May 15, 2011

The Couriers (Lancaster 1965)

I spy Alfred E. Neuman!

The Couriers recorded only one single on Lancaster's C.V. label after winning a contest at the "Moose Hall." 
We didn't exactly disappear after "Stompin' Time". We were supposed to cut two more 45's as per our informal contract with Chuck Raymond and Pancho, who awarded us the opportunity to make records after we won a Battle Of The Bands at Moose Hall in Lancaster. We never did cut those other two sides, but, for us as a band, the experience of recording and releasing "Stompin' Time Again" was a wonderful thing. It even got to #8 on the WLAN Top 60. I still think it sounds great to hear it, and I've always thought it sounded less "local" than most of the records cut by Lancaster bands, with the exception of The Shaynes, who I thought cut two very cool records themselves.... - Steve Kurtz, Couriers vocalist
Is that the same as the Moose Lodge that the Web of Sound record store rented out for local bands and Hasil Adkins in the mid-80s?  And they made WLAN's playlist, woo-hoo! Apparently local bands playing original music were able to get significant airplay on the big commercial radio stations in the 60s.  The rules were a little different then.

Stomping Time Again
Feelings


(Music, photos, and quotation from Garage Hangover) If you were around Lancaster in those days and remember the bands, clubs, music stores, record labels, or any other part of the scene, please help us salvage that history!

4 comments:

  1. As best I could find, the original Lancaster Moose Lodge was at 224 E King St and is now apartments. "Constructed to be the prestigious home of the Moose Lodge it quickly became and important center for Lancaster's major social functions." (source: http://www.jmz.com/uptownl​ofts/)
    So it's possible and probably likely that in '65 the Couriers played there rather than at the current Water Street location. Maybe your folks or some other old-timer Lancastrians would know when it moved.

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  2. It was the Moose Hall on King Street. It was a four-week Battle of the Bands...we won our week, then the Finals vs the three other weekly winners.

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