Amped up
“Well, it took us 50 years, but we've made it famous, for a month,” quipped Dan Metrick of the former band, The Sequins.
The Butler County group of teenagers and their use of Magnatone “Monster” amplifiers are the focus of an article this month in Vintage Guitar magazine, but the story of how they got there started with the formation of the band in the 1964.
The group of four young men played popular music around the area in the 1960s and early 1970s.
“We got our feet wet together for about eight years; that was our prime time,” said Metrick of Franklin Township.
Band leader Drew Moniot played guitar and organ and sang vocals. Marvin Ordy played lead and rhythm guitar, and Dave Lytle played bass guitar, and both sang as well. Metrick played drums.
Later on, “Derek Reep filled in for Dave when he went to college, and then he became the group's bass player,” Metrick said.
The songs they performed were some of the most popular of the day.
“Drew Moniot, by accident or intentionally, was a marketing genius,” Metrick said. “At the time, record stores had a list of the top 50 songs on like a kind of book marker. Out of the top 10 every week, we learned two songs. Because of that, we had a real broad base.”
Metrick recalls playing songs from the Beatles, the Racquet Squad, even Aretha Franklin.
“We kept going up the line, Hendrix, Zeppelin,” he said. “Every band that came out the door, we did them: Santana; the Box Tops; Jefferson Airplane; Crosby, Stills and Nash; Neil Young. It was the most popular songs.”
The band practiced usually once a week and did about two jobs a weekend, Metrick said. “We made enough money I could pay my college tuition, along with money from my grocery job.”
“It kept us off the street,” he joked.
The friends played at weddings, bars, colleges.
“We had to be chaperoned. Our parents drove us everywhere. They sat out in the car in the cold waiting for us,” he recalled.
The Sequins' association with the amplifier company came in 1966.
“Our bass player Dave Lytle saw a story in the Butler Eagle about the Estey music company that was going to manufacture amplifiers in Harmony,” Metrick said. “We contacted them and the CEO hired us for a Christmas party there. They heard us and liked us.”That led to an endorsement deal in 1967 for the teens.“They wanted some local bands, all over the United States really. Basically we were the test pilots for these amplifiers. Engineers came with us sometimes. We'd blow up some speakers,” he said. “They were the first solid state (transistor) amplifiers … vacuum tube is the old school. We felt like 'This is so cool!'”One place their parents were there to support them and snap some photographs was at the Fourth of July parade in Zelienople in 1967,when the teens performed on a Magnatone-sponsored flatbed.They played using what was probably one of the first amps called “The Monster,” Metrick said.“The amp was so loud that the marching band behind us got out of step because we were playing so loud!”Though none of the Monster amps ever made it to commercial sale, The Sequins are enjoying their brush with celebrity.In fact, since the magazine article came out, they've discussed getting back together to play some shows again, so maybe The Sequins will be coming to a nearby venue soon.Metrick, 66, said the other band members are still in the Butler area and stay in touch with one another and are involved in music in some form.“Drew's mother lives in Butler and her basement is where we practiced. She likes us to play there,” Metrick said.
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