Article published in ‘Do You Hear That Beat’
The Underground Sunshine | Under The Spotlight | One change the Beatles brought to pop music was the inclusion of album cuts on “Top 40” radio playlists. This resulted in an unprecedented popularity of many tunes that were simply not available on singles. Since many bands were trying to “out-Beatle” each other anyway, it wasn’t much of a stretch for the bands or their management/record labels to conclude that a sound-alike 45 might have a ready made market.
Underground Sunshine certainly was not the first to try, nor were they the most successful, but they were close.
Initially a hard rock trio guided by Madison radio personality Jonathan Little, the band decided, after recording some demos, that they needed a keyboard. Little (who was music director of WISM at the time) says it was to add more of a “Doors”-type flavor to their sound, but bassist Bert Koelbl says they “needed a keyboard to do the Beatles solo.” Enter Little’s sister – or little sister – Jane.
“I was a senior in high school and I was going with the drummer,” says Jane. “I could play the piano and sing, so I would go to the practices with them, and it came to a point where they asked if I wanted to just get a keyboard and play along.”
The Underground Sunshine | Under The Spotlight
The four musicians and their manager trekked to Milwaukee for their meeting with fate. “The Dave Kennedy studios were in kind of a tough part of town,” recalls Jonathan Little, “and there was a bar down below. We were up on the second floor, the elevator didn’t work, and we had to haul all of the equipment upstairs.
Harvey Scales & the Seven Sounds were down below performing that night. We actually had to run down two different times and say, ‘Can you guys just hold up for about 15 minutes. We’re trying to get the tracks down right now.” Tom Gress reportedly did the production for a flat fee.
Through his many friends in radio, Little secured some airplay even before releasing the record on his own Earth label. Then came further response, a switch to the Intrepid label (a division of Mercury), and things began to change in many ways.
The musicians had signed an agreement to pay a 20% commission to a local backer in return for his supplying equipment. An attorney advised them to break the agreement, considering the amount excessive.
Guitarist Rex Rhode didn’t concur. “He quit because he was such good friends with this other person,” says Jane Little. “And we were supposed to be going to do Dick Clark in just a few weeks. The silly guy quit at that time!”
The band advertised in The Milwaukee Journal and auditioned for a replacement, settling on Chris Connors. Connors had chosen his stage name on a train ride to college in 1964. “A girl on the train told me I reminded her of this guy named Chris Connors. I liked it and have used it ever since,” he explains. (Connors apparently was unfamiliar with female jazz vocalist Chris Connor from the 50’s, or with r&b singer Chris Kenner from the early 60’s).
The Underground Sunshine | Under The Spotlight
Underground Sunshine went on to do American Bandstand, Upbeat, and extensive touring. The album charted and the follow-up single bubbled under. Jane Little and Frank Koelbl got married, but all was not well.
Jonathan Little attributes the demise of the band to “substance abuse problems.” Jane Little says, “We were all pretty innocent Montello High School kids and he (Connors) came in with Milwaukee ideas and big time thoughts. I couldn’t handle the groupies coming to the motel room afterward. The whole thing was really tacky to me.”
Bert Koelbl: “I left because the biggest paycheck I ever got was $325.00 and I was doing an awful lot of work. And quite frankly, management was not fulfilling my needs.”
Chris Connors: “Bert Koelbl fell in love and stopped appearing for jobs. Jane was removed from the band by her parents because the rest of the band was using pot. Frank and Jane married and then Jane pulled Frank out of the group. This is simplistic but pretty much covers the facts.”
Frank Koelbl: “The Little’s think (drugs are) what broke the band up, but it wasn’t. There was some conflict there because he was making a little more money than we were. It wasn’t because of drugs. We were never into drugs a whole lot. We did some pot but none of us are pot-heads or dope-heads.
It got blown out of proportion. How many bands back in the 60’s did, in fact, smoke pot? (Underground Sunshine) gave us a lot of opportunities and I had a lot of great experiences – got to see a lot of the country, got to see a lot of different things.”
initial Line-up:
Rex Rhode – guitar
Jane Little – keyboards
Bert “Bertie” Kohl (Koelbl) – bass
Frank Kohl (Koelbl) – drums
Discography:
“Birthday”/ “All I Want Is You” (Earth 100) 1969
“Birthday” / “All I Want Is You” (Intrepid 75002) (#26) 7/69
“Don’t Shut Me Out” / “Take Me Break Me” (Intrepid 75012) (#102) 10/69
“9 to 5 (Ain’t My Bag)” / “Rotten Woman Blues” (Intrepid 75019) 01/70
“Jesus Is Just Alright” / “Six O’clock” (Intrepid 75029) 07/1970
LP: ‘Let There Be Light’ (Intrepid 74003) (#161) 08/69
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