Reunion sets stage for
Rock 'n' Roll revival locally
Tim Moorhead
St Petersburg Times, June 14, 1983
Ten days ago, drummer Bob Barnes staged the Vic Waters & Friends Reunion
Party at the Gulfport Casino - the place where Barnes, Waters and the rest of
The Impacs rocked and rolled on Saturday nights in the 1960's.
To insure enough space, he's staging them in downtown's Coliseum Ballroom, capacity 3,000. The cost is going up slightly, to $6.50 in advance, $7.00 at the door, but Barnes promises two bands this time around, plus roomier conditions and a fuller program and if the R & R revival concert \dances go over, he says, he wants to make them a once, or twice a year event.
"The 25-to-50 age group needs a place to go and things to do," he says. "A lot of them don't like to go to bars, but they'd turn out for something that had the right kind of atmosphere. The Coliseum is perfect. You can bring your whole family if you want to, and everybody will have a good time." What Barnes is promising is a facsimile of the dances the Coliseum already is famous for - those with the Big Band sound - but his will swing to a different beat for a younger crowd. "We’ll open the doors at 8 o'clock, start the music at 8:30 with a second band (to be announced), then have The Impacs come on after the first set. At the end of the evening (toward 1a.m.) we’ll have a monster, let it all hang out, Jake & Elwood jam session. - Not for the timid!"
Besides himself and Waters, original Impac members Jay Angello and Chuck Kaniss are expected to be on hand, as is Don Bramlet, who sang in the '60 s under the name of Don Brock. A high point of the evening, Barnes says, will be Brock's singing of I'm Gonna Make You Cry.
Barnes hopes he'll be able to compile a mailing list from among concertgoers, in order to help maintain interest and enthusiasm in the events and where they're held. If there's enough positive response, he says, he'll be only too happy to re stage future events in the Coliseum. A big fan of a revived downtown, Barnes says he'd love to see the 25-to-50 crowd drawn to it on a regular basis - and what better way than reliving their rock'n' roll days?
We all went to different schools together," he says with near-messianic zeal. "We were part of a cosmic happening. I think when these people can get together, even though they may be strangers to each other, they feel that relationship. The Gulfport Casino concert was like a global reunion. Today's rock'n'roll musicians are good, but they play from the teeth, we played from the heart."