Play your Music: A fan's perspective and true story about the Philadelphia rock band Tommy C

By Kristine Hansen

A fan's perspective, true story, and teenage adventures of following the Philadelphia rock band Tommy Conwell and The Young Rumblers and other Philadelphia bands from the 1980's . This book tells the true story of the rise to stardom and where this band is at in their career today. It also tells the story of the author's teenage adventures following this great band and her experiences with other Philadelphia area bands as well. It is a celebration of Philadelphia music and mentions other Philadelphia area bands some who also made the big time and signed to national record deals at the time and others that remained locally famous. It's an inspiring story to give recognition to Tommy Conwell and The Young Rumblers and other Philadelphia bands such as The Hooters, Robert Hazard and the Heroes, John Eddie and The front street runners,, Pretty Poison, The A's , Berue Revue, Bricklin, Dynagroove, Heaven's Edge, Cinderella, Separate Checks, The Rivals, and others in the Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Delaware area.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098318666

Book preview

Play your Music

A fan’s perspective and true story about the Philadelphia rock band Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers and other Philly bands

©2016, 2019, 2020 Kristine Hansen

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

print ISBN: 978-1-09831-7379

ebook ISbn: 978-1-09831-866-6

Acknowledgments:

This book is dedicated to my dear friend Luke Ostertag who is also Tommy Conwell’s cousin and one of the most talented and knowledgeable people of The Young Rumblers road crew and one of the greatest people I have ever known.I love you Luke, you rock buddy!

Thanks to: Colleen Naomi Craft Helm thank you for the memories.

Thanks to: Editing by Valerie Palmer

Thanks to: Michael F. Hansen, Bernice P. Hansen, Carol Craft, Don Craft, Donna Hethcote, and Frank Ferris for always taking us to see this great band.

Thanks to: Michelle Jones, Katy Spence, Mike Hansen, Emily Franco, Tony Mowen, Brian Malone, Andy Razzano, Lisa Vandiver. Also, to the teenage pen pals of mine who are missing in action Sandy Snyder, Loren Snyder, Jen Rothenberger, Karen Farrell, and Heather Walters.

Thanks go out to Tommy Conwell, Chris Day, Rob Miller, Jim Hannum, and Paul Slivka for giving us great music, inspiration, and good concerts. Thank you for playing your music and I named this book after your song Play your music and it’s meaning.

To the road crew: Luke Ostertag, Paul Landis, Ed Franco, Jerry Sabatino, Joe McFadden, Dirk MacAlphine, Dave Anderson, Rick Rambo, Drew Park, and Dave McGuinness.

*Please note that this information was from my own experience and from interviews aired on the radio station 93.3 WMMR Philadelphia, an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Rolling Stone Magazine, The former television show People are talking, and the former television channel Prism. Some photographs from Colleen N. Helm and Patti Andrews were used with their written permission.

Credit of Information on this band to: 93.3 WMMR Philadelphia radio station and Disc Jockeys on WMMR at that time Pierre Robert and Cyndy Drue from their radio interviews. Also, to Tommy Conwell and Luke Ostertag.

Thanks to: WMMR, Pierre Robert, Jacky Bambam, and Cyndy Drue.

Contents

Chapter One:

The Beginning of an Era

Chapter Two:

Let’s Rumble

Chapter Three:

The Rumblers are Known to the World

Chapter Four:

The Reunions

Tommy Conwell and Myself Summer 2009 James Atkinson Park Sewell, NJ (Photo by Carol B. )

Chris Day and Colleen N. (Craft) Helm The Blockley Philadelphia, PA 11/2010

Chapter One:

The Beginning of an Era

On February 24, 1984 in Newark, Delaware a blues-based rock band formed. The band would be called, at the time, Tommy Conwell’s Young Rumblers. The band consist of Tommy Conwell doing lead vocals and lead guitar, Chaz Molin on bass guitar, and Brad Fish on drums. Then in 1985, replacing Molin and Fish were Jim Hannum on drums and Paul Slivka on bass guitar. In September 1986 they played Veteran’s Stadium after The Temple Owls game for the first time.

The band continued as a three piece until late 1986 when they added Rob Miller on keyboards and Chris Day on guitar and renamed the band Tommy Conwell and The Young Rumblers. Rob Miller was an original member of Robert Hazard and The Heroes and The Hooters. In both these bands he played bass guitar. When the Hooters got signed, Miller was in a terrible car accident. He was hospitalized with a long road to recovery and was eventually replaced by Andy King. However, I do know that The Hooters took care of Miller very well regarding his medical situation. Chris Day was from the John Alexander band and the youngest member of the group at twenty-one years old. Tommy Conwell was twenty-four years old; I believe Jim Hannum and Paul Slivka were the same age since they met in college and Rob Miller was the oldest at twenty-six years old in 1987.

In January 1987 Tommy Conwell and The Young Rumblers released their first album on an independent record label called Antenna Records. The name of the album was Walkin’ on the Water and years later ended up selling more than 70,000 copies locally.

On February 20, 1987 the band got an opportunity to play The Spectrum in Philadelphia after The Sixers basketball game. It was televised on a local cable channel called Prism and broadcasted live on WMMR local radio station in Philadelphia. This launched the band into stardom in the areas of