Chosen Few lineups

It seems this band only ever gets mentioned in passing, with it being the breeding ground for Stooges members such as Williamson, Recca and Ron Asheton but does anyone have a definive line-up for the band and/or dates for when it was active? I just find it odd so little has been said about The Chosen Few when it seems to be an important link in The Stooges history...

Probably because they only played covers and there are no recordings.

THE CHOSEN FEW
Birmingham, MI
Late 1965 - December, 1966

Scott Richardson (vocal)
James Williamson (guitar)
Ron Asheton (bass)
Kip ? (?)

Richardson left the band in late 1966.

The band started in the fall of 1965 with Scott Richardson- vocals, Jim Williamson-guitar, Kip Phillips-bass, Richard Simpson-guitar and me on drums. Scott and Jim saw richard, Kipp and I in a battle of the bands at the State Fair and made an offer to join up with them. Jim was only with the band a few months, replaced with Al Clark(e) on guitar and blues harp. Kipp was replaced in the summer of 1966 by Ron Asheton. That remained the lineup until the group disbanded in late 1966.

Welcome aboard Stan!

I've been wondering about The Chosen Few for many, many, years!

Can you give any more details about the band, your set lists? Any originals? If not, what you were covering? And the big question ... Did you ever record anything?

And I can tell you in advance, any and all stories will be gratefully received!

Paul

Welcome to the forum, Stan! Thank you for joining!

I hope you'll come here go often

Good to get some information about this band. Thank you Stan and welcome!

Hmmm, Setlists....Our opening numbers were collectively something we called 'the big three'. We copped it from a Stones live English EP that included a medley of abbreviated versions of Everybody Needs Somebody and Pain in my Heart and finished with Route 66. The latter also appeared as the last track on Side 1 December's Children. A lot of our sets were filled with Stones reproductions. Around and Around, Walkin the Dog, The Last Time, Satisfaction, Get Offa My Cloud, As Tears Go By, Lady Jane (Al played the dulcimer part on an acoustic Stella 12 string), Play with Fire, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Paint it Black, possibly Under My Thumb (live version), Not Fade Away with Scott on maracas and Al on Harp, the Stones version of Money, perhaps there were others. We also did Adam Faith's It's Alright, an unackowledged great rock song. We Gotta Get Outa This Place by the Animals was another. We had chosen Poison Ivy as our first single but the band broke up before we got into the studio. There were talks with Jeep Holland (of Discount Records & Mothers of Ann Arbor) who was managing the Rationals at the time.
Recordings....nothing official but there were some home recordings at one time or another.
Gigs...the Hideouts in Birmingham and Grosse Point, the Teen Chalet in Gaylord, Mothers in Ann Arobor and East Tawas, a lot of area high school dances, Frat parties at U of M come to the forefront. Another highlight was being the first band on stage of opening night at the Grande Ballroom...with the MC5.
Hope that whets your appetite....and thanks for the welcomes.
By the way...congratulations to the Stooges for the Hall fo Fame!

Stan Sulewski wrote:

Hmmm, Setlists....Our opening numbers were collectively something we called 'the big three'. We copped it from a Stones live English EP that included a medley of abbreviated versions of Everybody Needs Somebody and Pain in my Heart and finished with Route 66. The latter also appeared as the last track on Side 1 December's Children. A lot of our sets were filled with Stones reproductions. Around and Around, Walkin the Dog, The Last Time, Satisfaction, Get Offa My Cloud, As Tears Go By, Lady Jane (Al played the dulcimer part on an acoustic Stella 12 string), Play with Fire, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Paint it Black, possibly Under My Thumb (live version), Not Fade Away with Scott on maracas and Al on Harp, the Stones version of Money, perhaps there were others. We also did Adam Faith's It's Alright, an unackowledged great rock song. We Gotta Get Outa This Place by the Animals was another. We had chosen Poison Ivy as our first single but the band broke up before we got into the studio. There were talks with Jeep Holland (of Discount Records & Mothers of Ann Arbor) who was managing the Rationals at the time.
Recordings....nothing official but there were some home recordings at one time or another.
Gigs...the Hideouts in Birmingham and Grosse Point, the Teen Chalet in Gaylord, Mothers in Ann Arobor and East Tawas, a lot of area high school dances, Frat parties at U of M come to the forefront. Another highlight was being the first band on stage of opening night at the Grande Ballroom...with the MC5.
Hope that whets your appetite....and thanks for the welcomes.
By the way...congratulations to the Stooges for the Hall fo Fame!

Thanks for all the info!!
Do you have any pictures with Ron in the band?

Okay Stan, great to know!

Following on ...

I guessed from the photo's that you had a heavy Stones thing going on, but were you covering anyone else Kinks, Yardbirds, Them, maybe?

You haven't mentioned it, but I can't believe you didn't have a great version of "Empty Heart" on the go.

Did you play shows with any of the other Hideout bands, Underdogs/Last Heard/4 Of Us/Pleasure Seekers etc? Or any of the bands that were getting vanity pressings released on the Fenton label?

And of course ... Do any of those recordings still exist?

Photos w/Ron...not that I can recall but I'll look around. May take a few days.

Stan Sulewski wrote:

Photos w/Ron...not that I can recall but I'll look around. May take a few days.

Thanks!! A few pictures with James in the band have surfaced, but none that I know of with Ron.

Regarding other covers, thanks for jogging my memory... like every other band at the time we did Gloria by Them. See my Friends had such a great mood to it, You Really got Me and All Day and All of the Night were likely on the roster and Well Respected Man by the Kinks (Richard loved the line"cuz he's dyin to get at her," didn't we all, and maybe a Yardbirds tune like For Your Love at some time. Empty Heart was probably on the roster at one time. I remember the precurser to the Chosen Few (the Five Grand that Kipp and Richard and I were in) playing Empty Heart. So it likely moved with us. I remember all the bands mentioned, they were terrific. It was such a great scene, bands were springing up all over and there seemed like tons of places to play. I think we all thrived on the competition. We did play with The Pleasure Seekers once, sharing the bill at Mothers in East Tawas the summer of 66. They were groundbreaking for the time. A few of us and them were items for a minute. I am really happy for Suzi's success. She's a great talent. She really deserves recognition over here in the States. Bob Seger was part of that scene. The Rationals. The Fugitives. And on and on.

Okay, obvious next question ...

Any particular memories of Ron or James, as band members or friends?

P.T.
I have a only few things to share as its been a long, long time and our time together was so short.
Jim was and is a terrific guitar player. He was a little hard to get to know because he was so quiet. And there were some pretty strong personalities in the band. I thought of him as very intelligent. He introduced me to Dylan [he called him (phonetically dielin)] and for that I am eternally grateful. Jim had the Berry/Richards riffs down to a T. He let the guitar do his talking for him. But we had a few practices and a few gigs together, maybe two or three months max. Then he was gone. He was great to play with because he had the chops and a great ear. His playing helped me a great deal, putting more of an edge on my drumming. Because he came to the other three of us with Scott I think he and Scott were closest. He and Iggy showed up at one of the U of M frat parties we were playing, I think it was shortly after Iggy got back from Chicago. He made a comment about how much I improved. That really meant a lot coming from him. Thanks Jim!

Ron had a great sense of humor, a kind of gentle soul and was also very intelligent. His cup was always full in those days, a real positive force. His bass had a rich deep tone that put the bottom on the band, great to drum to. He only played bass with us, no guitar, at least live. He loved John Lennon, and got a big kick out of Lennon's mutterings in Yellow Submarine. He brought an awareness of the Velvet Underground to us, which of course played an important role in the Stooges' career. Miss you Ron.

I have a little anecdote on Iggy. The Few had just returned from New York from some auditions in July of 66. We had just finished a practice in Ron and Scott's basement and Iggy was there listening in. When we finished everyone but Iggy and I had gone upstairs. We got into some discussions about drumming and he showed me how to play a Chicago style blues shuffle. That became an important part of my work for years, to this day. Well, I couldn't just leave it there so I showed him how to double stick a 'Bo Diddley' beat like on Not Fade Away, but he had a little difficulty with it, if memory serves. Maybe that's why he drifted away from drumming. And the rest, as they say, is history.

I love you guys.

It's not much but it's more than before...

Really interesting to read all this Stan. Thanks for sharing!

Stan, it's SO much more than before. Can't thank you enough for taking the time to reply.

Those were great stories, especially re Ron & Iggy, fascinated to hear that Ron was an early Velvets fan.

Couple of quick ones: Did you carry on in music after the band split? It sounds like you were serious about your drumming, and, sorry I have to ask ... if you and the guys in The Chosen Few had a thing going with the Pleasure Seekers, who hooked up with who? Can the Ron Asheton/Suzi Quatro love story finally be told?

P.S. You must have checked out the Stooges once they were up and running, any memories spring to mind?

Glad you liked the anecdotes but...Let's just leave the relationships anonymous.

After high school I went on the Northern Michigan University in the fall of 67. I played briefly with some other mostly Detroit suburbanites up there, in a band called the Logos for a semester. Good band. Tom Ruland-guitar, Don Kuhli-bass, Chris King keyboards and Mark Vandekerkoff (sp?) vocals and harp. I finally joined up with a guy from Chicago up there, Jeff Ross who came in to the Logos as a replacement of Tom. Tom was amazing, he could play anything with almost one listen, including Hendrix. Tom was drafted. After that band broke up Jeff and I started as a guitar/drums duet writing a lot of our own material. We never released any recordings ourselves studio but one of our tunes, Mad For Me" made it on to Brownsville Station's "A Night on the Town" album via Cub Koda who visited Marquette and heard us play it. He credited Pookey Shark, not us with penning the tune on the release. I heard second hand that it was a top ten single in Florida. It was very Beatlish. Koda used the guitar riff Jeff played on Mad for Me on the chorus of Smokin in the Boys Room. Their version of Mad for Me was kind of jingly jangly, it didn't have the raw energy intended. I may have some home recordings from those days but their age shows. The band expanded to five members eventually (Gordon Macdonald on bass, Dan Farr guitar and trumpet and Chas Belt piano and harp), but broke up around 1972 or so. We played of mix of originals, Beatles, Stones and a few others that suited our style, including a medley of barbershop harmony tunes a cappella. Good band... a combination of Beatlelike harmony with a Stonsey/Chuck Berry rhythm.

After a lapse, I joined an R&B group in York, PA in the mid 80's called the High Roller Band. We did record two of my tunes, penned in Marquette called "Big Black Car" and "Listen to Me'. We released it as a single in cassette form titling it "A Roll of the Dice". Both songs, both sides to eliminate the gap encountered with the tape format. We just used it to promote the band. There were plans for an all-original album but alas, they went out the window with the band's demise before that could be accomplished. Good band too.

I'm still playing with another local York Pa group known as the Citations since 2003. This'll probably be our last year. No recording releases, just covers and basement tapes. Good band though.

Stan thanks so much for all this information

Thanks for sharing Stan!

Stan

Good to hear you've kept playing, and with a wide variety of bands too. I'll try and check out that Brownsville Station cover, while keeping in mind that it's not as tough as it should be.

Reading back, I was wondering who/what the band was auditioning for in NY? And also wondering if that was with James or Ron? Must've been quite an adventure for young guys, making the trek out to NY.

Re relationships. I quite understand your deciding to stay silent on the subject, but like I said, I just had to ask, haha. (Just to avoid any possible confusion for anyone reading this, the line about "Can the Ron Asheton/Suzi Quatro love story finally be told?" was a joke, not a reference to any kind of known event).

Once again, many thanks for taking the time.

The auditions were for Columbia and ABC Paramount. Our manager, Ron Richardson set up the auditions. I do not remember much about the latter, it may have fallen through at the last minute but the Columbia audition was worth remembering. It was in Don Kirschner's office. I think we played four or five tunes. I was in the back and saw the door open a crack and Carole King looked in while we were playing. She was a staff writer at the time I think. We stayed in the Village for those few days at the Hotel Earl. It was a horrendous drive to/from NY & Ann Arbor. Cramped in next to one another stretched out on top of the equipment in August. It was really hot, no air conditioing in the van. 'Hot time summer in the city..." We were there when the Beatles played Shea. I think Al Clarke actually went to the event but he was the only one who did from our group. James was not with us then. Ron was. Kirschner told us to come back in a year, I guess he saw some potential but we weren't there yet. We spent some evenings at the Cafe Wha and Cafe Basement listening to other groups. It was a great experience, so close... so close....We got back to Ron & Scott's house and only had time for showers then were off the Caseville to play that night. The only time we played that site. Don't remember the name of the venue though.

Still looking for photos with Ron, if I even have any. I do have a definitive B&W photo of the original lineup, Scott, James, Richard, Kipp and I. It was taken just after the group formed in the fall of 65 in uptown Birmingham. It needs downsizing and cleaning up a bit. I'll post it at a later date.

Thanks to all for your interest and good wishes.

Just a quick one, if you were out of Birmingham were you friends/rivals of The Fugitives or The Oxford 5?

Yes to both. At least one of the Oxford 5 was in the same high school as Kipp, Richard, Al and I. Can't exactly say we were friends....band rivalries you know. Plus they were 'greasers' and that didn't mix well with us 'frats'. They used to play "Long Tall Texan' among other more surf styled tunes. I think I may have seen them play once.

I think I saw the Fugitives a few times. Good band. Not sure where they were from but after the Chosen Few broke up, Scott Richardson, our singer, joined up with at least some of the Fugitives to form Scott Richard Case. They recorded at least one LP for Capital. You might want to check with P.J.'s Used Records in Ann Arbor to see if they have any copies of their work if you're interested in vinyl. I remember talking to Scott about that time at, I think it was Mt. Holly; he introduced me to some of Procol Harem. Great concert. SRC and them had some common ground...keyboards. Our paths didn't cross much after that. I was living in Marquette and didn't get down to the Motor City much.

Another name that I thought of was The Lourds, from the Chosen Few days. They played the Hideouts too. Good band.