{"id":75,"date":"2016-12-28T03:10:49","date_gmt":"2016-12-28T03:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chrisbickley.com\/?page_id=75"},"modified":"2024-02-06T02:31:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T02:31:02","slug":"thunderhead","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/chrisbickley.com\/?page_id=75","title":{"rendered":"Thunderhead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Band and the Story<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"Based in New Orleans, Thunderhead was formed in 1973 by members of local cover bands Paper Steamboard (singer Mike Daggar, guitarist Ronnie Dobbs, and bassist Otho T. Ware) and David and the Giants drummer Bobby Torello.\u00a0 Local guitarist Pat Rush was subsequently added to the lineup and after a couple of weeks of rehearsals the group began touring clubs throughout the Southeast.\u00a0 Signed by a Georgia-based management company, the band found a mentor in the form of Johnny Winter who tapped the band to open for him on a Southern tour which in turn led to opening slots for the likes of Kiss and ZZ Top.\u00a0 Winter also indicated he\u2019d be interested in helping the band record an album.\u00a0 With his support, the band went into Bogalusa, Louisiana\u2019s Studio In the Country, recording a number of demos with Winter producing (brother Edgar Winter played un-credited keyboards and provided backing vocals on several tracks).\u00a0\u00a0 Hearing the demos ABC Records offered the band a contract, but rather than releasing the demos, the company demanded the band go back into the studio and record new material with John Haeny in the production seat.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cIn the early seventies O.T. ,Ronnie and myself ( Mike Dagger) were the core members of a popular New Orleans cover band \u201cPaper Steamboat\u201d. At that time David and the Giants a Laurel, Mississippi cover band played many of the same venues and Bobby T began jamming with Dagger, Dobbs and Ware along with Steve Bacharach on keyboards and Johnny Spade. The desire to form a powerful original band is what\u2026 drove 3 of the Steamboat members to ask Bobby T to be part of the new project. We all agreed and set out to find a second guitarist and after trying 3 local New Orleans musicians Pat Rush was asked to join the band and so Thunderhead was formed in late 1974. We rehearsed for 2 weeks, took a week vacation and then opened up at \u201cThe Flying Dutchman \u201cin Charleston, S.C.
\nWe were signed by Paragon Agency out of Macon Georgia (The Allman Brothers agent) and began touring small venues. Johnny Winter who from time to time jammed with the Steamboat and then the new Thunderhead Band, asked us to join his tour and we opened for Johnny at Several venues around the South.
\nWe then embarked on a tour that took us to Louisville, Kentucky, Knoxville, Tenn., Ashville, North Carolina, Atlanta Ga., and Lansing Michigan where we opened for ZZ Top. After the concert with ZZ Thunderhead received a call from Johnny Winter who suggested we record our first album and he would produce it. We immediately went back to Bogalusa where \u201cThe Studio In the Country was just finishing up an album with \u201cKansas\u201d, and we began recording several tunes with Johnny producing and playing on several cuts and Edgar singing back up vocals and playing piano.
\nThe album was shopped around and well received, but ABC was the only major label that made an offer. It was a very disappointing offer for the band, because they wanted us to record the entire album with a different producer. Back in those days there were no options, as there are today, to release the album independently, so we took the deal despite our disagreement about Johnny\u2019s role .\u201d \u2014- Mike \u00a0D<\/p>\n

ABC\u00a0management seemingly lost interest in the band, basically releasing the\u00a0album without any marketing support.\u00a0The company also refused to\u00a0provide touring support. Adding to their problems, the president\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of ABC Records committed suicide, leaving the company in turmoil and\u00a0\u00a0Thunderhead without a contract.\u00a0 Within a matter of months the band had\u00a0called it quits with Rush and Torello subsequently joining Winter\u2019s touring\u00a0band.<\/p>\n

In 2009 Bobby T\u00a0and Mike Dagger reformed Thunderhead. With new members enlisted the band began a steady and careful rehearsal schedule to\u00a0 make sure the sound was replicated to what the band had originally stood\u00a0for.\u00a0 Guitarist Jeremy Barrett\u00a0, Chris Bickley\u00a0 and Bassist Dominic Demonico rounded out sound and Thunderhead was back. The band also\u00a0decided it was time to record a new record\u00a0, and started work in 2010 at Horizon Studios in West Haven Ct.\u00a0With Vic Steffens producing and engineering, they quickly decided to capture the energy\u00a0 of a half live- half studio album tentatively titled\u00a0 \u201cAlive Again\u201d. Release\u00a0date is\u00a0summer of 2014.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1973-76<\/p>\n

Mike Daggar (aka Mike Dagger, aka Mike Ventimiglia) \u2014 vocals, flute<\/p>\n

Ronnie Dobbs \u2014 vocals, lead guitar, backing vocals<\/p>\n

Pat Rush \u2014 lead guitar<\/p>\n

Bobby Torello \u2014 drums, percussion<\/p>\n

Otho T. Ware \u2014 bass, backing vocals<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2009-<\/p>\n

Jeremy Barrett \u2014 lead guitar (replaced Pat Rush)<\/p>\n

Chris Bickley \u2014 lead guitar<\/p>\n

Mike Daggar (aka Mike Dagger. aka Mike Ventimiglia) \u2014 vocals, flute<\/p>\n

Dominic Demonico- -bass (replaced Otho T. Ware)<\/p>\n

Bobby \u201cT\u201d \u00a0Torello \u2014 drums, percussion<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Band and the Story Based in New Orleans, Thunderhead was formed in 1973 by members of local cover bands Paper Steamboard (singer Mike Daggar, guitarist Ronnie Dobbs, and bassist Otho T. Ware) and David and the Giants drummer Bobby Torello.\u00a0 Local guitarist Pat Rush Read More …<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":45,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chrisbickley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chrisbickley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chrisbickley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chrisbickley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chrisbickley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/chrisbickley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436,"href":"http:\/\/chrisbickley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75\/revisions\/436"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chrisbickley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chrisbickley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}