Former surf band member, longtime Coronado teacher Bob Demmon, dies at 71". San Diego Union-Tribune. January 28, 2011.
  18. "Musicians We’ve Lost in 2021", Best Classic bands. Retrieved November 26, 2021
  19. Astronauts drummer, longtime Boulder resident Jim Gallagher dies at 78
  20. www.oldies.com: The Astronauts, 4-CD box set, Released: November 18, 1997 - Item Number: COL 2708

Bibliography






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