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Teddy & The Talltops Ted Roddy (hca, voc), Jim Heath (voc, gtr), Phil Bennison (voc, bs), Jas Stephens (dms).. Christmas In the Congo b/w Chriistmas Party 45rpm (Talltop Records) In 1983, my tenure with Mark Pollock and The Midnighters was drawing to a close. I had begun to pick up on these cool rockabilly compilations coming out of England. The same music I had grown up with had a name! I approached my friend from Corpus Jim Heath later to be known as The Rev Horton Heat, about starting a band. I made him a tape of songs and we began getting it together. Ourr first demo was recorded in Jim's bedroom with him on guitar and bass and me on drums, harp and singing. We soon ran into Phil Bennison aka Homer Henderson who was into the music as much as us, was a great bass player and had a cool art space in Oak Cliiff to rehearse in. Phil brought in the great Jas Stephens (who had played with everybody in Fort Worth and had done a stint with The Shadows of Knight on drums. We had a band! Curtis Hawkins was a record store owner in Dallas that catered to the punk rock scene. He was a rockabilly freak and started a Wed night rockabilly show at Zebo's now Half Price Books on Northwest Highway in Dallas. That ws where we played our first gig. We did gigs opening for and backing up Gene Summers, Sid & Billy King and Johnny Carroll. The Talltops Ted Roddy (hca, voc), Mark Pollock (gtr), Donny Ray Ford (voc, bs), Russell Flemming (dms).. On The Line 45rpm EP (Amazing Records) , Rock-n-Roll Honky Tonkin (Sunjay Records-Sweden). Jim left the band to start another band with his wife. I enlisted Mark Pollock on guitar. The legendary Donny Ray Ford, a honky tonker that played the bass like Clint Eastwood and former Vomit Pigs/ Saddletramps drummer Rusell Flemming joined soon after. That was quiite a line-up. We played all over Dallas and even went to Austin to record the tracks that eventually ended up on the Sunjay cd. Ted & The Talltops Ted Roddy (hca, voc), Joe Dickens (gtr), Speedy Sparks (voc, bs), Stan Moore (dms), Harry Hess (stl), Mike Buck (dms), John Reed (gtr), Linda Shaw (bs) ,Casper Rawls (gtr) on the EP: Steve Doerr (gtr), Tim Alexander (acc). Alvin Crow (fdl). Crazy Date EP (New Rose Records) , Rock-n-Roll Honky Tonkin (Sunjay Records-Sweden) , Rockin on the Radio cassette., In 1983 there were tons of rockabilly bands, by 1985 we were the only one left. I decided to head south to Austin, the coolest place in Texas. I was not the only Dallas rocker that had that idea. A bunch of us began to get together at each other's houses and sing old country stuff, George Jones etc. We eventually took it a new bar on 6th street called The Black Cat Lounge. Paul Sessums let us play there every night for tips. This group became known as The Ferccious Five. Joe Dickens was a part of that. We had a blast playing togetrher so we decided to book some gigs as The Talltops. I had met Speedy at The Black Cat, he came in on bass and brought along Harry Hess who was a former Doug Sahm band member. Stan M\oore, fomrerly of the legendary Corpus garage rock band The Zakary Thaks played drums. We played every other Tuesday night at The Hole in The Wall to some wild crowds. Then we would play at Beverly's on Salughter lane to nobody but Townes Van Zant. Stan used to quit us all the time. The night we were set to do our first live set at KUT, he quit so Mike Buck became our drummer. Our music then mixed old country and rockabilly with blues and crazed garage rock! The Talltops Ted Roddy (hca, gtr, voc), Danny Barnes (gtr), Don Davis (bs), Steve Fulton (dms), Marty Muse (stl), John Ludwick (bs), Brent Wilson (gtr, bs), Brad Fordham (bs) , Mark Korpi (gtr) , Champ Hood (gtr, fdl) , Mas Palremo (dms), Bill Dwyer (gtr), Lisa Pancratz (dms), and many more. Every Day is a Holly Day (New Rose Records) , Rockin on the Radio cassette., Rock-n-Roll Honky Tonkin (Sunjay Records-Sweden). Sir Doug moved to town and started up The Texas Mavericks, ther went Speedy & Buck. Joe retired from gigs. Next up was the Danny Barnes version. We cut a track for New Rose' Buddy Holly Tribute, recorded a very cool live-set ( that became part of Rockin on The Radio) and performed on The Nashville Network's Texas Connection TV show. We worked The Broken Spoke one night, Antone's the next (that was pretty radical back then). After some promising but ultimately fruit-less screwing around with major label interest, that version disolved. We started playing at Henry's Bar and Grill regularly. Many musicians, gigs and stories later....the band played on. More on the Talltops in the next installment. |
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