The Brougham
Closet (1966 - 1969)
The Brougham Closet formed in 1966. It
wasn't a garage band, it was a shed-built-onto-the-side-of-a-garage
band. The original members were:
- Dave White - drums and vocals - (White would later
plummet to fame as Lonnie Broadway, with Hank
Rasco's band The Rascos;
- Kirk Morton - organ and vocals - (who later became an
enduring Northwest music icon, as the Legendary Hank Rasco);
- Michael Lloyd Knight - vocals and guitar;
- Steve Johnson - bass guitar and vocals.
In the summer of 1968, Johnson went on
vacation during the music season so The Brougham
Closet picked up Joe Daggy (a.k.a.
Omar) on bass and backup vocals.
Brougham Closet (1968) left to right:
Kirk Morton, Dave White, Joe Daggy,
Mike Knight.
The new band wowed crowds at Woodland,
Washington's 1968 Planters Day Festival, (about 1600 tickets sold), and then
went on to win the Cap'n Yoby's Battle of the Bands at the
Cowlitz County Fairgrounds in Longview, Washington (first prize was a recording
sessions). The band recorded, "Wishing" and "To
Say Goodbye," released on Mother Bear Records later
that summer. The record steadily climbed local charts to the number one
spot which it held until girlfriends and relatives quit buying copies.
During the winter of 1969, The
Brougham Closet split into two factions. Kirk
Morton and Dave White joined with
Rick Edwards and Steve Allen of the
Dark Ages, another Woodland, Washington band, to form
a new group called Crust (their slogan: "Crust has
formed").
The remainder of The Brougham Closet,
Michael Lloyd Knight and Joe Daggy,
joined up with Leon Richey (drums) and Gary
Carter (keyboards). Richey and
Carter had both worked with Daggy in
prior Kelso, Washington bands, The Commoners and The
Dirty Young Men, performing at local events, and high school dances in
Southwest Washington. Carter had also played keyboard
with Larry Price, Joe Durand and Rocky
Tidd in the Longview, Washington band, The Milk
Truck.
Brougham Closet (1969)
clockwise from upper left: Joe Daggy, Mike Knight, Leon Richey, Gary Carter.
Not
surprisingly, the members of
Crust and the new
Brougham
Closet both thought that their band was best.
The
Brougham Closet, began playing colleges and regional music events
at the top teen venues in Southwest Washington and Western Oregon—including
Oregon State University, Lower Columbia College, The Trap Teen Club, in
Vancouver, Washington, TG's Teen Clubs in Newport, Oregon, and other towns
along the Oregon Coast, The Seven of Diamonds Teen Club in Portland,
Oregon, and Longview's prime rock venue, the Smith Center, where acts such
as
Sonny and Cher, The
Wailers,
Paul
Revere & The Raiders,
The Liverpool Five,
Ike and Tina Turner,
Merrillee Rush & The
Turnabouts,
The Surprise Package,
The Kings
Men, and many others regularly performed.
Spring of 1969 found The Brougham
Closet taking on professional management with Sanford
Alyson Kross of S.A.K. United, a national booking
agent with offices in Portland, Oregon. Kross also
personally handled Glenn Yarborough among other acts. He
soon had the band California bound to tape three network television appearances
with Paul Revere and The Raiders, and Mark
Lindsay (Happening 69), Barbara
Feldon (Get Smart), Angela Cartwright
(The Danny Thomas Show and Lost In
Space), Merrillee Rush (Angel of the
Morning), John Kay and Steppenwolf, The Grass
Roots, and The Classics Four, and Dick Clark
Productions at ABC Television Studios in
Hollywood.
The Brougham Closet
(1969) left to right: Mike Knight, Gary
Carter, Leon Richey, Joe Daggy (seated:
a mannequin)
The television production process was
even more interesting than
just
being at
ABC Studios Hollywood,
just meeting leaders
of the music and entertainment worlds, and
just appearing on network
television. On that on the same day, July, 20th 1969, another
little event was occurring about 380,000 kilometers away.
Neil A.
Armstrong and
Edwin E. Buzz) Aldrin were landing on
the moon.
Joe Daggy sat next to
Mark
Lindsay, as production shut down to allow cast and crew to watch the
lunar landing on studio monitors.
"One small step for man, one giant leap
for The Brougham Closet."
The Brougham Closet's
agent, Kross, was ecstatic. He had big plans for the band
that fall, but unfortunately, so did Richey and
Daggy. They planned to leave the group to attend
college. Kross pushed for adding a new bass player and
drummer. Knight was lead singer and guitar player.
Carter played keyboards and was also a lead singer.
Daggy and Richey would have been easy to
replace, but, somehow, it never happened.
By the summer of 1969, the members of
The Brougham Closet were:
- Michael Lloyd Knight - lead vocals and guitar;
- Gary Carter - keyboards and lead vocals;
- Joe Daggy (a.k.a. Omar) - bass
guitar and back-up vocals;
- Leon Richey - drums and back-up vocals.
The Brougham Closet died
in the fall of 1969, and was followed in death, years later, by three of its
most exciting members: Gary Carter, Dave White
(a.k.a Lonnie Broadway) and Michael Lloyd
Knight.
Ironically Leon Richey
and Joe Daggy, having broken up The Brougham
Closet to go to college, were, within three years, back together in
the Seattle based band, Albatross.
Albatross (1973)
left to right: Leon Richey, Rob ?,
Cathy Stover,
Rocky Tidd and Joe Daggy.
In the Summer of
1973 Daggy and Richey hooked up with
guitar player Rocky
Tidd and his wife, the delectable song stylist Cathy
Stover, to form Albatross. Stover, with the body
and face of a devil, and the voice and personality of an angel spun versions of
"Touch Me In The Morning" and "Midnight at the Oasis" that still have this
writer captured in her web. Albatross also featured the
sax and flute talents of a fellow named Rob. I'm sure
Rob had a last name, but I can't recall it just now.
Richey stayed with music for a number of years, before taking
on the position of beverage manager at the Arizona Country Club, in Phoenix,
Arizona.
Daggy also continued with music for a few years, most notably
with the Bill Grant Trio (featuring Joe Daggy on
Bass), which George Wagner and Rob
Fieldman. I can't seem to remember Bill Grant's
real name either, but it will come to me. Wagner, a
respected Seattle keyboard artist, arranger and conductor, also worked with
Merrillee Rush, Skitch Henderson (The
tonight Show), Bobby Sherman (whose hit song,
"Julie Julie Julie Do You Love Me" was arranged by Wagner; and
whose hit television series, "Seattle," was watched by
Wagner). Wagner also served Milton
Berle's piano accompaniment when ever Uncle
Miltie came to play in Seattle. The Bill Grant
Trio was a four piece, which is why Bill always
introduced the band as "The Bill Grant Trio featuring Joe Daggy on
Bass." Daggy didn't deserve to be singled out
for billing, but that's show business.
Today, Daggy
(a.k.a. Joseph O. Daggy, J. Omar Daggy,
Omar, and now also, Horace J. Digby) is a
celebrated attorney practicing in Washington and Oregon.
Daggy is also a film maker, working on an award-winning
feature-length film with Hollywood Executive Producer C. Tad
Devlin who's major works include The Immigrant Garden,
George of The Jungle, Mighty Ducks 3,
When A Man Loves A Woman, and Sleeping With The
Enemy. Daggy's own production company,
Lexington Film, LLC. also works in association
with Best-Selling Award-Winning Novelist
and Screenwriter, Steven Barnes, who's work includes
the Emmy Award Winning Outer Limits television episode,
"A Stitch In Time," the best-selling novel,
Star Wars - The Cestus Deception, the
groundbreaking alternate history, Lion's Blood, and
more than twenty other novels.
In 2005,
Daggy became an Award-Winning Writer in his
own right, as Humor Columnist Horace J. Digby, by winning the
coveted Robert Benchley Award for Humor, sponsored by
Expree magazine and the Robert Benchley
Society. Daggy, er. . . um. . . Digby also
writes humor columns appearing in the Columbia River
Reader and SandBagger Mag-e-zine.
Hank
Rasco (1998) (left to right: Hank Rasco, 1950
Studebaker)
Kirk Morton stayed with
music and eventually found ever-lasting fame and fortune as
Music Icon and Entertainment
Legend . . .
Hank Rasco
Rasco rose to fame with his band, Hank Rasco and The
Wasted Rangers. The other Rangers have moseyed
off into the sunset, but Rasco, who now plays
with The Rascos, is still wasted enough to make up the
difference. The Rascos were founded in 1981 by
Rasco and his life long friend and musical sidekick,
Lonny Broadway. They mix high-intensity rock 'n roll with
Hank Rasco's own brilliant keyboard and vocal work to create
what one critic has called, ". . . the best pure rock 'n roll
experience on this planet, and on all but three other (according to those
who know)." -- Source: SandBagger
Mag-e-zine, August 2003.
Copyright © 2005
Lexington Film, LLC. All rights reserved
