If you remember going to the Swamp Fox, the Sandpiper, Bobby V's Cabaret and the Tivoli Beer Garden, you remember the Gringos.

Originally formed by an Arizona high school student, the Gringos were one of the dominant rock bands on the Cape in the '70s. But tastes change, and in 1980 the group called it quits.

What follows is the story — in the words of band members and followers — of the rise and fall of the Gringos.

BIRTH OF A BAND

Band members came and left through the years, but the Gringos reached a peak in 1971-74 with an eight-person lineup: Donna Byrd (vocals), Alan Harkrader (keyboards), Steve Jones (bass), Jim Miller (trumpet), Tyler Newcomb (trumpet), Clyde Score (drums), Lynn "Bush" Tivens (trombone) and Joe Vaughn (guitar).

Jim Miller, trumpet player — I started the band in 1964 in high school in Phoenix when I was 16. There was a real popular group called the Tijuana Brass. I was a trumpet player and wanted to emulate the group. There were six of us, and I wrote out the charts because I had been educated in music theory.

We did high school dances, and those turned into nightclub shows at the Red Dog Saloon. I went to college for a couple years and then the road called.

Lynn "Bush" Tivens, trombone player — I first met Jimmy Miller at music camp when I was 12 in 1963. He was about three years older. I stumbled into a senior-high orchestra rehearsal. I was amazed to see him conducting and arranging music. We ended up playing stage band gigs at the camp.

I went to college at Arizona State. One day he knocked on my door. He was in need of a trombone player. The Gringos had played up and down the state and in some parts of California. The band that existed prior to my joining was high school kids with no focus or direction.

The band as it really clicked came together in April 1970. We ended up spending some time in Colorado Springs in the summer of 1970. We spent a lot of time learning to play together. We needed to get a chance to experience each other's musical abilities.

Miller — We went up to Colorado Springs and our guitar player said he wanted to go home and preach.

Joe Vaughn, guitarist — I was in Colorado Springs playing with funk groups. I was invited to hear a band and they were supposed to be really good and I'd heard that 1,000 times. I saw the Gringos and thought, "What do you have to do to be in a group like this?" And next thing I knew, I was in it.

Tivens — Alan Harkrader came to the Gringos in July 1970 after his band Cornerstone broke up ... and he was an immediate asset to the band, as he not only played keyboards and guitar, but he was also a lead singer as well. He was also the most prolific song writer in the band too. He was responsible for the song that was our first release "The Life I Lead." (He) penned the song we used to play about Cape Cod, called "Summer Impressions."

Steve Jones was the heartthrob of the band. He was a David Cassidy look-alike and the girls all went wild for him. But Steve was and still is one of the premier rock and country bass players. Steve always had half a dozen (new) songs going in his head and in various stages of completion.

Donna Byrd, lead singer — I was with another band in Los Angeles called Collage. We had done a lot of recording. It was like a Mamas and Papas group.

The Gringos had worked with Jose Feliciano in Arizona, and his manager happened to be Collage's manager. The Gringos were going to play in Las Vegas and someone said you've got to have a girl singer. I tried out and didn't get home for six years.

Clyde Score, drummer — When I was about 20, I jammed with a guitar player. He auditioned for the Gringos and didn't make it, but passed on my name. I auditioned in my bedroom.

Tivens — There were little bits and pieces of how everyone knew each other. We picked up Ty Newcomb, who knew the bass player from another gig. We added Ty in January 1971 and we were off to the races. It was heaven from then on.

Tyler Newcomb, trumpet player — The band formed at ASU, where three of us went to school, the horn section. I transferred to Long Beach State. I got a call. I jumped out of school my senior year, just moments from graduation. That started a 10-year odyssey.

THE BAND TAKES OFF

Miller and his friend Charles Johnston commiserated after both of their bands had been fired from gigs in Arizona in 1970.

Miller — Charlie said, "Why don't you let me try to book the band?" The first show he got us was New Year's Eve at the Arizona Biltmore for $1,000. We used to get $50.

Newcomb — We had a really good manager. He books a lot of the entertainment for the Super Bowls. He put on the show with Paul McCartney. We were his first band. He was a real go-getter. He was the ninth Gringo.

After two shows in early 1971 at Lucifer's in Boston, the band's first shows east of the Mississippi, the Gringos were hired to play for two weeks at Tavern on the Green, a lounge at the Sheraton in Hyannis. (The building, across Scudder Avenue from Cape Cod Melody Tent, has since gone through several changes of ownership and is now the Resort & Conference Center at Hyannis.)

Tivens — The gentleman who owned the club wanted us back. We weren't going to play anywhere else but his club.

The band was booked for another nine weeks at Tavern on the Green.

Miller — That first year we played at Tavern on the Green was just a dream. That first summer, Jose Feliciano, the Supremes and Tony Bennett came into the lounge and sat in with us.

The next summer the band was booked to play six nights a week at Tivoli Garden, a newly opened larger room at what had become the Dunfey Hyannis Hotel.

Tivens — The room held about 2,000 people, and we packed the place every single night in 1972.

Byrd — The horn thing was so big — bands like Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears. It was Jimmy's talent for the charts. We did songs rock bands couldn't do — "The Summer of '42" (theme song) and "Also Sprach Zarathustra." He could arrange anything.

Newcomb — It was the combination of our personalities and high energy and some really good musicianship. People were impressed with a rock band doing "2001." We did an arrangement of "Nights in White Satin" that floored people.

Vaughn — We put together a medley of TV theme songs and people loved it.

Tivens — For our Bicentennial show in 1976, we opened with "Old Cape Cod" and we had seven-part harmony.

Newcomb — Our theme song was "Let's Get Drunk (And Be Somebody)" by Oscar Brown Jr.

Miller — Joe's wife reminded me about the time in 1976 the power went out at Bobby V's and we led the audience down Route 28 playing Sousa marches.

Score — We were on the road 52 weeks a year. To be able to sit down for three months at a time on the Cape was great.

Tivens — We'd spend summers on the Cape and play in Las Vegas and in the South the rest of the year. We had to beg for time off.

We worked the nightclub circuit. We played with the Supremes, the Temptations, Ray Charles, B.B. King. Does it get any better than that? We played upstairs in Boston while a very obscure band called Aerosmith played downstairs.

Newcomb — Frank Zappa saw us at a lounge in Hawaii. He said, "That was a (deleted) great show," and he shook all our hands.

Byrd — We were all young and stupid and didn't know what we were doing, but we had a great time.

 

A LOYAL FOLLOWING

Dick Teimer, WCOD disc jockey, 1972-77 — They were really talented musicians. They were well-jelled by the time we saw them.

Bill McDonough of Westwood and West Hyannisport — They had such versatility, from real rock 'n' roll stuff to soft ballads. I was in a group of guys that rented a house. We used to see the Gringos every Friday and Saturday night. We used to drive all the way over from Falmouth. The next year we rented a house in Osterville so we wouldn't have to drive so far.

Vaughn — Vic and Marge Mendes would come every Friday and Saturday.

Marge Mendes of New Bedford — We followed them as many places as we could. Lou Colombo told us to go down and see this group at Dunfey's. They were terrific. They'd play "In the Mood" and clear the floor for us.

Newcomb — They were the Fred and Ginger of the crowd.

Miller — They could do the jitterbug, up-over-the-shoulder moves, anything.

Harold Tobey, Barnstable town councilor and former Barnstable police officer — I was a devout fan of the band. It was the best big band at the time on the Cape. They had a huge fan following. Wherever they played was my favorite place to see them. They were entertaining. They were professional. They could play anything. They drew the young crowd and the old crowd. They were something special.

Miller — Did Harold tell you about the time he arrested the bass player? Cheech and Chong did a remake of an old song called "I've Been Framed." For a goof, we did that. Steve (Jones, the bass player) was singing it, and Harold arrested him as a joke. A lot of people in the audience were laughing and a lot didn't know what to think — just like the night when the whole band and half the audience went skinny-dipping.

 

ALL GOOD THINGS END

Donna Byrd left the Gringos after a 1974 summer stand at the Sandpiper in Hyannis.

Tivens — Donna could have taken the band to the level we wanted to get to. She had a pop sound that was sensational.

Byrd — I was 21 when I joined and 27 when I left. Your attitudes change. People started to grow up. Being the only female, you never get taken seriously, especially if you're not a musician. But I never pushed the point because I was having too good a time.

They were reaching to express their own identity with original material. They were competing among themselves in terms of volume. We weren't united anymore.

Tivens — Columbia signed us but didn't want us competing with Blood, Sweat and Tears. In '75 we struck out on our own and recorded our own album. Because we had such a big following in the Northeast — WCOD was one of our biggest supporters — Billboard started to pick us up.

But disco was hellbent on wiping out everything we knew about music. By 1976, I could see the writing on the wall. I left in late 1976. They replaced me with another trombone player and got a record deal with United Artists.

Teimer — The label changed the name to Gringo to make it sound more like Chicago. They didn't have much say in the production. They were disappointed they didn't get to show their real sound.

Miller — I wouldn't say we had bad luck, but we recorded for United Artists and right after our album was mastered United Artists was sold. The new bosses kept the acts that had hits, so we became a casualty.

Tivens — They promoted Gerry Rafferty's record, and the Gringos got left on the deck.

 

Miller — What really put the fork in it for us was (when) we found out the album was not going to happen. There was some material that could have been hit stuff. We held on to the dream of that, and when it didn't happen it shattered everyone's perspective on the business.

We sold 50,000 copies of the United Artists album. I got a royalty check for one of the songs for 78 cents. I framed it.

Tivens — They hung on until 1980 and then they packed it in.

Newcomb — I was OK with letting it go. Disco had arrived and it was hard to command the money we used to. DJ's could do it for $600 a week, and we were getting $3,000.

Vaughn — We heard a DJ talking to a girl. He asked her, "Who do you think played better, me or the band?"

Miller — A couple rock bands re-formed and went right into the disco thing, with Gloria Gaynor songs, and they were getting all the gigs.

 

LOOKING BACK

Miller — It was a good run, and we had a good time.

Byrd — It's not something you did. It's part of who you are.

Tivens — It wasn't a job. It was a lot of fun.

For a while there were some strange feelings. We had a reunion in the mid-'80s and played on the Cape. After that, I put the horn in the box and that was it.

Things kind of drifted again. In 2000, Ty called and said we needed a Web site. A lot of old fans will Google us and be surprised to see it there.

Score — The people in the group were very much a family. We partied together and supported each other through anything. After all these years, we're still family.

Miller — We've all stayed close and the best of friends. You can't stay with someone that long on the road and not get along.

I don't bring it up, but if the band comes up with someone who used to see us play, you can literally see them drift back. Their eyes go to where the wall meets the ceiling. They can see themselves on the dance floor in 1972.

I've heard it many times: "I brought my wife on our first date to see the Gringos."

They'll share fond remembrances, and that's the most gratifying thing of all.

Everything on the Cape was fun. I believe we gave a lot of people a lot of great times — including ourselves.

Ralph Score, Clyde's brother, is working on a documentary about the Gringos. He hopes to have it completed in 2009. For more information about the Gringos, visit the band's web site at www.thegringos.com.

 

Where are they now?

Jim Miller (trumpet), 59, Sandwich, carpenter

Joe Vaughn (guitar), "the oldest," Sandwich, homebuilder

Tyler Newcomb (trumpet), 59, Centerville, salesman for Intercity Alarms, director of the jazz ensemble at Cape Cod Conservatory of Music & Arts and member of the band Pocketfull of Soul

Donna Byrd (vocals), 60, Las Vegas, front desk clerk at Circus Circus Hotel and Casino

Steve Jones (bass), 58, studio musician, Mesa, Ariz.

Clyde Score (drums), 58, music teacher and entertainment producer, Prescott, Ariz.

Alan Harkrader (keyboards), 61, studio musician, Prescott, Ariz.

Lynn Tivens (trombone), 56, Calabasas, Calif., real estate broker