The road to becoming Flat Broke has been a long one, twisted, with a few detours and more than enough pit stops. All the glitz, glamour and flash that looks so smoothly navigated by the Brokers is not so placidly achieved as it may seem.

Too many years have passed since threadbare beginnings in Pat Smith's dank unheated cellar, where we exhausted the hours honing our chops on the stone that is rock. The blues was always there, but we were young, and knew not but to make a joyful noise. We learned there, and saw it was good. Being a bass player, Pat, having endured his dues in our own series of short-lived and obscure bands, whose names are lost in some dark corner of posterity, was the first one of us to be enlisted in an honest-to-dog successful band. One with an established local "name". When one of their guitar players left a while after, Pat dragged me into the band. So we became cogs of the rhythm section of one of the more active and visible local bands of the late 70's scene, the "Queen City Rockers". This was fronted by Fast Eddie C., who remains the legendary harp king of the Central UP blues scene.

After leaving the Rockers there was a string of bands, all keeping busy enough to pay dues and earn my way through college. Half the names would be more than you would want to hear even if I could recall that many, which is not likely. High on the list are the X-Statics, with a several few forgotten more for sure, some lasting no longer than a new whammy bar on Walt's favorite strat (that's NOT long). Most played a variety of top 40 Rock that kept the kids dancin' and the chops growin'. A list of top veterans of the Marquette music scene would include mates from all these lost bands from the early to mid 1980s.

TBC...the RadioActive years and too much more...

 

Copyright © 2005 by the Flat Broke Blues Band
call (906)226-7658 or (906)226-6112 or e-mail the band for booking and band information
photography by Tom Buchkoe / Andy Gregg / Mike Baker