I just discovered a website dedicated to the memory of a wonderful Pike County rock group known as the Continental V, and I would like to add a little history of some other Pike County Rock and Roll Bands that I was a member of during and after that same period of 1963 to 1970. In each of the following groups, we aspired to, but never really expected to equal the accomplishments of "The Continentals", the first "real" band in the county.

The first band I was in was formed in 1963, “The Pastels”. While attending Pikeville College I met a high school kid by the name of Bill Elliott who played drums better than anyone I had ever met, and we decided to form an instrumental band. I had been teaching another H.S. friend of mine, Larry Hawkins, to play rythm guitar. We modeled our band after The Ventures of Walk Don't Run fame. We played local hops, talent shows and such around Elkhorn City and Pikeville.

After a year of that we reformed the band around a vocalist, Thomas Goodman, now an attorney, and another guitarist, John Paul  Picklesimer. Our new name after much deep thought and consideration was "Gemini II and the Gravitations". NASA had just begun the Gemini space program and we wanted the name to be current. We added an organist from Pikeville College, an Iranian student whose name nobody could pronounce so we just called him BJ. It was also during this period that I bought a Sears electric organ on time and “Pick’s” new bride, Sadie then was chosen to play it and be our new organist. That was my first ever purchase of anything on payments.

I also remember that at one of our ‘gigs’ Pick got very upset with a local Sheriff and got into a shoving match with him over something he said to Sadie. I later found out that the Sherifff had only asked her if we played anything by the Lawrence Welk. He very sternly told the sheriff that the closest we got to Lawrence Welk was the Beatles. After buying the organ, I wouldn’t have had the money to bail him out of jail.

We played at Christmas parties, H.S. sock hops, a local entertainment center named the Floyd Co. Youth Center, any gig we could get within 200 miles of Pike County. The "Youth Center" lays claim to being one of the first places to have EXILE of "Kiss you all over" fame later, very early in their career, on a regular twice a month basis.

Exile became the ultimate challenge to us as what we wanted to become. One of the more memorable moments I recall was a sock hop at the Martin High School gymn. We were playing "Shout" and, spontaneously, myself and "Pick", J. P. Picklesimer, decided to stand on top of the PA speakers in the middle of the song. It made an impression on the audience that we didn't realize until the next week at the Youth Center. Unknown to us, EXILE had come into the gymn and observed our theatrics and was impressed enough that when we went to see them the following Saturday, we saw them perform the same stunt. Of course imitation was the sincerest form of flattery, especially to a young up and coming band like ours. Some time after that Gemini II was invited to play at the Youth Center ourselves, and the highlight of the evening was when Jimmy Stokley who happened to be there from Exile, volunteered to sing lead as we played "Twist and Shout".

I'm sure that many years later, after we had all parted ways and given up on our dream of hitting the big time, each of us took some pride in seeing Jimmy and all the members of EXILE on TV performing the video version of "Kiss You All Over" just after it had hit Number 1 on the charts.

After about 2 years of playing, Bill Elliott and I left the band to form another group called "The Probations" due partly to the fact that so many of the members were on academic probation. That group played more regular than any I had been in due to a contract with a night clup in Haysi, Va. in which we were the regular Saturday night band. Larry Hawkins once again joined us and we had a bass guitarist who had specific instructions not to  plug his guitar into any anplifiers. This was because he could not yet play the guitar, but was learning. Other members of the band were Paul Williamson, Paul Maynard, and the bass guitarist, Johnny Ratliff, who did become a very good bass player.  We had a very tight sound playing light rock, some blues, a lot of soul, and some instrumentals. One humorous incident,(now), happened when, in our hurry to get underway to play in Haysi, we left our guitars in the parking lot of our practice facility back in Pikeville. Luckily we had a friend near to the club that had an assortment of guitars, Larry's dad, and performed just a little bit late.

After 2 years of playing with the Probations marriage reared its ugly head in the group and as happened to many a good band at that time, I retired from a Rock and Roll Band career, and began taking life seriously. As fate would have it, I eventually built a radio career with an FM station, WECL, in an old theater building and began to have bands perform in the auditorium on a regular basis. One very successful event that we promoted to the hilt, was a "Battle Of The Bands". One very good band that sort of got its start with the Probations' help, was called "The Reasons Why". They made a wide-spread name for themselves as the top band in the region for a time. At different times we featured other local bands like "The Steppin Stones" with Martin Slone, and even had some top name groups like Ruby Star and Blackfoot come to town.

As luck would have it, one day I found out that Exile was in the area and made a call to one of its members about appearing in my auditorium. That call consumated in Exile performing 4 times for me, and the last time being only 1 year before they had their big hit with "Kiss You All Over". I remember Jimmy Stokely telling me after the last performance that they were heading out west to meet a new promoter and that if he couldn't produce a hit for them they would probably hang it up. The rest is history.

In the years since, I have played formally very little but never turn down an invitation to "jam", just to stay in practice. I still stay in communication with "Pick", who emails me daily, Probably the most exciting thing to happen to me this year was to learn that THE VENTURES were going to perform July 4 in Ashland. I went to that event and by talking to the ushers about my experiences in copying them many years ago, received a special  pass to meet with them after the performance. I informed Don Wilson, the lead guitarist that formed the group, that I probably would never have learned to play guitar if not for their influence. Meeting the group that inspired so many memories and directly caused me to get involved in rock music and being in rock bands was a thrill of a lifetime.

I have never regretted the many grueling hours and sore fingers it took to be proficient enough to stand on a stage with a hundred people looking on, and start playing "Twist and Shout". Those were some of the happiest moments of my life and I will hold on to them as long as I live.