Swim In Salt MusicSwim In Salt, the band Flash Gordon & The Pundits Flash Gordon's Adventures In Music Group Therapy • A Sordid People Home Page • Streaming • Flash's Bio |
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Flash Gordon (C. Williamson) wrote and performed his first original song in the
sixth grade when the elementary school he attended planted a tree near the front
entry of the school. Flash composed the lyrics and Jeff Schippel the chord
structure on acoustic guitar and the two of them, with Charlie Zisette on
tambourine played the song ‘Come & See The Future’ with Flash singing lead, as
the Red Maple tree was planted into the Michigan soil. Three years later Flash
was in a wee bit of trouble and his father drove him out Telegraph Road and said
that all he had to do was sign a couple documents and Flash would have a new
home and it would no longer be in suburban Detroit with his parents and
siblings. Flash decided he needed a constructive hobby and a job. In short order
he started playing the flute (1973) and working at a company called Nalpac LTD
(1974) which was conveniently located within hitchhiking distance from high
school. This kept him out of juvenile detention at the least. During those high
school years, Flash spent more time in the hallways and stairways of the tiled
school instead of being in class where he was supposed to be, until it was time
to go to his job. Flash loved the reverb he got from the tiled floors and walls
and often would be seen walking down the hall, playing the flute while others
were in class. The Pied Piper of Southfield Lathrup High was trying to be
noticed and share the music inside him with the world. Or at least his
schoolmates. Upon graduating in June of 1977, Flash headed south to Atlanta to follow the job he had in high school. Eighteen months later he found his real home in Indian Rocks Beach Florida. Flash immediately met several musicians and would jam with many that were playing mostly acoustic based Folk Rock. In 1982 Flash joined an all original group called the Charlie Harwood Band that rehearsed at the original Blueberry Patch down 54th Avenue South & 31st Street in Southeast St. Pete. It was Charlie Harwood that instilled in Flash “Life is too short to sing someone else’s song”. The Charlie Harwood Band played one gig opening for The Silver King Rhythm Band at the original Silas Dent’s on St. Pete Beach. This was the first time Flash was paid to play music and he really liked the feeling. In 1983 Flash hosted a party at the house he rented on IRB and Dialog played to the crowd and this was something Flash also enjoyed. Of course, being the host of the party, he got to sit in with the band on a couple of numbers. In 1984 Flash had his next party at his woodshop, The Workbench featuring a band called Empty Sky, with an opening act that included a drummer named Ted Henderson. Shortly after that party in October of 1984, Ted Henderson approached Flash about opening a live music venue for real and it actually happened thirteen years later. More on that in the timeline. It did turn out that The Workbench was a great space for having semi-annual clean up the wood shop parties that always featured mostly original groups from the Tampa Bay area music scene. In 1987 Flash (flute, sax, and keys) formed ‘Louder Than Lions’ with Chris Cooke (formerly a member of ‘Multi-Colored House’ & ‘A New Personality’ among others). For ‘Louder Than Lions’, Chris switched from bass to guitar and Jeff Cooke (Chris’s brother) joined to play bass. Initially with a keyboardist named Chuck (for just a couple gigs) and a parade of drummers including Fred Stolz, Brian Something and John Canning, they became part of the late ‘80s original music scene in the Bay Area with 'Parade In Paris', 'ICU', 'The Headlights', 'Deloris Telescope', 'The Fanatics', 'Dialog', 'Tommy Tie Dye', 'Mad For Electra', 'A New Personality' and others and ‘Louder Than Lions’ big gig was opening for 'The Mighty Lemondrops' at Masquerade. Playing original songs written by Chris, ‘Louder Than Lions’ was a unique voice in the original music scene in the Tampa Bay area. When Jeff & John mutinied the band, ‘Louder Than Lions’ was history. Like Flash, Chris continues to make music to this day. His group ‘Naked Texture’ can be heard on all streaming services. A while after the breakup of ‘Louder Than Lions’ Flash formed his first group that he would sing his own songs in and that was ‘A Sordid People’. ‘A Sordid People’ was Flash singing and playing flute, sax and keys. Reverend James Musso on guitar, Dave Barber (a wonderful singer songwriter) on bass and vocals. The parade of drummers included Steve Ford and a guy called Channing. After playing a ton of small gigs at The Swamp Club and other cool venues and one gig opening for NRBQ at The Cuban Club, the band split ways at the end of 1990 and Flash began writing songs with a friend Mike Clarke on Friday afternoons. Eventually Vinnie Cimino was playing with them and ‘Group Therapy’ was formed. Flash’s then girlfriend (now wife) Jo played keys and sang backups and the rhythm section was Ted Henderson on drums and Chuck Johnson on bass. The band also included a trombone player named James Watley. ‘Group Therapy’s’ high point was just across the courtyard from the stage at The Cuban Club where they played a really cool show at El Pasaje’ with The Utensils. Chuck Johnson had left and St. John DeBellis was in the band at that time. In 1992 ‘Group Therapy’ fizzled away and it was time for something new. Flash Gordon was residing on Clearwater Beach and he heard drums coming from somewhere in the neighborhood. He located the house where the drums were being played and introduced himself to Steve Eiseman. They talked and made plans to start a band. Steve knew a guitar playing, singer named Walter Estrada and the three of them started searching for other members. Initially The Pundits consisted of Nick Deserkos on bass guitar and Dan LaJoy on lead guitar with Flash, Wally & Steve. In 1993 Nick left the band and early in 1994 Steve & Dan left and the rhythm section of Jerry Gabardi & Greg Turman became The Pundits. For a short period The Pundits including keyboardist Bill Heald and they played shows all over the Bay Area playing mostly original songs. The Pundits played their last two shows in 1999 at Club More & then Skipper’s Smokehouse. That last show, October 1999, was a WMNF Benefit, opening for The Iguanas, and it generated an ovation for their performance. It was a great way, at that time, to bow out. Besides writing, recording and performing, Flash Gordon has a long history of promoting original music here in Tampa Bay. As previously mentioned, in 1984 Flash decided his woodworking shop was a great spot to have a party featuring the band ‘Empty Sky’. Over the next twelve years all sorts of great original bands played Flash’s Warehouse Parties including, A New Personality, Dialogue, The Fanatics, Imani, Mighty Pat & The Culture Roots, Grassy Knoll Gunman, Tommy Tie Dye, Monday Mornings, Magadog and many, many others. This history of promoting original bands was the catalyst for Flash and Ted eventually opening Club More in September of 1997. Club More brought a vast array of original music to the old warehouse on Franklin Street in Clearwater including Dave Mason, Robbie Krieger, Savoy Brown, Buddy Miles, Levon Helm, Donna The Buffalo, Jimmy LaFave, Derek Trucks, Deborah Coleman, The Iguanas and many others. Club More closed in September 2001 because the cult of scientology got the city to remove the parking privileges for Club More, upsetting business and essentially putting them out of business. Flash briefly joined the New Port Richey band Natural Blend for recording and playing a couple gigs. Flash’s sister was murdered in 1998 and then his father passed away in August of 2000. When he was in Detroit for his father’s last breath, a new batch of song ideas were written while Flash was listening to a lot of Nick Drake, Pentangle and Fairport Convention. Returning to the Bay Area in the fall of 2000, Flash put together an acoustic band featuring new songwriting partner Glenn Smith. Glenn Stevenson was recruited to contribute the jazz bass stylings (like Danny Thompson from Pentangle) and Doug Williams was brought in as a percussionist first and a couple years later as a drummer. The first Flash Gordon’s Adventures album featured a violin and viola player named Hill Abrahams. Flash made a documentary film about the organizing, promoting and executing a benefit concert at Jannus Landing that ended in disappointment due to inclement weather the day of the show. The second album featured Tori Lewis on bass and Dave Hewitt on piano. Glenn and Flash wrote sixty songs in their five years together and played gigs all over the bay including Dunedin Brewery. In 2005 Glenn Smith moved to Ocala and broke up that band. In 2005 Flash recruited The Shakes Society to back him with his original songs and work was started on rehearsing those songs to record and play out. The Shakes stay very busy so that musical collaboration was thwarted soon after. In 2009 (and then again 2010) Flash sat in with The Fanatics for two reunion shows and the second of which included a re-working of an old ‘A Sordid People’ song ‘One Good Reason’. Over the years Flash sat in many times with The Shakes Society & Natural Blend. In 2009 The Pundits got together again for three live shows as a 10 year anniversary. Flash & Jo had a couple projects that never went anywhere called ‘Smokin’ Connie’ & ‘Raise The Baby’& ‘Chill Pop’. Each band had a couple performances and some rehearsal recordings but no official studio recordings were ever made so that’s history. Flash & Jo started Swim In Salt with Tom Storms and performed some of the songs that ended up on the 2017 album What’s Not To Like (About That) at one show in 2015. For a short while they had a group going with Kevin Karch on keys and Janet Whedon on drums. Tom went on to do his own thing (and later pass away as did Kevin a few years back) and Flash & Jo met Christian Walker and auditioned guitarists and drummers, not really getting much traction putting a band together. Early in 2017 Flash contacted Ed Woltil (guitar & backup vocals) about joining Swim In Salt. He felt he could fit this in amongst his three other musical projects he was involved in and he brought along Dan DeGregory to play drums. In April 2017, this group started rehearsing and took the songs to Zen Recording in Pinellas to work with Steve Connelly to record the debut album. Steve contributed guitars to a few songs and What’s Not To Like (About That) was released August 1, 2017. In 2019 The Pundits began work on their latest release ‘People Come & Go’ featuring the poignant single ‘Too Many People Dying (That I Know)’. That was also recorded at Zen and due to a fire in the woodshop and then Covid, release early 2021. The video for ‘Too Many People Dying (That I Know)’ was filmed by Martin Connor and will be released someday soon. Hopefully before Flash dies! In September 2022, Flash put an ad on the Indeed website and it read “Carpenter, Woodworker, Musician wanted”. Flash got a call from a guy that said he had just moved from Homestead to Holiday a day or so ago and he needed a job. He said he was not only a piano player but played guitar, violin, viola, cello, etc. He also said he was willing to unload trucks and build door jambs and hang doors. Flash & Jo interviewed Leo on a Friday and he was full time the following week. The very first day he was at work, Flash & Leo wrote a song together. After two good rehearsals with Gonzalo Ovelar on drums and Wayne Robinson on bass, Leo had to move to his mom’s in Lake Wales. He made the trip for a week for work and then came in the following Monday which was November 28. He was very emotional and basically said he couldn’t make the trip any longer. That is the last Flash ever heard from him. Flash hired Matt Burke (who played for a while with Rocket 88) to learn the song he wrote with Leo and record it at Zen Recording. ‘That Isn’t Me’was recorded by Swim In Salt (Wayne Robinson – Bass, Gonzalo Ovelar – Drums, Matt Burke – Piano, Steve Connelly – Guitar, Jo Karen – Backing Vocals) and released in 2023. In the year 2024, Flash Gordon & The Pundits began rehearsing the songs from their 1994 album ‘Hurricanes & Other Stormy Relationships’. They went back to Zen working with Michael Rende to record all the basic tracks in April. Over the last couple months some overdubs have been made and then Flash contacted a piano player who had come up from St. Pete Beach to jam one Saturday afternoon with Gonzalo and Wayne and a violinist named Dan. Michael Zelenak and Flash got together to write a couple songs another Saturday afternoon and then Michael contributed piano to a few songs on the ‘Acoustic Hurricanes’ album of The Pundits. The Pundits made a vow to add a couple new songs to the album and rehearsing for those should begin the first of July. Wally & Flash got together to work on the arrangements for one of these new songs and then The Pundits reconvened to rehearse and then record ‘Keep On - Writing & Rocking’ back at Zen Recording. That album is just about mixed down and will be released in 2025. In June of 2024, Flash just sent keyboardist Michael Zelenak twenty six song ideas for the next Swim In Salt album and there is hope for a rehearsal with Gonzalo and Wayne June 29. Michael was a bit blown away by the number and variety of these songs but as a flute and sax player Flash has always relied on other musicians with various backgrounds and influences to create original music so of course there is a variety of influences. Soon after Wayne decided he didn’t have time for this project, Flash contacted Mark Neuenschwander to play bass and Vincent Sims to play guitar. A number of exciting rehearsals showed great promise for the new formation of Swim In Salt (with Manny Lopez on congas) and on November 8th 2024, the debut performance of Swim In Salt took place at SHAMc in Safety Harbor. The entire concert is here for your listening and viewing pleasure. On January 11, Swim In Salt went into the studio and recorded thirteen songs that will become the 2025 release called ‘Pleased To Move You’. John Feazell joined SIS on Congas & Trombone for the second gig on February 21, filling in for Manny Lopez. Both will be featured on the upcoming album and future gigs. Speaking of which, please contact Flash if you are looking for an original act to play your unique event. It's been a lifetime since Flash Gordon wrote and performed ‘Come & See The Future’ but the songs keep coming and probably will until the end. |
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Flash's old link list.
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