The Story of a Big Time Rock Band In the 60's and 70's

Editors Note: I have been so swamped by requests to tell more of the story of Gino and the Gassers that I fell very obligated to continue. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. The pictures above are real promo shots of Johnny Diamond and Gino for the Reunion Tour. The memories are foggy, but here goes.

It all happened by accident. I was a really good basketball player, but I broke my ankle quite severely and had to give up my scholarship at a major university. Surgery was barbaric back then by todays standards. So I went to work for Jim's Union 76 when I was back on my feet. While I was recovering from my injury, I picked up bass guitar and learned most of the blues and rock bass lines and almost all of James Brown's songs, the man I wanted to pattern my lifestyle around. Who could be better than James Brown, the man who was able to stop the riots with one sentence when the cops and politicians couldn't. He was my man, and we were going to do him proud. I figured since my girlfriend Karen left me because I was no longer a popular jock, I could meet the babes playing rock and soul music.

At the Union 76 I met Tiny, who's real name was Josh. He was the assistant manager. We called him Tiny because he was six eight and about 270 pounds of Polynesian muscle with the biggest hands in the world. I was the gas pumper and tire changer. Tiny had my back and I had his. We connected because he was also a first rate athlete whose knee injury kept him out of USC and their football team. Believe me we could hump it when business was good. We could also handle any crazy situation that came up, and in LA there were crazy situations to spare.

Tiny was actually Gino even though that wasn't his real name. We thought the two G's in the bands name sounded strange yet appealing to the stoned out masses. We used this as our theme. We had promo shots where we were at the gas pumps and in our attendant uniforms twirling around drumsticks and guitars with our shades on. We would wear the uniforms onstage and then pull them off as some of the wilder numbers we played progressed. We also had Union 76 baseball hats to hide our long hair. The unies even had our name tags! This was a ploy to get hired for weddings and bah mitzvahs, which will come into play later. My stage name was John Diamond. Hey we were close to Hollywood and everyone needs a stage name. I got this name from a B rated soft skin flick called "House of Cats". It was a name the pimp in the movie used and I thought it had some great possibilities.

Here's something about a stage name you may not know. You really have to live that name and be that alter ego or it will kick you in the butt. A person will be talking to you and use the name John. You are living in Rick, and it doesn't work out. You will be wondering who they are talking to and they will think you are spaced out. So when you take that stage name you have to live it.

We went with mostly Fender gear. The bass that the Beatles played was god-awful and it just was a testament to McCartney's greatness that he could get that sound from that instrument. I went with the jazz bass, even though my hero, James Jamerson of Motown used a P Bass. The Jazz had a thinner neck and worked best for me.

So we mostly had all our instruments and went over to Ace Pawn and paid 25 a week for a PA system. Tiny's girlfriend's dad unknowingly signed over his car as collateral, but it all worked out. It was killer. Also a pain, because setting up and breaking down was a chore. We went to the woodshed and learned 50 songs and had them down cold. They were all the show stoppers....Satisfaction, Louie Louie, the Jolly Green Giant, Under My Thumb, I aint
Gonna Eat out My Heart anymore, Bring it On Home to Me. I sang most of the wild songs. On some of them Tiny played Bass for me so I could hit the splits and do some flips off the amps. Daring moves, but crowd pleasers. Tiny sang the Tear Jerkers and slow ones, not to mention back up vocals. He was a musical genius in that he could play it all....Sax, Keys,Drums and all Guitars. Plus his voice was a few octaves higher and it made for a good combo. Bart was our guitarist. He was an Army vet that did two tours in Nam and didn't give a damn. The funniest guy in the world. Magic Mike was drums, and he could put up a heavy beat all night long. This guy never got tired.

Our first gig was at Al's Cocktail Lounge in Culver City. We decided to not do the weed or anything because of all the stunts we had to pull off. We also cooled it pretty much on the booze. Think about it, Tiny going Airborn on stage. This is not some little wimpy guy like the Jonas Brothers, but a full blown athlete that was six eight! At Al's we brought a pretty big crowd. Ex jocks, some of the SC football team, surfers, future groupies and more. This worked good because Al's could swing country at any time and this way we dominated with rock music and they had no choice when we played the show stopper "Its a Mans World" with Tiny belting it out, followed by yours truly doing "Twine Time" by Alvin Cash and the Nightcrawlers and ending with the psychedelic version of Annie Had a Baby. The crowd went nuts.

There are crazy things that happen at these gigs. That night in the parking lot, I was by myself and listened to a lovely conversation between a guy getting off work and his girlfriend. They were sitting in his dump truck. He hadn't showered or anything and was pure grime head to toe, and was making his intentions known! She was yelling something about him being married, but it didn't seem to stop them from having a dump truck love affair. In fact, I coined the song "Dump Truck Love Affair" for our first album from this very incident.

Back then there was a band in every bar. We knew we were getting hot and our musicianship was getting better with every gig. When we made a mistake we covered it fast and only we knew. Plus we hired 2 hot chicks, Gina and Lori, to dance certain numbers. The crowd was in a semi riot state, but in a good way most every night. We only had a problem when Bart or Magic Mike would drink more than the bands pay. But that was cool too. On those nights tips were usually good and would get us by. Remember, back then bands made about what they do in todays age.

One night, Bob Morgan, the hottest DJ in LA came in and saw us and hired us for his daily show that was sandwiched around Where the Action is and Hullabaloo. Then we took off and were really working. We could quit our day jobs. Private parties and great gigs. We had our first original "You got a Killer Body, but a Psycho Mind". One of the lines was " Youre beautiful baby and I love ya, but ya treated me unkind...OOOOH yeah, ya got a psycho mind." Of course it went over great and was requested by our following, which was growing by leaps and bounds every day.

After gigs, we would go to Tiny's pad and jam and play acoustics and bongos till 5 in the morning with various friends....TO BE CONTINUED