Senators / Valiants / World Column / New World Interview

[boba]

Hi. Last Sunday I did a very interesting interview with Delroy Bridgeman, a member of many groups to come out of the East Chicago / Gary Indiana soul scene.

Delroy first started singing in elementary school in the mid-50s, inspired by the earlier East Chicago group the Dream Kings, the Gary group the Spaniels, and the Harvey group the Dells. In high school in the late 50s, in the tenor section of the choral club, Delroy formed the Senators. The Senators were a mixed-race group that recorded "Scheming" / "Tafu" (along with two unreleased tracks) for the Bristol record label out of Hammond, IN. The record got some local play in Chicago and the group even appeared on the Jim Lounsbury dance show. Although they were not supposed to be performing R&B material in the choral club, their choral club director Mr. Croxton became the group's manager and encouraged the group to enter a talent show in Gary, IN, competing for a recording contract for Vee Jay records. The Senators won the talent show and ended up releasing a record "It doesn't matter" / "Julie" on Vee Jay's Abner subsidiary (they also recorded two more unreleased tracks for Vee Jay). The record received some local play and the group continued to do local shows. The group soon disbanded after the members graduated and entered college.

After entering college for a year and then joining the military, Bridgeman moved to Gary, IN in 1964. Bridgeman formed a new group called the Valiants with singers he knew back from his hometown of East Chicago (including Fred Kelly, oldest brother of Rose Kelly, lead singer of the Opals, and Ludie Washington, later a solo singer and one of the founders of Steeltown records). The group released a record, produced by Gordon Keith. The record -- "Tell me tell me whatcha gonna do" / "I shed a tear" -- was licensed to Chicago's Destination records and had a nice uptempo sound that got some local Chicago and Gary play (Indiana45s.com also lists a second 45 by the group on the Steeltown label). The record was not really successful and the group never really performed, breaking up after less than a year.

Delroy continued to be involved with music after the Valiants broke up. One of the next recordings Delroy was involved with was a duet released on Steeltown records as Kenneth and Delroy released around 1967 called "I shed a tear". Delroy remembers that Kenneth was a guitarist around Gary but doesn't remember his last name; their intention was to record as a Sam and Dave-styled duo. Unfortunately the record was not very good and did not sell well (Delroy's name is even misspelled on most copies of the record).

Delroy continued to be involved with the Gary music scene, even helping with the early Jackson Five recordings, driving the group around to rehearsals and driving them to their Big Boy recording sessions. He even added extra backing vocals to the recording later when the record was being mixed in the studio.

The next recording group that Delroy got involved with was a band called the World Column. The World Column was originally a White rock group from Munster, IN (with one vocalist Dave Meyer). The group originally brought in Black gary vocalist Bob Redding who brought in Joe Odum and Delroy Bridgeman into the band as additional vocalists, making the band a mixed-race rock / soul band that played a range of material in mainly white rock clubs in Indiana. The band cut 2 45s, one on Atco (probably before Redding and Delroy joined) and one on Tower records. "So is the Sun" became a Northern Soul classic in England in the 70s. The group ultimately drifted apart as the Black members of the group wanted to focus on more R&B psychedelic music (such as Sly Stone) while the white members of the group wanted make more heavy-metal oriented music in the style of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

Bob Redding soon formed a new band called the New World, with both a band and a vocal lineup that included Delroy, Doyle Cole (prevously of the Passions / New Day) and female vocalist Maxine Crayton (who had previously recorded on Steeltown). The New World performed on a similar circuit as the World Column, doing more R&B oriented material. The group signed a contract with Curtom records; however, when Curtom recorded the group, they used the Curtom house musicians and did not use the New World band. Curtom released on Single on the group, "Help the man" / "We're gonna make it" on Polydor records, produced by Rich Tufo in 1972. "We're gonna make it" had an excellent Curtis Mayfield "Move on up" inspired groove, and has become a club classic overseas in the last few years; unfortunately it was released as the b-side of the record and most copies were released as single-sided promos and the other side did not hit. At one point before Maxine Crayton joined the group the group even passed on female member Chaka Kahn (who later joined Rufus after the New World passed). The group stayed together for only a few months after the Polydor record was released. Most of the members left music to focus on their careers.

Delroy currently sings in a doowop revival group called "Just Friends", which features John Coleman of the Passions, and a couple of members of the Goldenrods.

You can check out the interview at the bottom of my interviews page at:

https://www.sittinginthepark.com/interviews.html

thanks,

Bob

[Guest James Trouble]

Thanks for that, Boba

[boba]

Thanks for that, Boba

one funny piece of info from the interview. Lou Washington went to LA to become an actor:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0913497/

you can see him at 3:10 in this weird al video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pf9ZTeqVAc&

[boba]

one funny piece of info from the interview. Lou Washington went to LA to become an actor:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0913497/

you can see him at 3:10 in this weird al video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pf9ZTeqVAc&