Perhaps trying to
recapture the glory of the Reflections, another new pop
group made their debut at Golden World towards the end of '65.
Known as the Sunliners,
their drummer, Pete Rivera had a hand in the production of their
one off release, "The swingin' kind" c/w
"All alone".
Pete recalls,
"When we got the invite to go to Golden World we got
very excited. I remember going there with my drums and
working with Sonny Sanders. We were putting a couple of
songs together, and I remember meeting Ed Wingate for the
first time and thinking "What a far out dude he
was....I still see his fingernails in my mind....long, long,
and funky. Ed was a nice man. "
Ralph
Terrana was still
with the Sunliners when he first met Ed. "We were without a
contract and were going to do some
recording to see if we could get a deal.
"Before he got hot
with Shades of Blue, John Rhys
Eddins approached us with a song he had
written, and suggested we go along to Golden World to record
it, as it was the best studio in town.
"During the
session, a storm knocked power out for a while, so,
we decided to send out for food while we waited for the
power to come back on. The food arrived, and we were sitting around the
control room eating it when this huge guy came walking in.
"John
greeted him as Uncle Ed, and introduced us.
"We invited him to eat with
us. He was quite a sight, his suit didn't seem to fit very
well and the pants cuffs were almost dragging on the floor. For some
reason I kind of felt sorry for him, he
was such a big, friendly guy.
"Once we began
talking however it soon became apparent that this was Ed Wingate, the
owner of Golden World.
"During the next week
or two he heard what was coming out of
the studio and approached us about signing with Golden
World. He had us meet
with JoAnne
Bratton who was handling the business for the studio.
"She
was knock down gorgeous.
"Anyway,
we signed with the company, and recorded 'Heart of the
City'. It was a great song but it was never released due to
Ed's superstitions.
"Unfortunately,
someone had just had a big 45 with a song which contained the word
'city' in the title
and that was enough for ours to be shelved. I often think
about that song and would love to hear it again.
"Thinking back, Ed
was a real character. I always remember Al Kent passing on
the secret of knowing if Ed was around or not. If you weren't sure, you
could go to the front door and look at the
entrance throw rug. Ed
kind of shuffled when he walked, so if the
rug was messed up, he was in the studio.
"My brother Russ likes to
recall one of Ed's famous moments.
"One day at
Golden World,
Wingate came in. He had just won a bundle at the horse
races (in fact, I think he owned race horses). He went into the studio and I think he stopped a recording
session and told everyone to leave the floor. So
everyone went into
the control room and watched in amazement as he began to
throw tons of cash into the
air."
I have heard from a
number of sources that Wingate was a very generous man,
especially when the hits were flowing.
Ralph summed him up.
"We had a long and
great friendship with
Uncle Ed. He absolutely loved my brother and me and we loved
him. He was
quite a guy."
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