Pioneering ’60s SF rockers the Flamin’ Groovies play reopened Oakland club

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — One of the most legendary garage-rock bands to emerge from San Francisco during the ’60s, the Flamin’ Groovies released a series of albums that made minimal impact on the charts, but exerted a major influence on many punk and power-pop acts that followed in subsequent decades.

Anchored by the songwriting partnership of wildman lead singer Roy Loney and guitarist Cyril Jordan, the band embraced a mix of  ’50s rock and roll (frequently covering songs by the likes of Little Richard and Eddie Cochran), feral garage-rock originals and an ear for punchy pop melodies that nodded to the British Invasion bands of the era. While they may have been out-of-step with the psychedelic sounds that dominated the era, the Groovies would endure to have just as much impact on rock as contemporaries the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane.

The band first came together in 1965, but it wasn’t until they self-released their Sneakers EP in 1968 that they score a record deal with Epic. The resulting debut Supersnazz had so little commercial impact that the label dropped the group within a year of its release, but the album has become a cult classic. Embodying the same kind of joyful celebration of primitive rock and R&B that would be echoed in both the New York Dolls and the Ramones, the Groovies delivered ferocious originals like “Love Have Mercy” that stood up alongside renditions of already classic tunes “The Girl Can’t Help It” and “Something Else/Pistol Packin’ Mama.”

The band bounced back by signing to Kama Sutra Records and producing the equally spectacular Flamingo and Teenage Head (featuring the monstrous proto-punk title track), but growing tensions between Loney and Jordan would lead to the singer’s departure. Taking complete control of the band, Jordan brought guitarist/singer Chris Wilson on board and relocated the Groovies to England to capitalize on their greater popularity in Europe.

Working with future Rockpile guitarist and solo star Dave Edmunds in the studio, the band eventually put together what many consider its finest post-Loney effort. Shake Some Action came out in 1976 on Sire Records and revealed a sound that ditched some of the ’50s rock flavor for ringing Rickenbacker guitars and mod British Invasion pop. The follow-up album Flamin’ Groovies Now furthered the band’s embrace of a more power-pop sound.

Jordan would continued to lead the Groovies into the ’80s and early ’90s, but eventually disbanded the group and founded his new band, Magic Christian. However, in 2013, he reunited with Wilson and longtime bass player George Alexander after the Groovies were invited to play Australian festival dates. A series of sold-out shows both in San Francisco and abroad would follow.

In 2015, the Groovies drew packed houses performing their seminal Shake Some Action album in its entirety at a number of local shows including one at the Chapel in San Francisco. The band would return to the venue the following year to kick off a tour marking the band’s 50th anniversary. The Groovies also surprised fans when they released a new 7-inch single for Burger Records featuring the song “Crazy Macy” that came out on Record Store Day.

In the summer of 2017, it was announced that the Groovies line-up featuring Jordan and Wilson had completed the band’s first new album in almost four decades. Entitled Fantastic Plastic, the effort featuring new original songs and covers of tunes by the Beau Brummels and NRBQ was released glowing reviews in the fall.

While the band was regularly joined onstage by Loney to play their classic early songs in recent years, in 2019 the Groovies embarked on a tour dedicated to performing the watershed Teenage Head album in its entirety plus an assortment of vintage hits. The band played several Bay Area shows and was headed to Europe for a full tour when Loney was sadly sidelined by a fall at the San Francisco International Airport just as the band was preparing to depart for the string of summer dates. Tragically, Loney passed away from organ failure at the CPMC Davies Campus in San Francisco in December of 2019.

Jordan’s current four-piece line-up of the Groovies with SF musician/songwriter Chris von Sneidern on guitar, veteran bassist Atom Ellis (a member of Psychefunkapus and Dieselhed in addition to touring with the late Link Wray, Todd Rundgren, the New Cars and the Tubes) and drummer Tony T. Sales — whose father played drums for both Iggy Pop and David Bowie — plays a show at the newly reopened Oakland landmark Thee Stork Club, a venue being run by Mosswood/Halloween Meltdown founder Marcos Ribak and Eli’s Mile High Club co-owner Billy Joe Agan and booked by Talent Moat promoter Tony Bedard (who was the talent buyer for the Hemlock in San Francisco for 16 years). 

The Groovies will be supported by high-powered local rock n’ soul heroes Harold Ray and East Side Dynamite, who bring their energetic stage show to Thee Stork’s intimate confines. Fronted by kinetic singer Jason Morgan (who had previously wielded the mic with similarly minded punk/R&B crew Harold Ray Live in Concert and early Bob Seger tribute band Total BS), the group features a number of seasoned scene veterans and Mission District ringers including drummer Tom Galbraith (Mensclub, Field Trip, Portable Madness) and guitarist Brian Mello (The Morning Line, The Bellyachers and current hard rock/metal cover band Thunderbleed aka Blind Vengeance).

The band delivers sweaty, swaggering takes on ’60s soul classics and raw rock chestnuts that have been regularly filling dance floors on both sides of the Bay for a number of years. The group has been a regular go-to support act for a number of local performers including Marc and the Casuals (who Morgan frequently sings with) and Kelley Stoltz. Also performing will be reunited SF glam/power-pop veterans Fantasy. Anchored by the falsetto voice and songwriting talents of Kirk Markopoulos, the costumed, eminently danceable band from the ’90s was a mainstay of the Mission District (as was the members’ later group, Little Fuzzy). The band made a welcome return to Bay Area clubs last year and has been playing regularly ever since.

The Flamin’ Groovies with Harold Ray and East Side Dynamite and Fantasy
Saturday, Oct. 15, 8 p.m. $25
Thee Stork Club