Lenny and the Squigtones

Lenny and the Squigtones are one of the forgotten Rock and Roll bands of the 1960s. Perhaps this may have something to do with the fact that they weren’t around in the 1960s?!?  Their complete recorded output consisted of a live LP, a single and an 8 track cartridge all released circa 1979. It was all their own material rather than cover versions…stuff like this. Although these recordings have never been officially released since then they are of course all over UTube. Better still, the whole LP is to be found (along with a million other sounds you didn’t realise you needed to fill up your Hard Drive/mp3 player with) at WFMUs massive storage facility.

“Lenny” was an alias for Leonard Kosnowski and “The Squigtones” were in fact just Andrew Squigman. Lenny sang and played guitar. Squiggy sort of sang backing vocals and sometimes turned to the left and then the right. Before they got their one night of fame they auditioned for a couple of talent shows at the Shotz Brewery in Milwaukee. At the time of their first airing these clips were seen within the most-watched TV show in America. This must say something about the state of The States at the time though I’m not sure what. Although the show ran for eight seasons I don’t think we in the UK got the chance to see more than the first four. That’s a shame. I’d particularly like to see the last season from 1982 which was set in “1967” and by which time one of the two girls who starred had left the show (but bizarrely some of those episodes, when repeated, still included her name in the show’s title).

Starcrossed

PS: As a motto for living, “Never let your balloon land”, often used in the show seems as good as any other.