The Buckinghams in Concert

Photo by Jack Mongan. A Special Message from Carl: “Today, all of The Buckinghams wish a very special birthday to founding member and original lead singer, Dennis Tufano. But today especially, I’m remembering all the birthdays we celebrated together in the early days, mostly while on the road. Our schedules were so busy it’s not like we could take our special night off. In fact, as I recall, we spent more holidays on the road away from home and families, particularly from 1966-1968 when we were booked for 300 dates a year." Photo by Jack Mongan "On August 31, at the actual ceremony for the Inaugural Class at the Rialto Theatre in Joliet, IL, Dennis represented The Buckinghams in accepting the award for our being inducted into the Illinois Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was hard to miss joining him for the event as we were performing in Hillside, IL, that night." Continuing, he said, "Harder still, though, was it to realize that Jon-Jon and Marty were not ...

On the first day of a new year and a new decade, friends and family of Marty Grebb read a post on his Facebook page that sparked instant concern. The composition he shared had required much thought, and in it, Marty shared his love, regard, concern, and caring for virtually every person he’d worked with professionally, loved in his lifetime, and showed how deep his feelings ran for an earlier day and time when his body and mind were not wracked in pain by the five types of cancer he said he’d battled over time. The outpouring of love and support, expressions of concern, reminders of so many who had friended him on Facebook and felt as though they’d really known him, were nothing short of amazing. Offers of “please call me” or “we are worried about you” or “hang on, brother, we are here” filled the comments section. If there were a point in time when he was wavering in his attitude about what his plan was, everyone did whatever they could yesterday, New Year’s Day, to show their supp...

Inquiring minds want to know: when did Pete Townshend decide to destroy perfectly incredible guitars? Who, who came up with this attention-getting ploy? Was it in a band 'group meeting' or did he just strike out on his own one day, and Keith Moon followed suit by kicking his drums, and Roger, not to be left out, mauled the microphone... People who watch any version of the CSI shows, whether CSI New York, CSI Miami, CSI Las Vegas, etc., are treated to a carefully controlled wildboy version of Pete Townshend's remakes of songs at the opening and closing of the episodes. Because audiences hear them each week, it's easy to expect that a second and third generation of young rockers think the tunes, made famous by The Who, are now enjoying new life as considerably more 'contemporary' music. Little do they suspect that some 45 years ago, the lads were new in town, new in the USA and new to the simple courtesies of not destroying the equipment for the next guys on stage...