The Buckinghams in Concert

It's always a nice surprise when you have fellow musicians drop by backstage after the show to say hello and catch up for a few minutes. After the Happy Together concert at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, New Jersey, multitalented musician Paul Shaffer came by to visit many of his friends. It's always great to see Paul. What an amazing collection of music he is responsible for! Of course you watched him for years every night on the "Late Show with David Letterman" as he conducted his "World's Most Dangerous Band." His book, "We'll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives," is, as he subtitled it, "A Swingin' Show-biz Saga Book." He talks about his years leading the Saturday Night Live Band, leading the Blues Brothers Band, and then the Late Show band and TV personality. Get the book here . Do you have a CD of their cover songs? (Find one here: https://theshaffershop.bigcartel.com/ ). Here's a photo of Nick...

Veteran Chicago journalist Robert Feder had a nice item this morning in his Vocalo blog about how the crowd gathered to hear the Bob Sirott's interview with radio DJ legends Dick Biondi and Herb Kent filled the auditorium and then "overflowed into three satellite rooms" this weekend. Excerpt follows: # Hundreds of fans packed the Columbia College auditorium and overflowed into three satellite rooms Saturday when Bob Sirott interviewed Chicago radio’s greatest living legends, Dick Biondi and Herb Kent, onstage together for the first time. What made a great night even more unforgettable was the presence of many local music legends in the audience to pay tribute to Biondi and Kent. They included Gene “Duke of Earl” Chandler, Marshall Thompson of the Chi-Lites, Ronnie Rice of the New Colony Six, Carl Giammarese and Nick Fortuna of the Buckinghams, Jim Peterik of The Ides Of March and Survivor, Fred Glickstein of the Flock, and Al Lathan of Four Days and a Night. Among radio...

Ever heard of The Screaming Wildman of Chicago Radio? Carl Bonafede was one of the 'most heard' voices in Chicago on any 50,000 watt station broadcasting across the country. Fast-talking, quick-witted, one-of-a-kind DJ, Bonafede was more than just a DJ. Carl Bonafede was the manager of The Buckinghams in the 1960s, among several other popular groups of Chicagoland. He and Dan Belloc also co-produced several records on the USA label for The Buckinghams, including the #1 "Kind of a Drag". The latest issue of Keep Rockin ' Magazine has a feature story on Carl Bonafede by Dawn Lee Wakefield, as well as a cover story on never-before-seen photographs of The Beatles, and the story behind them, written by Ian Wright. Chicago teens will also appreciate a feature by Kenn Petzke "Bandstand Matinee with Jim Lounsbury," with great nostalgic event tickets, bandstand matinee club cards, and a "I am a Jim Lounsbury Fan" pin-on lapel button. It's a great tr...

Connie Szerszen, Chicago's First Female Rock DJ on AM Radio, has a new book on the market, a superb collection of memories from her days at WIND-AM and WCFL-AM. Titled "Top Rock Girly Jock," the book is available both at her web site ( http://toprockgirlyjock.com ) and on amazon.com. Page 70 features a 1968 photo of Connie and Jerry G. Bishop with The Buckinghams during a personal appearance visit to WCFL. Connie will be a guest on WGN Radio's Steve and Johnnie Program, Tuesday overnight, October 27th/early morning October 28th and share her memories of 1960s Chicago radio, including setting several 'firsts,' which were actually written into the U.S. Congressional Record as the 1st woman with her own prime time show, AM radio, major market, and the 1st woman in America to broadcast "live" on an all-digital radio station. Today, Szerszen does celebrity DJ events, is a talented commission portrait artist, and enjoys writing when time permits. The book ...