COMMUNITY MOMENTS & MEMORIES
by Howard Silver
This past Sunday, Ann and I attended a Bakersfield Community Concert Association performance. The program was THE FOUR PREPS. The group was formed by four students in 1954. This is the type of music I enjoy. The lead singer is Bruce Belland and he is from the original group. In 1954 they started out by singing songs from their idols "The Crew Cuts and The four Lads". The song which made them famous is "26 miles". Dick Clark called it the first surfer hit. The group disbanded in 1969 and started up again in 1989 with Dave Somerville of the Diamonds and Jim Pike of the Letterman. I mention the history and you can check them out on the web. I have attached two pictures taken by a friend in the audience. After intermission Bruce announced they were going to do a Doo Wop number and there was a special person in the audience they wanted to come on stage and join with them. I sat there thinking someone has set me up. Yup, I was correct. They requested Howard Silver come up on stage. Don't remember the name of the song but I had to sing a chorus of something like siske do siske do siske do wap . Also during the song they sang about one's heart, mind at which time I had to touch my heart and forehead and they counted to four at which time I had to put the correct number of fingers in the air and then do a pelvic thrust. Every time I was to do the thrust Bruce slapped my backside at which time I would slap his hand. The audience must of enjoyed it because most of the 1800 people in attendance were laughing and clapping. I did manage to banter a little bit with Bruce at which time he told me they were the act not me. More laughs from the audience.
This past Sunday, Ann and I attended a Bakersfield Community Concert Association performance. The program was THE FOUR PREPS. The group was formed by four students in 1954. This is the type of music I enjoy. The lead singer is Bruce Belland and he is from the original group. In 1954 they started out by singing songs from their idols "The Crew Cuts and The four Lads". The song which made them famous is "26 miles". Dick Clark called it the first surfer hit. The group disbanded in 1969 and started up again in 1989 with Dave Somerville of the Diamonds and Jim Pike of the Letterman. I mention the history and you can check them out on the web. I have attached two pictures taken by a friend in the audience. After intermission Bruce announced they were going to do a Doo Wop number and there was a special person in the audience they wanted to come on stage and join with them. I sat there thinking someone has set me up. Yup, I was correct. They requested Howard Silver come up on stage. Don't remember the name of the song but I had to sing a chorus of something like siske do siske do siske do wap . Also during the song they sang about one's heart, mind at which time I had to touch my heart and forehead and they counted to four at which time I had to put the correct number of fingers in the air and then do a pelvic thrust. Every time I was to do the thrust Bruce slapped my backside at which time I would slap his hand. The audience must of enjoyed it because most of the 1800 people in attendance were laughing and clapping. I did manage to banter a little bit with Bruce at which time he told me they were the act not me. More laughs from the audience.
