PSPOT

"The universe is permeated with the odor of kerosene!"

GONN is officially in The Iowa RockNRoll Music Association Hall Of Fame!! Thanks to all that nominated and helped promote them over the last 8 months. PROJECT: GONN was launched on April 2003, and the fans all over the world got them in. Here is the abbreviated news release:

NEWS RELEASE

(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 1/2/04)

"From the performer who substituted at the last minute when that plane went down outside of Clear Lake, to a gal who wowed the crowds while still a child herself, and a ballroom that fell victim to fire, the 2004 Iowa RockNRoll Music Association Hall of Fame inductees have left their mark on all those who heard them or were touched by their musical expertise. From Southeast Iowa, the honorees include GONN of Keokuk. The "Class of 2004" will be inducted on Sunday, Sept. 5 at the Roof Garden in Arnolds Park during Labor Day weekend Hall of Fame Induction Spectacular festivities."

I hope to see some of you at the event! You can explore The Iowa RockNRoll Music Association website that lives at PSPOTSVILLE-LINKS for more info as it arrives.

AN ILLUSTRATED TRIBUTE TO GONN

Gonn was from Keokuk, IA, and they wrote what was to become one of THEE 60's garage-punk staples, a masterpiece, in the Spring/Early Summer of 1966! "Blackout Of Gretely" has Craig Moore's blood-curdling yell, Rex Garrett's powerful fuzz guitar riff, and a grip that will not let go until the very end of its 4 minutes and 29 seconds. The band is punk rock, but a full ten years before it had a name. They took the power chords and attitude of bands such as The Kinks and Rolling Stones and added their own high-octane formula to the mix. Gonn IS 60's garage/punk rock!

"Blackout Of Gretely" 1966 (Emir 9217) -- Only 600 copies were ever pressed

I have had the honor and opportunity to get to know the band members during this year and have communicated with Craig Moore on and off over the last few years via e-mail. As many of you know PROJECT: GONN was my focus from its start in April 2003 to their induction. I started this project to get Gonn inducted into The Iowa RockNRoll Music Association Hall Of Fame. Fans from all over the world nominated and promoted the band, and the results of the project have been successful. GONN is now permanently enshrined where they deserve to be. Again, the band and I THANK YOU all for your efforts!

PERSONNEL:

Craig Moore-Vocals, bass ((AB)

Rex Garrett-lead guitar, vocals (AB)

Gerry Gabel-organ, vocals (AB)

Gary Stepp-guitar (A)

Brent Colvin-drums (A)

Larry LaMaster-guitar (B)

Dave Johnson-drums (B)

</DIR></DIR>

Here are some e-mails from Craig regarding the band:

8/6/01

THE PSPOT: "How did you come up with the name GONN?"

CRAIG: "It was the 60's, hip words were everywhere, band names had to be cool. "Gone" was a hip word. Even in the 50's, "real gone, man...", etc. We were throwing words and names around, we were almost "The Trees" after "The Leaves" - We had been The Pagans before but when Rex joined his mom thought it was disrespectful! It was time for a change anyway. I think Rex said "Gone" and I said "with 2 N's" since we knew a great band we idolized in Ottumwa, Iowa, called "MADD" with 2 D's, and clever spellings had been cool since The Beatles, Byrds, Cyrkle, etc. So GONN with 2 N's it was. It served several purposes, and we liked it. With NO "The" by the way, we were ADAMANT that no one call us "The Gonn"- we HATED that. And still to this day any one of us will quite unceremoniously correct you if you use "the."

THE PSPOT: "Where specifically was the famous GONN publicity photo taken? (The one of the band posing by the stone wall)."

CRAIG: "That was the old trestle of the 7th Street bridge between Keokuk and 'West Keokuk'. It's gone now or we would've had it on all the new photos too, absolutely."

4/19/03 & 5/4/03

THE PSPOT: "What inspired the spoken intro to "Blackout Of Gretely"?

CRAIG: "Paraphrase of some sci-fi writer quoted (mangled) by Peter Tork on a Monkees episode, he made a joke out of it, but I altered it again and made it very serious. Fit nicely with the obscurity of the story line in the song......Tork's line caught my ear though he was obviously just being cute. I actually forgot I heard it from him but when I came out with it I thought it was potentially very sinister as 'kerosene' (jet fuel, explosives, danger) and I believe it is a paraphrase from a sci-fi writer, name unknown to me. I recalled the Tork connection years later in an interview. Wasn't sure if it would diminish Gonn's version or not, being connected to a Monkee, but hey that's where it started! Facts are facts! Hey Hey We're The Monkees Fans too! We watched all that stuff religiously, The Monkees, Batman, Where The Action Is, Munsters, Shindig, etc. This was also the era of 'Dirty Water', 'Psychotic Reaction', 'Satisfaction', 'Shapes Of Things', & 'Heart Full Of Soul', all these fuzz-tone riff songs---so you mix English Literature, Science Fiction, O'Henry, The Monkees & West Coast psychedelia, run it all through a teenage punk band into a Fender amp through a FuzzTone, turn it way up, and you've got 'Blackout Of Gretely.' There you go!"

******"the universe is permeated with the odor of turpentine" is from The Monkees episode #4-YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD KIDNAPPERS". It is located at the end of the show during an interview segment.****** (Thanks to Cindy Denham for this info!)

THE PSPOT: "What was the inspiration to 'Doin' Me In?"

CRAIG: "General teen angst, I was just SCREAMING and what better subject matter than a girl? Eric Burdon & everybody else was!"

THE PSPOT: "What was the biggest crowd Gonn played for and where?"

CRAIG: "Probably the Iowa State Fair in 1966-1968, and some of the Burlington Auditorium shows with The American Breed, The Trolls, and other Chicago biggies"

THE PSPOT: "Did 'Blackout Of Gretely' chart locally?"

CRAIG: "CHART? It only got played on the radio maybe twice. Much too long!!!!"

AND FINALLY: THE ORIGIN, MEANING AND LYRICS TO "BLACKOUT OF GRETELY"!

9/21/99 & 5/4/03

Craig: "Hi Brian. There is a book called "The Blackout In Gretley" about an event in England in WWII, real or fictional, I don't know. But, Gerry Gabel was reading this book & had it at practice one day when we were about to do a recording session and going to write a song. The title inspired me to write the lyrics that I did, and being an O'Henry fan......I was reading O'Henry in High School & Junior College (his stories all have a 'twist' at the end), I wanted to write lyrics with a twist at the end (also). The words have nothing to do with the book, but it gave me a title and at the time I always started with a title when writing lyrics or poetry. There you have it!"

8/4/01

Craig: "The book is long out of print. It was a WWII story, literally about a blackout in England, fictional I think.

LYRICS to "Blackout"

I was walking down the street at night, thinking in my mind that my life was right, the moon came up and I looked around, the street lights were on nowhere around.

My eyes were dark and my heart beat fast, I knew that my dark side could not last

It was dark as it could be, a deep sea diver could not see, cars were driving with high beam, you couldn't even tell if Mr. Clean was clean.

I lit a match and I walked on home, my night side dark time cold and alone, walked in my door and to my surprise, I had sunglasses on my eyes

Craig Moore, 1966

(c) Kimerik Music (Craig Moore/Rex Garrett)

It was my attempt to write a song with an O'Henry ending, the author who always closed his stories with a twist.

"Blackout In Gretley" book (by J.B. Priestley 1942)