Sun City rocks

SUN CITY – February 9, 1964 – Four young lads from Liverpool perform on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” paving the way for the British Invasion on American ears for years to follow.

November 2009 – Four (admittedly older) men perform at the Ted O’Sullivan Show put on by the Celtic Club in Sun City. The band, Phlashbak, is part of a new wave of music coming from Sun City.

The Beatles’ performance on television that night not only inspired Phlashback singer Paul Gillis, then 14 years old, to start playing, it has stuck with him as an influence to this day.

Phlashback along with their contemporaries Old’s Cool share house band status at Marengo’s Country Cafe and Bar, bringing the rock and roll they grew up with from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s alive today.

“I used to be nervous years ago,” Gillis said of his early days in bands. “I’m not nervous anymore, because we play so much you just kind of get used to it, and we have so much fun.”

Pflashbak is made up of Sun City residents Gillis (guitar, vocals), Steve Gohmann (lead vocals, guitar), Kevin Ramon (bass) from Barrington, and Chuck Drake (drums) from Woodstock.

Rich Wolter, guitarist for Old’s Cool, can’t think of a specific instance that inspired him to pick up his first guitar but said he remains in awe of the genius of players like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

“I think my whole life has been a futile, futile attempt to become [like Clapton],” he joked. “It’s equally inspiring and frustrating just how fantastic these players were.”

Wolter is joined in Old’s Cool by Sun City residents TR Kerth (lead vocals, guitar), Hans Stucki (keybords, guitar, accordion, vocals), and Bob Noble (bass). Drummer Gary Ross is from Marengo, and Wolter lives in Arlington Heights.

On any given night at Country Cafe when Old’s Cool or Phlashback plays, the crowd is a melting pot of demographics. Surely, a large portion will be Sun Citians, but stirred among them will be District 158 employees who know Gillis and Drake from their work as bus drivers, some friends and family peppered in, and even a pinch of young folks there to have a couple of drinks and see what these bands are all about.

“We love to see it when we don’t drive these young folks out of the bar, when they stick around and they’re enjoying it too,” Wolter said.

Both groups are also staples in Sun City, having performed at Celtic Club events and in Drendel Hall. Old’s Cool has also performed at Huntley’s American Legion Hall several times.

Each band has a few tricks up their sleeves to get the crowd moving. For Old’s Cool, it’s songs like “Bad Bad Leroy Brown,” “Brown-Eyed Girl,” and some blues standards like “Mustang Sally.”

Phlashbak finds “Mony Mony” and “Twist and Shout” get big responses, and they occasionally dip into contemporary tunes like the ever-popular “Red Solo Cup.”

Wolter said he loves seeing the crowd get up and dance, but acknowledged some differences between the sexes in this regard.

“When we are playing, we do seem to notice that the men, we can only pretty much get them to come out and dance with their wives for the slow songs,” Wolter said.

“The women though, they love to dance,” he added.

Members of both groups agreed that it is much easier building a repertoire of songs today than it was in their youth. Rather than slow down records or buy sheet music, they can simply download the songs or watch instructional videos on them for free.

Once members decide on a new song and look up the chords and lyrics, its time to put it together as a band. Old’s Cool now practices at member Hans Stucki’s house after a moment that made them feel young again for a different reason.

“Like many classic garage bands, we practiced in his garage, and we did that for many sessions. And then a neighbor complained, and so it was like back when we were 15 years old again and the neighbors and the parents were complaining about ‘all that noise from that rock and roll we were playing,'” Wolter said.

Some things never change.

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