Greg Gutbezahl
Flamin’ Groovies - Left to right - Chris von Sneidern, Cyril Jordan and Tony Sales (not pictured: Atom Ellis)
“I’ve never been one of those people who can think about life 20 years ahead,” said Cyril Jordan, founder of Flamin’ Groovies, the legendary rock ‘n’ roll band that continues to make its way through the world of music on its own terms since originating in San Francisco back in 1965 — and will make its way to Cafe Nine this week.
“Life doesn’t work that way. I always am right here,” he said. Right here, on this particular day, was a break between a tour of Europe — 27 shows in seven countries — this past summer and an East Coast tour of the U.S. from Oct. 23 through Nov. 2 that finds the band returning to Cafe Nine on Thursday, Oct. 24 for a show with local band Dust Hat — the same bill they played in 2017.
“That last New Haven show, an old friend of mine, Hilton Valentine” — of another legendary band, The Animals — “showed up,” said Jordan. “I hadn’t seen him in 50 years. He was raving to me saying, ‘You’re in it! You’re doing it!’ I got jazzed up.”
Jordan spoke of the music scene that produced his band as well as Valentine’s.
“The end of the 60s, it was like high school. You hang around with these people for years and then you move on. People like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, you would hang out with them and see them all the time and then they took off. We stayed underground and they moved on. Time moved on.”
Jordan and the band may have stayed underground, but they did not stay in one place.
“We were in England in the early ‘70s. It was a free arena, and there were no boundaries. We will probably never see that again. People like Malcolm McLaren,” — who Jordan met in London in 1972 and became good friends with — “manipulated the media and did the opposite of everything before.”
“Back then there weren’t many of us” he continued. “If you had long hair and wore velvet and boots you clicked together and stuck together. We were considered dangerous back then, and you were part of some kind of club. You never knew who you would bump into.”
According to Jordan, that underground scene is still thriving all over the world; one just has to know where to find it.
“A whole rock ‘n’ roll scene is forming new bands and doing what we’re doing,” said Jordan. “Everywhere we go, we see it. If you know about Flamin’ Groovies now, you’re pretty hip. When I meet them and they say they’ve had my album since they were 15? That’s pretty hip.”
“They find out about us in record stores, through DJs and those who collect records,” he continued. “It surprises me after 50 years without really any media image except for the occasional re-release, we can still work all over the world, that there’s a whole scene that has nothing to do with the status quo. There’s a good crop of people digging us.”
Jordan is grateful to be able to bring the music of Flamin’ Groovies to fans both old and new everywhere the band plays live.
“One of my favorite things is seeing the world; going to Paris, Madrid, Australia … our last tour in Europe was our best so far,” he said. “Toward the end of the tour, the shows had to be moved to bigger places. That’s what you want. If you’re really cooking, you get to the next town and you’re sold out, and you’re like, ‘wow what happened?’”
“We get the same kind of crowd that would go to a Rolling Stones show,” he added. “All ages come. One show, a woman brought her 85-year-old mom, and they were rocking in the front row!” he said. “People are bringing their younger friends, too, and I think they get pretty intrigued by classic rock ‘n’ roll.”
He meant the kind of rock ‘n’ roll steeped in history, and also made by the legendary artists he and his band often toured and hung out with, such as Big Brother and the Holding Company, Canned Heat, Ike and Tina Turner, Ray Charles, and The Beach Boys.
“It was a great time back then,” he said.
Tour poster artwork by Cyril Jordan
Jordan has also continued creating visual art pieces, including the poster for this latest tour — dubbed the Trick or Treat Tour — a poster that he said took him four weeks at eight hours a day to complete and that pays homage to his artistic influences.
“I get a big kick out of it. It’s a tribute to Wally Wood,” of Mad Magazine fame, he said.
Jordan noted that so many of the “beatnik artists,” as he referred to them, have influenced his pieces including Ed Newton, Von Dutch, Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, and Jack Davis.
“They looked at the world sideways,” he said. “That art form, that’s becoming extinct.”
“Real art takes a long time, that’s why it’s beautiful,” he added, noting that the band is always striving to keep that work ethic and aesthetic going. “It’s who we are and what we love. People are still into it, and it makes it possible to keep thriving.”
Thriving indeed, as Jordan himself recently turned 71 and now has another perspective from that vantage point.
“It’s easier now than when I was young,” he said. “I used to get antsy in the van traveling, but now at 71 I’m getting a big kick out of it.”
The band has been through its share of lineup changes, and this tour sees Flamin’ Groovies’ newest members getting the chance to put their take on some songs that haven’t had their time in the spotlight since the 1960s.
“These new guys — including Chris von Sneirdern on bass, Tony Sales on drums, and Atom Ellis on guitar — are younger than me, and they’re troopers, very professional,” said Jordan. “We’ve revamped our set and added songs off of Teenage Head” — the band’s third album, released in 1971 — “that we never really played live because that version of the band broke up right after that, and we’ve thrown in around five songs that we haven’t played in 50 years.”
Flamin’ Groovies last put out a record in 2017, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are done with recording. “We are constantly evolving,” said Jordan. “I would love to cut a new album with these guys. You never know.”
Until then, Jordan will continue to tour and to make sure the classics live on.
“I’ve been doing this since the 1970s, keeping the band alive, revamping it over and over,” he said. “As long as I am alive and kicking, we will still be alive and kicking.”
Flamin’ Groovies will be at Cafe Nine on Oct. 24, with Dust Hat opening the show. Tickets are still available via Cafe Nine’s website. The Trick or Treat Tour continues through Nov. 2. More info is available via the Flamin’ Groovies Facebook page.
