The Topless Band, Duke 13 and the “Diablos'
Huntington Long Island 1967, I own a kick ass Rock N Roll bar named Mothers, this in the days of live music,none of that disco BS.
My house group in that period is “The Moon Platoon” five guys who looked just like they called themselves.
I also had Long Islands first topless Go-Go dancers, long before lap dancing became a tart form. Hard to believe nowadays but this was considered rather daring back then. This was an era when comedian Lenny Bruce was arrested for cursing on stage in a nightclub!!
I get the idea to put a quarter page ad in Newsday Long Islands premier read, advertising the first time ever performance of Long Islands first Topless Band!! I did not mention it was to be topless men not women. My Bad.
Soooo comes game time and I am at the front door and the place is packed with the regular customers, when a deuce and a half truck pulls up into the parking lot, strange for people to come to a Rock N Roll bar in a truck thought I? That question is answered when the back gate is opened and a well named gang plank falls down with a gang of a dozen motorcycle dudes on their mounts come rolling down said plank. Their leader is a middle aged dude named Duke 13.
So they pay the entrance fee and await along with then regular crowd await the Topless Band.
At this point I start to worry, as I have not yet informed the Moon Platoon of my idea for them to do one set only without their shirts on.
Soo into the dressing room I go and address the Moon Platoon, they tell me to fuck off, they are professional union musicians and think my idea is BS, not in a nice way I might add, screaming and yelling at me.
But then I add this: I will double your pay for the night! Within a split second and in chorus they say, OK no problem!
They come on stage and open up with “Mustang Sally” hairy chests and all, however the crowd is apparently not into my sense of humor, the boos and catcalls start immediately and then Duke 13 charges the stage and bites the lead singer Rick on his left hairy nipple, chaos reigns as the Moon Platoon disappear in hiding to the dressing room
I approach Duke 13 and offer to buy his gang drinks for the night, this calms the gang down fortunately, the rest of the crowd is OK with things, and to top it off pardon the pun I have in reserve in case of exactly this scenario my regular topless dancers who are now doing their thing in the special cages I had built after seeing the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles a month before, having their Go Go girls in platformed cages. This in an era before lap dancing became a tart form so to speak.
The Moon Platoon is finally convinced that no more harm will come their way and return to the stage. All in all, a great night, albeit-different.
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