Once Again
Gary Richards - Guitar,vocals,harmonica
Vivian Mock - Vocals
Eddie Cain,JR - Bass,vocals
Paul Simonis - Keyboards,Vocals
Bobby Stephens - Drums
Special thanks to Gary Richards
Once Again was the house band at the Town House nightclub in Salinas from 1974 to 1978. The Town House was the premier nightclub at that time and the place was always packed.
Gary Richards tells his story:
In 1974, I was practicing and hanging out with Bob Foster (bass guitar), and Gary Haas (drummer). We had all played in various bands in the 60's, and kind of got out of music for a few years when we all got married and started having kids. We decided that we should get a group together and start playing occasionals....wedding receptions...parties...that sort of thing. Bob told me about a keyboard player that was doing a singles thing at Lord Byron's Pizza in Northridge Center. We all went up and listened to him, and decided to ask him to join us and get something going....his name is Paul Simonis. It was odd, because he was working his day gig as a dept. manager at the JC Penney store, which was also where my mom worked.
We started practicing at Gary Haas' mom's house in South Salinas. We used to practice with the patio door open, and one night a woman knocked on the door, and asked if we were interested in coming down to where she was a manager and audition for a gig. I remember her name was Jeff (yeah...I know...sounds weird), and she turned out to be the manager of the Town House. We came down and auditioned and were offered a job...which lasted from 1974 to 1978...with a few breaks to play at other places like Tia Maria's on Cannery Row in Monterey, where we changed their crowd basically overnight, as the Salinas crowd followed us over there. After about a year, Gary Haas left the group, and we got another drummer named John Pia, who lasted about 6 months, and was replaced by Bobby Stevens, who I had played with in Tha Noiz. After about a year and a half, Bob Foster left the group and was replaced with Eddy Cain Jr. Somewhere in the meantime, Vivian Mock, who was Paul's girlfriend at the time, joined us, and added that high harmony that we all really enjoyed. We were known for our 50's and 60's sets on Friday and Saturday nights. I left the group on New Years Eve, 1976, because the band was going on the road and I didn't want to leave my son, as I was going through a nasty divorce at the time. I was replaced by Billy Price. Once Again went on with different personel for quite a few years, Paul and Viv got married and were together for a very long time, but wound up divorcing, with Viv recently getting married again, and living up in Washington State.
Click on a song title below to hear Once Again in action
Devil With A Blue Dress,Good Golly Miss Molly
