Monocled Alchemist

Touring with The Robbs. Here’s what happens on the road. Teen Datebook: 1967

The Robbs toured with Paul Revere & The Raiders! And for five weeks along with the Standells, Guillotines, Keith Allison and lan Whitcomb they were to perform for thousands of teenagers across the U.S., gaining friends and fans.

The first day of the tour, the Robbs, boarded the large double decker bus to inspect the inside of their new ‘‘home’’. After looking around, Joey exclaimed ‘‘Hey, where do we sleep?”

The typical rows of seats make the inside of a bus looked ominously uncomfortable and Dee decided that something had to be done about it.

‘‘Come on gang, let’s get to work. We’ll make a few changes around Here!’’

With the Robbs usual enthusiasm they set to work making the bus more liveable. The luggage racks were emptied and the boys brought pillows to make up beds.

Inside the tour bus

They built a-clothes rack at the back of the bus to hang up their clothes. Of course the bar fell down at least twice a day. A cooler full of soft drinks and boxes of food were never far out of reach and Robbs house was ready to start on its journey.

Though security was tight, they still managed to meet hundreds of people and spend many hours each day signing autographs and making new friends.

‘‘We love the Raiders and THE ROBBS!” was often scribbled in the dirt on the outside of the bus. Stuffed animals, and other gifts were strewn across the stage each night as the Robbs performed. Plaques and awards were presented to the boys in each town they played. Honorary citizenship of the city was bestowed upon them in Alburquerque, New Mexico.

During the tour, driving all night to the next town became more and more frequent. The Robbs devised many gadgets to amuse themselves during the long drives. They played guitar and sang ‘‘oldies but goodies’’.

P.A. system and light show

They staged comic interview over the bus P.A. System which left the rest of the performers weak with laughter. With the help of Dickie Dodd of The Standells, the boys erected a screen and put on light shows using different colours and shadow patterns.

In several cities the boys were invited out to night clubs. The owners of the clubs closed them to the public and they ended up having jam sessions into the wee hours of the morning.

On Thanksgiving Day, Paul Revere invited the whole tour to join him for dinner in a large banquet room set aside especially for the occasion.

In Memphis, Tenn., the tour sent all their dirty laundry to the cleaners at the same time. Then, just before leaving for their performance, there was a knock on the door and in walked the laundry-man.

Laundry mix-up

“Excuse me’’ he yelled and proceeded to pile thousands of clothes in the middle of the room. Due to a mix-up at the cleaners the entire tours’ laundry had been delivered to the Robbs’ room. After a few minutes, a few hurried phone calls, 38 people bombarded the Robbs’ room to sort out their belongings.

‘‘What’s that moving under the bed?’’ Craig yelled. ‘‘Why it’s lan Whitcomb,’’ the others laughed. “l can’t find my underwear,’’ hollered lan, ‘‘and I know you guys have it!’

Try as they would the Robbs could not convince Ian that they had not played a practical joke on him by hiding his underwear. Several days later, Joey was sorting through their wardrobe and came across a few articles of unidentified underwear.

‘‘Oh no!’’ said Joey, ‘‘you don’t think these could belong to. . .’’ ‘‘I’m afraid so,’’ said Dee, ‘‘but he’ll never believe that we didn’t hide them.’’

After a serious conference the boys decided the best thing to do was to hide the underwear on the bus in the belief that lan would come across it in a day or two.

While travelling through New Mexico, the tour stopped at Carlsbad Caverns to do a little sight seeing. They wound their way into the depths of the canyons and caverns.

“Hey, listen to the echo in here, we ought to do some singing,”

Keith Allison said. the Robbs were first to agree and for the remainder of the trip through the caverns everyone joined in on the sing-a-long. ‘‘Great acoustics,’’ Bruce reported.

Some of the bad experiences on the road

Not all the experiences on the tour proved to be pleasant ones. In Cincinnati, Dee was taken ill and had to be literally carried from the wings of the stage to the dressing room. A doctor was promptly called.

In Nashville, Tenn., 10,000 over enthusiastic fans rushed the stage, collapsing a portion of it and mobbing the stars that were standing back stage.

In Lubbock, Texas, a bomb threat was received at the Auditorium just as the Robbs were about to start their portion of the show.

“It was the hardest show we ever did,’’ remarked Dee. ‘‘It really did give us quite a scare though.”

Despite these mishaps, the Robbs feel they learned a great deal about the business and themselves during the five weeks on the road.

‘‘Welcome back, we missed you” and other sighs and signs of welcome were given to the Robbs upon their return. As they walked down the ramp from the jet at the L.A. International airport, one of them was heard saying, ‘‘The tour was a gas!

But it’s always great to come home!’’