St. Paradise

uwe · October 09, 2017, 04:01:07 PM

They have finally rereleased it on CD (there was a first CD release around 2011 but that didn't last long for probably legal entanglements)l!

https://www.amazon.com/St-Paradise-ST-PARADISE/dp/B074JC5N3T/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507586286&sr=8-1&keywords=st+paradise+cd

And it sounds better than it ever did on vinyl (Grange's bass sounds awesome throughout). Holmes was such a great vocalist, Nugent, in his usual inaneness, murdered that line up.

I never knew there was live footage from them!

Rob Grange was the epitome of the cool tall towering bass player for me, curls, shades, tight white Travolta pants

and all. He was the first bass player I actually took notice of on stage when I saw Ted Nugent 76/77. I thought Nugent was a bit of a buffoon even back then (but with a great guitar tone), but found St. Holmes and Grange extremely cool.

Highlander · October 09, 2017, 05:37:00 PM

Saw that (Nugent) line up too... they (St Paradise) supported Van Halen over here but I missed it...

uwe · October 09, 2017, 06:28:39 PM

That was their claim to fame - the liner notes of the CD say they went down well with the Van Halen crowd, but sank like a stone when opening for Patti Smith.

gearHed289 · October 10, 2017, 08:15:47 AM

I was in San Diego for a gig recently, and on my Uber ride to the airport to go home, the driver saw my bass case and we got to talking about music. He said he knew "Rob De Lagrange" and it didn't click at first. Then I realized he was talking about Rob Grange. According to him, once the Nuge started playing big stadiums, he "stopped paying the guys", whatever that means. Apparently he's in real estate now.

uwe · October 10, 2017, 12:50:10 PM

Yes, non-payment of wages (only Nugent had the contract with CBS, he dropped the "Band" from Ted Nugent Band prior to negotiating with CBS, but failed to tell St. Holmes, Grange and Davies) was an issue that led to the breakup according to the liner notes, plus turning down of stage volume of all other players except Nugent, relegating them to certain stage areas (quadrants), not accepting their songs, but witholding co-credits where they participated in the songwriting of his songs. Interestingly enough, neither Grange nor St. Holmes were fired but left. Nugent couldn't fire them because his contract to his manager prescribed that Grange and St. Holmes were to stay in the band (after St. Holmes had gone AWOL during the recording of the second album Free for All), the manager wondering about the band's commercial continuing viability once they left (turned out he was right).

Nugent began to pay wages again eventually, but by that time the bridges between him and St. Holmes and Grange were burnt. His relationship with Cliff Davies (the Brit drummer from fusion-guys If) lasted longer because Davies had proceeds from his job as producer of Nugent's early albums.

And Grange did become a realtor in California. Cliff Davies died from a self-inflicted gun "accident" - of all things - in 2008, but he was stressed out at the time due to large medical bills. St. Holmes played with St. Paradise, Brad Whitford, MSG and - intermittently - with Nugent again, but nothing ever clicked.

doombass · October 10, 2017, 07:25:07 PM

Quote from: uwe on October 09, 2017, 04:01:07 PM
Holmes was such a great vocalist, Nugent, in his usual inaneness, murdered that line up.

And they happened to be on the same bill that day!!

uwe · October 11, 2017, 05:37:30 AM

It's not like Huhn and Kiswiney were bad musicians - I think Huhn does fine work with Foghat today for instance -, but both had none of the animal grace and presence of St. Holmes and Grange plus I think that St.Holmes rhythmic punctuation when singing was much better than Huhn's (who had to mostly sing material he had not created at the time of its origin).

Re the St. Holmes Band vid I posted at the Gibson forum re the newish EB bass: I drove me mad realizing that I knew the bass player from somewhere though it obviously wasn't Rob Grange. Duh, it's David Kiswiney!

gearHed289 · October 11, 2017, 08:28:35 AM

What a dick. I like him as a person even less now.

Quote from: uwe on October 11, 2017, 05:37:30 AMRe the St. Holmes Band vid I posted at the Gibson forum re the newish EB bass: I drove me mad realizing that I knew the bass player from somewhere though it obviously wasn't Rob Grange. Duh, it's David Kiswiney!

Huh, still with a Gibson. I remember seeing him in ads for the Victory all the time in the early 80s.