Last year, veteran Milwaukee musician and Cudahy High School shop teachers Paul Barry – now living part of the year in Florida and part in Watertown – shared the story of The Benders.
Barry, a Kenosha native perhaps best known these days as the driving force behind Barry’s Truckers, formed The Benders in 1966 while at UW-Stout, and the group recorded two songs – "Can’t Tame Me" and "Got Me Down" – at a local studio and pressed up some copies on a 45 with a black and white picture sleeve.
Because the gritty garage sound – which Lenny Kaye championed on his "Nuggets" series of discs and which Steven Van Zandt spins on his respected radio show – remains popular with a segment of vinyl collectors, it was only a matter of time before The Benders’ 45 got rediscovered.
That happened and now copies can fetch upwards of $2,000 a shot. A recent one sold on eBay for $1,680.
"I put one up on eBay two weeks ago," says Barry, who is currently in Wisconsin. "I continue to be amazed. Here's our little record that never made the charts or got airplay selling for way more money than a collectable Buddy Holly 45. I don't get it but I sure not complaining."
At the moment Barry’s got one of the empty picture sleeves up there and its already got three bids, but is topping out at $10 at the moment.
That resurge in interest, however, has Barry and his former bandmates organizing a musical bender in Milwaukee in the coming days.
"The band was made up of Gerry Cain on lead guitar, Tom Noftke on rhythm guitar, Geno Jansen on bass and myself on drums and lead vocals. Gerry and I reconnected a few years back when I was playing in Menomonee, Mich. – Gerry's current home – with Barry’s Truckers. So we've kept in touch. We found out, sadly, that Tom has passed away."
Barry says he’d lost touch with some of the others, but the recent media interest in the Benders’ new-found glory, rectified that situation.
"We hadn't had any contact with Geno since college and didn't know how to contact him. Well, it turns out he has a sister living in Antigo and she saw the article, contacted Geno, and he in turn got a hold of Gerry and myself. He is currently living in Texas."
Contact is made and one thing leads to another ...
"We get talking and just off the cuff I say, ‘won't it be cool if we could all get together again.’ To my surprise he's all excited and says, ‘let’s do it’ and volunteers to drive up from Texas next weekend. So the reunion is on."
Though The Benders’ reunion will, at least this time ‘round, be a private affair – there is no public performance planned – it’s a first step and who knows?
"(I) have no clue how all this will go but it should be a real hoot," says Barry. "We'll be swapping old band stories, drinking some beer, jamming and even doing some recording.
"Some of the recording will be done in my home studio here in Watertown and some will be done in a studio in Cudahy. I bought a old grocery store in Cudahy. I lived there for many years while I was teaching. I lived upstairs and built a full blown studio on the lower level. I ended up selling the place 8 years ago to Guy Fiorentini, who now runs the studio. So (it's) another reunion as I return to the studio that built from the ground up.
"Since we'll only be together for one weekend I don't know how much we'll get done but it sure will be fun."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
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