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The Times Square Two
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dgri...@videotron.ca
May 21, 2012, 10:47:38 PM5/21/12
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Have you ever heard of The Times Square Two?
The Times Square Two was an extremely eccentric 2-man act of music, comedy, acting and juggling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_Square_Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYFaRUIoLGg
…They had a three-week run off-Broadway and toured the U. K. with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention.
They were active from 1964 to 1970, so looking at The Gig List:
http://members.shaw.ca/fz-pomd/giglist/1969.html
An attendee reported “jugglers” as the opening act on June 3, 1969 in Bristol. It looks like we have a match.
But there are more FZ connections:
One half of the Times Square Two was French-Canadian Michel Choquette, he became a personal friend of FZ, but he was also a friend of Robert Charlebois.
In an October 23, 2006 La Presse (Montreal French newspaper) article, Charlebois mentions that, probably in 1969, Choquette had introduced him to FZ.
Charlebois also recalls that after the June 29, 1974 FZ gig in Montreal, they (FZ & RC) were in Old Montreal and that’s when he told FZ about a song he was working on “Petroleum”. He asked him if he would play guitar on it, FZ said “Sure, find me a good guitar and I’ll do it. They spent the following afternoon recording the song. Marcel Beauchamp told the story to Román back in 2001;
http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/related/Swing_Charlebois_Swing.html
I suppose that FZ didn’t have access to his guitar(s) because it probably was on its way to Ottawa with the rest of the equipment for the July 1st concert at the Civic Center.
Luckily, June 30th had been left free to be able to reschedule the June 29th Montreal gig in case it would rain, “Place des Nations” was an outdoor venue. Reviews or the concert mention that the scheduled opening act, Maneige, did not perform because of menacing weather and to get on with the FZ concert as soon as possible.
Had the concert been postponed to the 30th, the FZ/RC/Petroleum contribution might have not happened.
But let’s get back to Michel Choquette;
After Times Square Two broke up, he went on to work for National Lampoon Magazine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Choquette
- During the 1970s, Choquette put together The Someday Funnies, a large collection of original comics about the 1960s created especially for the book by 169 writers and artists. The book was released by Abrams on November 1, 2011.
One of the stories “The Curtain Comes Up” was created by FZ (text) and Cal Schenkel (art).
This was discussed on the Zappateers forum a few months ago;
http://www.zappateers.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=23250
DG
The Times Square Two was an extremely eccentric 2-man act of music, comedy, acting and juggling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_Square_Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYFaRUIoLGg
…They had a three-week run off-Broadway and toured the U. K. with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention.
They were active from 1964 to 1970, so looking at The Gig List:
http://members.shaw.ca/fz-pomd/giglist/1969.html
An attendee reported “jugglers” as the opening act on June 3, 1969 in Bristol. It looks like we have a match.
But there are more FZ connections:
One half of the Times Square Two was French-Canadian Michel Choquette, he became a personal friend of FZ, but he was also a friend of Robert Charlebois.
In an October 23, 2006 La Presse (Montreal French newspaper) article, Charlebois mentions that, probably in 1969, Choquette had introduced him to FZ.
Charlebois also recalls that after the June 29, 1974 FZ gig in Montreal, they (FZ & RC) were in Old Montreal and that’s when he told FZ about a song he was working on “Petroleum”. He asked him if he would play guitar on it, FZ said “Sure, find me a good guitar and I’ll do it. They spent the following afternoon recording the song. Marcel Beauchamp told the story to Román back in 2001;
http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/related/Swing_Charlebois_Swing.html
I suppose that FZ didn’t have access to his guitar(s) because it probably was on its way to Ottawa with the rest of the equipment for the July 1st concert at the Civic Center.
Luckily, June 30th had been left free to be able to reschedule the June 29th Montreal gig in case it would rain, “Place des Nations” was an outdoor venue. Reviews or the concert mention that the scheduled opening act, Maneige, did not perform because of menacing weather and to get on with the FZ concert as soon as possible.
Had the concert been postponed to the 30th, the FZ/RC/Petroleum contribution might have not happened.
But let’s get back to Michel Choquette;
After Times Square Two broke up, he went on to work for National Lampoon Magazine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Choquette
- During the 1970s, Choquette put together The Someday Funnies, a large collection of original comics about the 1960s created especially for the book by 169 writers and artists. The book was released by Abrams on November 1, 2011.
One of the stories “The Curtain Comes Up” was created by FZ (text) and Cal Schenkel (art).
This was discussed on the Zappateers forum a few months ago;
http://www.zappateers.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=23250
DG
Charles Ulrich
Jun 1, 2012, 11:10:48 PM6/1/12
to
In article <9e9b2ec4-71a3-4977...@googlegroups.com>,
checked with her. These were indeed the duo she told me about seeing
perform at the interval of a Mothers concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYFaRUIoLGg
She specifically remembered the two guys playing one guitar, as seen
here.
She's been wondering for forty-five years (maybe only forty-three) who
those guys were.
> ŠThey had a three-week run off-Broadway and toured the U. K. with Frank Zappa
concert (as well as one of the 10/25/68 Royal Festival Hall (Ahead Of
Their Time) concerts).
She doesn't remember seeing the MOI at the RAH a second time, but she
can't rule it out. 6/6/69 was just a week before she moved to the States.
She's sure she saw the Times Square Two at the RAH, not the RFH. So it
was either 1967 or 1969.
If the TST really "toured the UK" with the MOI, it must have been in
1969, since 9/23/67 London was the MOI's only UK gig in 1967.
--Charles
dgri...@videotron.ca wrote:
> Have you ever heard of The Times Square Two?
> The Times Square Two was an extremely eccentric 2-man act of music, comedy,
> acting and juggling.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_Square_Two
My wife thanks you, Denis! The wikipedia description rang a bell, so I
> Have you ever heard of The Times Square Two?
> The Times Square Two was an extremely eccentric 2-man act of music, comedy,
> acting and juggling.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Times_Square_Two
checked with her. These were indeed the duo she told me about seeing
perform at the interval of a Mothers concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYFaRUIoLGg
She specifically remembered the two guys playing one guitar, as seen
here.
She's been wondering for forty-five years (maybe only forty-three) who
those guys were.
> ŠThey had a three-week run off-Broadway and toured the U. K. with Frank Zappa
> and The Mothers of Invention.
> They were active from 1964 to 1970, so looking at The Gig List:
> http://members.shaw.ca/fz-pomd/giglist/1969.html
> An attendee reported ³jugglers² as the opening act on June 3, 1969 in
> Bristol. It looks like we have a match.
Donna definitely attended the 9/23/67 Royal Albert Hall (Louie Louie)
> They were active from 1964 to 1970, so looking at The Gig List:
> http://members.shaw.ca/fz-pomd/giglist/1969.html
> An attendee reported ³jugglers² as the opening act on June 3, 1969 in
> Bristol. It looks like we have a match.
concert (as well as one of the 10/25/68 Royal Festival Hall (Ahead Of
Their Time) concerts).
She doesn't remember seeing the MOI at the RAH a second time, but she
can't rule it out. 6/6/69 was just a week before she moved to the States.
She's sure she saw the Times Square Two at the RAH, not the RFH. So it
was either 1967 or 1969.
If the TST really "toured the UK" with the MOI, it must have been in
1969, since 9/23/67 London was the MOI's only UK gig in 1967.
--Charles
dgri...@videotron.ca
Jun 2, 2012, 12:12:53 AM6/2/12
to
>
> My wife thanks you, Denis! The wikipedia description rang a bell, so I
> checked with her. These were indeed the duo she told me about seeing
> perform at the interval of a Mothers concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
>
She's welcome.
> My wife thanks you, Denis! The wikipedia description rang a bell, so I
> checked with her. These were indeed the duo she told me about seeing
> perform at the interval of a Mothers concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
>
> If the TST really "toured the UK" with the MOI, it must have been in
> 1969, since 9/23/67 London was the MOI's only UK gig in 1967.
DG
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