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The Citations

The Citations, was a surf rock band formed in San Jose, California in 1964. Consisting of four group members, Larry Wall (lead guitar) Denis Correia (rhythm) Greg Price (rhythm) and Al Paoletti (drums). In 1965 they won a playoff round of the Battle of the Bands contest, against The Riptides, at The Wutzit Club (Santa Clara Youth Village) and broke up before the contest ended. They played many small venues throughout Santa Clara County before that. The Citations were early users of the Fender Electronic Echo Chamber Tape Machine and it gave the band a unique sound adding to the simple instrumentals they specialized in. The band used three Fender Stratocasters and did not use a bass guitar.

History

Denis Correia and Larry Wall first got together in 1963 after buying inexpensive acoustic guitars and learning how to play chords and one-string melodies like Peter Gunn, Pipeline and Miserlou. Later in that same year they got their classmate Al Paoletti to join the group as the drummer. They made one public performance at a local YMCA using the band name, The Esquires. In 1964 Greg Price joined the group and they changed the name of the band to the The Citations. The name originated from a TV commercial selling a men’s cologne of the same name. Their first performance was at Herbert Hoover Junior High School where they played three songs each for the 7th, 8th and 9th grade classes. Their music was simple one-and two-string instrumental melodies and they were, at first, afraid of singing. At that first performance they had a mutual friend, Bruce McDonald join them and he faked playing a guitar, that wasn’t even plugged in. The band admitted they thought his presents could help the event. For their sound system, they used the speaker from the school’s record player and one other small amplifier that had a four-inch speaker and 5 watts of power. They turned it up as loud as it would go and during their last song, one of the teachers literally pulled the plug because he thought it was too loud. Some people will never forget how mad the drummer, Al Paoletti, got when threw his drumsticks straight up and hit the ceiling.

Success

By 1965 they grew more confident on stage and started singing, too. They were outfitted in shiny blue satin jackets with velvet trim, black pants, boots and ties. By this time they had upgraded their equipment now using three Fender Stratocasters with a Fender Electronic Echo Chamber Tape Machine for effects. They used a piggyback Fender Band-Master, an Ampeg and Fender Vibrolux Reverb amplifiers and the drums were Ludwig. The band was known for its unique throbbing sound and driving beat produced by the solo drumming of Al Paoletti. After winning the battle of the bands contest at The Wutzit Club, they were propelled forward performing at many High School and College dances and parties for two years.

Management

Early on, the band overwhelmingly voted to turn down a management offer and decided not to accept the deal it offered. Part of, which was for them to play gigs far away from home. Not wanting to travel far, the band stayed and played only in the Santa Clara County area. Of course it will never be known what would have happened if they had decided to accept it.

Breakup

It became evident that the band needed a better vocalist, as no one was willing to let loose and really sing, so the band hired Don Owens who joined to be the lead singer. The problem, it turned out, was that Don had trouble following the music and knowing when to start and end his vocals. Larry Wall argued against using him and was then fired in his favor. The band had one last concert at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, which Don got stage fright and passed out on the stage. The band immediately broke up.