The Evolution of Bands
Even Butler County's corner of the world was affected by the Beatles leading the “British Invasion” in 1964. It was a time when teenagers struck up four-man bands just from listening to recorded tunes.
By 1968, they were hitting their stride performing for local audiences. The music kept changing and so did the musicians. Many from these '60s cover bands have continued to revise with the times and technology, still rocking out today.
Back to the beginning
The Sequins band started out rehearsing in the basement of front man Drew Moniot's family home in the Highfield neighborhood.
Moniot recalled taking guitar lessons from Bug Goldinger at Trader's Music Store with his friend and neighbor, Marvin Ordy.
“Our teacher thought it would be great if we practiced together when we were starting out. We worked up some duo guitar songs from back then, and Marvin's older brother Burt (who had a popular band called the Velvetones) let us play during their breaks when they played locally,” Moniot said. “Eventually, we added Dan Metrick on drums and then Dave Lytle on bass.”
Thus in 1964, The Sequins were born featuring these four young men who played pop 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 drummer Metrick of Franklin Township.
Band leader Moniot played guitar and organ and sang vocals. Ordy played lead and rhythm guitar, and Lytle played bass guitar, and both sang as well. Later on, Derek Reep filled in when Lytle went to college, Metrick noted.
The songs The Sequins 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 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.”
Ray Voller of the modern day Jentz recalled the band's early days when the group was known as The Gents, rehearsing in the living room at the home of the group's drummer, Bob Steele.
Listening to recordings was how The Gents learned tunes, too.
“The way we did it then, we put on a record and listened to it over and over,” Voller said. “Bob's dad Elmer usually picked up the phonograph needle over and over again for us to nail down the songs.”
“I've been with the band (off and on, mostly on) since 1970. There are no original members at this time, but I am the oldest 'tenured Gent,'” Voller said. “One of the guys in the band, the keyboard player Bill Buttenfield, and I were best friends in high school. I've been playing guitar since I was 10, but the original drummer Bob was sick or something and they asked me to fill in (I'm not that good playing drums).”
He said the band, which started in 1965, stayed together largely in the beginning because of Bob's dad, Elmer Steele, who served as manager for 25 years. Elmer Steele had booked bands for the USO, Voller said.
“He was the 'godfather of the band' we call him,” Voller noted.
“Kids loved hearing all the current popular hits,” Moniot said.
“Songs back then were relatively easy to learn and play. Maybe the toughest part was trying to decipher the lyrics,'' he said. “No Internet. You had to listen to the records and try to figure out what they were singing, funny at times, so many misunderstood lyrics over the years.”
<b>Prime motivation</b>Tom Menchyk of Butler started out in Skid Mark and the Victims (which included David Lapearle, Larry List and George Whitesell) playing bass for songs from groups like the Beatles and Yardbirds. He played with The Gents/Jentz for decades, and now performs with the four-man Rumblers.He joined The Gents about 1968, a few years after it was formed.“I joined it couple months later because they needed another guitar player,” Menchyk said. He stayed for 39 years.The Gents began at a time when many bands were springing up. Menchyk attributes the profusion of start-ups in that era to one event. “A lot of us saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964,” he recalled.Menchyk said he was playing trumpet at the time. “I immediately thought that I had never seen young girls screaming for trumpet players, so I switched to the guitar,” he said.“The music style of today is kind of hard to replicate,” Menchyk said. “When rock and roll first started, it was tight but it was pretty simple. Then it got kind of weird, with violins and trumpets, in the late '50s.”Then the Beatles came and style got simpler again.“I think that was the motivation … kids trying to replicate the sound,” he said. “At the time, a lot of kids, because of the economics of this country, their parents could afford to get their kids instruments. There were places to play and people to play music with.”“Then came synthesizers and computers and stuff and it got harder since the early '90s. Now you need computers and synthesizers; you need a whole lot of stuff. It's not easy for a novice musician to replicate,” Menchyk noted. “I think that was the motivation then … kids trying to replicate the sound.”<b>So much music</b>So much music in Butler County means there is no way to be comprehensive. Yet The Gents/Jentz band can claim many area musicians during its more than 50-year history.At some point, The Gents moniker became a little dated, Menchyk said. “I thought we should have a name that sounded a little bit cooler.”So in the late '70s, The Gents became The Jentz.“It's a much different group than it was even when I left. It's a rock band now,” Menchyk said.The Jentz band still plays at area venues like The Beacon in Renfrew.The original Gents had four members. The seven current members of The Jentz are: Conrad Andrews, bass; Jack Giancola, drums; Jeff Carson, drums, sound and lights; Brian Sholes, guitar; Ray Voller, guitar, keyboard and harp; Ken Robeson, keyboard, saxophone and guitar; and Shawn Bossinger, vocals, bass, sound and lights.According to Voller, other area musicians who have played in The Gents/Jentz at one time or another include: Mike Green, Larry Pickle Dickey, Dave Newman, Ron Geibel, John Hough, Chris Schaffner, Denny Stivanson, Chuck Carner, Dave LaPearle, Bob Steele, Lou Lautaria, Estle Harp, Bobby LaFever, Joe Alese, Steve Robeson, Bob Tritch, Gary Wittington, Tim Jones, Rick Huckenstein, Gary Cycheck, Tom Menchyk, Drew Moniot, Pat Cherry, Bill Clark, Greg Norton, Bill Buttenfield, Ron Chico Chehelski, Tom Tishey, Bob Dandoy, Jerry Johnston, Mike Smeretski, Greg Grenick, Jim Schaffner, Pat Kriley, Doug Kriley and Paul Schaffner.“Some of the names on that list I've never met!” said Voller, though he is the longest current member of the group. “There's something about it that draws you back in; we change the show some. The only bad part now is loading in, and packing back up again.”
<b>Tech changes</b>Learning the music and lyrics of songs today is much easier now than it was playing a record repeatedly.“I'm listening to songs on the computer because I can listen to it a thousand times,” Voller said. “I'm kind of the unofficial music director of the band. My ear is really tuned. Whenever I have to learn a song, I listen to it over and over and over; I'll put harmony here, not harmony there.“The other guitar player in the band, Brian Sholes, we talk about the songs we're going to do, and say which part do you want?”Modern technology has touched music production like it has many parts of life.“Digital boards are so much better,” Voller said. “Our guy uses an iPad out front. You pay for the (small) size though. It's smaller but it's a little more complicated to get to a certain sound for a certain instrument, still better though.”A very beneficial development is the in-ear monitor that doubles as a microphone, Voller said. “It's a little bit more of a protection for your ear because you can turn it down a little.”Moniot said The Sequins started out with rather basic band equipment, although he and Ordy got Gibson SG guitars for Christmas. He said those cost $230 each in the early 1960s. “I still have mine and still play it occasionally,” he said. “Great rock guitars. We were lucky.”They used smaller tube amps “until we could afford the trendy British Vox amps (that the Beatles and British Invasion bands played) in the mid-'60s …”The Sequins also were lucky to get an endorsement deal with the Magnatone “Monster”manufacturer in Harmony to use one of that company's prototype 300-watt solid state amps and public address system.“At that point, we had matching Gibson SG guitars and matched amps and P.A. Dave went out and bought the matching SG-style Gibson electric bass,” Moniot said.“It is ironic how today, that old stuff is highly sought after and used by groups like The White Stripes, Beck and many others,” Menchyk said. “Our P.A. systems back then were makeshift affairs with very low power. Today, P.A. equipment is much louder, cleaner and of significantly better quality than we had back then.”He said, “The sounds we played back then are still some of the music we play in our band today. It is much easier to get a good sound consistently today because our equipment is much better now.”<b>As time goes by</b>Venues for The Sequins' in the '60s and '70s included dances for teens, “a little basement venue in Butler called the Cocoa Cavern (named after the famous club where the Beatles got their start in Liverpool called 'The Cavern'), and “Neighborhood Nights” in city parks and playgrounds, Moniot said.He said the band “even played on a gas pump island for the opening of a gas station once, just to get some exposure.”The Sequins landed well-paying fraternity and sorority parties, he said, often twice a weekend, plus some television appearances in Pittsburgh.Moniot said teenagers and college students loved live music when he first began playing in bands. He noted that many parties and weddings now choose DJs as entertainment. “Fortunately (there are) still some clubs that hire live music,” he said.“For about 15 years, I had some of the best gigs of my life at Natili's in Butler playing with Randy Roth on drums ... and John Hough on bass ...” Moniot said.Hough, a singer and musician, passed away a couple of years ago, Moniot said.“Hands down, the best musicians I think I've ever played with. Fun to do the power trio thing, had a blast.“I feel blessed to have had music as such a big part of my life growing up. I was an only child. My band mates became my surrogate brothers and extended family …” he said.Menchyk occasionally filled in with the West Siders and The Sequins, and Moniot was once a member of The Jentz.“Over the years, you played with so many different people, and you have friends in other bands,” Menchyk noted. “The music community has become kind of a big family.”Leslie Osche, a Butler County commissioner, plays keyboard and sings, which she did three or four nights a week when she was in college, helping put her through Duquesne University.“I have memories of playing at the Crossbow with my books propped on my keyboards,” Osche reminisced. “I was studying for finals while playing keyboards…”“There was a time when nightclubs and other venues paid well for live music and the venues were packed,” she recalled. “Now it seems that many bands pay to play or only get a cut of the door admission. Bands had extensive equipment and setup, with big speakers, lights, etc. Technology has changed all that and we now have smaller venues with more individual artists or smaller groups.”<b>The beat goes on</b>These days the teen rockers who got started in the '60s are mostly in their 60s. Many have kept their hands in music even as they pursued other careers.Dan Metrick, formerly of The Sequins, said he is playing mostly “one-nighters, filling in for absent drummers.“I have played with The Jentz a few times, The Randy Roth Band, and Wild and Blue,” he said.For some local musicians, faith devotion has become part of their music lives. Metrick, who works part-time for Butler Ambulance Service, is in his second year with the ACTS Choir and orchestra, playing drums and percussion, he said.Osche said: “I enjoy playing and singing now at my church, Trinity Lutheran Church, and I enjoy seeing my sons (Joshua and Nathan) play guitar and drums. They are talented musicians.”The Sequins' original bass guitarist and vocalist, Dave Lytle, was in the band for about four years before he left to go to art school in Philadelphia, he said. “I loved playing in the band but the rest of the members didn't think we could raise our prices high enough to allow me to fly home from Philadelphia every weekend to play jobs, so I had to quit,” Lytle noted.After art school, he started his own pottery business. He married and moved to California where he worked in art and advertising for different companies, and he also worked in construction.Moving back to the Butler area after divorcing, he continued his entrepreneurial bent, designing magnetic photo frames, a magnetic paint additive, and recently a line of emergency classroom door locks.“I'm 68 years old now and I don't play much rock and roll any more. Occasionally the members of our old band The Sequins will get together for a little fun, but there isn't much time in anyone's schedules these days for playing.”Lytle said he also plays his grandfather's banjo for fun and relaxation.Derek Reep of Fairview, who joined The Sequins as bassist when Lytle went to college, said he keeps very involved in music these days. He performs with three bands and works at the Meat Locker music studio.Moniot, who works as a creative development manager in television, stays in the music scene performing solo acoustic and vocals. He also has an acoustic duo with Menchyk, and a classic rock/blues quartet called The Rumblers with Menchyk, Dave Emmanuel and Ken Robeson, he said, “still having a blast.”Might The Sequins get back together for a gig? “I think we still have some music left in us,” Moniot said. “I recently found and transferred an early demo tape that we recorded when we were starting out, looking forward to sharing it with the original Sequins members.”With his duo with Moniot and the other members of The Rumblers, retired teacher Menchyk said, “We have a great time and very much enjoy playing music that spans almost 50 years. We play music from the 50s to today and consider ourselves fortunate to have the opportunity.“Most of us never approached playing in a band as a job. It was always something we loved to do and we still love it today.”With all the equipment and time required, “there's no money in this,” said Voller, a dentist. “I made more money for making music in the '70s. Maybe we're not making a lot of money, but we're still making music.”“I've played with the band for so long that every Saturday night if I'm not playing with the band, I still can't go to sleep until late. I'm biologically set up to play in the band every Saturday,” he added.“Music was and is my sole hobby,” said Osche. “I have been blessed to work with so many talented musicians in the county through the years and I still enjoy live music. You become like family and you get to meet great people.”She was in the audience when area musicians, Freedom Child, performed recently at Tanglewood Center, she said. “I treasure all the memories and salute the young musicians now on the scene.”
