Palomino Club History

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 19 Jun 2014 7:14 am

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2014/ ... the_va.php

http://www.lamag.com/features/2014/06/1 ... al-history

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 19 Jun 2014 9:08 am

Great find, thanks for posting this; really enjoyed it. The Jerry Lee story is priceless.

For what it's worth, for anybody wanting to read the whole thing, the second link is the complete article. The first one is just a short article about the main article.

LJ Eiffert · Post by **LJ Eiffert** » 19 Jun 2014 9:26 am

Hello Ben Elder! It just make's me sad & mad that all those wonderful folks who became Big Country Music house hold names that used Tommy & Billy Thomas,Bonnie Price,George Underwood let alone Al Bruno,Jay Dee Maness,Tony & Larry Booth,Archie Francis and so many more like myself who couldn't even Preserve the History of our neighborhood of all those Clubs & Owners who made them just like we did for the Crazy Horse that once was in Santa Ana,California & made Fred Riser a name in Country Music. Us old 24/7 Musicians have done good for our Self that are still alive and well. God Bless you and your family Ben and keep this History stories going. The God Father Of Southern California Country Music,Uncle Leo J Eiffert Jr & the Pigeons - facebook.

Rick Stratton · Post by **Rick Stratton** » 19 Jun 2014 9:54 am

Hello fellow foothill denizen!
I have many fond (and hazy) memories of the Palomino.
I was under age (early 70's) but had many older friends. I looked older than I was!
Asleep at the Wheel's original lineup played there.
I also recall partaking of some herbal refreshment with a young Jimmy Buffet in the back alley! "Come Monday" was just starting to get radio play.
Monday jam night (I think it was Monday) was always fun, too.
For me, Cody Bryant's Viva Cantina in Burbank has a lot of the same vibe, these days.
And it's in a much nicer neighborhood!
Thanks for the article.

Dean Rimmer · Post by **Dean Rimmer** » 19 Jun 2014 10:02 am

i got to play the pal quite a bit soooo much fun for a guy just startin out ...was it called the mule lip before it was the pal?

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 19 Jun 2014 4:46 pm

Good one Ben! Thanks.

Jack Hanson · Post by **Jack Hanson** » 19 Jun 2014 6:10 pm

Thanks for the link, Ben.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 20 Jun 2014 6:31 am

The Dylan, Mahal, Davis etc. jam was filmed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r23DKWvFb3k

Walter Killam · Post by **Walter Killam** » 20 Jun 2014 2:54 pm

I never had a chance to go to the Palomino, but it is my privilege to play in my current band with Buck Weyerman on drums (House band 77-78 )! If any of you have any good stories about Buck I'd love to hear them!

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 20 Jun 2014 3:45 pm

I never liked being at the Pal. Did you?

LJ Eiffert · Post by **LJ Eiffert** » 21 Jun 2014 8:11 am

Come on " Earnest Bovine " the only place you liked was that hole in the wall " Ship Wreck Joey's Club " or you would be at that " Hollywood on the Pike Club " in Long Beach.Or was it " The Panama Club " not " The Foothill "?

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 21 Jun 2014 12:33 pm

One thing about the Pal, they always had the best musicians in the house band who unfortunately were probably the lowest paid too.... We pulled in better cash down in Orange Country......JH in Va.

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 21 Jun 2014 7:41 pm

One of the more memorable nights in my touring career started out splitting a pitcher of tequila at the Palomino with Dan Haggerty. I can't even tell the rest of the story. In fact, I'm surprised I remember it!

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 22 Jun 2014 7:38 pm

One of the times when I played there with Dee Lannon, I was set up near the front of the stage. 1st song. Dee says "solo chas" and there was a spotlight, like the ones you see on the front of a Boeing 747, that was directly across from my face that turned the entire top of the guitar into a blinding white light. I couldn't even see the guitar, much less play it.

LJ Eiffert · Post by **LJ Eiffert** » 23 Jun 2014 8:57 am

The Duck tape walls did it's job for many years & Tinny always made you smile coming in.

Joe Casey · Post by **Joe Casey** » 25 Jun 2014 5:08 am

Tough guy Actor (really a nice guy) leo Gordon use to pop in now and then.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 25 Jun 2014 6:38 am

Oh yeah, the "Top Coverage" guy. "It worked for me. It'll work for you."

John McClung · Post by **John McClung** » 25 Jun 2014 10:11 am

The few times i worked there the monitor sound onstage was almost never any good and the sound guys copped major attitudes, even though we were nice and asked politely for things.

The magic was the musicians and audience, not the venue.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 25 Jun 2014 12:38 pm

Although I played there a few times it was anything but memorable, so I offer this in my stead...
http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/co ... -west.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYfEE2-mkaI

Russ Wever · Post by **Russ Wever** » 25 Jun 2014 9:06 pm

Al Bruno speaks
of the Palomino
~> click
~Rw

Shari Boyd · Post by **Shari Boyd** » 26 Jun 2014 1:00 am

I have wonderful memories of the Pal...

First there was date nights with dad... him drinking coffee and Tommy loading me up with dinner and cokes all night. Later of course I did the lighting there several nights a week.. the "cowboy" craze brought on by Urban Cowboy brought in some strange customers.. beach bums in tight jeans and cowboy hats made there way to North Hollywood nightly.

Then there were the bands... I did lights for George Thorogood and couldn't hear for days (The Real Don Steele had nothing on this guys need for loud)~ And the way he bounced around the audience made us all nervous and wore my arm out.. (all the lights were manual including the spot)..

Elvis (Costello not Presley) ~ was there in the late 70's and of course there's the movies.. Tommy got the back patio out of that! I remember watching him FUME to no end when Jerry Lee was supposed to perform and pulled up 11 minutes late to start his set... drunk!! Oh yes, I remember ELEVEN MINUTES... cause I heard it forever ~

I saw countless acts, worked with countless more.. and though YOU'RE FIRED was yelled loudly and probably too often.. it was done so much better than Trump could ever do it... but the Pal was just a great place to BE.

When The Pretenders were scheduling their first NA tour they insisted on playing the Pal... imagine load in with the same system they used at the Santa Monica Civic into the small and heavily over populated Pal. So crazy it was.. Doug Atwell, Jack Daniels, Steve Duncan and I think the keyboard player Eddy Hill was there (this would be before he became a hit songwriter in his own right).. Scotty the sound guy.. think the steel guys name at the time was Pete... anyway Tommy basically kicked us all out to make space for "paying" bodies but we weren't allowed to go home so we sat in Jacks van across the street and listened to the show from there (clear as a bell I might add)..

People looked at Tommy a lot of different ways over the years.. cheap... yes... hard to deal with... yep.. but there was no denying he built that club and made it THE place to be... he knew how to work that business and he made a success of a nothing building in the middle of a bad neighborhood for over 30 years.. He knew people..both on stage and in the house and thats how he got away with paying us all little or nothing... or getting big named acts to come play for half the door. I miss him, he was at heart a good man and would do anything for someone he cared for. I probably spent the better part of my pre-teens to my 20's in and around that place.. broke my heart to watch it die after Tommy did.. was a long slow death.

But I saw some amazing stuff... and I still have some of the secrets too

Thanks for the GREAT link.. and thank you Peter for emailing it to me.. brought back a lot of great memories ...

and ... I apologize for rambling ~

LJ Eiffert · Post by **LJ Eiffert** » 27 Jun 2014 6:25 am

It's great to see you here on this forum Shari Boyd! Now maybe you can stand up for your Mother & father & us out here in Nashville as to what is the truth about what happen to our real deal Country Music here in Southern California with the Academy of Country Music beings you and your brother and son Joe let alone all you kids who watch us Build it Empire call ACM for what to days music is now that you kids grew up on.All I want out of this mess from Bob Romero and his Army with the hand conbat help of Rac Clark is A " Museum " for us neighborhood Musicians who made all this History that nobody's care about what we did for the support of your Mother & Father let alone Gene Weed to make our old late friend Dick Clark rich. The God father Of Southern California Country Music,Uncle Leo J Eiffert Jr & the Pigeons -Facebook.

Peter Huggins · Post by **Peter Huggins** » 29 Jun 2014 6:13 pm

You are welcome, Shari for the link. I saw Thorogood there once. The Destroyers were a three piece band then, George being the only guitarist. And he only had the one guitar. During the set, he broke three strings, each one in the middle of the solo - he just moved up the neck and continued his solo. Changing strings between songs, he used at least three different tunings and used the slide more than he didn't. Sitting on a chair to begin Hank Williams' "Move It On Over", He proceeded to jump up and dance, ending up duck-walking across the front tables! At one point, he traded amplifiers with the bass player, using the larger Fender. I'm guessing Showman vs. Bandmaster. KLOS recorded the show and rebroadcast it, I have an aircheck somewhere.

But the Destroyers were nowhere near as loud as Dick Dale and the Deltones. I saw Dick several times there and one time he blew up his Showman amp. Richard Smith was the rhythm guitarist, he gave Dick his own Showman head to play through and ran out to his car and grabbed a Music Man head. Once I was back in the green room between sets - anybody could walk in there - and Brian Setzer was there, listening to Dick speaking in awe, or so it seemed to me.

One time I went into the back room to Get Nokie Edwards to sign my original copy of Walk Don't Run, which he gracefully did. I saw the Ventures there more than once. Once it was crowded enough that we had to sit out on the patio, where the only way to watch what was going on up on the stage was to watch the closed circuit TV monitors; the Patio was the reason the camera existed (fortunately someone was wise enough to put a tape in the VCR and record the feed when Dylan and Harrison invaded the stage during the Taj Mahal / Jesse Ed Davis set, then dragging Fogerty onstage as well. Only at the Pal!).

In those days the House band was Jimmy Snyder and the Palomino Riders. Who was the steel player?

Thanks for the memories.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 30 Jun 2014 7:49 am

In those days the House band was Jimmy Snyder and the Palomino Riders. Who was the steel player?

There are probably multiple answers to this question - here's one of them..
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum10/HTML/004510.html

Shari Boyd · Post by **Shari Boyd** » 2 Jul 2014 5:03 am

Peter those were my days as the one lighting up the stage Wed-Sat nights... For some reason I wanna say the steel players first name was Pete, short guy, quiet, sweet... everytime I think of those days I remember Doug and his fiddle - damn he could play that thing. The final "Riders" for me was Jimmy, Jack, Doug, Ed Hill, Steve Duncan - bass player was a heavy set guy long hair and a beard I've actually seen him in some bars along Broadway and his name will probably spill out as soon as I post this.. We were all proud of the fact papers around the country wrote us up and being a GREAT stage show ~ that was the cool thing about all those big acts - papers around the country (world) sometimes had reporters there to cover and in some cases - Jimmy, the riders and the show stole some thunder.

I was fearless, lol don't know how many fights I had with Tommy over those lights or how many times I was fired hahaha. He never understood my going in during the day and changing out gells and HATED it when they weren't all on full blast!! So needless to say he and I had a few yelling matches over the years about "melting" the performers and enhancing the show. Devil went down to Georgia was one song I always loved to play on the dimmer board with... some good times!!

If you were there for Thorogood then we crossed paths how funny is that! I was the 'little girl' in the back... wishing she could do what she was doing on the road and always being told I was good enough, but... well yanno, life was different then.

HAHAHA knew it.. Greg Humphrey!!! That was the bass player and Pete Grant was on pedal steel... though to be honest - we had a LOT of rotation depending on tour dates (Jack, Eddy and Steve all had touring gigs)and then there were always studio sessions but for the most part that was the group I worked with from 78-80/81

Peter Huggins wrote:You are welcome, Shari for the link. I saw Thorogood there once. The Destroyers were a three piece band then, George being the only guitarist. And he only had the one guitar. During the set, he broke three strings, each one in the middle of the solo - he just moved up the neck and continued his solo. Changing strings between songs, he used at least three different tunings and used the slide more than he didn't. Sitting on a chair to begin Hank Williams' "Move It On Over", He proceeded to jump up and dance, ending up duck-walking across the front tables! At one point, he traded amplifiers with the bass player, using the larger Fender. I'm guessing Showman vs. Bandmaster. KLOS recorded the show and rebroadcast it, I have an aircheck somewhere.

But the Destroyers were nowhere near as loud as Dick Dale and the Deltones. I saw Dick several times there and one time he blew up his Showman amp. Richard Smith was the rhythm guitarist, he gave Dick his own Showman head to play through and ran out to his car and grabbed a Music Man head. Once I was back in the green room between sets - anybody could walk in there - and Brian Setzer was there, listening to Dick speaking in awe, or so it seemed to me.

One time I went into the back room to Get Nokie Edwards to sign my original copy of Walk Don't Run, which he gracefully did. I saw the Ventures there more than once. Once it was crowded enough that we had to sit out on the patio, where the only way to watch what was going on up on the stage was to watch the closed circuit TV monitors; the Patio was the reason the camera existed (fortunately someone was wise enough to put a tape in the VCR and record the feed when Dylan and Harrison invaded the stage during the Taj Mahal / Jesse Ed Davis set, then dragging Fogerty onstage as well. Only at the Pal!).

In those days the House band was Jimmy Snyder and the Palomino Riders. Who was the steel player?

Thanks for the memories.