User:Moshe Ha Mayim/sandbox

Mondo Bando began in Spokane Washington around 1974-75. Originally, they played blues and some rock n roll. Many of the members first met through bassist Brian Blackhurst of Boogiemeister who rounded up many entry level players in the area and put them on stage, ready or not. Mark Maye the guitarist and Carl "Joe" Seltice Bass guitar, old high school buddies and Warren Ferger the lead singer & harmonica player who had all met each other through Brian, went on to form Alias in 1974 and mostly played bar gigs in Eastern Washington, North Idaho and also at several locations in Montana. In 1974, the band name was changed to Mondo Bando at Warren Ferger's suggestion. In the early summer of 1975 while visiting friends in Seattle, they met Hard Rock Drummer Brad Butler who convinced them to pack up and move to Seattle. In the early days, they would wear face paint but began performing without it shortly after. Mondo Bando played hard and Heavy Rock in the Seattle area and after Warren Ferger left the band, he was replaced by Roger Williams as the lead vocalist. In late 1975, they disbanded and were ready to call it quits because Hard Rock was not popular in Seattle. Late one night around 11 P.M., the Downey brothers (Tim & Dave) showed up and told Mark and Joe that they had a house rented and that they were coming to take us back to Federal Way with them and that everything was being taken care of, all they had to do was put the band back together and practice. In January 1976, Electra Blue also a former Boogiemeister member, joined the band as lead vocalist along with Gary Hermann on drums. The band took on new life and began concentrating on writing original songs with an even heavier emphasis. Equipped with a wall of Marshall amplification, they made some serious noise for the next 1 1/2 years. Disco music was at about the height of it's popularity so finding gigs was hard. Mondo Bando began promoting their own shows with other underground bands in the area since they owned their own P.A. system. To be continued.........