My cousin RJ and I had unintentionally orchestrated a coup that left us holding the reins -  so to speak, of a band called Desperados. There wasn't time, opportunity, or need to fret over the band's future; things were happening, and wouldn't stop happening for the next several years!

The Desperados continued to play at the Go-Go Factory on weekends for the next 8 weeks. Everyone in the band had full time day jobs, except for Jim who was a full time student at UTA. I had been promoted from driving the Courtesy Car, to doing make-ready maintenance at Western AMC & Jeep. RJ and Jerry worked at an auto air conditioning factory. I'm not exactly sure what Carlton did when we weren't playing, but I believe it had to do with a utility division of the city. (Carlton, email me and set me straight, bro!)  As we all grew more and more excited about the progress of the band, our day jobs provided financing needed to buy new band equipment, and helped keep us from becoming atrophied between weekend gigs!

Our time at the Go-Go Factory was well spent. We were able to work Carlton in, build our song list, and start carving out a style for ourselves. Our regular following was growing, too. Word was getting around that there was a new band in town. But we had a few things working against us at the time; Hemphill was considered a 'bad' part of town and we were playing at a topless bar. I think we were having so much fun watching things come together that we were oblivious to those things.

Things at the Go-Go Factory came to an abrupt end when Frieda's husband, Joe (namesake for Little Joe's) returned from an Alaska trip and got into a big argument with the club's coke'd out manager. , John, the club's manager.  The band was on break when Joe decided to take his anger towards the manager out on us.  Finally, Jerry Coker, our guitar player, took his jacket off and invited Joe to step outside and settle it. Joe fired us instead. 

Our musician friends have often commented on our band's ability to always keep working.  We were never out of work in all the years we played together. The nightclub business is extremely unstable, and clubs close all the time for all kinds of reasons - but we always bounced right back. This was also the case when we got the boot from the Go Go. [Jim Wise comments that this had nothing to do with dumb luck. He reminds me that because of our starting as a house band, we had developed a huge following that showed up wherever we played. We had the band and a guaranteed full house; all we needed was a place to play.]

RJ and I were pinball fanatics. Back in the 70's most 7-11 stores had at least one pinball machine. On weeknights we would scour the city's bars, arcades, and convenience stores looking for the best pinball machines. One of our favorites, THE LUCKY LADY, was at a small bar called the "Collard Street Inn". This small watering hole was in the same building as the famous Panther Hall Annex Club, and across the street from the legendary Panther Hall. Most of country music's biggest names had played Panther Hall, and it was not uncommon for the party to move from the big show, across the street to the Annex, where the headlining stars would continue to play on into the early morning hours.

RJ and I were playing "Lucky Lady" pinball one evening when we were tipped off that the Annex had been sold to someone named Wayne and would soon open under the name "Broken Spoke." We had the inside track on the move and knew this 'Wayne' character would be needing a band. Jerry made a few calls and we were in!

Big Wayne had hair the first time we met him. He had a star tattoo on his ear lobe and a fish tattoo on his head. (We wouldn't know about the fish for a few more weeks.) We loved the stage; it was the first time we'd had room to set up all our equipment and have room to move around comfortably. It was here that our floorshows were born. The big song at the time was Frampton's "Do You Feel Like We Do". We couldn't afford a talk box (the device used to make the guitar appear to speak) so we worked up an alternative method.

Me and Fred Fry (Jimmy) at the Broken Spoke. RJ playing bass.

When it got to that part of the song, I would bring out my ventriloquist puppet, Jimmy, and he would sing the "Do you feel like we do" part. We dressed the puppet up in long hair and changed his name to Fred Frey. The band would go into a vamp and I would ad lib for a while. Fred's personality developed into a sort of sarcastic character who felt we should be playing in a bigger venue. He could say the things that we WANTED to say but couldn't. He could put down the mugs and the thugs and make wisecracks and ask for raises. Eventually, I began doing a few impersonations (Jimmy Stewart, Popeye, Bozo, Walter Brennan, Felix the Cat, Nixon, and Porky Pig), magic tricks, and other comedy shtick in addition to the Fred Frey stuff. We were amazed at the response. While there were a lot of bands around that were better musically, the floorshow was our equalizer. Nobody else was doing it. 

Jerry Dean wrote a nice band profile on the Desperados that appeared in an issue of Pair Magazine in September 1976. (Click here to read the article.) Also in the same issue were articles about a lot of people we really looked up to at the time who would later become good friends; Lee Pickens, Rick "Hollywood" Myrick, Mark Ballew from Seely Aston Band, and the guys from Pleasures of Time (who changed their name to Flight after the article came out). But  most prophetically of all, and I just noticed this, was a mention in the very same magazine about a band called Savvy opening a new club in Arlington called Savvy's Castle. In hindsight, this is a startling coincidence, but you'll have to read on to see why...

Our first run at the Broken Spoke lasted only six weeks, and we only played weekends. A lot happened in those six weeks, both with the band and in our personal lives. I began dating Kay, a friend of RJ's ex-wife Brenda. RJ had moved into a trailer house with Trula, the daughter of a waitress from Little Joe's. My old friend Earl Dromgoole appeared back on the scene and we got together a few times. We took pride in knowing we had graduated from the dives of Hemphill - to the bars of Lancaster. 

Big Wayne was prone to do crazy things for publicity. One night he told us that if we drew over a certain number of people - we could shave his head! He came in the next night with the head already shaved, and that was when we noticed the big fish tattoo on his head.

Big Wayne (with hair).

Big Wayne put up a good front. It took us a while to figure out how seriously whacked out he really was. His friends were interesting too. One guy used to eat beer bottles during band breaks! Eventually, Wayne got into MC'ing beer contests. Once he got on a microphone you couldn't get him off of it. These events would go on forever... and I even have a few of them on tape.

One night after the club had closed,  Big Wayne produced a handgun and fired a round at the stage, putting a hole in the big sign behind the drums. [Jim Wise recently recounted the story of why Big Wayne fired his gun that night.  In addition to owning and managing the Broken Spoke, Wayne also handled security duties when a bouncer was needed. On that particular night someone joked that if Wayne tried to subdue him he would simply break away and outrun him. Wayne answered by brandishing his pistol and commenting that running away wouldn't help them. To prove his marksmanship and help drive home the point, he called our attention to the first letter 'O' in the Broken Spoke sign on the wall behind the bandstand. Then he aimed and fired. His aim was true! ]

The shooting incident was our cue to start looking for our next gig! We didn't realize it at the time, but Wayne was about to bottom out - hard!  Meanwhile, we had started sitting in with various bands at clubs around town on our nights off. One club in particular, the Dunes, caught our fancy, but Bobby Crown and the Capers had that house gig locked up tight. Or so we thought...

The Dunes Club on Fort Worth's southeast side,
after finally closing in April '77. 

Big Wayne Disappears:  The Broken Spoke Lockout!