Peoria High Rocks

By Rick Simpkins, Class of 1975​​

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 I was asked by Bill Robertson President of the Peoria High Alumni Association if I could find the Peoria high students who played in rock bands that were around in the glory days of the 60’s and 70’s.  He had just seen the old Bergner's commercial on YouTube featuring The Shags and was wondering who from Peoria High were in some of those bands.   So, I called up my good friend Dan Sutton, who is one of those great musicians from our high school, to see if he could help me out.  But before I begin telling you about Dan and all the great musicians, I must tell you a little about how I got into a band.

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You see I have played in a rock band since I was in 8th grade.  My first job was on the playground at the old Loucks Grade School.  Like all the musicians I will be naming later in this article, it's safe to say we all got the fever to be in a band on February 9, 1964.  Yes, it was that historical night on live television, on the “Ed Sullivan Show”. We all saw for the first time in our lives the most amazing thing, The Beatles!   The music, the hair, the clothes, the guitars and drums, the screaming girls, John, Paul, George and Ringo were an instant inspiration!  Our lives would never be the same.  I was only seven years old at the time so I had to wait a few years before I could hit the stage.  But the older boys in junior high and high school were out the very next day buying every guitar, keyboard and drum set in the city of Peoria.

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Being the youngest in our family I got to sit back and watch Beatlemania take over our household.  Instead of listening to my dad’s big band albums, we were listening to every album and 45 record that my brothers and sisters could buy at the Arlan’s and Spartan’s stores on University Street.  Soon my brother and sisters started bringing home all the music that the new artists from both the good old USA and British Invasion were putting out.  We loved watching the television shows that featured those bands on our wonderful black and white TV.  I remember us watching “Shindig”, “Where the Action Is”, “American Bandstand”, “Hullabaloo” and of course “The Ed Sullivan Show”.

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My first experience hearing a band live was in my back yard.  Our Neighbor Michelle Gipson, who was in my brother Jim’s class, was able to have a band at her 8th grade graduation party in her backyard which just happened to be right behind my house.  My brother of course told me not to come anywhere near the party or he would kill me.  Well, I wasn’t going to let that stop me.  I had to hear the band.  So, I knew if I waited until it got dark outside than there would be enough bushes in our backyard to hide in, but still be able to see and hear the band.  I was mesmerized by the music, the equipment, everyone dancing; it was so awesome!  All I could think about was starting my own band.  My next encounter with a live band was at the Loucks School Carnival.  The band was called “Fuzzy Dice”.  What an awesome name!  The band members were Gary Needham (bass) who lived up street from our house, Johnny Parkhurst (guitar), whose sister Nancy was in my class, and Dan Sutton whose brother Bill was in my sister Mary Ellen’s class. I couldn’t believe it, a band made up of Loucks School boys.  It was so cool!  The band practiced at the Parkhurst house on Margaret Street which was right next to my friend Jerry Davison’s house.  So, Jerry and I were at that house every time they practiced, listening in their driveway, dreaming of starting a band of our own.

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Well as the years passed by, I finally got my first guitar.  My mom was kind enough to save up her S/H Green Stamps (remember those?) collected from the grocery store, to get me one.  However, she made one stipulation before I could get the guitar.  I had to learn how to play the cello and be in the Loucks School orchestra.  After a long year of learning to play that thing/cello, I got the guitar.  It was a dream come true! I needed lessons, so mom called around and found the cheapest priced lessons at Jerry’s Guitar Center on Main Street.  God blessed me when mom chose Jerry’s Guitar Center because I had one more hurdle to jump.   My dad did not like the new music of the 60’s, but he was a huge Cub fan and went to Arizona with his buddies to spring training every year.  Well Jerry, the owner of the guitar store, also was a huge Cub fan and loved talking baseball with my dad.  So, the problem was solved, and it was off to my lesson with my dad every Saturday.  I loved going to Jerry’s to see the newest guitars and amps that came in each week.  Over the years I had some wonderful guitar teachers.   I finally put a band together in seventh grade.  There was a minor detail though, I had an acoustic guitar, and I needed an electric guitar and amp to be able to play loud enough to be heard in the band.  The next problem I had with getting an electric guitar started with my school report card, you see I had just gotten C-grade in conduct.  My dad was not too happy about my bad habit of talking to my friends too much combined with not paying attention in class.  My dad said no electric guitar until I brought up my conduct grade to an A!  The grading periods in District 150 were only six weeks long back then so I tried as hard as I could to keep my mouth shut but I only got a B+.  Dad still said no to the electric guitar until I got an A.  I cried!  I tried so hard for the next six weeks to get that A.  The teacher, Mr. Craig, told me it all depended on that last week of the grading period as to what my grade would be.  I really don’t think I deserved an A, but thankfully he gave it to me.  Bless you, Mr. Craig!  He got twelve weeks of no disruptions from me in his class, and I finally got the electric guitar.   We both got something out of that experience.  To this day I can still see the look of disbelief on my dad’s face when I showed him my report card!   And yes, I got the electric guitar and that Spring we got to play at the Loucks School Carnival.  It was everything I dreamed it would be, I was in a real band!

 High school finally arrived, and I got to go to my first mixer dance in the foyer.  Everybody remembers those dances.   The band that night was called “Gulliver”.   And in the band was Dan Sutton, on keyboard, playing that awesome B3 organ with Johnny Parkhurst playing his amazing red Gibson SG.  It wasn’t Fuzzy Dice anymore; it was even better.  They were fabulous!  I can still to this day, hear them playing “Black Magic Woman” by Santana!  I also remember two boys getting into a fight that night.  Officer John Stenson, who later became the police chief in Peoria, had both boys by the neck and within seconds had escorted them out the door.  What excitement we had in the good old foyer!​